Rejected, unselected, dejected

Maybe you’re an applicant (jobs, grad school – you pick!).

For many, it’s the middle of prime job-hunting season. You’ve made it through the winter, you’re ready for change, so it’s time to start looking, and applying, for jobs.

Many grad schools want to see a deposit by May 1, which means that by now you know – one way or the other. No check required to be written for “the other”.

What do these have in common (along a basketball player driving to the hoop, but that’s another metaphor)? Rejection. Fear of being rejected, fear of failure.

So give me the benefit of the doubt here – let’s say it’s neither the first nor the last time in your life you’ll know rejection. How do you handle it?

You can do the statistical thing -- decide that
1. you're unlikely to hear anything at all from 60 percent of the places you apply to,
2. you’ll get an auto-generated form letter from 30 percent, and
3. you’ll actually hear something positive from the other 10 percent.

If you increase the number of applications, hoping that the 10 percent “positive” responses then translate to significant real numbers, then that’s a legitimate strategy. If you focus on a smaller pool of more desirable places, that’s another approach that works well for some, not for others.

My recommendation? Forget the numbers, concentrate on attitude. Try to adopt a “professional” rather than a personal outlook to what you're doing. It’s not your whole life, flashing before your eyes. Think of it as a sales opportunity – sometimes you hit it, sometimes you don’t. Even the former Attorney General of the United States, Alberto Gonzales, can’t find a job these days.

And you can never tell how things turn out. A couple of weeks ago, I just heard something back from a company I applied to – last May. With that kind of a response time, I’m kind of glad I never heard anything – they have problems that I don’t want to be associated with.

Anybody else have tips on dealing with rejection?

Photo by Sim Sandwich

Ways to Gain Experience: Win, Lose, Volunteer

We've received a number of questions lately asking us how to "get experience" when you don't have any. If I've never worked before, you ask, what the heck am I supposed to put on a resume? So we decided to brainstorm some unique ways to beef up a beginner resume that are guaranteed to make you stand out from the crowd.

Way to Gain Experience #1: Enter a contest.

Winning something--whether it's an essay competition, a road race, or a spelling bee--is a great way to gain a bullet point on your resume, and a good story to tell in interviews. So put yourself out there--even losing can be used to your advantage as a "time when I confronted an obstacle/challenge that was greater than myself."

Here's a unique contest to get you started: National Cleaners Association Video Contest. If you're an aspiring marketer or filmmaker, this could be just the opportunity to get your ideas recognized, and win $2500!

Way to Gain Experience #2: Volunteer your time & expertise.

Volunteering is good for the people you help, yes--but it's also good for you and your resume. Volunteer your professional services by creating a website for a small business, helping out an organization with some free PR work, or lending a hand at a local elementary school (if you're interested in education) or nursing home (if you're interested in healthcare).

Another idea is to take your service abroad, combining volunteer experience with a horizon-broadening adventure. Check out some opportunities to Globe Trot with a Goal.

Way to Gain Experience #3: Apply for an Exclusive Experience.

Exclusive Experiences are unique, resume-building opportunities that provide college students and grads with an up-close look at specific careers and industries. This summer, we're looking for two creative, outgoing, and dedicated (to work...and to having a good time!) students to be our "roving reporters"...explore the different departments here at Experience, learn from other interns how their summer work is, get the facts on what it's really like in the working world—and show your peers how much fun an internship can be. Apply to join us in Boston! (deadline April 4)

What Influences Your Employment Decisions?

If I had to guess, I'd probably go with money. But aside from universal factors like salary, benefits, and compensation, several other key criteria influence employment decisions. Some of which depend on your age.

Dave Sanford, executive vice president at a Boston-area staffing firm, claims that where job seekers sit on the generational continuum can affect how they make employment decisions. Sanford's article highlights the differences between what Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), Generation X (born 1964-1979), and Millennials/Gen Y (born 1980 or later) value in their careers and employers.

The Differences

• Baby Boomers value location, loyalty and work ethic, and financial security and stability.

• Gen X looks for employer stability, a forum for questioning authority, and flexible work arrangements.

• Millennials are interested in socially conscious employers, independent contributions wtihin a team environment, and flexibility in roles and schedules and a comfortable environment.

What do you think? Does this match up with what you value in your career and employers?

Future of interviewing: Is it something in your past?

As it turns out, you never can learn enough about what to anticipate in a job interview. As interviewers have become more sophisticated, a candidate must as well.

“Behavioral interviewing” has been catching on, and with good reason. Often referred to as the STAR approach (Situation or Task, Action you took, Results you achieved), it reflects a need to find out more about the soft skills you can bring to the table (and the job).

Instead of merely reciting a bullet list of your skills or accomplishments, these are questions about how you behave, particularly in situations of stress or challenge. If you (and who hasn’t?) have too many things to do under impossible deadlines, how do you, or did you, prioritize your tasks?

