I’m attending SXSW Interactive until Wednesday. If you are in Austin, come say hi!

Hope to see you there.

Most of the cover letters that I see tend to be bland and not written for the specific posting in mind. This cover letter was an exception.

To protect the identity of the candidate, I’ve edited the specific details and only posted a portion of it.

When I’m conducting a search, I don’t generally post a detailed description online for a million reasons I’m not going to explain right now. The point is that this candidate took the tiny bit of information that she knew about the job  and matched her experience with exactly what we needed in her cover letter. With a specific job description, an applicant could get even more specific.

I didn’t post the rest of the letter, but the candidate follows with: a paragraph about her other relevant experience that may not be as obvious in her resume, a statement about what she is known for by others (soft skills/personality) and a short list of places to find out more information about her and her recommendations (LinkedIn, etc.).

What I liked

• The cover letter was specifically addressed to me, not a “To Whom It May Concern” or a “Dear Recruiter”.
• The Your Requirements, My Qualifications matching. This tells me that she has given some thought to the job and she is not lazily sending resumes for just any job. I feel confident that if I were to present her to a client she could give good examples of her previous experience and how those will help solve their void. It also makes it extremely easy to see how she fits my client’s requirement before I even get to the resume. Remember, your job is to generate enough interest to get a call. Make it easy for the reader.
• A paragraph detailing additional experience relating to the job that may not be as obvious in her resume.
• A sentence about her soft-skills. Often this translates into cover letter “fluff”, but keeping it at one, strong sentence is sufficient.
• A LinkedIn address for quick access to recommendations and additional information.
• A strong close.

She also sent the cover letter the body of her email rather than a separate attachment. I’m not the only person who, if given the choice to open a resume or a cover letter in attachments, will go straight to the resume. Since her cover letter already spelled out why I should consider her and was part of her email, my next step is to look at her resume and make the call.

I work in PR and my family has no idea what I do.

I’ve heard my parents accurately describe the company or clients I work for but they have a hard time articulating what I actually do for these organizations.

I used to joke about this when I started my career.  I was working for a high-tech PR agency and the trade jargon was difficult for even those in the know to follow.  It cracked me up to imagine my mom telling her friends that her daughter “announced the beta of version 8.0 of a front office software platform. She’s drafting the briefing books now for some desk-side media one-on-ones…”

The problem is that I can’t explain what I do either!  Fortunately I’m not alone.  Nearly 2,500 folks have proclaimed on Facebook that explaining what we do is tough for us PR people.

I can’t tell you how many holiday gatherings I’ve been to where different relatives have asked me if I’m still writing for the paper.  (I did have a college internship at a newspaper nearly 20 years ago.)  More often than not, I just say yes.

My elementary school aged kids are genuinely interested in learning what I do, and I’ve taken pains to explain my job accurately to them.  The jury is still out on how successful my explanations are, though.  I overheard my daughter’s friend say that her mom drew the picture in a particular magazine (the friend’s mother works for an ad agency) and my daughter replied that her mom knew the person who made the magazine.  Our conversations are similar to the one David Moye had with his daughter when she asked “Daddy what’s PR?” although they sometimes take a hysterical turn after we discuss how manipulative the media can be.

Usually I adapt my job description based on how interested the person I’m talking to seems to be and the types of questions they’re asking.  I don’t think I’ve ever described my job the same way.  When asked what I do for a living sometimes I talk about the purpose of my job, e.g. shaping a brand, influencing demand, generating leads, and sometimes I talk about the actual activities I did that day, e.g. writing a press release, calling the media, tweeting.   Of course, everyone tries to understand my work in terms they can relate to and sometimes the conversations end with “so could you help my Uncle Rick with PR for his auto body shop?”

I’m still looking for some new answers to give my mom.  How do you describe your work in PR?

Photo credit: Helgasms!

My business partner, Jolie Downs, at Paradigm Staffing wrote a guest post for Mike Schaffer’s blog for HAPPO. I like to think of her as the “Queen of the Interview Prep.” See the full post on Mike’s blog.

All of these tips are a good refresher for anybody in any industry preparing for an interview.

Arrive early: Arrive five to ten minutes early, but not more than ten. Hiring managers are taking special note of when you arrive and getting there early sends a message of strong interest and professionalism.

