Professional Behavior and Communication Development Course 2-page summary/reflection of class
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WeekThree.pdf
Finance 250
Professional Behavior and Communication Development
Professor Troy Kane
Week Three Agenda
➢ Guest Speaker
➢ Resume
➢ Cover Letters
➢ Networking
➢ LinkedIn Profiles
➢ Elevator Speech Presentations
Resume & Cover Letter
• Consider an objective to indicate goals, ok to be aspirational
• Highlight your selling points:
✓ Education
✓ Relevant coursework
✓ Leadership activities
✓ Volunteer Work
✓ Achievements
✓ Skills and certifications
• OK to reference high school (achievements, scholarships, sports, honor societies, relevant clubs) when applying for first internship.
• Do list work, and relate it to skills needed in Finance.
✓ Babysitting (Demonstrates responsibility by …)
✓ Retail (Provided outstanding customer service by …)
✓ Landscaping (Employed entrepreneurial skills by …)
If You Don’t Have (Much) Experience…
Resume Construction • Your contact information (Name, address, email, phone number).
• What employers look for:
✓ GPA
✓ Clean appearance/margins, no crazy fonts
✓ Concrete, not aspirational information
✓ One page at this point in your career
✓ Bullets, begin with verbs
✓ Consistency
• Be absolutely honest about:
✓ Dates of Employment
✓ Degrees
✓ Company names and position titles
✓ Professional Certifications/Designations
• Do not use unprofessional email account (e.g., [email protected]).
• Keep is clean and visually appealing
• No photos or colors (save that for your LinkedIn profile).
• Avoid generalizations
• Don't use overused adjectives (fluff words)
• Don’t use, “Responsible for….” Recruiters don’t want your job description. Use a skill word/s (detail oriented, dependable) followed by how you demonstrated the skill on the job.
• Don't downplay your strengths.
• Consider customizing your resume to different employers
• No salary/compensation information.
• NO typos!
Resume Do’s and Don’ts
Crafting an effective cover letter Consider these guidelines as you start crafting a customized cover letter:
• Personalize your cover letter to the hiring manager. If the name of the hiring manager has been provided to you, address the letter or email to that person to add a more personal touch.
• Provide a one paragraph introduction that includes the following information: ✓ The specific position you are interested in ✓ A brief introduction to you (i.e. your major, current job, etc.) ✓ Why you are qualified for this position
• Craft one or two paragraphs in the body section that emphasizes: ✓ Why you are interested in the position ✓ How your academic background and experiences make you a qualified candidate for the
position ✓ Specific, relevant achievements or qualifications
• Try not to repeat the same information the reader will find in your resume.
• Be sure to refer the reader to the enclosed or attached resume or application, which should summarize your qualifications, training and experience.
• Communicate your desire to connect in the conclusion: ✓ Indicate your desire for a personal interview. ✓ Close your letter with a statement or question that will encourage a response. For example,
you might say that you will be in the city where the organization is located on a certain date and would like to set up an interview.
Networking
• Treat networking like a contact sport • Offer to shake hands, Initiate contact • Look approachable, make eye contact, and smile • Use your elevator speech • Be aware of your and your engagement partner’s body language • Start by listening, show genuine interest • Listen to learn, not to be polite • Ask questions • Be open to being found to be wrong or unfamiliar with the content • Pay attention to your “Talk/Listen” ratio • Strive for a 2:1 ratio of listening to talking • Repeat back what you (think) you just heard • Wait until someone is done talking before you respond • Follow up soon after the event, get business cards to enable follow up
Networking and Listening
• Don’t just attend, sit back and listen and return to your hotel room.
• Before the conference, if there are concurrent presentations, study the agenda to plan which topics and speakers to attend.
• Google or search on LinkedIn for the speakers’ profiles.
• Develop questions to ask during/after the presentation.
• Try to get a contact email/website for a later follow up.
• Find out who else is attending.
• After the conference, follow up with conference contacts and speakers.
Networking at a Conference
• At a networking event your goal is to meet a lot of people
• You don’t want to get stuck on one person
• Politely move on to someone else
• If it’s too detailed, say something like, “This is interesting, can we follow up another time to discuss further?”
• Bring a friend to the event. Try, “I’ve enjoyed our conversation, but I see someone who I promised to see here, would you excuse me?”
• Remind the other person that you both came to mingle by saying, “I’m sure you want to meet as many people as possible too. Would you excuse me?”
Un-Networking
LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn is NOT Facebook • LinkedIn has over 500 million users:
✓ Network with professionals ✓ Learn about what others are doing ✓ Consume content or contribute to discussions ✓ Seek career opportunities
• Students are the fasted growing demographic on LinkedIn
• Be active in, not just 'be on" LinkedIn
• Seek out “Superconnectors” to expand your network
• Seek out recommendations and reciprocate
• Seek endorsements for your key skills
• Recommended LinkedIn Activities: • Status Updates (1-2 times per week and comment on others). • Join groups by location, discipline, industry, professional societies. • Comment on articles • Post or repost
✓ Complete your profile (completed profiles are 40 X more likely to get hits)
✓ Highlight skills, awards or personal stories that would interest a recruiter
✓ Summary – clear version of your skills, experience, motivation and accomplishments. (Elevator Speech-like)
✓ Have a cropped professional headshot (9 X more likely to get connections and 21 X more views than those without a picture).
✓ Use relevant keywords in you headline. (Recruiters search for keywords.)
✓ Education - show your expected graduation date.
✓ Add Location. (23 X more likely to be found if you add location)
✓ Use keywords in Skill area
✓ Maintain it frequently – make settings notify your connections of changes.
✓ Make it readable -- use bullets and subheads for mobile device reading.
✓ Think of your LinkedIn profile as a resume on steroids!
Profile Your Personal Brand
• Join groups and contribute (Join by location, discipline, industry, etc.)
• Comment on articles shared within the group
• Allow others to see your connections, LinkedIn is about sharing (in settings, select "Your connections“)
• Share your profile changes (Turn it off if you intend to make several updates/changes so that your connections don't get messages every time you add a comma or fix spelling)
• Notify connections if you are in the news (in settings, select "yes")
• When you request to connect with someone, don't just use the LinkedIn default (write a brief, personal note, remind the person who you are)
• Use the relationship tab to add notes about a connection or meeting – this is not viewable to others viewing your profile
• Consider paying for Premium level; this will enable you to send notes to people who are not (yet) in your network
Network and Connect
Elevator Speech
Presentations
