Tag Archives: cover letters

New Year, New Possibilities

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So its the new year, students have returned back to this lovely campus, the stillness is happily disrupted by the sound of the pencils on paper as you furiously take notes, the laughs and joys coming from your hallway at the joyous reunion of friends, and the delicious and satisfying taste of fresh Scripps cookies!

What better way to bring in the lovely 2015 with great internship tips, career related advice, and wonderful pictures of cats?!

Don't be scared young grasshopper! This kitty hasn't read Beyond the Elms yet!

Meow, meow, meow. This kitty hasn’t read Beyond the Elms yet! Photo via Pets Advisor.

Now I know what you might be thinking…yeah the new year has arrived, but that means I have to actually figure out what I am doing this summer *insert scary emotions and anxiousness here*. But not to worry, we won’t leave you behind and unlike this adorable yet poor cat, there’s really no need to fear!

Since the summer is approaching it would be a great idea to make a game-plan. When you begin to think about why you may be worried about internships, it may be due to the fact that you haven’t really explored all your options yet or you haven’t actually applied to all the places you want to gain experience from yet.

So let’s start with a deep breath and an organize ourselves. Create an excel file of all the internships or volunteer opportunities that you are interested in. Make sure to note their due dates, application requirements, and any other helpful tips like what city are they located in or who you should contact for further questions. Now this may sound tedious but trust me, its a lifesaver. Having all your application information in one place makes you feel all put together and squared away (even if only for a little bit!)

See this cat already feels better after getting its internship list organized!

See… this cat already feels better after getting its internship list organized! Photo via Animal Fair.

The next step is applying…dun dun dun. What even are cover letters? Resumes? You mean I actually have to rewrite these every time I apply to another internship? Hate to break it to ya champ, but you must! But that’s okay, stay tuned for magnificent, practical, and efficient advice on how to tackle the metaphorical beast of internships!

Fear not my fellow internship seekers and stay tuned for career and internship help as we navigate the waters of Spring Semester! Oh and of course more pictures of adorable animals!

Welcome back everyone!

Isabella

P.S. Have adorable cat videos you want to send my or questions about internships and online applications? Please send them my way! I would love to help!

Reflecting on Recruitment

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Hi there! I’m Mia–a rising sophomore from San Francisco, exploring agile project management this summer at a large organization in the financial industry. This is an amazing opportunity for me, especially just after my first year, but I almost didn’t apply, and thought my chances of actually getting it were minimal.The formal recruiting process was overwhelming. The online application, just the first step, was at least 10 pages, and reminded me somewhat of the arduous college application process. I’m not new to the world of internships, but I’m used to a simple resume and cover letter or written questionnaire. This was just a modified version of the same application real life adults used to apply to full time professional jobs at a huge national organization. Many of the questions didn’t apply to me–at the time I was applying, I didn’t even have a college GPA to put down. And my perfectionist brain freaked out at the opportunity to upload supplementary documents. Resume and cover letter to start, but what else? I could upload transcripts, baby pictures, SAT scores, interpretive dance videos, references…I didn’t have a clue. I was slightly tempted to give up and just apply to less formal positions, especially because people around me kept on telling me that I was just a first year, and should work in some customer service job like everyone else. However, I had already spent high school passing appetizers, working in coat check, and for a few weeks, memorably and awfully, even telemarketing. All of those customer facing jobs brought me skills for life and money for college, but I felt determined to learn something new this summer. This internship matched all my target areas: It was a new industry and role for me, it fit my interest in technology and economics, it was paid, and I could live at home in San Francisco. With that in mind, I couldn’t just give up. Instead, I used all of the resources at my disposal to come up with the best application possible. I went to CP&R (shout out to the wonderful Lesley Bonds) and made my resume a thing of much pride. Also on her advice, I uploaded a note explaining my GPA situation, as well as a transcript. (No baby pictures, although I feel like it could have only helped)