Chemistry is everything: You wouldn’t be interviewing if you weren’t qualified. It’s not the most qualified person that gets the job, it’s the person who is the best interviewer and shows the most excitement about the opportunity. This is even more important during this downturn. Hiring managers have experienced an endless string of candidates who want a job, any job. A company wants to find someone who is excited about their opportunity and their company. You must be able to articulate why it is you find their position interesting.

First impression: Within the two first minutes you walk in the door, the hiring manager will make a quick decision on whether or not they are going to hire you and the rest of the interview will be spent justifying that decision.

There are simple things you can do to create the best first impression. You may think these should all go without saying but candidates make these simple mistakes every day.

• Dress to impress. Always wear a suit or other appropriate/impressive outfit to an interview. It shows your interest and professionalism. Studies have shown that 84 out of 100 executives admit that their companies have rejected applicants based solely on how they were dressed.
• Avoid strong cologne or perfume.
• Turn off your cell phone!
• Stand up and greet with a smile and a firm handshake.
• Make direct eye contact while talking, smile often during your meeting and keep your head up.
• Avoid nervous gestures – clicking a pen, fidgeting with your hair or in your chair, etc. You want to convey confidence, self-assurance and professionalism.
• Many hiring managers are very friendly and easy to speak with so be careful that you don’t become overly familiar with the employer and share information or stories that are not appropriate for the interview process or do not justify your cause.

Accomplishments: Have at least five accomplishments that you can discuss in the interview process. Remember that the hiring manager is scared of making a hiring mistake. Your job is to reduce his/her risk. Give information that provides assurance that you can do the job, that you are interested in the job and will fit into the company culture. Do this by giving your “accomplishment” stories telling about situations where you applied your skills required for this job.

Format your accomplishments in three parts.

1.   This is the problem I was trying to solve or the goal I was trying to reach.

2.   This is specifically what I did to solve that problem or reach that goal. Remember they aren’t interviewing the “we” on your project.

3.   This is how it directly benefited my client, company, or team (i.e. major hits, increase in sales/exposure, under budget, ahead of schedule, award winning).

Research: Do as much research on the company as possible. Do they have a company blog? Has anyone on the executive team published a book?  Find articles written about the company or by company employees. Learn as much about the clients you may handle. There is nothing worse than not knowing about the company. Hiring managers are turned off by questions from candidates that could have been found easily on their website.

Be prepared for standard questions:

• Tell me about yourself. Remember, they want to know about your professional history, not where you were born or where you went to high school. (Yes, many people have started their answer from birth).
• When asked about your long term/short term goals or what you are looking for in your next opportunity be very specific about what you want and make sure it is in line with the opportunity you are interviewing for. You want the company to be able to see you working in their organization five years down the line. Too many people have interviewed with a PR agency and told the hiring manager that they saw themselves going corporate within five years. Immediate reaction by hiring manager – Next!

Always ask good questions: Asking smart questions shows your interest and your intellect. Hiring managers are turned off if a candidate asks zero questions. Make sure to ask the questions that are important to you so you know whether or not the position is right for you.

Ask questions about the company: Everyone has different things that are important to them, so ask what you need to know. You could question them about their business model, previous growth, future growth, strategic initiatives, advantages over their competitors, challenges in growing their business, philosophy on training and much more.

Ask questions about the position: I think these are the most important as the answers the hiring manager gives you are exactly what they are looking for. Make correlations between their answers and your own experience. Be sure to ask questions so you can find out what problem they are trying to solve by making this hire. Ask them about their current projects, future projects, what they expect you to accomplish in the first six months, and most difficult aspects of the position. Most likely you have had experience with what they are trying to do and you can highlight specific accomplishments that will be of most interest to the hiring team.

Ask questions about the hiring manager’s background: Find out how long they have been with the company, why they chose to work there and why they stay. This will give you an idea of why they like their job and the culture within the company.

Avoid the “what can you do for me” type of questions: Be careful not to interrogate with your questions. Keep a nice flow of conversation.

Conversation: Make sure you have a 50/50 conversation. Don’t be the one who does all the talking. On the other hand, do not talk so little that the hiring manager feels like they are pulling information out of you.

