Dear Ella,I am a recent graduate of Florida State University with a bachelor's of fine arts in dance. I had a great opportunity to work at the FSU news station and received tons of experience with live news. My passion will always be in dance, but I want to get more experience and work in TV.In my resume, I have included my experience with FSU-Live and an internship I completed with Estefan Enterprises, both along the lines of entertainment. I have also included my teaching experience as a ballet instructor. My question is: If my target companies are mainly local and network stations, should I delete my teaching experience and just have the other two jobs listed to better fit their interest?
Dear More Than You Know,Prospective employers look for candidates with experience, but they also look for candidates who can assimilate quickly into a new workplace and an established team. Since teaching requires one to have the ability to motivate, communicate, educate, lead, inspire and guide others, I'd say, all other factors being equal, your teaching experience should only help to put you at the head of the list of those to be interviewed.
Additionally, employers want to hire healthy employees -- and the fact that you exercise through dance may mean less sick days due to poor health once you're hired.
Dear Ella,Four years ago I was involved in an industrial accident that saw me in a wheelchair for six months, with another 18 months learning to walk again. Because I suffered permanent functional impairment, returning to my physically demanding preinjury employment was out of the question. However, my degree of recovery was much better than most medical practitioners expected. I have been through books and all over the Internet trying to find some information on the proper way to deal with an employment gap and career change due to an injury.One human resources manager who happened to be in the reception area when I dropped off a resume informed me that I might want to find a nice way to mention my injury in my cover letters. She didn't have the time to tell me how.Is there a way to do this, or would you suggest a different approach? I have attached a cover letter I have been working on but haven't used yet. Am I on the right track or should I completely abandon this?
Dear Leave The Past Behind,I read your cover letter. By attempting to diffuse any concern about your medical condition you've made your entire letter all about just that -- your medical condition. A cover letter should highlight specific skills and professional strengths that make you the right candidate for a specific job. While enthusiasm, determination, and perseverance are all good characteristics in a potential hire, alone, they are not reason enough to bring you on board.
Add the time you spent in school earning your electrical engineering diploma to your resume; this will take care of some of the time gap you're faced with explaining. Then, save the rest of your explanation for the interview itself, if asked. Since employers will be hiring you for your recently acquired skills, they won't be so concerned with the possibility that the recuperation time you spent out of the workforce may have rendered you professionally obsolete.
When asked what you were doing during the past few years, just say, "Rehabilitating from an accident. With that behind me now, I'm not only better, I'm better educated. I received my diploma in electrical engineering this past April and am not just ready to get back to work, I'm looking forward to it!"
Then don't say a word. If the company wants more specific information, they will ask you for it. You are under no legal obligation to inform a prospective employer of any medical condition or injury that does not affect your work performance directly -- no need to say when, where or how your accident occurred or speak to it directly other than the brief statement I suggested. Don't make a job interview about getting an employer to hire a medical condition with skills -- make it about getting an employer to hire a skilled professional, period. It's not what you are not or what you might be that would encourage or discourage an employer from hiring you, but rather what you know and can contribute immediately to the job at hand.
If you want an employer to see your strengths, lead with them by staying on the message -- the job itself.
Dear Ella,I have had many financial problems that have kept me from paying an outstanding student loan, and now that I want to go back to college and further my education, the government won't lend me any more money until I've paid what I currently owe. Their loss of faith in me has caused me to give up my pursuit of education, deciding instead to let the chips fall where they may. I'm so frustrated. What do you suggest?
Don't Pay Any Attention To That Man Behind The Green Curtain,How about persuing a job, arranging a payment plan with the government that you can afford and then reviewing your educational options -- one foot in front of the other and all that. The fact that you haven't kept the lines of communication open between you and the lender is the reason you've gotten yourself into so much financial trouble. You buried your head in the sand instead of addressing this problem head-on -- not a good strategy. Now, pick up the phone, make an appointment with this lending institution and together, architect a solution that best serves the both of you.
Dear Ella,I recently moved to Tampa with a communications degree. All of my work experiences are part time to pay for college, and all were in Ohio. I have had a real hard time finding employment. So bad that I am considering working at a local grocery store since nobody else wants me. Is there any thing I could be doing to get over this frustration?
Dear The Cart Before The Horse,Instead of moving to Tampa with a communications degree, you should have moved to Tampa with an executable job strategy. Never relocate to find a job. First find the job, interview, get the job and then relocate.
Additionally, you write that you want to work in your given field of study, but your brief letter to me demonstrates more your lack of communication skills rather than your grasp of the subject. I suggest that you return to school to fine-tune your area of study or pick a subject at which you naturally excel.
For someone else to want you, you must first build a portfolio of saleable skills, or the only verbal communication skill you'll be required to demonstrate will be, "Plastic bags or paper?"
Dear Ella,One of your columns implied that a cover letter should be in the body of an e-mail, not a part of the attached resume. I have been sending my cover letter and resume as an attachment. Should I just put the cover letter in the body of the e-mail, leave it as part of the attachment, or both?Also, I am looking for a job in computer programming field, or even as a computer tech, given the current job market. I am not a very talkative person; neither are lots of the programmer/tech people who interview me! This has lead to a lot of moments of awkward silence when I am in an interview. No matter how much I prepare, I can't get around this problem. What can I do about this? I don't have this problem when interviewing with human resources types.I would appreciate any advice you could give!
Dear One Then Two,People don't have enough time in the day to read every e-mail sent them, so make sure that you're sensitive to this fact and reduce the amount of information you send a reader. E-mail begs for brief and succinct informational statements, so reduce your cover letter and paste it into the memo area of the e-mail and attach only your resume. When both a cover letter and resume are sent together or as separate attachments, the reader will, more times than not, read your resume first. If after reviewing your resume they like what they see, then and only then will they take the time to open your cover letter and read it. Sidestep having your cover letter ignored completely by making your promotional statement immediately visible to the reader in the body of the e-mail.
As to how to handle awkward silences during the interview process: Awkward silences happen during an interview when one or both parties involved have had little or no experience interviewing. To avoid this scenario and to make you and the interviewer feel more comfortable during the process, have a list of questions prepared before you go in to meet with a company. Questions that have relevance and show insight can be used to fill awkward silences, making the interview process less stressful while demonstrating to the interviewer that you've put some time and thought into the meeting and are less interested in a job and more interested in a career. Just because you're sitting on the other side of the desk doesn't absolve you from responsibility in helping to move the interview along.
