Sunday, February 24, 2008
Summer
This week, seeing as how we are able to write about the topic of our choice, I am choosing to write about summer. I love it!! It has, by far, got to be my most favorite season of all!! This could partly be due to the fact that I do NOT have school everyday of my life, which leads to minimal work that stresses me out!! Actually, its probably a LARGE part of why I love summer!! I tired the whole summer school thing last summer, and well, lets just say it didn't go so well!! I refuse to ever do it again...and don't know how those who do stay for summer school do it!! Its just not "summer" if you have school!! I love just being able to stay out until whenever, get up whenever, and just do pretty much anything that my heart desires!! I usually have a job in the summer, but it always seems to be one that doesn't feel like "work" at all, so its never really a big deal!! Being able to see my friends from home everyday is a nice little perk too!! I love going out on the lake and soaking up the sun, and the beach is a must!! I like being able to see my family; my parents, grandparents, and little cousins all the time too, seeing as how that doesn't happen too much during the school year. Needless to say, I CANNOT wait until summer!! This semester has been, and will probably continue to be, nothing less than brutal and its killing me!! I'm thinking that the day of my last exam, some type of celebration will take place!! A celebration for actually making it through the semester, if I do, and for the the first official day of summer vacation!!!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Writing Cover Letters
I do agree with all of the advice given by this particular website. However, I will admit that I am new to the concept of cover letters, so everything that was pointed out was more than I knew before.
I really like the link titled "The Reality of Cover Letters" because it seemed to lay out the main things that you need to know about cover letters, from the eyes of one who is reading them. The thing that surprised me most in this particular section was the the cover letter should be about the "company, your prospect, your target". I would assume, having no prior knowledge about cover letters, that it should automatically be about the actual person seeking the job.
I also found the section titled "The Best Use Of A Cover Letter" to be very useful. I liked how it somewhat had "steps" for what you should have in the cover letter, again, from a hiring manager's point of view.
All in all, each one of the tutorials were very helpful, especially since this is really my first time being exposed to cover letters. The sample cover letter was nice to have so that I could have something to go by when writing mine, along with the checklist to make sure that my cover letter has everything in it to be "professional and complete". I imagine that I will use many, if not all, of these concepts when writing my own cover letter for my mock interview in this class.
I really like the link titled "The Reality of Cover Letters" because it seemed to lay out the main things that you need to know about cover letters, from the eyes of one who is reading them. The thing that surprised me most in this particular section was the the cover letter should be about the "company, your prospect, your target". I would assume, having no prior knowledge about cover letters, that it should automatically be about the actual person seeking the job.
I also found the section titled "The Best Use Of A Cover Letter" to be very useful. I liked how it somewhat had "steps" for what you should have in the cover letter, again, from a hiring manager's point of view.
All in all, each one of the tutorials were very helpful, especially since this is really my first time being exposed to cover letters. The sample cover letter was nice to have so that I could have something to go by when writing mine, along with the checklist to make sure that my cover letter has everything in it to be "professional and complete". I imagine that I will use many, if not all, of these concepts when writing my own cover letter for my mock interview in this class.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Virtual Recruiting for Real-World Jobs
"Virtual Recruiting for Real-World Jobs" was a very interesting article with many good points supporting the "virtual interview". It seems, to employers, that an interview conducted in a virtual world, such as Second Life, allows them to learn things about a potential candidate that they otherwise wouldn't if conducting an in-person interview. However, I do not believe that someone's "avatar" can accurately convey the aspects of a candidate as well as an in-person interview would.
This virtual interviewing may be a nice to use as a step toward an actual face-to-face interview, but not necessarily as a replacement. Although this "Second Life" type interview would allow an employer to "see what they chose to wear, you see what they laugh at or what they interact with", it doesn't allow them to get to know the actual person themself. It may be a nice representation of the individual, but there is no way to see their "true colors" so to speak.
Another point mentioned in the article was that "you can always hit the backspace button when you start to answer an interview question; you can't do that in real life, although I'll bet a lot of people wish they could." To me this is not a good thing. An interviewee should come well prepared to their interview, and should be able to answer questions to their fullest potential, with exactly what they want to say, on the first try. It would be nice to be able to "backspace", but when you think about it, you aren't able to do this in the business world the majority of the time. You can't just "go back" and change your words or actions, so I don't believe it would accurately represent a person if this was allowed to happen, espeically in this virtual world.
Also, there are many ways to make mistakes in worlds such as that of Second Life. The example given in the article for this was the individual, Carlos Krefft, who "mistakenly handed a greeter a beer instead of his resume". Clearly something like this would not happen in the real world with a face-to-face interview, but it seems it can easily happen in a virtual one. Although this would be overlooked as just a "mistake", if you are looking at the overall quality of an individual through this virtual world, you should have to take into account everything that happens throughout the process.
Aside from the aspects mentioned above, you also have to keep in mind that technology continues to change, but individuals do not. Those who are not "tech savvy" would, in all actuality, be struggling with a concept like this. It may leave behind very qualified individuals based solely on their lack of technological understanding.
To answer the overall question, I do not believe that a company can get a quality interview with a candidate using a virtual world such as Second Life. I just feel that it is not personable enough to help an employer make such a serious decision. There seem to be both advantages and disadvantages of the virtual interviews, but I personally feel that the latter of the two would be the case more often than not.