• Be sure to make answers clear, concise and to the point. I have had people not hired because they are asked a question, then they talk for ten minutes and never answer the question. Be sure to listen to the question and that you understand what is asked before answering.
• Don’t interrupt
• Negative comments leave a negative impression. Don’t make disparaging remarks about your previous employer, manager or co-worker.

Compensating Asset: When a hiring manager asks about a specific experience that you may not possess, you should always be honest. However, follow it up with an example of a time when you had no experience with something but went on to master it. Use this as another opportunity to share an accomplishment. This will leave the hiring manager with a positive thought rather than a negative one.

Strong close! It’s important that you let the people you are interviewing with know that you are interested. The number one reason people are passed on in interviews is this reason: There was no interest, no enthusiasm, no fire in the belly, they were flat, etc… At the end of the interview with each person reiterate your interest and tell them why you think you are a good fit. Ask them what the next steps are. Where do we go from here?

Thank you note: Send a thank you note immediately to each person you speak with. This can be sent via email. Keep it short, sweet and to the point. Again, reiterate your interest and let them know you are looking forward to hearing from them. Be sure to make each thank you email different when sending to multiple people in one company.

Connect with Jolie on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter!

Career advisors will tell you about the value of creating a niche for yourself: it helps position you as an expert and helps you avoid being all things to all people or spreading yourself too thin.  This maxim applies whether you’re in corporate PR, work as an independent consultant or are part of a department within an agency.  But what if you don’t like the niche you’re currently in?  Consider these seven steps if you’re thinking about breaking into a new niche:

Step #1:  Articulate your reasons
Find other PR pros who work in the field you want to be in and shadow them or ask them about their work.  Understanding the field’s requirements, the schedule and how payment and rewards work will ensure there are no surprises later.  It will also help you visualize yourself doing the work and reassure you that it’s what you want to do.  Being able to explain why you want to switch gears is important as it will help you convince others to take a chance on you even though you don’t yet have the experience.  Before he became a top CNBC reporter Darren Rovell explored career opportunities in sports journalism.  His journey included looking at where most sports journalists focused their efforts, getting advice on market opportunities from veterans and doing extensive research on the field (see step #7 below).

Step #2:  Ask for help
Identify a few mentors who work in the niche you’re targeting and offer to take them out for coffee or lunch in exchange for advice on breaking into the niche.

Step #3:  Look for pro bono opportunities
Pro bono projects, i.e. those done without pay, can help you get your feet wet, make some connections and build up your resume/credentials.

Step #4:  Look the part
Your transition will go more smoothly if you look the part. Use your business cards, web site, blog and tweets to let people know you are focusing on a particular niche.

Step #5:  Focus on what you can do
Just because you’re new to a niche, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not qualified.  Highlight the experience you have that is transferable.  In other words focus on what you can do not what you’ve done.   This WSJ installment of The Resume Doctor offers advice on what to emphasize in a career shifter resume.

Step #6:  Network
Networking is good advice for all job seekers, but if you’re exploring a new field or niche look for groups, sub-groups or special interest groups (SIGS) that specialize in your chosen niche.  Kristie Aylett, APR, a PR consultant in Mississippi (@krisTK) says, “Two resources I’ve found helpful: Linkedin for Q&A and Group Discussions and PRSA’s Business Case for PR award summaries.”

Step #7:  Become a student
PR pros with niche experience are viewed as experts because they’ve built up experience and made important connections in that field.  Emulate their knowledge by investing time in industry research: read relevant trade publications, subscribe to blogs and newsfeeds and look for classes that can help you get up to speed.  Recently, the #solopr chat on Twitter covered this topic and shared this advice:

@shonali: I think like anything else, you have to educate yourself. Research, listen, watch, get to know people in that area.

@krisTK: Set up Alerts, RSS feeds for new industry. Identify the players, issues.

@luannsaid: I find bloggers to be the most insightfully passionate players in any industry.  Follow key ones & you’ll learn the issues fast.

(More excellent advice from the #solopr Twitter chat can be found here.)

Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience.  She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. Learn more her here.

Photo credit: Darwin Bell

Here’s an excerpt:

The digital resume has been a hot topic of debate with the rising popularity of social and professional networking sites. People ask me all the time if they should be replacing their traditional resumes with a new, digital format. My answer: yes and no.

