Marketing Your Total College
Experience to Today’s Employers
University of Tennessee
Professional Development Series
Host: Russ Coughenour
Speaker: Donald Asher
Missing from the C.V.
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
“I was just a volunteer”
Also: We don’t do a lot of candy around
here…
Our Main Point
A 4.0 in the right major is not enough to get
a job
Our Main Point
Important skills are indicated by more than your
GPA and your major!
Even casual experiences can prove skills
Students need to get all the credit they deserve
for skills, wherever and however they obtained
them
We’re going to show you…
How to show skills in writing and in structured
and unstructured verbal settings
We Want to Influence Your
Approach
Content for…
Resumes
Broadcast emails
Networking interactions
Interviews of all types
How do you sell your total college experience
in terms employers can embrace??
We Also Want…
Consider picking up some key skills, or
gaining some experiences that will prove
you have these skills
It’s never too late to tweak your approach to
getting all you can out of college…
Starting Point
What do employers want, and what do they
say about new hires?
What Employers Value Most
(NACE)
Work in a team structure (4.60 out of 5, 5 = “extremely
important”)
2. Communicate verbally with persons inside and outside the
organization (4.59)
3. Make decisions and solve problems (4.49)
4. Obtain and process information (4.46)
5. Plan, organize, and prioritize work (4.45)
6. Analyze quantitative data (4.23)
7. Possess job-specific technical knowledge (4.23)
8. Software proficiency (4.04)
9. Create and edit written reports (3.65)
10. Sell, persuade, influence others (3.51)
1.
NACE Job Outlook 2012
What (Some) Recruiters Say
“Hire for attitude,
train for skills”
But What They Really Want Is…
Both
What Employers Want in College
New Hires (AACU, Hart Associates, LEAP)
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
In-Depth Knowledge 20%General Knowledge 20%
Both 59%
Association of American Colleges and Universities
Liberal Education and America's Promise
More from the LEAP Study
Employers say they want from students…
84% Complete a significant project before graduation
81% Complete an internship or community-based field project
60% Learn about cultural and ethnic diversity in the United States
58% Learn about cultures in other parts of the world besides Western
Europe and North America
12
Employers not impressed with
education’s product (LEAP)
Doing good job
Two-year
colleges and
universities
Four-year
colleges and
universities
Some improvement needed
Significant improvement needed
26%
20%
40%
60%
28%
19%
49%
68%
13
From a Major SHRM Study
Two largest deficiencies of college graduates:
Writing
Leadership
What they mean by leadership: the ability to
make decisions and get things done, i.e.,
agency
A Sad Truth
Many college graduates don’t write good
Bad writing, by some surveys, is the
number one complaint about new hires
What This Means
Your degree, by itself, does not convey to
employers that you have the skills they seek
Examples
Your major doesn’t convey skillsets
employers say they want:
Chemistry, they don’t assume you can work
on a team, or manage your own project
English, they don’t even assume you can
write
My brother hires engineers based almost
entirely on soft skills
Can this engineer talk to a client?
Your Best Feature May Be
Unpaid
“Organized SummerFest, an event drawing
5,000 students to participate in 17 alcoholfree activities, total budget of $23,600, allvolunteer staff of 35. SummerFest was the
largest alcohol awareness event ever
produced on our campus”
The Seven Skills Employers Seek
in a college graduate:
Writing
Quantitative Reasoning
Work on a Team
Communication & Presentation Skills
Organizational Abilities (projects and self)
Leadership (agency)
Global Perspective
Skills Evidence You Can Feature from
Your Total College Experience
Major and Minor and Electives
Activities
Internships
Shadowing
Field Work and Labs
Volunteering & Community Service
Jobs
Sports
Study & Travel Abroad
Hobbies & Avocations
Dig Deep!
Even your letter to the editor is something
that you can feature with an employer
Soft Skills Matter
Student activities, extracurricular and cocurricular activities often best ways to prove:
Sales skills
Organizational skills
Leadership experience
Drive and initiative
Charisma
Creativity
First, Survey Your Total Experience
What did you do?
What did you learn from it?
Build a Databank of
Accomplishment
From any experience, from church to
weekend pickup basketball…every experience
counts
What did you do?
What did you learn from it?
Telling Stories in a Business
Setting
Use your list of accomplishments as a source
for stories, interview content, resume items…
Learn to tell a business story
Good stories have a point, they are rich
conductors of information
Behavioral Interviewing
Questions
Beg for story
“Tell me about a time when…”
Be ready with a selection:
Problem on a team
Dispute with a professor
Financial or time constraints
Hero Stories
Hero stories
You are the central actor in the story
You are the agent of action
Beginning – middle – end
1. Introduce the characters and/or setting
2. Lay out the problem
3. Tell how you addressed the issue successfully
Has to have a happy outcome or you shouldn’t
tell that story
One Good Formula
P.A.A.R.L.A.