This virtual interviewing may be a nice to use as a step toward an actual face-to-face interview, but not necessarily as a replacement. Although this "Second Life" type interview would allow an employer to "see what they chose to wear, you see what they laugh at or what they interact with", it doesn't allow them to get to know the actual person themself. It may be a nice representation of the individual, but there is no way to see their "true colors" so to speak.
Another point mentioned in the article was that "you can always hit the backspace button when you start to answer an interview question; you can't do that in real life, although I'll bet a lot of people wish they could." To me this is not a good thing. An interviewee should come well prepared to their interview, and should be able to answer questions to their fullest potential, with exactly what they want to say, on the first try. It would be nice to be able to "backspace", but when you think about it, you aren't able to do this in the business world the majority of the time. You can't just "go back" and change your words or actions, so I don't believe it would accurately represent a person if this was allowed to happen, espeically in this virtual world.
Also, there are many ways to make mistakes in worlds such as that of Second Life. The example given in the article for this was the individual, Carlos Krefft, who "mistakenly handed a greeter a beer instead of his resume". Clearly something like this would not happen in the real world with a face-to-face interview, but it seems it can easily happen in a virtual one. Although this would be overlooked as just a "mistake", if you are looking at the overall quality of an individual through this virtual world, you should have to take into account everything that happens throughout the process.
Aside from the aspects mentioned above, you also have to keep in mind that technology continues to change, but individuals do not. Those who are not "tech savvy" would, in all actuality, be struggling with a concept like this. It may leave behind very qualified individuals based solely on their lack of technological understanding.
To answer the overall question, I do not believe that a company can get a quality interview with a candidate using a virtual world such as Second Life. I just feel that it is not personable enough to help an employer make such a serious decision. There seem to be both advantages and disadvantages of the virtual interviews, but I personally feel that the latter of the two would be the case more often than not.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Persuasion In Writing
"Letter from Birmingham Jail", written on April 16, 1963 by Martin Luther King Jr., was done so following a peaceful protest against segregation. King wrote this while serving time in the city jail in Burmingham, Alabama. Eight Alabama clergymen made statements about how his activities were "unwise, and untimely". They believed that he was an extremist, and although was non-viloent in the things that he was doing, believed that they were uncalled for. The clergymen "agreed that social injustices were taking place but expressed the belief that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts and not taken onto the streets". King was arrested because of the Civil Rights activities that he was staging and taking part in, but felt as though he had good reason for doing so.
In "Letter from Birmingham Jail", King attempts to persuade readers to understand why he was doing the things that he was, and to ultimately get them to believe that he was not in the wrong for his actions. He uses elements of persuasiveness such as the appeal to reason, to character, to emotion, and through style. He only wants everyone to see that nothing is being accomplished by sitting back and letting the system go on as it is, and therefore something needed to be said. King clearly was very persuasive in his writing.
With this, I began searching for Marketing related jobs that may have persuasive job descriptions. I found a company in Charlotte, North Carolina, very close to where I live, called F.P. Marketing Inc. This company specializes in working with clients in the service industry, with a unique approach to marketing Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies. Their vision, enviornment, and approach all seem to paint a very pretty picture of the outcomes expected from employees in their company; overall seemingly persuading individuals that their company would be the best to work for given this particular business.
The particular job description that I viewed was titled "Sports Minded Sales and Marketing Managers" but wasn't nearly as complex of a persuasion as King's letter seemed to be. The description didn't go into much detail as to what benefits the job offers, however, it did point out how the top individuals in the company have such great backgrounds only stemming from their involvment in the company.
There were some similar elements between the two, but not as many as I had expected. It seemed that they were on two different levels of persuasion that were not easily compared. However, it was made clear, in both, how persuasion in writing is very important in order to get the point across to the specified audience.
In "Letter from Birmingham Jail", King attempts to persuade readers to understand why he was doing the things that he was, and to ultimately get them to believe that he was not in the wrong for his actions. He uses elements of persuasiveness such as the appeal to reason, to character, to emotion, and through style. He only wants everyone to see that nothing is being accomplished by sitting back and letting the system go on as it is, and therefore something needed to be said. King clearly was very persuasive in his writing.
With this, I began searching for Marketing related jobs that may have persuasive job descriptions. I found a company in Charlotte, North Carolina, very close to where I live, called F.P. Marketing Inc. This company specializes in working with clients in the service industry, with a unique approach to marketing Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies. Their vision, enviornment, and approach all seem to paint a very pretty picture of the outcomes expected from employees in their company; overall seemingly persuading individuals that their company would be the best to work for given this particular business.
The particular job description that I viewed was titled "Sports Minded Sales and Marketing Managers" but wasn't nearly as complex of a persuasion as King's letter seemed to be. The description didn't go into much detail as to what benefits the job offers, however, it did point out how the top individuals in the company have such great backgrounds only stemming from their involvment in the company.
There were some similar elements between the two, but not as many as I had expected. It seemed that they were on two different levels of persuasion that were not easily compared. However, it was made clear, in both, how persuasion in writing is very important in order to get the point across to the specified audience.
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