I already valued dressing for success

I already valued dressing for success

I asked my older brother, a product manager at a startup in San Francisco, for examples of his cover letters. In the past, cover letters have always seemed like bland instruments of torture. I knew from CP&R that they *should* be reflections of my personality, but I wanted an example of how someone I knew actually meshed personality with professionalism in a cover letter. Because my brother works in tech, his cover letters were significantly less formal than mine could be, but I still found them helpful. My brother’s cover letters were like previews for an interview–and I love interviews. The formula I ended up deriving for my cover letters was why I want the position+why the organization should want me, where the latter is a function of the match between my skills and the organization’s stated needs. I didn’t use my brother’s cocky tone (not my personality) or his bullet points (not appropriate for my industry) but I drew on his structure and confidence as I wrote my own cover letter. I also reached out and had coffee with a Scripps alum who currently works at the organization in order to get a feel for the culture, and also just to see what people can do with a Scripps degree in economics! In the end, my first intensive recruiting cycle–from application to interview to background check–was a team effort and a lot of effort. But it was worth it. What I’ve taken away from this process is not to be afraid to know what I want and ask for help to get it. My first week at my internship has flown by, and I can already tell I’m going to learn and grow. I’m excited for the rest of the summer, and I’ll keep you updated!

Career Building Tips from a Sophomore

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At the start of my first year, I knew very little about career planning. As a sophomore, I continue to learn from my mistakes and work on my patience as I wait to hear back about summer internships. I’ve much left to learn, but luckily, I’ve still got another two years.

Read on below for some personal tips that have helped me along this journey.

1. Cover Letter- The missing ingredient in most cover letters, including very many of my own, is a lack of genuine passion and delight. When a potential employer reads your cover letter, they should feel just how ardently you want the position. Convince your reader that you’re not writing the cover letter because it’s required. Rather, you’re writing it because your enthusiasm knows no bounds– You want the whole world to know how great a writer/scientist/athlete you are!

2. Tailored Resumes- At the start of my first year at Scripps, I had one basic resume from my senior year of high school. The formatting was completely incorrect, and lacked a header as well as any description whatsoever. Since then, I have created almost 10 different versions of a resume, and gone in to CP&R for revisions countless times. Some categories include, but are not limited to: art, journalism, business, and leadership. As your career interests change over time, you will find yourself with increasingly different versions of your resume.

3. Editing Cover Letters and Resumes- CP&R provides friendly and knowledgeable advice and feedback, but it always helps to get a second opinion. Exchange cover letters and resumes with friends and/ or family members for review. Email them to each other in Word doc form so they can insert comments in the right margin. Remember to give back in turn by offering your help as well.

4. Prioritize Choices- Much like applying to colleges, you won’t be able to apply for every single internship and/or job opportunity out there. You’ll have to factor in time, money, transportation, skill level, and more. Be realistic and avoid options to which you won’t be able to accept if offered.

5. Give Yourself a Break- Working on resumes, cover letters, and other application materials can be both time-consuming and boring. Give yourself breaks in-between, and try not to take rejections too personally. It’s common not to hear back from companies, and sometimes, you’ll hear back when you’re least expecting it.

How do you handle your career aspirations? Have any tips to share with us? Comment below.

A First-Hand Account of the Internship Search

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Now that the internship search is over, I finally have time to reflect on what I should have done better and what I should do in the future. If you’re thinking about applying for an internship grant in the future (or soon, because you can!), I hope you find this blog post helpful. I would have saved myself much time and energy if someone had told me these things.

1) Seek internship opportunities from your personal network.

I submitted my applications to organizations I had never heard of before and foolishly expected responses regarding the status of my application. This didn’t happen for most of the places I applied to. When I had less than two weeks to secure an internship (don’t put yourself in this kind of position, it’s really bad…), my amazing friend (and #1 fan of my blogs 😉 ) suggested that I reach out to a senior that we both knew through a 5C club who had done internships in areas I was also interested in. A casual, semi-desperate Facebook IM turned into me receiving two internship offers from organizations that our mutual friend had interned with. During the last two weeks, I also reached out to two people I had met at CP&R’s wonderful networking panel during Family Weekend. I found out that one of the parents I contacted was good friends with two members in Congress and would help me set up an internship. Though I didn’t end up taking his offer, he was tremendously helpful and offered to help me again next year if I wanted an internship.