Problem
Analysis
Action
Result
What I Learned from this is…
How I Applied this in other contexts…
Identify Hard Skills and Soft Skills
Examples of Hard Skills:
Business-level proficiency in speaking and
writing Spanish
Chem Lab bench skills with a spectrophotometer
Statistical analysis using SPSS, including
regression analysis
Can design and modify web pages using RETULE v.8
Examples of Soft Skills
Can interact successfully with clients, for
example:
Professional phone etiquette
Can make a presentation or pitch using
PowerPoint
Can be charming at a business dinner sitting
next to the decision-maker’s spouse
Examples of Soft Skills
All those intangibles…
Professional dress and demeanor
Punctual
Honest and forthcoming but…
Know what not to say in a meeting or to a
client
Can manage my work without constantly
seeking approval
Experiences vs. Accomplishments
Everybody showed up, but what did you
contribute?
Routine duties don’t sell
Accomplishments sell
In every experience, identify your
contributions and accomplishments, however
grand or small (we’ll devise a method to sort
and prioritize them in a moment)
Quantification
On the raw listing of every experience,
quantify everything
Quantification conveys verifiabilty
“I taught 16 students, 12 and 13 years old, the
four swimming strokes used in the Olympics”
“I delivered papers to 162 homes in the
neighborhood, seven days a week”
“Out of the 32 campers in my cabin, 100%
signed up for camp for the following summer”
Secret Twist to Quantities
Advanced technique:
Always consider the context for a number.
Do you present it as a % or as a raw number?
Do you present it in comparison to someone
else’s performance, a goal, or a prior mark?
Ex.: All the Same Root Datum
I sold 157 wombats
I sold more wombats than anyone else in the
company
I sold 123% of my assigned goal for wombats
I sold more wombats than the prior rep for my
territory
I won a sales award for sales of wombats
I was fired because I didn’t sell enough
trilobites, and wombats were really a sideline
Which Brings Us to: Discretion
Every single thing in your resume and every
single thing you say in an interview has to
be true…
But you don’t have to reveal damaging
information, or even just less impressive
information
Present the best side of the truth
Here’s the Covenant
You have to tell the truth
and nothing but the truth,
but you don’t have to blurt out the whole truth
Example
Why an employer will ask you: “What’s the
worst mistake you ever made?”
Back to Your Database of
Accomplishments
Consider the financial or other
ramifications of your contributions
In the university development office, my
telemarketing team brought in over a
million dollars to the annual fund, helping
to reduce the need to raise tuition
Ramifications
My letter to the editor got the weekend
parking regulations changed for everybody,
students, faculty, and staff
I got the manager to reduce the portion sizes
for desserts by half, reducing costs by
approximately $13,000 per year, and
eliminating over a million unneeded
calories
A Joke, but a Fun Example
On my last job I was assigned to sweep up
the dock. I requisitioned a 12” broom to
replace the old 10” broom…
thereby creating a 20% increase in
efficiency
Search for the Superlative!
first
most
only
youngest
highest
top
best
fastest
Search for the Superlative!
Selected to go to Washington, DC for
training
vs.
Only intern selected to go to Washington,
DC for training
Search for the Superlative!
Named team leader
vs.
Youngest employee in the history of the
company to be named a team leader
I Know You’ve Heard This…
Internships matter
80+% of employers want you to have had one
May trump major, grades, and intentions
Summer, fall, winter, spring, full-time, parttime, paid, unpaid, volunteer, even just a
couple of hours a week…
What’s new:
Postbaccalaureate Internships
Virtual Internships
Convert Language to Employer’s
Students use college language, and don’t
know industry jargon
Skill claim of student: “I am good at writing
and editing”
What the employer wants to hear or read:
“Skilled copywriter, editor, and proofreader.
Detailed knowledge of all major style guides,
including AP, Chicago, APA, and others”
To Jargon or Not to Jargon
Jargon identifies you as an insider!
Want to work in a hotel? Put F&B in your
resume…
Want to work for a car dealer? Put F&I in your
resume…
Want to work on Wall Street? Know the
difference between buy side and sell side
Want to work in student services? Know not to
call them “dorms”
Want to work in HR? Put HRIS in your resume
Want to work in the movie industry? Know the
difference between a ‘best boy’ and a ‘grip’
Want to work in venture capital? Mention
mezzanine funding in your interviews
RESUMES & INTERVIEWS should be full of jobspecific language
How Do You Learn Industry
Lingo?
