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Interviewing Remotely – Quick Tips

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Hi. John Perry here. I have decided to come up with some quick tips on ways to be successful on a Telephone Interview, since many people may never have done one before…

  1. The first thing that comes to mind, especially on a cell phone, is to make sure you have good reception for your phone call. Pick the room in your home with the best reception if you are using a cell. If you are on a landline, pick a room with a door you can close to keep out distractions and other noise.
  2. Answer the telephone within two to three rings. Greet the interviewer in a positive and professional manner. “Hello, John speaking…”
  3. Body language and posture can also have an effect on your voice so sit up straight or take the call standing, and remember to smile!
  4. Think about the pace of your answers… You will be nervous and may find yourself talking quickly. Walk around while you talk on the phone, this will help you slow down and feel more at ease. Keep your notes handy to refer to if you have them.
  5. Focus on the interviewer. Just because they can’t see you, don’t be distracted by emails, or drinking tea, etc. You can let the interviewer know you are interested by giving reassuring signs when they are talking such as “I see”, “yes”, and/or “okay” etc.
  6. At the end of the interview, thank the interviewer for their time, and let them know you enjoyed the interview, restate your interest in the role and ask what the next steps are.
  7. Follow-up the telephone interview, by sending a thank you email the same day.

Positivity, Resiliency, and Self-Care – COVID-19 Blog Edition – Session Two

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Hey everyone, it’s Betty again. Let’s talk some more about staying positive, since I have your attention anyway. Positivity is not happiness. In fact, they’re not really related at all. In my opinion, positivity is more about resiliency.

Resiliency is about building a buffer space between yourself and the ‘slings and arrows of grievous fortune”, as Shakespeare says. It’s about having enough centeredness to find a breathing space between the things that happen to you and how you respond to them. In the bestselling book “First Things First”, Stephen Covey describes responsibility as ‘the ability to respond’. This is different than reacting. But, this takes practice; including consistent and regular behaviors like what we talked about last week.

One of the most important tools for this is self-care. In a world of Instagram influencers, we sometimes confuse self-care with what I might call self-pampering. Bubble baths, pedicures, and dark chocolate all have a role to play here, but self-care is more encompassing than that.

Self-care includes things that might not be fun to do but are necessary, like getting some exercise in every day, showering, and making sure you’re not living off Pop Tarts. It can also include arranging for grocery delivery if you know you’re immunocompromised. Or turning off the news and reading a pleasant piece of fiction to give your brain a break. Maybe finally setting up automatic debit for your rent, or calling to negotiate some kind of payment plan.

What is self-care then, anyway?

The definition I share in the workshop is:

Self-care is a very active and powerful choice to engage in the activities that are required to gain or maintain an optimal level of overall health. And in this case, overall health includes not just the physical, but the psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual components of an individual’s well-being. (Mary McCoy)

First of all, self-care is a choice, which means we have to work at it a bit. It’s not just about physical stuff (which is what most self-pampering is). It’s all of the parts of your well-being. Optimal doesn’t mean perfect. I have eaten way more Toffifee (hey don’t judge, it was on sale) than I should have in the past two weeks, but I’m trying to stay active even though my gym is closed. Remember, we do what we can; beating yourself up for not being perfect isn’t helping.

What might self-care look like during this zany time?

Let’s take some examples from the workshop:

  • PHYSICAL: showering, brushing your teeth, exercising
    • Pajamas are not a good long term choice for work from home attire
    • This includes eating well and getting enough sleep, by the way
  • MENTAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL: journaling, meditation, learning new skills
    • Check out Bluprint, which is free at the moment, to pick up a new hobby
    • 750words.com, the digital journaling website I use is free for the first month
    • headspace.com is free to use for a basic account and has COVID-19 meditations
  • EMOTIONAL: time spent with supportive people, keeping commitments
    • This time can be over the phone or via Facetime/Skype
    • Making sure your financial commitments are met through automatic debit
    • Following up with medical professionals about upcoming appointments to reschedule
  • SPIRITUAL: being out in nature, animals, prayer, crafting
    • Spiritual self-care isn’t about religion, necessarily, it’s about connecting to something ‘bigger’ or finding a sense of timelessness or flow

The website Blessing Manifesting has a wonderful breakdown of different kinds of self-care and how they might turn up in your life; they have way more categories and examples than I do.

