Submit a Cover Letter, Whether You Need It or Not

Submit a Cover Letter, Whether You Need It or NotSubmit a Cover Letter, Whether You Need It or NotSubmit a Cover Letter, Whether You Need It or NotThe cover letter sometimes gets a schwimmbad rap as an unnecessary document. Some bloggers in the career space even go so far as to suggest not submitting one because hiring managers wont read it. But, whether they read it or not, the strange thing is that many hiring managers will disqualify you if you dont send a cover letter.Confused? You may be thinking Let me see if I get this straight. Hiring managers want me to send a cover letter to accompany my resume, even though they wont read it? Yes, that makes about as much sense as that sprig of parsley on your restaurant dinner plate its there but serves no useful purpose.But this is a job search, and you need to be prepared for everything, even if it means that submitting a cover letter is only a formality, or some hiring managers version of an initiation rite.The cover letter serves as an opening act for your resume, offering you a chance to make a personal statement beyond the skills, qualifications, and achievements you list on your resume. It allows you to speak directly to the hiring manager, in your own words, to address how you can provide what the company needs. Then, hopefully, the hiring manager reads your resume.The cover letter also gives you an opportunity to showcase your writing skills, which are in higher demand today given the growth of Internet-based communications over the brde decade. If the job involves some writing, the letter can work in your favor.But what if the hiring manager doesnt read it?Well, you cant force someone to read your cover letter. But if youre asked to come in for an interview, be sure that what you say in the interview matches what you wrote in the cover letter. At the least, it will demonstrate how well you know yourself and how your skills match what the company needs.And if the hiring manager admits to not reading the cove r letter, it demonstrates who was more prepared for the interview.

3 Reasons You Really Do Need a Career Coach

3 Reasons You Really Do Need a Career Coach3 Reasons You Really Do Need a Career CoachI understand the aversion many people have to using a career coach. Ive always been a do-it-myself kind of gal, so the same feelings run through my head whenever someone suggests I try talking to a coach when facing a career challenge I should be able to do this on my own The struggle is part of the learning process Plus, who wants to actually admit they need help?So when my boss asked me to try out a online coaching class with Fundamentum, I was skeptical. But, admittedly, I had been struggling to hone in and describe my personal brand, so I figured Id give the Introduce Yourself class a shot. Well, let me tell you I am a coaching convert. I was shocked how the two hours I spent with a Fundamentum coach helped me solidify my brand and elevator pitch- and I spend every day reading and writing career advice What exactly made it so valuable? Read on to learn a few of the things that anybody can gain f rom spending some time working with a coach.1. You Get Personalized AdviceSure, theres plenty of career advice out there on the web. But while theres a myriad of general advice on how to hone in on your brand, how to come up with a pitch, and the like, youd be hard-pressed to find an article on How to Succinctly Explain Your Diverse Writing and Design Skills While Also Sharing Your Leadership Abilities and Mentioning Your Love of Food (or whatever your situation might be).As much as I hate to admit it, general career advice can only get you so far. Almost everyone will, at some point, have some technicality or specific about their situations that theyre not sure how to handle. And thats where a career coach can really come in handy. After all, this is someone youre paying, not just to spout off any career advice, but to listen to your situation and give you an expert opinion on how to handle it. For example, I have never worked in food but think that its an industry that Id like to transition into with my next move- something I always felt was awkward to explain when telling someone about what I do. My coach was able to wordsmith with me to find a way to tie my love for writing with a desire to engage with different topics, with an interest in food being one of those topics. I doubt I would have ever come to this solution on my own- and I certainly would have never found it with a simple Google search.2. You Get Dedicated Time to Make ProgressSo, lets pretend for a second you already have all the advice you need and know exactly what you need to do to solve your career questions. How likely are you to actually carve out the time- among all of your other priorities- to get it done?One of my favorite parts about doing the coaching session was that it forced me to- for an hour and a half- put everything else aside and actually spend time defining and vocalizing my personal brand. Many of the steps we walked through I technically could have done on my own, but hav ing a scheduled coaching session gave me the accountability I needed to actually sit down and do it. Whatever career-related task youve been procrastinating on again and again, think about a coach as a good motivator to finally spend a good chunk of time on it. 3. You Get to Experiment, Iterate, and ImproveWorking with a coach is also a good, low-stakes way to experiment with different ideas for your career. You wouldnt necessarily want to try out a new elevator pitch at a formal networking event or when an interviewer asks so, tell me about yourself?- because if you say something wrong or mess up, it could actually affect your career But during time spent with a career coach, you can still get an outside perspective on new ideas, without there being any actual repercussions. That means you have much more space to experiment, and then get real-time feedback and strategies from your coach to incorporate and try again. During our session, I was able to work through some ideas about ho w to describe my personal brand that I never would have felt comfortable trying out in a real-life career setting. For example, by the end of the session, we had decided to remove the word editor from my pitch entirely, realizing that there were too many assumptions with the role that didnt totally describe what I spent most of my time doing. It was great to get a sense of how different wordings were actually received by outside ears and work on tweaking them until it represented me just right. I know, I know- this is all well and good, but who can afford a career coach? The best thing about Fundamentums WebClasses is that they only cost $99 for a 90-minute group coaching session, plus a short follow-up individual session. And, if you sign up for the Introduce Yourself class, you can use the code MUSE20 for an additional 20% off. However you go about doing it, consider at least giving a career coach a try. I have a hunch youll be pleasantly surprised. Photo of coaching diagram court esy of Shutterstock.

Facebook patents technology to predict whether youre rich or poor

facebook inc patents technology to predict whether youre rich or poorFacebook patents technology to predict whether youre rich or poorWe already know that Facebook is watching us very closely. Tracking our online activity on its social network and off of it, Facebook learns more about us each day, collecting data points about our age, location, gender, language spoken, field of study, school, ethnic affinity, income, and net worth, among many other factors, according to its ad targeting options.Now, with its new patent, Facebook is signaling that it wants to go one step further and make predictions about our socioeconomic class.Facebook patent seeks to determine anwenders socioeconomic classFiled in 2016 and published in February, the patent application calls its technology a SOCIOECONOMIC GROUP CLASSIFICATION BASED ON USER FEATURES. The patent said it aims to help third parties like advertisers increase awareness about products or services to online system users.By collecting and an alyzing datasets on a users travel history, internet usage, homeownership status, and the number of tech devices owned, the classification system makes predictions on Facebook users socioeconomic status.Do you trust Facebook with your user data?Although Facebook is known for its comprehensive consumer profile, it is also known for making flawed predictions with its datasets. The social media giants sophisticated ad targeting tool came under fire recently for how it was allegedly making decisions about its users job eligibility based on their age. The ProPublica-New York Times investigation found that employers like Amazon and Goldman Sachs were using Facebook to create recruitment ads that targeted only younger job seekers, excluding older job seekers from seeing them.Facebook vice president of ads Rob Goldman defended his company by saying that, age-based targeting for employment purposes is an accepted industry practice.Before we start dreaming up dystopian hierarchies of what Fac ebook feeds can do with socioeconomic status data, its important to recognize that a patent does not guarantee a technologys commercial release. This socioeconomic predictor tool may end up never being produced.Facebook said it files more than 1,000 patent applications every year. But this patent does serve as a signal as to the companys future. By pouring time and resources into patent20180032883, Facebook is signaling that it thinks it is appropriate to predict your social status - even if these predictions feel invasive or have the potential to be inaccurate.