On the QT Newsletter, A Great Beginning!
Attachment: Making Learning Relevant Activity
February 2, 2010

Did you know? The demand that majors translate into jobs is changing the college classroom. This interesting and insightful New York Times article, “Making College Relevant,” reports that students and parents alike are increasingly focused on how the information and skills students are learning in the college classroom will help them in the workplace. In response to these growing concerns as well as the new economic and global realities, many instructors are adjusting their curriculum to reflect the changing world. Taking the time to help students identify how classroom lessons relate to workplace success, will go a long way in helping students value what they are learning and make it more relevant to them. Today’s QT activity calls on students to review employers’ expectations and link these to your course curriculum.

Try This:

Ask students some questions.
What relationship do you see in the skills you are learning in college and those you need to succeed in the workplace?
What do you expect from this class?
How will this class help you in your career?

Distribute this “Make Learning More Relevant” activity, review the directions, and have students complete the assignment.
After they have finished, ask students to make 3 quick connections.

Turn to the person on your left and discuss responses to questions 1 & 2.
Collaborate with a classmate who is wearing the same color shirt or shoes, to share responses to questions 3 & 4.
Change again and partner with someone you do not know, to identify workplace skills you practiced in this activity.

Share responses about the value of this quick exercise.

Add an Experience: Encourage your students to connect your course to the workplace by attending a professional organization meeting, or a student chapter of a professional organization. In addition, identify and promote events on campus or in your community that link the subject matter in your course to careers. Dr. Kate Brooks, college instructor and author of You Majored in What?, tells students … The more places you go, the more people you meet, the more experiences you accumulate, the better prepared you will be for a variety of work situations. This semester, can you get your students out doing some wise wanderings?

Quik Quote: Not all who wander are lost. J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

On the QT Newsletter, Mentors Matter
Attachment: Mentoring Worksheet
December 1, 2009

Did you know? Research indicates that mentored individuals perform better on the job, advance more rapidly within the organization (i.e., get promoted more quickly and earn higher salaries), and report more job and career satisfaction. Eric Schmidt, CEO Google, cited "getting a mentor" as some of the best advice he ever received. Schmidt goes on to say that because we can’t see ourselves as others see us, we need mentors to give us perspective. In addition to workplace guidance, mentors can be particularly helpful when searching for an internship or a first job out of college. Regardless of where your students are on their career journey, just beginning or experienced professionals, discussing the advantages and logistics of getting a mentor offers them positive insight and resources in challenging times.

Try this:

If you had a positive mentoring experience, share this with your students.
Ask questions about mentoring to determine what your students already know.
What is a mentor? (experienced person willing to help guide and advise)
Why is a mentor important? (provide insight, perspective, contacts)
Where could you find a mentor? (through friends, social media connections like Linked In, school alumni)

View and discuss this (one-minute) How to Find a Mentor video with Jack Canfield.
Distribute the Mentoring Worksheet and give students a few minutes to complete.
Have students work in small groups to write and practice a short mentoring pitch with each other.
As a class, make a list of how/where students can find potential mentors.

Add an Experience: Don’t let them put it off. Ask students to make a mentoring contact and set up a mentoring meeting before the next class. Suggest that they use their mentoring worksheets and contact the person(s) they would like to have as a mentor, and to draw on their “mentoring pitches” to approach possible mentors. Remind them that even if their contact declines to be their mentor, and a few will, these candidates will be flattered they were asked. Finally, you may want to offer extra credit to students who complete this assignment and share their experience with the class.

Quik Quote: Successful people turn everyone who can help them into sometime mentors. John C. Crosby, The Uncommon Individual Foundation

On the QT Newsletter, Lost Generation?
Attachment: ROAD to Success
November 17, 2009

Did you know? While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can’t grab onto the first rung of the career ladder. With an unemployment rate of over 18%, 16 to 24 year olds are frustrated in their efforts to find jobs. Many of CCC students are discouraged and disheartened because they are unable to begin the careers they once enthusiastically pursued. While we know that in time the economy will improve and our workforce will flourish, instructors can enlighten and energize this forlorn group Business Week has dubbed “The Lost Generation.” By providing relevant career information and resources, offering creative career possibilities, and focusing on the value of persistence, instructors can reduce students’ fear and anxiety by encouraging and supporting them to take positive action steps to move forward on their career journeys. The activity outlined below is a good place to begin or extend the career conversation. It provides students with a simple tool to address and overcome obstacles that are keeping them from getting a “good” job. If you want to help your students get on the ROAD to success, try this quick and easy exercise.

Try this:
Share a frustrating job search experience you had and how you handled it.
Ask some questions.

With high unemployment, how are people finding jobs?
What obstacles are people running into in finding a job?
How are job hunters dealing with their job search frustrations?

Explain that you want to introduce them to a tool to help them tackle the obstacles or roadblocks that keep them from getting on their career path.
Distribute the ROAD to Success activity and have students work in small groups to discuss and respond to the three situations.
Come back together as a group and discuss some of their ideas.