Implementing a new self-care practice

Your turn! Grab a piece of paper and write down some of the things you do in each area right now. You can include things you’ve done recently that have been derailed by the current situation. The first step is taking credit for all the awesome things you are already doing to take care of yourself during this time.

Okay, now look at your personalized list for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual self-care. Do you feel like there’s an area that’s a little lacking compared to the others? Personally, I tend to eat badly and not get enough sleep when I’m stressed out. Or I neglect all the things in my life that give me joy like my crafting hobbies. Have a look at your list and pick one area where you would like to add something.

Super important side note: Not 2,381 areas. ONE area. If you try to do too much too soon, the wheels come off, especially when you’re already dealing with formless anxiety.

Write that one thing you are going to do down on the piece of paper. For example, I am going to add in an hour or two one night a week to finish up a dressmaking project I’m working on. Think about your upcoming week and write down exactly when you are going to do it, and where. (6:00, Monday night, three hour block, living room)

Okay good, so here’s the hard part. Tell someone. Make yourself accountable. Most people will honor commitments they make to others way before they will honor commitments they make to themselves. So if you tell someone else you’re going to do The Thing, and you know they will call you to see how it went, you’re more likely to do it.

Look at it this way. I just made myself accountable to the whole danged internet, so I’d better do it. *laughing* This blog post may go up after my deadline, but you get the idea.

Why should I bother?

Implementing consistent and relevant self-care is critical when we are lacking stability in our lives in other areas. Many of us, especially people who are helper-types (points at self) have a tendency to put other people’s needs before our own because that makes us feel good. Sometimes when we talk about this in the workshop, people struggle with it because they feel like they don’t do anything to look after themselves, which is a valuable lesson too.

Helping others is great. But you can’t fill someone else’s glass from an empty pitcher, and this is a lesson hard won in both my personal and professional lives. You need to make time to recharge and look after yourself first, and then offer help to others when you can do so from a place of strength.
Wishing everyone health. Stay home, wash your hands, and be well. Look after yourselves.

Staying Positive – COVID-19 Blog Edition – Session One

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Hello everyone, it’s Betty – hope you’re staying safe at home while we all navigate the chaos.

I wanted to take a moment to share something that comes up in our positivity workshop; namely, why are we so negative when we know it’s not helpful? I know I am just as guilty as anyone of drilling down in the news websites until I want to cry or punch things. I know it’s not helpful – so why do I do it?

The reason your mind has a tendency to magnify and hold on to negative thoughts or ideas is because it’s a good survival trait for hunter gatherers. I mean think about it, if you’re going to get eaten by a bear if you’re not paying attention, you learn to be hyper aware. Your brain hasn’t really evolved much past fight or flight from a biochemical perspective in the last 100,000 years or so.

Here’s the problem. We’re NOT going to get eaten by bears (okay, maybe in Churchill, but not below ’53), so we obsess about every little thing because it MIGHT matter. Add in a thirty second news cycle, a lot of vagueosity, and too much time to think and it makes a pretty nasty cocktail.

What can we do?

The first and most important thing you can do is be kind to yourself. Recognize that your irritatingly stressed, catastrophe-obsessed brain is trying to help with the only tools it has. And stop beating yourself up for being too worried or not worried enough or whatever. Just do the best with what you have and what you know right now and let the rest go.

Secondly, give yourself a break from media and social media from time to time. Unless it’s your job to follow the media, sitting on your phone or your laptop and looking for more news is like poking an abscessed tooth. I use a free program called Forest to enforce screen downtime. (https://www.forestapp.cc/) on my phone.

Third, if you ARE working from home for the duration, remember to get up and stretch regularly. I use a free application called Workrave on my computer to enforce eye breaks and stretch breaks and it helps a lot. (http://www.workrave.org/) Jokes about working in pajamas aside, make sure you get dressed and do everything according to your usual schedule.

Fourth, reach out to someone you love. To quote my mother, “are your dialing fingers broken?” Just because you have to stay in your house doesn’t mean you have to give up all human interaction. Call someone. Skype a friend. Reach out, especially if you’re feeling isolated. My extrovert friends are really feeling the pinch right now. Frankly, we have so many resources to stay in touch – Netflix watch parties, Google Hangouts, Skype, phone calls, texts, standing on the porch and singing at people (go Wolseley!)… it’s physical isolation, not emotional isolation.

