Well, my friends, it is that time of year—time for finals and for graduation. I’ve enjoyed my three-year freedom from the tyranny of final exams, but alas, my reprieve will end next fall when I go back to grad school. I’m not really looking forward to that. I love reading and classroom discussion, I like writing papers, but exams were never my favorite part of the deal.

I have no tips for finals except to eat and get lots of sleep. Think of it this way—even if you bomb the exam, you’ll be in a much better frame of mind to handle it with a good night’s rest!

For those of you graduating or applying for summer jobs, however, I am going to return to a topic I covered last year and give advice about job hunting. As someone who has sat on both sides of the interview table, I can at least give you some insight into what goes over well and what doesn’t from a hiring perspective. So here are some random thoughts about the job search for today….

First of all, it makes a distinctly BAD impression if your cover letter names another organization on it. At least go to the trouble of changing the name, if nothing else.

Regarding the resume—I can’t stress enough how important it is to actually RESEARCH THE POSITION!! This will prevent you from boring the hiring manager with superfluous info that distracts from what you’d actually bring to their job.

For example, you’re applying to write press releases for an educational policy institute in Washington, DC. If you worked for your college campus newspaper and took some public relations classes, you’ll want to highlight those. You won’t want to tell them you were a checker at Target for a year in high school, unless you got promoted and started writing press releases at corporate headquarters, or coordinated your store’s outreach to local schools.

Moreover, tailoring your resume to the job will make you stand out. In hiring, I like people who make it easy on me, who connect the dots between their experience and my needs so that I don’t have to. Because if you don’t do it for me and someone else does, guess who I’m going to look more seriously at?

And don’t be shy in your resume. While you never want to exaggerate what you’ve done on a job, you definitely, definitely, definitely should prominently mention your accomplishments. The best applicants are those who don’t hesitate to bring out the great things they’ve contributed in previous positions, and to tie that to things they could do for the prospective employer.

If you’ve gotten to the interview stage, you must have done something right on your resume. Good job! If you did the research at the beginning and know something about the position, then you’re halfway there for the interviews. Because like the application, you want to show the interviewers that you know something about what they’re looking for and that you have the right skills and abilities to fit their needs.

In the interview, know how to relate your qualifications to the questions they’re asking. For instance, if you’re applying to be a camp counselor and the director asks a question about conflict mediation, you need to be able to pull up an EXAMPLE of where you’ve used conflict mediation if at all possible. Describe what you did, even if it wasn’t the best way to handle it, and then elaborate on what you learned. You can talk about how you feel about conflict mediation or what you would do all you want, but it doesn’t have the same impact as an experience you can relate to the question.

One small tip—always ask a question at the end of the interview, preferably about some project they’re working on or on the vision/mission of the organization. It is a tangible example that you’ve done your homework and have paid attention, and it also helps YOU discern whether you really want to work for these people.

Finally, remember that God is with you, regardless of what happens. If I don’t get a job, I don’t think it was because they didn’t like me or I sneezed right before I shook their hand. Generally, I know it is because my gifts and abilities didn’t happen to match their needs at that time. This fact doesn’t lessen a bit the reality that I have abilities. It just means that in the spiritual sense, I wasn’t called to that position. You’re still the wonderful, talented woman you always were, and the people who love you know that.

Good luck job hunting!

“I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” --Philippians 1:6

Kelsey

What if working at Target IS your only job experience?

-From a college woman

Dear "College Woman",

Good question... first of all, don't forget that the heading "Experience" on a resume also includes internships and volunteer positions you've held. You may have only been paid to work at Target, but if you chaired the breast cancer walk for your campus, you may have other applicable job skills from that work.

But if you really don't have a lot of experience at all, you have to be creative in how you present what you do have. For instance in the Target example, say part of the educational public policy job description reads, "Respond to inquiries regarding positions of the Educational Advocacy Foundation." When you list your experience at Target on your resume, your first bullet point should read something like, "Responded to public inquiries regarding product availability." Make sure you mirror their language-- a resume is the one time in Western writing when plagarism is a GOOD thing.

Hope that helps, David.

Kelsey