Add an Experience: The “D” in ROAD urges students to develop partnerships to help them reach their goals and overcome obstacles. Author Richard Lieder contends that job seekers accomplish powerful goals and overcome obstacles by looking to others for advice and suggestions. Students can find great job resources and connections right on campus. This week encourage your students to make a connection with the career center to find out about the services they offer. In addition, suggest that they discuss obstacles that are keeping them from getting a job they want with several people they respect and trust. Ask them to share the outcome of these experiences at the next class.

Quik Quote: Obstacles don’t have to stop you … Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. Michael Jordan

On the QT Newsletter, Interview with a Ring
Attachment: Interview with a Ring
November 3, 2009

Did you know? When employers want to narrow a pool of job candidates, they frequently use phone interviews to screen applicants. In phone interviews since both parties are deprived of visual cues, interviewers must rely on how a person sounds to make important hiring decisions. According to Psychology Today, people can estimate a speaker’s height, weight, and age from a person’s voice as accurately as they can after viewing his/her photo. Consequently, within a few seconds of hearing a candidate’s voice, the interviewer has formed a mental picture of the job seeker. Since so much is riding on the sound of their voices, give your students an added advantage by helping them evaluate their sound and add energy and enthusiasm to their voices. After all, it is not so much what they say, but how they say it.

Try this:

• Explain that in today’s workplace, many employers are doing a telephone interview before inviting applicants in for a face-to-face interview.
  Has anyone experienced a phone interview? What was it like?
  What are some of the advantages to a phone interview?
  What are a few disadvantages to a phone interview?
• Have your class view this WSJ clip (3:45 minutes) “Acing a Phone Interview” and ask questions about tips from the video.
  Why should you look in a mirror? (reminds you to show emotion)
  What is a benefit of walking around during the interview? (adds energy to your sound)
  What are two things you want to avoid? (interrupting the interviewer and long responses)
• Distribute the activity Interview with a Ring. Explain that since so much depends on the sound of their voices, this activity will help them evaluate and improve their sound.
• After students complete the activity, come back together and discuss what they experienced.
• Suggest/assign the short online activity Interview with a Ring for additional tools and resources for successful phone interviews.

Add an Experience: A voicemail greeting tells job recruiters a lot about the communication savvy and sensitivity of a prospective candidate. Students often forget to pay attention to the little detail of how their voicemail message sounds when they start filling out job applications. Employers will definitely pay attention, though. If a voicemail message sounds unprofessional, recruiters will just hang up without leaving a message, and the job applicant will never get a chance to interview with them. Encourage your students to listen to their voice mail greetings and if they do not sound professional, to record a new one.

Quik Quote: Within 7 to 12 seconds of hearing us speak, people form lasting impressions about us … our capabilities, intelligences, even about how we look.
Susan Berkley, Voice Coach

When employers want to narrow a pool of job candidates, they use phone interviews to screen applicants. Phone interviews often feel overly casual and detached. Consequently, many job seekers fail to prepare and practice for these critical interviews. While it is highly unlikely that you will get a job from a phone interview, you will not be invited to a face-to-face interview unless you do well on the phone. Just click through the sites below, and in no time you’ll boost your phone performance.

Four-Minute Review
David Snell, an ABC news correspondent and communication coach, offers some great advice on How to Ace a Telephone Interview. Listen to what he has to say and then answer these questions on your lesson guide.

What is one advantage/disadvantage in a phone interview?
Why should you stand up?
How will looking in the mirror help you in your interview?

Four Opinions from Clemson
Clemson University’s Career Center has some interesting suggestions from four experienced career counselors. Each offers a unique perspective and advice for the phone interview. As you scan their suggestions, reflect on what they have to say. On your lesson guide, answer these questions.

Expert #1: Where should you do your phone interview?
Expert #2: How could you avoid doing a phone interview?
Expert #3: What should you say if you are asked about your salary expectations?
Expert #4: How should you prepare for the interview?

Four Sounds
Even though you shine on paper, within a few seconds of hearing your voice, the interviewer will form a mental picture of you. Your voice speaks volumes about you. So, to get a better idea of how you sound, record your practice answer to one of the questions you expect the interviewer to ask, then listen to yourself. Did you speak too fast or too slow? Is your pitch too high or too low? Is your voice volume too loud or too soft? Do you sound too nasal or too gruff? Read “What Your Voice Says About You” and get some quick fixes to improve your sound. On your guide, record how you feel about your voice and one thing you will do to improve your sound.

Four More Tips
The Interview Gurus offer tips on phone interviews. There are actually 10 tips they put forward and some of them you have come across before. However, look at what they have to say about what you should have on hand before the interview, why you should put a smile on your face, why you should not use your cell phone, and why what you wear matters. As you peruse their suggestions, think about four tips you would offer a friend who was preparing for a phone interview. On your lesson guide, write down the advice you would give a friend about his/her phone interview.

Within 7 to 12 seconds of hearing us speak, people form lasting impressions about us … our capabilities, intelligences, even about how we look.
Susan Berkley, Voice Coach