2) Be very clear about your deadlines

This is actually really simple. Last week, I sent my interviewer a thank you email and included a few (very important) sentences about the internship grant deadline that was only three days away. She never responded to this email, but I was sure that she had read it. The night before the grant was due, I sent her a reminder email but changed the subject line to “Status of Internship Application” instead of “Thank You” as I had previously written. My interviewer responded the next morning apologizing for missing what I had written in the previous email and immediately offered me a position.

tl;dr: Subject lines in emails can make a huge difference! Something like “Action Requested: [………….]” would be effective.

3) Learn how to make a realistic budget

I will admit that I didn’t take this section of the internship grant as seriously as I could have. Now that I’m forced to think about travel, housing, transportation, and food, I’m realizing that certain areas (HOUSING) are significantly more expensive than other areas. If you’re currently writing a grant, make sure you know the cost of living of where you’re planning to intern. Fun fact: If you live in a home stay in Spain for the summer, you can actually save much more than if you intern in Washington, D.C.

4) Double and triple check all cover letters and resumes for minor errors!

5) Always express your gratitude and write hand-written thank you notes to anyone that went out of their way to help you!

6) Don’t wait until the last minute to do things! I literally got my two offers the day before and the day of the internship grant deadline. This was a extremely stressful.

7) Remember to do your research about your organization! Tips from an article I read recently: In a phone interview, print out everything you’re going to plan on looking at; i.e. your resume, the “About Us” section of the website, the job description, etc. so you’re not switching between screens. This helps!

I think this is longest post I’ve written this semester. I hope this information is useful to you in the future!

Good luck on finding an internship! 🙂

The milestone of the first offical cover letter

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Exactly two minutes ago I submitted my internship application to a nonprofit focused on supporting individuals who may be facing domestic violence in Asian and Pacific Islander communities. I’d have to say, to my utter surprise, the entire process was relatively smooth sailing despite the fact that this is the first cover letter I’ve ever written and that my resume has been gathering dust in the neglected “other” folder for the last 6 months.

I found out about the organization through the non-profit fair at Pitzer which I attended on a whim. (Note to self and anyone else who may benefit: read up on CP&R’s networking section before going to networking events. Seriously. I had a oh-my-gah this would’ve been so useful an hour ago moment. But anyways I know better now.)

On the same day, I went to CP&R to pull my resume together which involved producing massive chunks of text about the things I’ve done. I came out with a juicy Chipotle-sized burrito resume which I was then instructed to polish and format. There are three things that I really loved about the burrito resume:

1. the sheer size of it was like a nod of acknowledgment to the fact that I did do things with my life. Very validating.

2. it provides more than enough material for constructing a polished resume.

3. filling out applications to other programs that ask for a more detailed account of your experiences? Open up the burrito resume, copy appropriate material, paste on to new document, edit as need, stick a fork in it and you’re done. Boom. Real talk: how much easier could it get?

I had a much harder time with the cover letter partly because I’m not familiar with it and partly because I felt justified in putting it off due to the ever rising number of essays I have to do but haven’t started.

Also, this was tempting.

But thankfully, the marvelous Lesley Bonds from CP&R set me on the right path by  guiding me oh-so-patiently with how to write a cover letter. It was particularly helpful for me, as a philosophy major, to think of the cover letter as  an argument with a set of premises that lead the employer to the obvious conclusion that I am the best candidate. This is the distilled version of what I did.

Begin by giving some context to the argument; aka how I learned about the position.

The first paragraph = premise 1: Your organization works toward ____, values_____, needs_____.

The second paragraph = premise 2: Given my passions, experiences, and abilities, I can help advance your mission, uphold your values, and provide what you need and what you might have not have known you needed.

Given premise 1 & 2, the logical conclusion: I am obviously a great candidate, I can do the job and do it well, and therefore it would be rational for you to hire me.The implicit assumption is that you are going to hire the most capable candidate with the most relevant experiences whose values align with those of your organization.

The whoosh of outgoing mail was the sound of finality and carried away with it my application and hopes that I will land the position.

Now comes the thumb-twiddling period of waiting for a reply from my number one choice of internship over the summer. But hey, I have successfully reached the milestone of the first cover letter on the road of career building and doing so has helped to reduce some of my anxiety that shrouds thoughts about future careers.