See the rest of the post on PRNewser - From The Recruiter’s Desk: Digital Vs. Traditional Resumes

Also - Golden Grahams has given me 12 boxes of cereal to giveaway to stress the importance of eating before meeting. You’ll also have another chance to win on the Golden Grant site, just in case you aren’t lucky the first time.

How To Enter:

• Go to the Golden Grant site http://goldengrant.com
• Submit your most remarkable job experience in 120 characters or less
• Then leave a comment here on my blog and let me know you submitted your story

Please note: The deadline for the giveaway here is February 10, 2010. The winner will be announced on February 11, 2010.

These videos are pretty hilarious.

Gold Miner

Golden Grahams will be posting new animations weekly. Keep an eye out on their Golden Grant website or on Facebook or Twitter @Goldengrahams.

This is a guest post by Alison Kenney.

The buzz around Apple’s launch of the iPad last week was deafening.  It eclipsed Toyota’s recall announcement, Holocaust Remembrance Day and the President’s State of the Union address (but was probably greeted happily by corporations with bad news to announce that day, e.g. Verizon’s layoff of 13,000 employees).

So one might think that Apple’s PR team is exceptional and that they pulled an amazing campaign together full of extremely innovative tactics.  Although I surely won’t be arguing that Apple doesn’t have some of the best PR pros around, if you look closely at the way they roll out new product news, you’ll see that rather than pushing the envelope they are more likely to promote tried-and-true best practices:

Earn your audience – Apple’s iPad launch worked (in PR terms, i.e. buzz, messages communicated, brand remained strong) because the company was building upon the successes of its previous product rollouts.  Dating back to the Mac and as recently as the iPod and iPhone, Apple has earned audience recognition as an amazing product company.

Big brands must exercise control or risk missteps – we’ve seen this with Domino’s Pizza and recently with Tiger Woods.  As Joe Ciarallo writes for MediaBistro, “For all the talk how important it is for companies to be more open and transparent in this new media world we live in, Apple is one of the most secretive companies, especially when it comes to PR and marketing, yet it is also one of the most loved brands.”   The controlled campaign included an exclusive news scoop to a top-tier media outlet, the Wall Street Journal, which generated an incredible amount of viral buzz and was followed by a formal announcement event the next day.

How did Apple pull this off?  There is speculation that the exclusive was actually a controlled leak.  Whether it was or wasn’t, Apple’s launch was a success because it relied on these best practices:

The best spokesperon ever – just try to name another business executive who is as universally recognized in such a positive way as Steve Jobs.  You can’t.  The aura and mystique that Jobs has developed lends itself to the sleek design and supernatural status of Apple’s products too. Jobs is Apple.

Lead with PR, not advertising – Apple’s campaigns never mention beta cycles, prototypes or “vaporware.”  Their announcements include real news – ‘here’s the product, here’s Steve Jobs using it, here’s how/when you can buy it and how much it will cost.’

Give people something to talk about – not all of the feedback and early reviews of the iPad were positive, but there sure was a lot of it.  The New York Times tracked Twitter traffic related to the iPad and reported a high of 2,200 tweets/minute.  From controversy over the name, which some said reminded them of feminine hygiene products and which Fujitsu claimed it owned, to whether this marked a departure from AT&T’s exclusive relationship with Apple and even whether the iPad would be around long before it was overtaken with Apple’s next revolutionary device.

Image credit: Graphic Spirit

Phone interviews have this magical way of magnifying any nervous tick and making the articulate candidate completely incoherent. Unfortunately, this necessary evil is the starting place of many interviewing processes.

Here are a few simple pointers to keep in mind if you are asked to sell yourself over the phone before meeting the company in-person.

Create a short accomplishment cheat sheet with examples of successes in your previous positions that may relate to the job. It’s also helpful to keep a bullet-point list of information to remember about the company, key competitors, industry information and the hiring manager’s background.

Smile. In front of a mirror. It sounds cheesy, but it helps and it’s contagious. A company wants to hire a positive, energetic person. During an in-person interview, your body language gives the interviewers many clues about your personality. The phone interview leaves the interviewer only with your voice.

Photo credit: Matias Dutto

After reading through all those bland and boring job ads, this round-up of creative and funny recruitment ads is refreshing to see.

See them all on Jacob Share’s JobMob -  117 Funniest Creative Job and Recruitment Ads

Enjoy!