Fifth, every single day, at some point, write down five things you are grateful for. In the workshop, I actually get people to do this live and folks find it very helpful. It doesn’t take a lot of time, and I always suggest doing it physically with a pen. Recognizing the things in our life that are not awful gives us strength to face the world. It provides us with much needed perspective when it feels like everything in the world is going wrong. “Today I am grateful for….”

Finally, a few deep breaths will go a very long way towards reorienting your panicky brain. I recommend basic mindfulness breathing in my workshop because it’s something you can do any time, anywhere, and it’s discreet. The Headspace app (http://www.headspace.com) is free to use the basics of and they’ve opened up some specific meditations to the public for free called “Weathering the Storm” that are about managing anxiety in difficult situations.

Hopefully some of this helps you to keep perspective while we all find a way through the Covid-19 crisis to our new collective normal. I’ll post additional suggestions from our workshop as time allows.
Betty Punkert

How to Prepare and Make the Best of your Resume Appointment

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By Lisa Elmhurst – Employment Facilitator

Often I have had conversations with clients who did not realize how much information and time it takes to develop a strong well written resume that highlights your relevant skills in a clear, concise way.

Unless you already have a strong resume that clearly demonstrates your relevant background and education for the job, more than 20 minutes will be required. Expect your appointment to take approximately an hour and a half to two hours. This is because the Employment Facilitator will need to take some time to get to know your work self and therefore, will need to ask questions about your work and volunteer history as well as education and training. This is an important step in assessing what does and does not need to be added to your resume.

Equally important are discussing your job/career goals. “Anything” is not a job title and it does not describe what industry you want to work in or what kind of work you want to do. The skills required for a Carpenter are very different to the skills required to be a Health Care Aide, for example (yes, I have had clients with skills and training in two very different employment fields). If you do not have a reasonably clear career goal, or at least a sense of the industry you would like to work in, it is very difficult for us to assess what is relevant and put what is needed in the resume. Your relevant strengths, skills, attributes, and education will be different based on the kind of work you are applying for.

Remember that your resume cannot be longer than two pages, so how can you possibly ensure that all of your best skills and attributes are reflected, without overwhelming or maybe even frustrating your potentially new boss? Research shows that managers spend approximately 30 seconds to three minutes reviewing a resume, which is all the more reason to put only what is relevant to the position you are applying for.

To maximize your resume appointment, be prepared to discuss (without having to guess) the following information to save time (it is helpful to write it down):

  1. Employment | Volunteer | Education | Training Dates: The month and year of your start and end dates of the last 15 years of your work (if you have lived long enough to have worked that long).
  2. Names: Proper names of places you worked, training institutes, courses/programs, job/volunteer titles, workshops, online training, etc.
  3. Computer Programs | Equipment | Heavy Equipment | Tools | Machinery | Vehicles
  4. The Extras: Have you participated in or been a part of planning any small or large projects or events, served on any committees, or have any professional memberships?
  5. Accomplishments Big or Small: Improvements that benefited the company, customers, clients, patients,
    or yourself?

    1. Quantifying and qualifying your accomplishments or responsibilities is a great way to demonstrate value to the employer
  6. Let’s talk about sales: Did you meet or exceed goals or targets? By how much? How often? Percentages are good to keep track of without giving away personal financial information of the company you worked for.
  7. Lastly, discussing your daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities. Maybe your responsibilities do not change from day to day or month to month. That is ok.

The goal of the appointment is to show your abilities and describe what valuable contributions you can make to your new boss, so the easier it is for you to recall important information, the easier it will be for the Employment Facilitator to most accurately describe you on paper.

I hope this information is helpful and will help you to make the most out of your resume appointment. We book resume appointments on a weekly basis. If you would like to book one, call the centre on Monday mornings by 8:00 am. If you get our voicemail, please leave a message with your name and phone number so we can call you back. We would love to assist you with showcasing your best you!

