Applying to a Non-Profit Successfully

By Kelly Martin, Toppel Peer Advisor

This summer I was an intern at a non-profit organization—the New England Aquarium—and while they couldn’t give me a paycheck for my work, the experience I gained there is more valuable to me than any amount of money ever could be. However, to make up for the fact that they couldn’t compensate us in the form of money, the intern coordinators provided us with a few professional development lunches throughout the summer. A lot of what we learned were things that I had already learned from working at Toppel (we know our stuff!), but some of the things I learned were more specific to the non-profit sector.

I recently connected on LinkedIn with the NEAq Intern Alumni Network and a few of the intern coordinators, and this article from the Harvard Business Review was posted the other day: https://hbr.org/2014/02/how-to-write-a-cover-letter/

The article as a whole provides a lot of good advice on writing a cover letter, so it’s definitely worth the read if you’re starting to write one for a job or internship application. But what sticks out the most to me are the two case studies provided at the end of the article. Both address how important it is to go the extra mile and show your enthusiasm and passion for the company.

To me, this is the epitome of what I learned from the New England Aquarium. In the non-profit world, people aren’t doing what they do for the paycheck they receive, but because they are extremely passionate about their work. So anyone who they’re going to consider hiring to join their team has to share that passion as well. Beyond your past experiences and qualifications, having a strong knowledge of the field and the work that the organization has done, as well as a genuine desire to contribute to that work, will put you ahead of the pack of applicants.

Personally, I usually have a hard time conveying my passion genuinely in writing; there’s a fine line between sounding genuine and sounding fake. But I think this article also provides good insight on how to express that passion in a cover letter. By doing your research and putting thought into the position, you can show that you really care about the organization and what you can contribute to it. As case study #1 says,“she’d done her research and ‘listed some things she would do or already had done that would help us address those needs.’” And you can’t go wrong giving specific examples of how you’ve followed the organization's work—in case study #2 the applicant listed various exhibitions and events of the organization she was applying to that she had attended. In both cases, the applicants had gone the extra mile to express their genuine interest in the position, and clearly expressed their passion for the organization as a whole. And in both cases, the applicants eventually got the job they wanted.

Cover Letters 101

By Rachel Rooney, Toppel Peer Advisor

You’ve done it. You’ve submitted your resume and been approved on HireACane.com. You’ve been to Career Expo and passed out copies of your amazing and impressive resumes. You are now getting ready to apply for jobs. Ahead of you are applications, resumes, and cover letters. After you make it through, you win an interview. Cover letters are perhaps the hardest part of the application. It’s not the same thing as a personal statement; when I find that I have to write cover letters I end up writing personal statements! Toppel recommends a format for cover letters that is one-two-three paragraphs and then you’re done. 

Paragraph one defines the purpose of your letter: what position you are applying for, why you want it, what you hope to gain and contribute to the company, what skills you have. This is not a place to restate what is on your resume, but you do want to show that you are a qualified and ____ candidate. 

In the second paragraph, focus on the specific position and organization you are applying for. Do your research beforehand and attend employer information sessions held at Toppel. Scroll through the company website and the job description. Mention something interesting you learned from your research and focus on how your skill set would benefit the organization. Give examples of when you had to use your skills and your strengths. 

The final paragraph allows you to take action. Ask to set up an interview or a follow up meeting. Restate your phone number and your email address. Indicate your enclosed resume and thank the reader for his/her time and consideration. Finish with sincerely and your name and you’ll be good to go! 

A few things to watch out for are the length and grammatical and spelling errors. Do not address your letter to “to whom it may concern” instead address it directly to the person. If you do not have a contact, address it “dear hiring manager.” Be sure to include your address and the date at the top of the page, followed by the full address of the organization. 

If you need any help at all, come to walk in hours at Toppel between 10:00 AM and 4:30 PM Monday through Thursday.

Create Your Own Opportunities

By Carly Smith, Assistant Director of Campus Outreach

You probably have heard the number one way to find a job is through networking. Well, I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal that made me remember this is not always the case. This article talked about new research that shows that contacting potential employers directly is the most effective way to find a job. Does that surprise you? 

I immediately remembered a time when I was a college student. My senior year I was required to complete an internship/practicum to obtain my degree, and the way we were told to find these internships was not to look for job postings or contact people in our circle. Instead, our professors told us to locate companies we wanted to work for, find a person in charge of hiring or who managed the department we wanted to work in, and send them a cover letter asking for an opportunity to work for them. 

This idea was new to me- and a bit scary. I had to directly reach out to a person I never spoke with before and prove in my cover letter why I would be a great addition to their company. Also, this person had not posted an open position and would not be expecting me. Still, the scariest part was that our professor required us to write in our cover letters that we would “follow up in a week to discuss the possibility of completing a practicum with your organization.” What if this person did NOT want to talk to me?

And, with each letter I sent out- I think about 7 or 8- I attempted to call the people I wrote to the week after they would have received my message. It was nerve-racking to put myself out there like that, but with great risk came great reward. I got on the phone with more than half of the people I had reached out to with my cover letter and finally landed an internship with one of my top choices, working for a community college as a practicum student.

So, my challenge for you is to not wait for an internship or job opportunity to come to you. You may find an amazing posting on a website such as HireACane.com or through a person in your network, but don’t limit yourself to finding job opportunities in these ways.

Take a risk. Be proactive. Create your own opportunities.

Using Pathbrite to Build Your Online Portfolio

By: Robert Vanisko
Part of the Career Toolbox Series 

While resumes are very crucial to getting a job, most of the time they do not tell the full story of who you are and what you can contribute to a particular job.  This is especially true for people with creative majors.  Don’t you wish there was a way for creative people to show off their writing and design samples without having to create an entire portfolio from scratch? Luckily for you, there is. 