Or, talk about a stressful situation you were in, how you dealt with it and what you learned from it? Was there a time when you were given an important job and failed at it? Or needed to make an instantaneous decision – nobody else around to help make it for you?

You get the picture – it’s complex, and it’s demanding. The good news is that, at least for now, it’s a type of interviewing used most commonly only by large, top-notch corporations. If you can prepare yourself to tell stories that create a bridge to the employer’s needs, you’re in great shape.

The even-better news – regardless of whether your career is still in its early stages, you’ll be able to think back and prepare great stories to wow the interviewer.

(Spoiler warning!!!) We’ll be revisiting behavioral interviewing in the future, but in the meantime you can get more information about interviewing.

Photo by PatL

A Creative Approach to the Job Search

I'm on a quest to find out whether Erin got hired.

What creative job-search antics have you heard about? And have they worked?

What Does Castro's Resignation Mean for Your Career?

Nothing, you say?

Think again.

Political events do affect the course of your career.

Picture a huge funnel, the top of which is the whole wide world and all the events that happen within it--be they military coups, or hunger strikes, the Olympics, Britney Spears' latest crises, hurricanes, or civil war. At the bottom of the funnel is you--your singular life, your individual career.

When things happen up there--at the top of the funnel--they eventually trickle all the way down to you (okay, maybe not so much the Britney Spears crises) and impact the way you live your life. Not true, you say? Well, what about conflict in the Middle East, which lead to higher gas prices, which made it twice as expensive to fill your tank?

Same holds true for other changes to our social, political and economic climate. So let's brainstorm for a minute the ways in which the end of the Castro era might affect your career. What if our trade embargo on Cuba comes to an end, opening up a new market for US goods? What if American citizens are eventually allowed to travel freely to Cuba? What if the cap on the number of Cubans allowed to seek exile in the US is lifted? Any one of these events might have ramifications for the jobs available the next time you're looking, or for marketplace trends that could directly affect your career path.

Can you think of a world event that has specifically influenced your own career path?

Check out the results of our political survey of college students.

Photo by ilkerender.

It’s FREEZING in here! (Not what you think)

Thanks to Remote Access, I worked from home yesterday along with many others in the area – missing (well, not really MISSING) much of an ice/snow/sleet/rain storm.

Unlike other remote sessions, the response was slow (too many people working from home, perhaps?) and way too often, the connection would freeze up. Which brings up two questions:

1. Are remote connections completely ready for prime time if more and more people start working remotely (see also STORMS, $5 per gallon GAS PRICES)?

2. Are we ready to move to the Remote Workplace on a large-scale basis?

The first answer is probably, possibly yes, or at least very soon. My faith in high-tech solutions is not easily dampened by torrential downpours.

Second answer is more complicated. I learned all about work in a group environment – whether an office, a warehouse, an ice cream shop, whatever.

It wasn’t just about learning the job skills, but also about co-existence. It’s not that much of a stretch between cooperating on the temperature of the heating/AC and cooperating on a project.

Change the scene to people – many people – working from home much of the time. Not getting into the day-to-day interactions, the smiles at seeing somebody receive flowers on Valentine’s Day or the shared sadness of somebody leaving. Will people learn all they need about “the way we’ve always done it here”?

I’m trying to get a mindpicture of what the workplace will look and feel like in 10 years. The warmth of an office atmosphere gets replaced by the coolness of long-distance. And I’m not quite figuring it out – how it will work, will it work?

Will we all be OK as essentially independent contractors? Some thrive, some don’t. Some (who happen to be in the office that day) will love having the whole place to themselves.

Or will the entire office disappear? Will it even be necessary?

What do you think – what’s your vision?

photo by Mr. Tu

It’s time for a Facebook lift

This past May I saw my classmates make the transition from college to the working world. They traded in their sweatshirts for business suits, swapped their flip-flops for more appropriate shoes, and replaced their backpacks with chic totes. Their voicemail messages started sounding more professional and less like my friends. They did all of this to look more appealing to employers. However, most of them forgot that employers may be looking somewhere else to differentiate their potential employees—online.

It’s true. Employers are increasingly using internet sites such as Facebook and MySpace to conduct background checks on their job prospects.

According to a New York Times article, many users see their social networking profile as a relatively private form of self expression, a place for them to post often risqué photographs and provocative comments about drinking and recreational drug use.

Many social networkers think that what happens in these social networking sites stays there. However, a lot of these sites have become more lenient in their privacy policies. Take Facebook for example. It started as an exclusive social networking site for college students (a college e-mail address was required), and has since opened its doors to the rest of the world (well, anyone with some type of e-mail address). Furthermore, as CNN reported, Facebook announced last fall that users’ public profiles will find their way into search engine indexes (Google, Yahoo, etc.).

So before you work on brushing up your resume and practicing those interview questions, you may want to take a look at your MySpace profile. If your mom wouldn’t like it, there’s a good chance a hiring manager wouldn’t either.