Category: Charting Your Career for Success

How To Write Effective Business Letters: A business letter does four things.

1. Communicates information
2. Creates advertising awareness
3. Creates an image of you or your company
4. Creates actions and decisions

Put your company name and return address at the top of the letter. If you are using letterhead, the return address is already in your business letterhead.

Here is the format. Note that some companies put the date in the right corner of the letter. Other companies put the date below the name of the sender.

Your Company Logo and Contact Information

Your information

Company name (for letters without letterhead)
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)

Start the body of the letter with a statement of the purpose of the letter.  For example, “I am writing this letter to order samples of your company’s products.”

State a call to action at the end of the body of the letter. For example, “Please send the samples today.”

Very truly yours,
Handwritten signature
Typed signature
Your title

Enclosures:  four pictures of samples

What Is Your Greatest Weakness?

I made the mistake of answering this question honestly during an interview for a promotion.  I did get the promotion.  However, my new supervisor had an annoying habit of reminding me of my answer to that question during our work together.

Being able to answer this question is part of standard interview preparation.  What should I have answered when he asked me about my greatest weakness?  Here are some options that would have helped me.

1. Know the requirements of the job well enough that you do not say anything that would disqualify your for the job.

2. Respect the need of the interviewer to ask questions that show whether you are qualified for the job.

3.  Avoid repeating the question in your answer.  For example, the interview says, “What is your greatest weakness?”  Do not start your answer with, “My greatest weakness is…”  You want to focus on positive things.

4. Prepare your answer based on something that is true about you.  False statements are costly eventually.

5.  Show how you have made adjustments so that your weakness has made your more effective.

Here are some examples that are actually true of me.

• I dread being late so much that I would rather lose a little time by being early than experience anxiety over being late.  I find that I can easily use the time.  I simply take some things to work on while I wait nearby to enter for my appointment.
• I read guidelines and prefer to use them to avoid conflict.  Other people focus on doing what makes sense at the time.  I have learned that sometimes it is better to go with the flow of the team than to question everything everyone says or does.  Guidelines are note rules or laws.  Creative people often offer solutions outside the guidelines.  When people want to know what the guidelines say, they do turn to me for advice.

Good luck with your interviews. You will do a great job.

Finding Email Addresses

A simple way to find an email address, put the name of the person and the domain name of the company in a search engine.  “email * * companyname.com”  *.edu, *.gov, *.net, *.com, *.org

Example: “First Name, Last Name ** examplecompany.com”

Verifying Email Addresses

Sometimes I find that I have an email address, but I am not certain that the email address is correct.  I could just try sending an email to the email address to see if I get a bounce back on the email.  However, some domains have a catchall feature where all the incorrectly addressed emails are held.  I may not get a bounce back and will have no way of knowing whether the email address is incorrect.  I have found this website helpful for confirming email addresses:

Follow this link:  Email Verifier.

Here are six tips to help you try out a new job.

See how jobs are working for other people. During a terrific vacation in Kona, Hawaii, my wife and    spent a day on the beach at the King Kamehameha Hotel. During the day, I bought lunch at a beachside sandwich stand. Later that year, my wife and I attended a comedy club near our home in Sacramento. Prior to the show, I chatted with the owner of the club, who told me that he owned a sandwich shop on the beach in Kona. His sandwich shop was the same place where I had bought lunch a few months before. The coincidence was interesting. However, what I found more interesting is that this man had success at finding things that he enjoyed doing in places that enjoyed traveling. He had a knack for starting low-cost operations that involved things he really enjoyed. He turned the things he loved to do into businesses.

Try taking vacation days to research your job. Before I got into the recruiting industry, I took a couple of vacation days and spent a day in the office of two recruiting firms. I learned that what the people were doing in these companies were things that I could do. One of the recruiters had the same background that I had. Seeing the similarity of his experience and my experience, I was able to know that my skills crossed over to the job of a recruiter. This type of work-with research is a customary practice.

You might consider an internship. Before signing up for an internship, find out the purpose of the role. If you see that the internship teaches you things that help you learn about types of jobs or prepares you for a job. During the internship, you can learn if that type of job is right for you.

For questions about compensation for internships see
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/71-flsa-internships

Volunteer work actually can lead to a job. Community service organizations, churches, hospitals, and schools are wonderful places to look for volunteer opportunities. I have an in-law who started working in a volunteer program a couple of days a week. She enjoyed what she was doing. She enjoyed working with the people. She enjoyed what the organization did. There was some magic in the connection and the volunteer project turned into a paying job.

Some companies pay people for project or consulting work. These types of jobs work great with companies that allow people to work from home. Freelance writers, programmers, accountants, researchers, and other skilled professionals find that this type of work through Internet search or through direct referral from other professionals. These types of jobs are great for deciding what you might want to do long-term.

Temporary to permanent is a fantastic way for people to find and test all types of jobs. I hired two temporary clerical employees who worked for me for over five years. Recent college graduates find that temporary to permanent is a wonderful way to break into an industry.

Hunting for jobs take a lot of work. It is easy to let up and take your search lightly. Finding a job is like building a business. Even when business is slow you can make preparations for when business will return. Here are some things you can do during a lull in activity.

1. Send a thank you note to your friends and references to thank them for their support and let them know that you remain active in your search effort.

2. Make your resume tighter. Reduce the accomplishments in older jobs and increase the list of accomplishments in recent jobs.

