Helping a student make the transition from school to the work world...

Sphere: Related ContentTips for Completing an Employment Application Gone are the days that you clean yourself up, make a trip to the downtown corporate office and complete the employment application with paper and pen, hoping to make a great impression on the receptionist so she will tell the recruiter how sharp you looked and how wonderful you sounded. Things have definitely changed. No more paper applications or resumes printed on white paper, or early visits to the company’s recruiting office. Now, we have to impress companies on-line with our computer skills. So if you have just found yourself in the job market again or maybe it is the first time you have ever completed an application, you will want to start to think about some of the things listed below: 1. It is time to gather facts. Write information down so that you will have it available each time you complete an application. Some things you will want to write down will be:Employment history including company names, addresses, telephone numbers, managers’ names and dates of employment.Volunteer work history with professional or community organizations including the organization’s name, address, telephone numbers, dates of service and the names and contact information of some of the organization officers with whom you worked.Personal and professional references including names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses.Personal information such as education. 2. Decide which companies you want to work for, do some internet research and get to know what those companies have to offer, and then decide what you can offer those companies. Many people say there are lots of jobs “out there,” but there is still a great deal of competition for the really good jobs. Your job is to explain clearly why you are the best candidate for their jobs. 3. Check the names on all your email accounts to be sure they sound professional. When you were in school it may have been fun to have a cute email account name. But employers will not be very impressed by some of the names that were cute to you in school. Remember, you are trying to convince the company that you are the best professional employee they can find. 4. What does your blog or other networking sites say about you? Like it or not, more and more companies are researching your blogs to learn more about you. Some comments and pictures will not be the sort of things you want a future employer to see. 5. Read the instructions on the application carefully and follow them exactly. Not only do the hiring managers use the employment application as a means to find out employment information, they are also seeing how you work. If you have many words misspelled, use poor English, or don’t complete the application thoroughly, then they may think that is how you will do the work if you come to work for them. 6. Be neat and thorough with your answers, and be honest. 7. What you put on this application will be the first time the recruiter has a look at what you have to offer and will decide if you are a good match for the position you are applying for. 8. If you are allowed to attach a resume to the application do that also, because sometimes the resume will give more information than you put on the employment application. 9. Complete the application in detail. The hiring manager may not look at your resume or call you if they are not impressed with your application. Avoid saying “see resume” because the recruiter may just skip to the next application. Make the recruiter’s job easier if you want to get the job of your dreams!

Thought for the day:

We make a living by what we get: we make a life by what we give.-Winston Churchill

Harvey Mackay is a favorite author and speaker of mine! Part of providing opportunities on my part is making the best accessible and known to you! Fulfilling that means that I will acquaint you with the authors, speakers and resources that will assist you in your personal and professional life while also giving you ideas of how you can provide more opportunities of the children and youth of today! Below is another one of Harvey's post:

Harvey Mackay's Column This Week: What they don't teach you in school

As many college graduates are scrambling to find jobs, one of the most important things for graduates to understand is that you're in school all your life. In fact, your real education is just beginning.

I'd like to pass on a few lessons, which weren't necessarily covered in school. If you've been out of school for a few years—or a lot of years—this advice is still for you; consider it a refresher course.

Develop relationships and keep networking. If I had to name the single characteristic shared by all the truly successful people I've met over a lifetime, I'd say it is the ability to create and nurture a network of contacts. Start strengthening your relationships now, so they'll be in place when you really need them later. In the classroom it was mostly about your individual performance. Success in real life will require relationships. Who you know determines how effectively you can apply what you know. So stay in touch.

Find advisors and mentors. Advisors will not be assigned to you, as in school. You should actively seek your own mentors. And remember, mentors change over a lifetime. Start connecting with people you respect who can help you get a leg up in each aspect of your life, personal and professional. Make it as easy and convenient as possible for them to talk with you, and always look for ways to contribute to their success, too.

Build your reputation. Nothing is more important than a good reputation in building a successful career or business. If you don't have a positive reputation, it will be difficult to be successful. All it takes is one foolish act to destroy a reputation.

Set goals. Ask any winner what their keys to success are, and you will hear four consistent messages: vision, determination, persistence and setting goals. If you don't set goals to determine where you're going, how will you know when you get there? Goals give you more than a reason to get up in the morning; they are an incentive to keep you going all day. Most important, goals need to be measurable, identifiable, attainable, specific and in writing.

Get along with people. Ask recruiters from various companies to name the number one skill necessary for new hires, and many of them will say it's the ability to get along with people. Co-workers share office space, facilities, break rooms, refrigerators and coffee pots. They arrive together, take breaks together, eat lunch together and meet to solve problems together. All this closeness and familiarity can wear thin at times. Everyone shares responsibility for making the company work, run smoothly and stay profitable

Be happy. We are all responsible for our own happiness. Don't waste time and energy being unhappy. When people aren't happy doing what they do, they don't do it as well. Life will always be filled with challenges and opportunities. Both are best faced with a positive attitude.

