Post-Interview Letter: Follow up the interview with a letter that will get you the job.

Often people pay little attention to sending a thank you note to the person who interview them.  If you are not sending thank you notes and not getting invited back for an interview, there may be a connection between the two.

It is courteous to send a follow-up note to anyone who has spent time helping you with your career or with your career change. I have seen instances in which hiring managers have decided to pass on an applicant who had not followed up with any type of post-interview correspondence.

Some people recommend sending a handwritten letter. I have not seen a handwritten note in a few years. The problem with using paper to send your note is that most hiring managers are set up to use electronic mail and filing.

I see people attaching a letter to an email. Sending a letter as an attachment is kind of like gift-wrapping a gift-wrapped box of fancy candies. The extra gift-wrap is somewhat redundant and a bit inconvenient, since the candy is already in a gift-wrapped box. So trying to create more attractive formatting by using an email attachment for a follow-up letter may just in fact just be inconveniencing the recipient: an email is mail.

Attachments do have their purpose, but I see them more commonly for resumes, contracts, and presentations. The email content serves as the cover letter for the attachments. You might want to consider sending examples of your work as attachments to your thank-you note.

Whatever method you choose for your post-interview correspondence, you want to make four points.

Express your appreciation for the time and interest the person has shown you.
Express your desire to get the job.
Summarize the skills that you have which will enable you to contribute right away.
Create a call to action:  for example, ask when you can reconnect.

SAMPLE FOLLOW-UP LETTER

Your information

Street address
City, state, zip
Phone number
Email address

Date

Contact’s information

Name, titles
Company name
Street address
City, state, zip
Phone number
Email address

Dear Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss

Subject: (optional)

It was fantastic to speak with you on Tuesday about the Name of the Position at Name of the Company.

I really want this job.

You did a great job explaining the responsibilities of Name of Position.  I have attached examples of work that I have done that show my experience in these areas of responsibility.

1. A presentation I gave to XYZ Company from raw data
2. A presentation that I created and have tailored for team members to present to their clients
3. A presentation featuring tables and graphs that show my graphic presentation skills and my ability to give attention to detail

For the past six years I have taken raw data based on product categories and consumer demographics, consumer conversions, repeat sales, new product-introductions, and even raw data from shipments and used the facts to create executive-level presentations for multiple teams in different departments.

As you and I discussed, I will call on Thursday.

Best regards,

Handwritten signature

Typed signature

Is Making a Job Change Your Best Choice? Are you in the wrong job?  Here are some signs that you might be.

1. Every day is a bad day.
2. You feel that you cannot do your job.
3. You do not like your boss.
4. You work around people you do not like.
5. Have you outgrown your job and cannot get greater responsibility to match your increased skills.
6. Your company in trouble or your company is firing people.
7. Your commute is too far or too expensive.
8. You are underpaid.

Some of these problems you can work around or try to ignore.  Some of these problems can change over time.   If you spend the time making your current job better instead of spending that time on a job change, you may find staying in your current job helps you several ways.
Changing jobs is often a case of jumping from one rut to another.  You find the same problems in your new workplace that you tried to escape in your previous job. Changing jobs in this case would be a huge mistake, especially if you are walking away from accumulated benefits and tenure.

Are you mentally prepared to search for a new job? A job change is certainly a lot of work. It takes planning, time, effort, and money.   There are risks of losing your current job while you are looking for a new job. All these factors are stressful.

Once you get a new job, are you mentally ready to commit 100% to doing a great job at your next company? Starting a new job is full of changes.  You will face new routines. You will meet new people.  You will develop new relationships.  You will find a new culture. You will need to adapt to a new routine and culture.  You may need to learn new skills.  You will have a new boss to impress and understand.

Here are some things you can do to help you turn your current job better.

If ever day seems like a bad day and you feel that you cannot do your job, you may have job burnout.

1. Change your routine.
2. Take more breaks.
3. Do not take your work with you to coffee or lunch.
4. Leave your work at your workplace.
5. Do not work on your weekends.
6. Take vacations.
7. Learn methods to relieve stress and develop a positive attitude.

If you do not like your boss or your coworkers, you are not alone.  During college jobs, the military, and my career in consumer products, I had 12 bosses.  I would like to work for only two of these bosses again.  I never quit a job over my boss.  When I did change jobs, I left for a better job
If you have outgrown your job and cannot get greater responsibility to match your increased skills, you may want to consider a job change.  You should work where the things you do are meaningful and fulfilling.  In looking for a new job, look for opportunities that will enable you to use your skills and allow you to continue to grow greater skills.

If your company is firing people, your commute is too far or too expensive, or if you cannot make enough money, you should consider looking for jobs that will help you become financially secure.  As you begin your search, bear in mind the benefits that you have in your current job.  Make sure that you are not gaining in salary and going down in total compensation.