Top 7 Tips on Developing an Effective Job Search Plan

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Written By: Lianne Stephensen – Career Counsellor and Workshop Facilitator – Osborne Village Resource Centre

As a Career Counselor, I see many people in career transition at different stages of their life who need assistance with job search. As someone who has changed careers several times, I have come to know the importance of developing an effective job search plan. Many times with clients, that I see, what is often neglected, is how they are managing the difficulties of the typical process of job search itself. Being through job search and career changes numerous times, I can fully understand the frustration and fear around interviewing and not getting the job or the disappointment and the financial burden of being out of work. In all honesty, if I could tell my 20 something year old self what my 40 something year old self knows now, my career path would probably have been much different. Having said that, I gained so much perspective and knowledge that I now use when assisting clients in the same situation I was and so there was definitely a reason for the career path that I call my life.

Here are my Top 7 Tips to Developing an Effective Job Search Plan

1. Determining Your Why

Searching for a new job is almost a full-time job, as it takes hard work, time and commitment to succeed. The last thing you want to do is to send out hundreds of resumes and wait for a reply that may never come. What I often recommend to clients is how important it is to be organized right from the start. In today’s fiercely competitive market, you need to have a strategic plan for your job search before you actually begin, from where to look, to identifying the specific kind of roles you want to apply for. Are you looking for a new job because you hate your current field of work or is it because you have become so good at your job that you no longer feel challenged in the role you are currently in and need to step up and find something more stimulating?

There are a lot of really good books out there on finding your ideal career to help you figure out what you want to do. At the very least, you should know which fields or industries you are interested in, and what types of positions you are suitable for. In addition, you want to have variety in the types of job search activities you are doing such as networking, interview practice as well as different job search strategies to help you find the job you love perhaps a lot sooner and with greater success.

Some job search techniques include prioritizing tasks, creating a target network list, researching companies, applying only to relevant jobs, and ensuring you fit in adequate breaks and variety in job search activities.

2. Understand the Realities of The New Workforce

The permanent job, for the most part, is becoming harder and harder to come by. There has been a large increase in contract, temporary, and part-time work over the years with entrepreneurship on the rise. For these reasons, self-awareness, self-esteem, flexibility, and creativity are more important than ever. People must assume responsibility for their own lives and financial planning. Lifelong learning and constant retraining is essential for workers of all ages. In order to continue to be successful, workers will need to continually prepare for the next level of technology. For each individual, changing careers several times during their work lives will still be the norm, and so will the need to have a “portfolio of skills, “which can be marketed in different places.

In summary, as a job seeker you need to be open to change, be willing to retrain, and stay informed about new and emerging work trends.

3. Reframing Your Perspective by Developing a Growth Mindset

Some people get upset when they have lulls in their job search simply because they did not expect them. This is not pessimistic; it is realistic. There will always be times when someone will not get back to you, networking meetings will not go well, and you do not know what to do next. What I often tell clients is inevitably you will be rejected from jobs, you will not get the interview or it will take longer than it should. The trick is being able to make peace with all this by recognizing in advance that setbacks are normal. Strategize and plan for ways to remember this and comfort yourself when you are in a middle of a setback. You can write down your top ideas for example in a job journal to remind yourself of them or post positive affirmations in your office to help you to stay encouraged and motivated.

People often think that skills like networking, interviewing, and negotiating are innate, but this perspective could not be further from the truth.

Just learning anything in life, from how to make homemade bread, to training for a marathon, job search skills are learned – and require lots of practice to become proficient. For example, your first networking calls may be a bit awkward or you may sound overly rehearsed in your first interviews. That is okay and very normal. You will only get better with time and sufficient practice. I know as I have been there myself and have seen many of my clients improve with additional knowledge and practice.

Another tip I teach in my workshops and one-on-one appointments to individuals is that it is important to pay attention to your thoughts and that instead of having a “fixed” mindset you want to develop a “growth” mindset.

The beauty of a growth mindset is that anyone can adopt it any time; you do not have to buy anything or spend years learning the concept. It is simply a choice and change in your perspective– and something you can start doing right now to start building resilience. It takes some effort, but it is worth it as it enables you to be more positive, hopeful, and flexible in your thoughts and actions.

When you are disappointed by something, instead of getting upset (which is natural), ask yourself, “What can I learn from this?” You can also experiment with challenging yourself with the question, “Why is this actually the best thing for me?”

4. Surround Yourself with Supportive People

This can be a formal or informal group of other job seekers. It should also include your family and friends. People are much more resilient when they have support from others. Family, friends, other job seekers, and our staff at OVRC can all help you be much more resilient and provide the support and the encouragement you need, particularly when times get tough like when you did not get job offer you wanted .

