I’ve been working with a friend to help her prepare applications, and she recently sent me a cover letter to review.
It was a good thing, too. Her entire letter was full of taken-back statements and thoughts expressed half-heartedly. That’s fine, except it wouldn’t land her an interview.
Your writing is an extension of you; it’s an attempt to show who you are through words. When you pick weak words, you’ll come across as weak. If you pick stronger words, you come across as confident.
Consider the following:
I am interested in applying for the job you posted.
I am applying for the position posted to this job search site.
Which person would you feel better about talking to, the first person who can’t seem to commit to applying, or the person who comes right out tells they want the job? You’d take a closer look at the second applicant. They know what they want and they aren’t afraid to tell you that.
Regardless of what you write, strong word choice will always make you stand out. Before you send out any business writing, read over it and look for weak words, weasel words (words that don’t actually say anything), and waffling sentences.
Posted by Rebecca as Skill building, Networking at 8:07 AM EDT
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One of the things that has often amazed me as I’ve navigated the social networking waters is how many people seem to collect other people. They indiscriminantly send out friend requests (and for some reason, these people respond). I’ve talked elsewhere about this, but that behavior doesn’t make you look popular (and one would think those of us who are adults would be past this phase in our lives), it just makes you and those who have supported your behavior look desperate.
The point of social networking online is much like the point of real-life networking. You’re supposed to connect with people genuinely through similar interests or career development or something. Ideally, you should be building a relationship with them. You introduce them to someone who can help them or get them information they need, and they help you back similarly. You discuss important issues related to what connects you together. You actually make a point of getting to know the other person.
Without creating an authentic relationship with people you’re socially networked to, it doesn’t matter how many “friends” you have.
Posted by Rebecca as Networking at 7:49 AM EDT
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I enjoyed reading this list of ways to kill personal growth last week. It’s not enough that other people can plant seeds within us that hinder us becoming who we should; we can do a pretty good job of sabotaging ourselves with very little effort.
So many of them made sense to me. I’m sure we’ve all wrestled with at least one of them at some point in our career.
For me, at least two of them sounded like what I’m doing to myself right now. I’m lost in research and trying to make sure I’m making the right decisions for myself. I’m overanalyzing myself, and discovering in the process that I’m missing the simplest core pieces of who I am. It gives me more to think about and try to incorporate into this huge reworking of my life.
How about you? What ways are you sabotaging your own growth?
Posted by Rebecca as self-analysis at 7:54 AM EDT
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You’re tired of putting in sixty-hour weeks. You feel like your ideas aren’t being heard, that your work is rote. You can’t even remember the last time you were excited to come into work.
You don’t even have time for a life!
No one would be surprised if you started thinking a career change was in order. After all, that’s what all the career bloggers advocate, right? Find what makes you happy and pursue it as a career.
Well, what if you are actually in your dream career, but in a bad job? Is it necessary to completely change your life, or just change your workplace? Think about why you want to leave your career. Will changing your career make the situation any better, or would it be best to change your job?
Make sure you’re changing what really needs to be changed. It will benefit you more in the long run.
Posted by Rebecca as Changing careers at 7:44 AM EDT
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I’d seriously thought I was the only person who operated this way, especially since my students always look at me like I’m out of my mind when I try to convince my students that they’ll get more done this way., but now I know I’m not!
Start the day by tackling your largest or most cumbersome project. Seriously.
When you start by getting the big bad project out of the way, it gives you this natural euphoria that pushes you through the rest of your day. It’s actually done and you don’t have to worry about it. You feel relieved that the project is done. Plus, it doesn’t give you a chance to talk yourself out of doing it. It’s just better for you all the way around!
Try it out for yourself. See how much farther you get through your to-do list!
Posted by Rebecca as Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 8:02 AM EDT
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I’m starting to look through the list of competencies I copied down from the book. For now, I’m taking a competency and trying to develop examples of how I exemplify that competency. In a way, it’s been very nice. It’s been a chance to think back over everything I’ve done and find skills and experiences I’d forgotten about.
It’s also become a good chance to analyze how I feel I relate to the competency thanks to this set of questions. I never actually meant the CBR exercise to become so introspective, but I think it’s doing me a world of good. By the time this is all over, I think I’ll have a much better idea of who I am, what I am, and where I want to be. I suspect it will also direct this site’s redesign to fit within that view.
What do i do? Why do I do it? How do I feel about doing it?
How many of us ever really stop to explore our life this way?
Posted by Rebecca as Changing careers, self-analysis at 7:59 AM EDT
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I guess this week’s accidental theme is being authentic. On Monday, I was thinking about leading authentically. Today, I’m thinking about blogging authentically.
Living online, I think it’s easy to forget that this kind of communication carries a certain skepticism from the readership. Who is this person really? Do they really live what they say? Are they honestly trying to reach me, or are they focused on reaching the search engines?
The internet has such a bad reputation brought about by those who use it as a stage, a place to test out new personalities, to test out ways to gain what they want through not entirely kosher ways that it places a great burden on those of us who do exist on the internet the exact same way we exist in real life to have to fight to prove our own authenticity.
What’s even more fun is that a number of teenagers, that group of people trying to find themselves, to figure out who they are going to be through the early stages of adulthood, are online showing off that growth. They’re being normal kids- posting emotional rants, attacking each other for being different, sharing pictures they find silly, but we would find stupid (Sometimes, I really wish my students wouldn’t feel compared to share these pictures with me.)- but they’re also trying to share their journey. They’re trying to share their writings, their art, their personal expressions as they navigate the same troubled teen years we all had to pull ourself through.
For us, our teenage growth isn’t on display for the world to see. We are sharing our adult lives. For these kids, those teenage experiences that they share with the world through the internet will be available to haunt them until someone finally figures out how to clear all ghosts from the internet.
What this means, and the linked post on blogging authentically is just the tip of the iceberg, is that it’s okay to share your life, to share your struggles. Someone may benefit from seeing how you handled a challenging period of your life, and it may in turn help them through their own struggles. But it’s best to be discreet in sharing your life, and to be yourself even online. You never know who’s looking, and you never know when you’re going to run into your online persona in your offline life.
When you live in harmony, these two personas not conflicting, it makes your life simpler, and people actually appreciate your honesty.
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 7:36 AM EDT
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