Get out there and talk to some employers!
Aiden gets a job…
Accessing the Right Employers
You need to learn the right lingo!
You need to learn the secret handshake!
Shadowing & Field Visits
Informational Interviewing
Internships
Shadowing/Field
Visits/Info
Int
Questions to Ask:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
How did you get into this?
What kind of preparation is typical to get into this? Is that
really required, or just the typical approach?
What was different from what you expected? What was
the biggest surprise when you went into this? Any myths
you want to shatter for me?
Who else does this? What other companies? Who else
should I be talking to?
What ensures continued advancement?
What is the typical career path out of this position or field?
What does this prepare you for next? For example, What’s
next for you?
What advice do you have for someone like me?
How to Talk $
Don’t ask about their salary or salaries at their
company. Ask,
“What could a person expect to make in a
position like this?” or,
“What would be a typical salary industrywide for a position like this?”
then subtract 10 to 40 percent
Stumble onto an Opening?
“That sounds like a very interesting
opportunity. How would I go about
formally applying for that position?”
Soup Ingredients Rule
Not by weight or volume, but in order of
importance to your audience
What knowledge, skills and abilities are
critical to performing in this position?
What kind of person or personality would
thrive in this situation?
If you were hiring someone for this position,
what would be most important to you?
Prioritize & Highlight
For each experience, in the resume and in
the interview, feature information
in order of importance to the audience
Selling the Major, Minor &
Electives
Can list specific classes and course content
on the resume, under the “Education”
heading
Don’t just use actual class name
“Coursework included…”
Especially effective for minors and electives
E.g., Music major seeking jobs in
business and marketing:
B.A., Music, Ginormous University
Coursework included:
The Business of Music
Introduction to Marketing
Business Writing, including Writing to Persuade
History of Rock & Roll, including analysis of
Marketing & Promotions of R&R Legends
Also includes skills picked up across
several courses
Coursework included:
B2C E-Marketing
Covered in four different classes, “Marketing
101,” “Psychographics,” “Principles of Web
Portal Design,” and “Senior Symposium: Trends
& Developments”
Education, Coursework, Honors,
Activities:
Experience Section of Resume
Don’t write “Jobs,” as a heading, write
“Experience”
Full-time, part-time, paid, unpaid,
volunteer, even casual
List Pertinent Volunteer Experiences
on Resumes Just Like a Job
Poetry Slams!
Organizer
Organized and produced a poetry slam season. Identified and
featured poets from students and faculty. Brought in guest poets
from the surrounding community. Set up stage and event space.
Worked with Campus Affairs, a department of the President’s
Office, to publicize our readings. Obtained first local media
coverage of a poetry event by students in the history of the
college. Learned to plan, organize and promote an event, serve
as MC, serve as a spokesperson, and create enthusiasm in the
larger community.
Volunteer, Unpaid Position:
Sports
What did you learn or demonstrate? In an
interview you can mention…
Time management
Team work skills
Ability to take direction (coaching)
Leadership
Train others
Etc.
Using “Additional” on Resume
ADDITIONAL
Knowledge of business protocol in Latin
America and the Iberian Peninsula. Fluent in
Spanish; basic Portuguese. Travel to Brazil,
Argentina, Chile, Portugal, Spain, Japan
Hobbies include translating science fiction
from English into Spanish, and designing and
flying novelty kites
Warnings
Don’t put height, weight, marital status,
date of birth, SS number, or place of birth
on most American resumes
Don’t put citizenship status (some
exceptions)
Don’t put high school (some exceptions)
Make a Systematic List
Every time you revise your resume
Every time you prep for an interview
What skills will be valued, and in what
order?
How can you show that you possess these
skills???????????
Again, Skills Most Commonly
Sought
in a college graduate:
Writing
Quantitative Reasoning
Work on a Team
Communication & Presentation Skills
Organizational Abilities (projects and self)
Leadership (agency)
Global Perspective
Again: Where Skills Can Come
From
Classes
Activities
Jobs
Internships
Sports
Travel
Self Study
Don’t leave any skill or experience out if it will
impress an employer
Finally, Ask Yourself
Do you need to pursue an activity or
experience to be able to prove a skill that is
critical for your career goals?
If so, get on it! It’s not too late!
Good Luck!
We hope you’ll use these techniques
to market all your college experience to
employers,
in resumes and in interviews,
in the language that the employers use
themselves