Twitter hashtag chats are a great way to get people talking about different topics, and there are great examples out there (#sachat and #jobhuntchat come to mind) that have brought people together to talk about professional development and job searching.
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be helping to moderate a new Twitter chat, devoted exclusively to job search issues in Student Affairs, with “Sarah Searcher” (not her real name) from TheSASearch.Tumblr.Com. “Sarah,” who has until recently been job-searching herself, created the blog as a place where candidates could share their experiences, perspectives and advice about the Student Affairs job search.
We crossed paths on Twitter, and I sent her a message a while back asking if she’d be interested in getting this chat going. So we will be having our first one this week, and weekly after that, on Wednesdays from 11:30.-12:30 Eastern time!
How to join in the fun? Log on to Twitter or use a program like TweetGrid or TweetChat to search for the hashtag #sasearch. We’ll post questions, listed as “Q1, Q2, Q3, etc.” Write in and join the conversation. Afterwards, visit TheSASearch or this site for transcripts.
A good résumé can make all the difference in your job search. It either gets you in the door for an interview, or it fails to capture the screener’s attention and falls through the cracks.
I know firsthand that experience alone won’t carry you through the job search process. You have to place your qualifications in context and illustrate your unique skills if you are going to outline a successful argument.[
In a free webinar this Thursday at 6 p.m. ET on BigMarker.Com, I’ll outline some strategies for creating a résumé which flows well, is visually appealing, and has great content, to help you get the job you want.
BigMarker.Com is a new webinar service, and this will be the first event I am hosting there. My DimDim account recently expired, and that service was being phased out after DimDim was acquired by SalesForce.Com. I’ve been looking at other possibilities for hosting my webinars and for using for client coaching meetings held online. I would love it if you could attend and give feedback about the user experience. Some features that you would expect from a regular paid webinar service aren’t yet available on BigMarker. I have also looked at GoToWebinar, WebEx, FuzeMeeting and FreeScreenSharing (a service by the same people as FreeConferenceCall.Com.)
I will be recording the webinar and if all goes well, will make it available afterward as part of an upcoming members area of my site. At the end of the webinar, I will be giving a sign-up link to attendees who would like to get more résumé resources via e-mail, and announcing a special on résumé coaching services for those who sign up through the special link.
Sign up now for the webinar, and tell your friends, too. It’s free, so you really have nothing to lose. I hope you’ll attend and that we’ll connect on the webinar!
Adjunct teaching positions occupy an interesting space in the higher ed job market. As such, the advice you might get about how to identify potential opportunities, and how to make a case for your candidacy is likely to be different than advice you might get when looking for tenure-track faculty posts or administrative roles.
Add in the reality that many administrators look toward adjunct roles to get teaching experience, that experienced faculty who are not in tenured positions are likely to be competing for the same jobs, and that persons with industry experience are sought after in some disciplines, and the adjunct search can be mysterious and confounding.
In this week’s episode, Higher Ed Career Coach Sean Cook will talk with Sharon Thomas DeLay, the founder and president of Adjunct Solutions, LLC. She has over 15 years professional experience as it relates to education, training and human resources.
Adjunct Solutions is a niche staffing agency focused on building a candidate pool of pre-qualified, experienced, and enthusiastic adjunct faculty and other higher education professionals.
We’ll discuss the nuances of the adjunct job search, and get perspectives from Sharon about how candidates can put their best foot forward in the job search, and how institutions can benefit from working with a staffing agency to fill open positions.
Cover letters come in all different styles, and it’s not always easy to figure out the best way to outline your arguments for a job and keep the reader interested. So it’s not surprising to know that many job-seekers obsess over their cover letters. Others spend more time on the résumé, and barely any time at all on the cover letter. Others skip writing cover letters altogether.
The advice you’ll get on cover letters is likely to be mixed, too. You’re likely to hear any or all of the following:
Write a new letter for each position and try to show your potential match for a company’s current needs;
Write a generic letter for each type of position, but worry more about the résumé; and
Forget about the cover letter–nobody reads them anyway, so you’ll be wasting your time.
Given the different approaches candidates take, and the dubious assertion that you always need to write a cover letter, should you bother to write one? And if you do, what approach should you take?
It’s true that some recruiters are avid cover letter readers, others barely skim them, and some skip them until reviewing the resume. But none of these truths justify leaving a cover letter out of your application materials.
Here are 6 reasons why you should write one anyway:
You are not a mind reader.* As such, you can’t be sure about the preferences of the person(s) screening the applications. (*apologies if you are indeed, a mind reader!)
If a committee is handling the screening, people on the committee might have different thoughts on the value of a cover letter. Better to cover your bases.
The recruiter(s) are not mind readers, either. Cover letters provide context about your education, experience, motivation, and possible fit. Your résumé should include plenty of information about education and experience, but the cover letter lets you tie all the pieces together into a coherent whole. Essentially, the job of the cover letter is to make the screener’s job easier, by helping the reader see how your motivation rounds out your education and experience, and molds you into someone who will fit their needs.
Not sending in a cover letter will make you look lazy. Basically, it sends the message that the recruiter needs to do the work to figure out why you are interested in a job, and then to sell you on the value of working for their organization. And the recruiter probably has enough work to deal with already.
The recruiter may interpret the lack of a cover letter as an indication that you are desperately applying for anything and everything, and that you haven’t really taken the time to determine why you are interested in the specific position.
Some recruiters will consider your application incomplete and remove you from further consideration.
What do you think about cover letters? Do you write them for any of the jobs you apply for? Why or why not? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Have you heard about Hiring for Hope? It’s a grassroots, nationally recognized 501(c)3 public charity, conceptualized as a Life Management Community (LMC) designed to help people manage and overcome all the obstacles associated with family building and/or career management challenges.
I heard about this group a while back from Johann Lohrmann, who wrote a guest post on mind-mapping your job search. He put me in touch with Tegan Acree, Hiring for Hope’s Founder and President.
Hiring for Hope offers assistance with:
Career and Family Building Management
Financial Assistance
Online Networking/Support
Workforce Solutions
Hiring for Hope is made up almost entirely of volunteers committed to their mission. I’m excited to be volunteering for a Career Connection Forum event on July 26th in Marietta, GA. This is my first time volunteering for the group, and I am really excited.
Unemployment is such a huge problem in Georgia these days, and I see the impacts of this almost every day. I live in a neighborhood with a mix of rental properties and single-family homes, and many of my neighbors are unemployed. I’ve offered to help a few of my neighbors with coaching and résumés but some of them have been out of work so long they have given up.
Groups like Hiring for Hope combat the very real problems of unemployment and that lost sense of hope that sometimes goes along with it. I’m glad to be doing what I can to contribute. And I’d like to challenge you to do the same.
I’ve signed up to be an online fundraiser for Hiring for Hope and have set a $1000 goal. Please donate what you can, and help give hope and practical assistance to those in need. Click on the badge below to go to my fundraising page. Thanks for helping in whatever way you can.
Work with Sean. I help higher ed professionals take control of their careers with tailored services including resume and CV development, LinkedIn profile optimization and networking strategy, interview coaching, and one-on-one career guidance.