5. Set Up Small Wins

Are you better at research than writing cover letters? Do some research before starting your cover letter to prime your mind for success. Then do some research after spending time on the cover letter to reward yourself. Prefer networking? Schedule one to three networking meetings a week. Fill your time with valuable activities that you enjoy. Emphasize the ones you like more and use them strategically to help you feel successful. The momentum you gain from that will help you carry you forward.

6. Being Brave Means Being Vulnerable

You will never know how something will go unless you try. Even if it is small steps that make you, uncomfortable such as panel interviews or setting up an informational interview with someone. You cannot learn from that which you do not know. In my Effective Job Search Planning workshop, I teach participants how to develop SMART goals, which refer to: Specific, Meaningful, Actionable, Relevant, and Timebound. This form of goal setting method has been around for many years and is easy to learn and incorporate into your job search. By developing SMART goals, it will enable you to be more specific and allow for clearer direction. Your goals can be daily, weekly or monthly if you like that you can write down and later assess how you are doing and whether you need to make any adjustments or changes along the way. An example of a SMART goal could include, “I will network or message 3-6 people on Linked In in my industry in the next two weeks.”

Creating goals also gives you the motivation to step outside your comfort zone and write down that which you want to achieve. For those of us who are visual learners, this can also be an empowering way to move actions from thought, to written word, which will hopefully lead to a desired outcome. It does not have to be something big. The key is to remember that just taking one small step, no how matter how big, is a STEP. An action that you may have been too afraid to take before, but now you have. Check in with yourself after you have completed it and ask yourself, how did that make you feel? What went well or what are you willing to do next time? Keep challenging yourself to move forward!

7. Prioritize the Things You Love in Life During Your Search

There is one more very important thing you need to remember to do during your job search. That is to prioritize activities you love to do!

Since job searching can be extremely stressful, making time for self-care is very important! I know for me, when I was in job search mode, I would often try to go to the local Y and participate in a deep-water aqua class two or three times per week. I loved having that routine in the morning and being able to socialize with others and feel good doing something healthy for my body and mind. I would then continue with my job search afterwards feeling renewed and energized.

Incorporating in a fun activity instead of say hopping online and searching non-stop for jobs for four hours can help bring perspective, balance, and joy into your life. It will also allow you to manage your time and energy better. Other examples could include spending time with family, running, yoga, hiking, or anything else that you really like that maybe you have or have not included as part of your self-care routine!
In summary, job seekers can improve the time they spend finding work, by being more organized and more productive. The general rule is to get specific as to what are the areas of your job search that are going well and not so well. Are you scheduling breaks, self-care, time out to recharge and rejuvenate your mind and body? Looking for jobs is still hard work, however, the way we approach it in a more efficient and positive manner can make a world of difference! The key thing to remember is that we can all learn to improve our capacity to find work more effectively and creating a job search action plan that works!

References:
Hund, Heather (2018). Art of Job Search: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding a Job You Love.
Graham, S. (2018). The Canadian Career Strategist: CCS eGuide. Toronto: Career Professionals of Canada.

Decision Making 101: Three simple (but not easy) questions to help narrow career options

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By Betty Punkert, Employment Facilitator/Computer Instructor

Reinventing yourself can be hard. Changing careers (or even figuring out what you want to be) can be a real struggle for people. Many times, my clients are overwhelmed with possibility and feel paralyzed, unsure of which direction to go. I’m not a career counsellor, but I’ve found a few really simple questions you can ask yourself when you’re assessing a career to get the options down to a manageable size:

1) Can I make progress on this career goal in a year or less?

Is there a goal or two that you can make some progress on in the next year? Can you sign up for a class or some volunteer work? Can you do some research to either confirm or eliminate it? When all of our goals are ten to twenty years away, that is too fuzzy to really get your brain around. Tony Robbins says, “Most people overestimate what they’re going to do in a year, and they underestimate what they can do in a decade”. So let’s figure out the first baby steps. Visualization without realization is hallucination (or: a goal without a deadline is a daydream).

2) Is this a goal that current me has, or is it a goal past me has that I’m hanging on to?