Pathbrite is an online service that allows you to build an online portfolio in just a few quick and easy steps.  Pathbrite gives you different options for what type of portfolio you want, including Professional, Academic, and Freestyle.  When making a Pathbrite portfolio, you receive prompts that tell you exactly what to include in your portfolio.  For example, the first step in a professional portfolio is to upload your resume, followed by a prompt to upload something that represents your professional skills, which could include a writing sample, design sample, etc. 

Pathbrite takes you step by step until you have a completed portfolio full of diverse materials.  These materials should adequately represent the skill set that you want your potential employer to see.  As a Public Relations Major, my Pathbrite portfolio includes my resume, my design samples from Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, a Press Release, and a Backgrounder.  Therefore my own portfolio reflects my graphic design skills, writing skills, and work experience that shows that I have used those skills in a work setting before.

The portfolios are very easy to send to any employer and can go a long way in differentiating you from other candidates for a particular job.  This is also a very good networking tool as well.  If you are giving an elevator pitch to your dream employer and don’t have too much time to get all of your qualifications across, it is always good to have the URL to your Pathbrite portfolio ready to go so you can have all of best work available in an instant.

Overall, Pathbrite is a great tool to use and can be a key factor in separating yourself from the rest of the pack when applying for a job.  To view a sample Pathbrite, click here. For those of you looking for additional information on how a portfolio can help your job search, you can refer to this blog post.

I am a Junior and I have not done an internship yet! What do I do?

By: Robert Vanisko

Once you become a Junior and realize that you are over half way done with college, it can be a startling realization that there is not much time left until you are out in the real world.  But for some of you, there is one problem; you have no internship experience yet.  Sure, you worked in that restaurant during high school or have an on campus job at UM, but internships are what is important… right?

Luckily for you, there is still plenty of time to get that experience before you have to apply for real world jobs.  The Toppel Career Center has tons of great resources to help you find what you are interested in, identify possible internships in that field, and get you started on applying for them. 

The first and most important step is identifying and defining what field you are interested in working in.  Many of you will pick something in-line with your major, but others of you are less sure.  For those of you who don’t know what field you would like to work in, Toppel offers three different career assessments that you can take to determine what you want to do, the Self Directed Search, the Type Focus, and the Strong Interest Inventory.

Once you determine what type of internship you want to do, the next step is to search for available internship opportunities that you want to apply to.  Using your HireACane account, you can search for internships on your account or create a UCAN account.  UCAN, which stands for the University Career Action Network, is a database of internships posted by the University of Miami and the 21 other universities involved.  Currently, there are more than 1,300 UCAN internships available and more than 900 jobs and internships available on HireACane.

Once you have picked out the internships that you want to apply for, you have to prepare yourself to apply.  Toppel has plenty of resources to help you create and edit your resume and cover letters, and prepare you for your interviews.  They offer Effective Resumeand Cover Letter Writing Seminars as well as written guides to help you create these documents.  Toppel also offers Interviewing Skills Seminars as well as Mock and Mini-Mock Interviews.  It is very important to practice your interviewing skills before you go in for a real interview, so be sure to make use of these programs.

While finding a summer internship may seem like a daunting task while trying to balance the academic life and social life of junior year, it is actually quite simple as long as you follow the steps listed above.  For more information on all of these programs, be sure to visit hireacane.comhttp://www.sa.miami.edu/toppel/mainsite/Students/Home.aspx.  

Microsoft Tips to Help you Edit your Document in a Flash

Priyanka Surio

Ever wonder how to make life easier? Especially with when writing and editing Word documents such as your resume or cover letter? Well worry no more; below the Toppel Peer Advisors have compiled a list of Microsoft shortcuts that are easy to use, simple, and quick to learn. Stop trying to find out where the print preview button is or how to look through your address book in Outlook. Let these shortcuts reduce the time it takes to find things, after all Time = Money.

SHORTCUTS:

Word Documents
CTRL + B = Bold
CTRL+ P = Print
CTRL + V = Paste
CTRL + C = Copy
CTRL + I = Italics
CTRL + S = Save
F12 = Save As Dialog Box
CTRL + F12 = Open Dialog Box
CTRL+ U = Underline
CTRL+ SHIFT + < = Decrease font size CTRL+ SHIFT + > = Increase font size
CTRL + X = Cut the selected text or object
CTRL + Z = Undo the last action
CTRL + Y = Redo the last action
CTRL + N = New Document
CTRL + O = Open a document
CTRL + W = Close a document
CTRL + F = Find text, formatting, and special items
CTRL + H = Replace text, specific formatting, and special items
ALT + CTRL + I = Switch in or out Print Preview
F7 = Spell Check
Shift + F3 = Change the Case of letters (all uppercase, lowercase, case sensitive)
CTRL + 1= Single-space lines
CTRL + 2 = Double-space lines
CTRL + 5 = 1.5-line spacing

Outlook Email
ALT + S= Send an email message through Outlook
CTRL + SHIFT + B = Open the Address Book
CTRL + SHIFT + G = Create a message flag (for importance, due date)
ALT + P = Open the Microsoft Outlook Message Options dialog box and check the option of Request a Read receipt so you can see who is actually reading your email and who isn’t

WebPages
CTRL + K= Insert a Hyperlink in a word document
ALT + LEFT ARROW = Go back one page
ALT + RIGHT ARROW = Go forward one page
F5 = Refresh

Check out even MORE shortcuts here:
Microsoft Office Shortcuts

Happy typing!