Smile. A smile should be standard equipment for all people. I learned years ago that one of the most powerful things you can do to have influence over others is to smile at them. Everything seems much easier with a smile.

Sense of humor. I'm a firm believer in using humor—not necessarily jokes. A good sense of humor helps to overlook the unbecoming, understand the unconventional, tolerate the unpleasant, overcome the unexpected and outlast the unbearable. There are plenty of times to be serious, but I believe that keeping things light and comfortable encourages better teamwork. Be yourself. We all have areas that need a little work, but accepting who we are and making the most of our good points will take us much farther than trying to be someone we aren't. Be content with your abilities and comfortable enough in your own skin to trust your gut.

Volunteer. It might be hard to do a lot of volunteer work at first, but people who help other people on a regular basis have a healthier outlook on life. They are more inclined to be go-getters and consistently report being happier. Volunteering is good for everyone.

Mackay's Moral: The purpose of education is not to teach youth to make a living, but to make a life.

A reputation is a great opportunity !

Most teenagers know more than adults and until they have children then they realize how little they really do know!

Something that does not cost much but is very valuable and once it is damaged is hard to repair is a reputation! We must emphasize starting at a very young age with every child that their reputation is very important. That reputation is not important to being cool with the right crowd, or the local gang or giving into peer pressure but is one of not doing anything that would damage the reputation which would keep one from pursuing goals in the future. I asked a student this past school year why he cheated on the test in the previous class and he said, "...because I thought I could...!" He had never considered the implications of his actions! We must help children and adolescents to see the opportunity that they have of a good name! Read below the article of Harvey Mckay. He is in many newspapers with a weekly column and you can get on his list to have his weekly article sent to you through email.

Reputation is much easier kept than recovered Jay Leno, comedian and host of the Tonight Show, says that when he was eight years old and living in a New York City suburb, he had a moment of clarity that changed his life forever. According to his piece "Why I walked away," in O: The Oprah Magazine, he was hanging out with an older, rougher gang of kids one day when one of the kids pulled out what was purported to be some pornography. One of the kids in the group, Leno noticed, was spinning a small pocketknife around in his hand. While Leno admits he was no angel at that point in his life, he says suddenly he stepped back from the group, which was collectively lurching forward to look at the pictures. He says in that moment he knew that he might possibly be starting down a path that would lead him nowhere in life. And so he turned and walked away. Leno says that every decision he has made in life since, in part, was based on that early decision to walk away from the crowd. He likes to think about the repercussions his actions will have on his reputation. It was a small moment, he says, one in which he learned how to make a conscious, moral decision for himself. My own father always used to tell me, "You spend your whole lifetime building a good name and reputation, and one foolish act can destroy it." Nowhere is that more true than in building a successful business. If you don't have a positive reputation, it will be difficult to be successful. I remember reading the results of a USA Today survey in March 2005 in which respondents were asked to rate the credibility of CEOs in various countries. Brazil led the way with 57 percent favorable, followed by China and Japan. CEOs in the United States were rated 25 percent. That's only one-fourth of the American people who felt CEOs were credible. I'm sure that what happened at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and several other highly publicized cases had a lot to do with this poor opinion of CEOs. Reputation is one of the few assets that your competition cannot undersell or destroy. You can't put a price on a good reputation. A good name is like a second inheritance. Life is for one generation; however, a good name is forever. A good name is more valuable than riches. When I purchased an insolvent envelope company many years ago, I ran it under its previous name for a few years until I was sure I would be successful. Only then did I put the Mackay name on it. That's how important I regard a company's name and reputation. It is imperative in any activity to protect one's good name. And sometimes, of course, that is difficult. A frontier judge in Texas had just sentenced a notorious outlaw who had been caught stealing horses. As was his custom, the Judge asked the condemned man if he had any last words for the court. In his reply the outlaw said, "Judge, I've heard from everybody in this town how fair you are. A man devoted to justice under the law. A family man of good character. A kind man who is always ready to give someone a second chance. Everybody thinks you're wonderful. "But I gotta be honest with you, Judge. With this sentence, you done gone and ruined your reputation with me." Abraham Lincoln had a stellar reputation. When he was practicing law, a client asked him if a certain gentleman was a man of means. "Well, I reckon he ought to be," said Abe. "In fact, he's about the meanest man in town." Lincoln also was responsible for this gem: "If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how—the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." Mackay's Moral: The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.

For more Mackay Material: www.harveymackay.com/columns/default.htm

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation.Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

John Wooden , Past UCLA National Championship Basketball Coach

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