I took an amazing workshop at the Canadian Mental Health Association a year ago. This was one of the key questions they asked when we did goal setting exercises. Ouch! We all have goals youthful us had. Maybe yours were impractical like mine (I wanted to be a jockey for a while, then I wanted to be Connie Chung) and maybe not. But, sometimes when our past self goals show up in our career plan, we have to really ask ourselves if this is still something that is relevant to us, or are we clutching it because we don’t want to feel like we failed past us?

3) Are you willing to pay the price?

Every choice has a consequence. Every goal has a price. That price may not be financial. Maybe you will have to pay a lot of money for schooling. Maybe you will have to move to an unfamiliar city. Maybe you will have to do a ridiculous amount of unpaid work to build your reputation or your brand. Sometimes when we really think about what that career choice will mean, we find that we’re not willing to pay the price. That’s NOT a bad thing, by the way; better to know now than to get halfway through an expensive degree, or resenting the hundreds of hours of volunteer work. Own it and let it go.

None of these questions are easy. But, if you’re honest with yourself, they’ll help you narrow down your options to some items that you can make real headway on. As I often remind clients, you have two legs and five or six stools, so how are you going to stand on them all? We can’t pursue everything (that’s exhausting), so it’s important to be sure we’re really committed to exploring two or three things.

If you need to make a change in your career or you feel like you’re stuck in your current job, think about taking our Career Exploration workshop. We’ll assess your values, skills, and attributes, and help you brainstorm some ideas of careers that fit who you are right now. We won’t tell you what to do next, that’s up to you, but the first step in effective sales is to know the product; and really, what is job search but selling yourself to a potential employer? Call our Reception Desk at 204-989-6503 for more information, or to register.

Sell Them What They’re Buying

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By Betty Punkert, Employment Facilitator/Computer Instructor

Frequently I work with clients who are looking to make a substantial change in what kind of work they are doing. This may be because they are new Canadians and do not yet have the certification they need. It may be because they have undergone physical or mental health concerns that mean they cannot return to their old career

In any case there is often very strong resistance to the fact that I am trying to simplify their resume or omit particular skills or education as they are not relevant to what comes next. But they worked very HARD on that certification, they remind me. They are very PROUD of that accomplishment. They don’t want to give it up because it is important, and this is the key idea here, to THEM.

Let me use an analogy from another area of life to help make this clear.

Parable of the Chef

You and your best friend (or your life partner) have decided you want to try out a particular new restaurant. It’s quite expensive, and so you’ve been saving and planning ahead to make this a memorable experience. You check out the menu online and have decided you know exactly what you want and you have been imagining how awesome it would taste for weeks.

You arrive at the restaurant and with great anticipation, place your order for your meal. And yet when the server comes back, it’s not what you ordered at all. It’s something else on the menu. Perhaps you wanted chicken and got steak. Either way, even if it is more expensive than what you asked for, you are upset because it’s not what you wanted.

When you complain to the server, they respond with the explanation of, “well, the chef is very good at that dish, and they are very proud of how hard they have worked on it, so that’s what you are getting because it’s what they think you need to have.”

Are you feeling very satisfied right now? Probably not.

Give Them What They Want

And yet, when we insist on overselling ourselves or forcing our specialized upon an employer, not because it’s what they asked for (the job ad) but because it’s important to US, aren’t we doing the exact same thing as that chef? With exactly the same results?

Look, you need to sell what they’re buying. And if you were an engineer or a doctor or an accountant in a previous life but you’re looking to do something new, you have to sell the something NEW effectively. Your new employer only cares about what you will offer them going forward. Your past provides context in this situation, and if you’re trying to make it provide validation, you may be approaching the challenge from the wrong angle.

Focus on their needs, not yours, and you will get more responses.

If you’re having trouble figuring out how to separate your past from your future and presenting the skills you need to get your next job instead of your last one, give us a call on Monday morning before eight a.m. at 204-989-6503. Leave your name and number, and someone will call you to book an appointment with an employment facilitator to help narrow things down.

Cover Letters are Love Letters

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By Kristina Lonstrup, Career Counsellor

Do you like writing cover letters? Do you find it hard to get started?

A common misconception about cover letters is that it is an opportunity for you to write about your skills and experience. *pssst! That’s called a resume.

A cover letter should be seen as a different document. See it as a love letter.