Image: Mic445, Mic445

Great Grammar is So Easy to Practice and So Rewarding for Those Who Do.

Little grammatical mistakes are so easy to make and can be so costly to the speaker or writer when those mistakes come to represent a person’s professional profile.

The purpose of this article is to highlight words that mask speaking and writing errors.

When speaking, there is no technology to aid us. We either choose the correct words, or we do not.

With today’s technology, writers have help in proofreading documents before publishing or emailing them. On the other side, writers have the disadvantage of having their grammatical errors highlighted in the document when the reader opens it. Using technology to proofread and improve the quality of your writing is so easy to do. Failing to use that technology can make you look sloppy, uneducated, unintelligent, and your document may disappear into the reader’s deleted folder.

Easy Steps to Great Grammar

All skills take initial development to acquire and regular practice to maintain. To acquire and strengthen your grammar is easy with the free online resources like this very website and others that provide ideas on becoming more successful in business or any other public setting today.

Developing great grammar does not have to be complicated. I have avoided using grammatical terminology in this article. I want the focus to be on words that mask errors.

Using the same process of simply becoming familiar with words that mask mistakes can help you keep the development of your grammatical skills simple. Unless you plan to teach grammar or find intrinsic value in developing a broader vocabulary in grammar, you might just ignore the grammatical terms in any article or textbook and focus on the examples that you find in the resources you are using.

Speaking with Grammatical Accuracy

To use accurate grammar in speaking, there is just one area of development: word selection. The speaker simply needs to know which words are correct to express an idea.

Again, the most effective and fastest way to develop accurate word selection is to highlight mistakes that occur most often. I am going to label this frequently made grammatical error “the ESPN Too©.”  Half the American sports commentators on live broadcasts make this simple grammatical error during on a regular basis. Just putting them in the situation of having to choose the correct use of the words “between” or “among” as well as the words that follow those two words, and the sports commentators will make the incorrect choices. Frankly, these sportscasters are not alone.

The words “between” and “among” are doubly confusing in terms of which words follow them and which of the two words to use in which situation.

The word “between” indicates that the matter is between two people. The word “among” indicates that the matter is among three or more people.

Try to remember that the words that follow the word “between” are the words “him, her, and me.”

The words that follow the word “among” are the words “him,” “her,” “me,” “themselves,” and “ourselves”

As awkward and as subliterate as the following statements may appear, these statements are grammatically correct:

1. “This matter is between him and her.”
2. “This matter is among her, him, and me.”
3. “The team members want to keep the secret among themselves.”

Comparisons: Words with two Syllables

To create comparisons with one-syllable and two-syllable-words, add “er” or “est to the end of the word. Here are examples.

1. This car is fast. This second car is faster. The third car is fastest.
2. This flower is pretty. These flowers are prettier. Of all the flowers, these flowers are the prettiest.

Comparisons Words with Three or More Syllables

To create comparisons with words with three or more syllables, use the words “more” and “most” in front of the word used for comparison. This English professor is intelligent. The math professor is more intelligent. The music professor is the most intelligent of the three professors.

Writing with Grammatical Accuracy

Developing writing skills that contain great grammar is different from developing speaking skills that contain great grammar. However, writing complicates word selection with the issue of similar sounding words: Affect / Effect, Break / Brake, Capital / Capitol, Compliment / Complement, Desert / Dessert, Guest / Guessed
Heard / Herd, Illusion / Allusion, New / Knew, Principle / Principal, Rain / Reign, and so forth.

Rather than trying to learn every set of similar sounding words you can find in English (English language is redundant.), you might just become aware of your own tendencies in word selection. For reason, I developed the habit of adding a syllable to the spelling the of word “athlete.” I intuitively tend to type the word “ath-e-lete.” So, I try to watch for that type of error in my writing.

Avoiding Apostrophes

Writers enjoy using an informal style and will use apostrophes to replace letters as part of that style of writing. However, this practice can mask writing mistakes.
One of the most common instances of apostrophes creating confusion and masking writing errors comes when a writer is trying to choose whether to use “its” or “it’s.”

Forget about learning the grammar as to which words to choose. Just try to stay away from using apostrophes to replace letters. Business writing is not informal anyway.

So, try this method. Just type, “It is.” If the two words “it is” do not express what you are trying to express, then the word “its” is the correct word to use between the choices of “its” or “it’s”. Does that make sense?

Having to focus on whether you should type “there, their, or they’re,” you can reduce the risk of errors creeping into your writing with the statement, “They are.”

Your quick wit indicates that you are smart.

Learning as a Lifestyle

I continue to read articles on basic grammar and watch for my own mental blocks that can mask errors in grammar. Speaking and writing correctly is critical to the success of anyone’s career. Practicing great grammar is so easy to do and so rewarding.