3. Get on your professional network and review your group memberships.

4. Build your database of company contacts. Making a direct application to an employer is far better than applying through a job board or a membership site. There is a company research page on the tab “Companies” at the top of this JayWren.com website.

5. Buy career books or get a library card and check out books that will help you hunt for a job.

6. Work on your skills.  There are YouTube videos on nearly every subject imaginable.  There are nearly 900 links and articles on this website to help you with your career.

7. Keep your chin up.  Work on your attitude through videos on YouTube.com, books, and websites.  Hunting for a job is tough work.  Be tough on yourself to work hard in your job hunt but never get down on yourself,

8. Avoid negative people.  Stay in touch with people who always have a positive attitude and who will urge you to stay focused.

9. You are your greatest asset.  Eat healthy.  Get daily exercise,

10. Remember that tough times pass.  You may just need to work really hard to move through them.

Turn Job Shopping into Job Hunting

“I must create a System, or be enslav’d by another Man’s.”  -William Blake

Shoppers buy products that are easy to find and are popular with other shoppers.  When I go to the supermarket, I shop.  I buy the things that the store has on hand.

The people who buy products for resale decide what products to buy based on the amount of profit in a product and how quickly a product sells.  If a buyer invests in a product that sells for a 50 percent profit and takes six months to sell, the buyer might consider the product a good investment.  If the product sells for a 1% profit and take six months to sell, the buyer might consider the product a risky investment.  On the other hand, if the buyer invests in a product that returns a 1% profit and sells in one week for weeks on end, the buyer will more likely see that product as a lower risk.  The buyer can sell that product four times before the bill comes due from the supplier.

The less space a product takes on the shelf is also important.  Retailers try to make the most profit possible per square foot.

The place where the retailer is most likely to sell the most products is at the checkout stand.  The simple reason is that everyone must go through the checkout aisle to buy any products.

Chewing gum, mints, and popular magazines take little space, sell very quickly, and get the premium spot in retail stores.  Retailers place these products at the checkout stand where every customer must go before leaving with any purchases.

So when I go shopping, I am buying things that buyers consider a good investment.  In most cases, shopping satisfies all my needs and wants.

When I hunt for a product, I take my efforts to a higher level.  I want something that buyers may not consider a good investment and do not regularly stock.

Buyers value customers as much as they value profit on an individual product.  I moved to Sacramento from Houston.  While living in Houston, I developed a taste for Tab colas.  When I moved to Sacramento, I discovered that most retailers do not even carry Tab and that the bottler shipped Tab only in six-packs and not in twelve-packs.  The price of a six-pack of Tab was the same as the price of a twelve-pack of Coca-Cola.

To get all this information, I had to do some hunting.  I spoke with the store manager at the Raley’s market where my wife and I regularly shop.  I called the buyer at the Raley’s headquarters.  I called the vice president of sales at the bottling company that made the Tab.

I became a product hunter.  The bottling company agreed to bill the store where I bought Tab the twelve-pack price for two six-packs of Tab.  The store began to stock Tab, which invariably sold out as soon as the product came in.  In response to the out of stocks, the store began to keep a back room stock for me to pick up when I was in the store.

Retail shopping and job shopping are similar.  Job shoppers go to the regular places everyone shops for jobs.

1. Job boards
2. Corporate Recruiters
3. Company websites
4. Current contacts in their networks

Job shoppers find the jobs that hiring companies promote the highest.  Job shopping may fit your needs.  You may find that you can pick from a variety of jobs.

However, you may not want to settle for what you find from job shopping.  Just as I found when I moved from Houston to Sacramento and attempted to buy Tab Colas, you may need to go to the job sources to get the job for you.  You may need to become a job hunter.

A job hunter decides what to hunt for and where to find it.  If a job hunter wants to work as an aviation mechanic, the job hunter goes to an airport or airplane factory.

Job hunters decide what concessions or compromises to make.  A job hunter who is willing to live anywhere will have more places to apply for a job.  Job hunters who accept contract, full-time, part-time, or temporary work increase the number of jobs for which they can apply.

Job hunters take a direct approach to get a job with a specific company.

1. They create or expand their list of contacts who work for the company or have worked for the company.
2. This list has no value if job hunters do not use them.  Job hunters introduce themselves or ask other people to introduce them to people who work for the company.
3. Through these introductions, job hunters build professional relationships who can help them know more people at the company.
4. They work with these relationships to get recommendations for the job they are seeking.

Building relationships in job hunting takes time.  Some trails lead nowhere.  Job hunters track more than one opportunity at a time.

Job hunters know that no matter how many relationships they make at a company, pursuing a career at that company may just never happen.

1. Yet there are always other companies and realizing when a trail is a dead-end is discouraging but helpful information.
2. Relationships at a company along a dead-end trail are sometimes the relationships who lead to the next opportunity.
3. Job hunters look for opportunities within opportunities.  As their contact list grows, they look for overlaps in connections.  A person who cannot help them can connect them with the person who can.

Job hunters take action.

1. Job hunters call people.  If a job hunter needs to speak with someone, the job hunter picks up the phone and calls that person.
2. Job shoppers send emails asking people to call them.
3. Job shoppers are passive.  They feel no need to be resourceful.
4. Job hunters are fearless and aggressive.  They do not ask other people to take action.  Job hunters act.

Not everyone needs to become a job hunter.  The role does not fit everyone.  However, there is a whole world of opportunity that exists only for the job hunters.