Cover Letter as a Love Letter (or Who You Would Love to Work For)

I often hear clients say “Do you know where I would LOVE to work??!” Yet when I see the cover letter they wrote, it is paragraphs and paragraphs about the applicant. How will the employer know that you would love to work for them, when your cover letter is an autobiography?

When you write autobiographical paragraphs as a cover letter, you

a. expect the employer to read the WHOLE thing, which they probably won’t, and

b. expect the employer to extract related skills to the position. This might not happen—the employer might simply go to the next application.

I often hear clients say “I never know how to get started on a cover letter.” We will fix this!

Why Do You Want to Work for Them

Next time you sit down to write a cover letter, think about why you want to work for this particular employer. Visit the company’s website. Visit the company’s social media pages. Research what is special about the company, and make that your first paragraph. A cover letter that begins as “Here’s why I like you” is much more intriguing and inspiring!

How Do You Meet THEIR Needs

The next section on your cover letter should be how you meet the employer’s requirements. If the employer requires [ABC], there is no need to elaborate on separate experience of [LMNOP] that is irrelevant to the position. Follow the job ad and match your bullets to their bullets. This makes your cover letter clean, efficient, and easy.

Why don’t we make this easier for everyone?

Who would YOU love to work for, and why?

I love writing cover letters! Call (204) 989-6503 and book an appointment with me. We’ll have lots of fun.

But It Was Free and It’s Funny: Why a professional and private email address is crucial

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By Betty Punkert, Employment Facilitator/Computer Instructor

Many of my clients have an email address when they first come to see me. Since your email address is part of your brand, sometimes this can be a problem. hotmamafuzz@, while it may be funny, is not going to be appropriate for your job search.

It is quite common for people to have a personal email and a separate one they only use for job search or business purposes. Here are some guidelines if you need to set up a new e-mail account.

1) Use whatever service you are most comfortable with

We teach Gmail here at the center in our classes and workshops, but if you already have a Hotmail account, you might as well create it there instead. We do not recommend Yahoo, simply because they have no online storage component and they seem to be really prone to hacking. Let’s not try to teach you a whole new system at this point. (If you have Shaw or MTS mail you should be able to set up secondary e-mails or aliases, but you probably need to talk to your friendly tech support guru from their company about that.)

2) Do NOT include your year of birth

This is such a common error. I get people who complain they are being discriminated against due to their age, and it’s right there in their email address like a blinking sign no matter what changes I make in their resume. But when you have a common name and you are frustrated because it won’t accept anything, it’s what a lot of people fall back on. If you’re going to use a number, try something like 007 or 13 or 42 or 99 or even 204 for Manitoba’s primary area code (do NOT use 69, it’s not appropriate). It’s better to try adding something like mb or ca to your email ID as people don’t like typing numbers.

3) You want something in the form of firstlast@ (or a variation)

Your professional email should contain your name. Not a nickname. If you have a business of your own and have an email address registered to that business, you might be able to get away with that, but be cautious because obviously declaring that you are a small business owner can backfire. (Many times people become their own boss precisely because they don’t like taking orders, so there is some concern that they won’t make good employees.) If you are concerned about privacy, try your first and middle initial and your last name. If your name is super common (Smith is always a challenge), see above for some ideas about how to make it unique.

4) Never EVER email anything from your current employer (and be careful with schools)

I really shouldn’t have to say this, but it comes up more than you would think. If your only email is at your current job, you should create one that is yours. Think of it as having a digital affair on your current employer. School emails can be tricky, even though they let you keep them as an alumni, often for years. If you are still in school, that’s acceptable, but if you have been graduated for a year or more, your email needs to graduate too.

NOTE: The ONLY time applying with your work email is acceptable is if you are applying for an internal job or promotion with your existing company, in which case they would expect you to use their system.

If you need help setting up a professional email account, you can drop in for one of our Walk In Wednesdays (check our calendar for upcoming dates: https://ovrc.ca/events/month) in the morning. Or you can book a one on one appointment with our Reception desk at 204-989-6503. We’ll set up your professional email account on either Gmail or Hotmail and walk you through the basics.

Passionate Paragraphs: The Power of Origin Story in the Cover Letter

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By Betty Punkert, Employment Facilitator/Computer Instructor

Most of my clients don’t like writing cover letters, and I can’t blame them. After all, how many hundreds of times could YOU read, “I am writing to apply for the posted position…” before you wanted to stab your eyes out with a spoon?

Your first paragraph is critical to getting the reader’s attention, and that’s where this article is focused. Everyone says you never get a second chance to make a first impression, but folks assume that means at the interview. THIS is your first impression, this piece of paper right here.

Human Resources departments don’t hire pieces of paper, they hire people, and people have passions and reasons why they do things. Herb Kelleher, the former CEO of Southwest Airlines, was quoted as saying, “we can change skill levels through training, but we can’t change attitude”.

Let me use an example from my own career. When I applied to be a volunteer at OVRC in October of 2003 (I still have my original letter), the first line said;

Sometimes to get what you want in life you have to go back to the beginning.

This is different. This piques curiosity. This suggests an origin story. The remainder of the first paragraph explains how early in my career I volunteered with an organization called Journeys Adult Education Centre helping people who were working on their GED so I felt like there were some parallels between the two kinds of volunteering.

I like the idea of origin story, because it gives us a context in which to put our application. It gives us a way in which we can integrate our experience into our future with that company, and provides a way to be personable and relevant, and yes, dare I say it, EXCITED about where this might lead. (It also means we can pretend to be Batman or Wonder Woman for a few seconds without all that awkward Spandex.)

When you examine the cover letter in the context of origin story, it suddenly sucks a whole lot less to write, because you have some room to be yourself instead of repeating your resume. Some of my clients struggle with the idea that being personable and professional can exist in the same box. (I’m not suggesting you start cover letters with “hey homie, how’z it goin”, but a little engagement can go a long way in breaking through the clutter.)

So how do you express professional passion? How do you demonstrate a positive attitude?

The first thing I do with clients is get them to push past the “easy” reasons they’re applying: you need a job, the pay is good, you have the skills or education, it’s close to home, it has benefits, it’s a well established company, the hours are good. Get out of your head and start thinking with your heart; ponder why you chose this job ad of all the possible ones. (Don’t tell me you don’t care, because if that were true you would be dealing meth on the street because that pays very well and has flexible hours and is close to home, so we ALL care where we work.)

Begin by thinking about what you know about the company. What’s their reputation like in the community? Do you know someone who works there (or used to)? Is it somewhere that has helped you or your family in the past? Is it a cause near and dear to your heart? What connection can you build here? Ideally, we want some way for us to be able to show them that we understand them and can fit in their culture.

If that doesn’t work for you, then examine your own motivations. Why did you get into this line of work? Why did you take all that training? What is your favorite part of your job? Does this kind of work relate to some part of your life that maybe is NOT in your resume? If you can’t connect with the company in any way that feels authentic, then connect with your own reasons for doing the work. If you can’t do EITHER, maybe you shouldn’t apply.

Authenticity is Key

The key part of this is authenticity.  People often think that the process of building connection is “sucking up” and they are very resistant to it, sometimes flat out hostile. I cannot stress this enough, I am NOT asking you to lie. However, if you can’t demonstrate that you’re passionate about working there, why should they be passionate about paying YOU? (Ouch. There’s a thought.)

When you hit the sweet spot or say something that feels different, jot that down. Don’t worry about making great sentences just yet, you can do this out loud and make notes about anything that, as you’re answering the questions, makes you stop and go, “huh, never thought of that”. Sometimes it takes a while to get past all the RIGHT answers and get to one that’s REAL

Once you have an answer or two that is real and feels authentic to you, start constructing some sentences that express that idea in a way that is interesting (some examples):

  • As a regular customer who enjoys a variety of food items at A&W, I am interested in joining you team to provide excellent dining experiences to all current and prospective patrons.
  • When I offered to teach young people the art of filmmaking, I never expected to be the one who learned the most.
  • To be able to help others at their most vulnerable is a privilege and a gift.
  • On arriving in Canada nearly ten years ago, one of the very first lessons I learned was the importance of a well fitting and properly insulated door or window in a Canadian winter!

They know you’re writing to apply

Let’s get to something they don’t know, and tell them why you care about doing the work, and why it has to be them. That will get you farther than a hundred generic cover letters will. Remember that there is still a human on the other side of that desk, and that humans like stories. Start strong, and make sure they’re going to keep reading.

If you need some help because you feel like your cover letters aren’t selling you very well, call the Reception desk at 204-989-6503 and book an appointment with one of us. (No Spandex required, I promise.)