The Number One Tip You Need to Write Your College Entrance Essay

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man-1454744_1920Ahhh – the dog-days of summer! Nothing to do but chillax by the pool and soak up some rays.

Unless you’re a high school junior or senior. Then it’s time to work on college entrance essays.

Pop!  That’s the sound of your bubble bursting.

And not a minute too soon. These essays can’t be written at the last minute.

At least not if you expect a positive response.

The College Entrance Essay – also known as the Common Application Essay Prompt – is an opportunity to provide university administrators with a glimpse into who you are and why you, more than any other applicant, should be granted acceptance to their school.

It’s like an interview; a chance to charm them with your personality.

Except it’s all on paper.

No pressure, but it’s the only shot you have to win them over with your unique story; what makes you “you”.

The good news is, there’s only one you; you’re the only person who can share your unique perspective and thoughts with the reader.

This is not the time to be lazy and regurgitate facts found on your transcript.  They’ve got that information already. This is about you – your brand, if you will.

It’s also important to remember these dudes will be reading literally hundreds of essays. Grab their attention with an opening line that begs them to keep reading when they really want to take a nap.

It should go without saying typos, misspelled words, grammatical errors and the like will do more damage than you can imagine. Proof-read at least three times. Then do it again.

Even if you nail the above, you will still fall short if you fail at one critical task. It seems obvious, yet in my business as a Career Coach it’s something I see all the time.

The Number One Tip You Need to Write Your College Entrance Essay is:

Answer The Question.

Failing to answer the question is the number one issue I see when reviewing college entrance essays for clients.

All of the Common Application prompts follow a similar pattern:

First, the prompt asks applicants to describe a time/situation/obstacle/accomplishment/idea/topic/etc.

Second – and here’s where I see people fail – the writer is prompted to convey how the first part had an effect on him or her as a person. The tricky part is, the prompt may or may not ask this question directly.

The second part is the heart of the Common Application Prompt. Whether stated or not, it’s asking the writer: How did the situation you just described affect you?  Why did you bother to tell us about it? What impact did this have on your life, now and in the future?

Trust me when I tell you it doesn’t matter how well-written your essay is if it fails to answer the question.

Think of it this way: the first part of the essay – the description of the situation –  is setting the stage for your story, providing necessary background and supporting elements.

The second and most critical part of the essay is the outcome. There are many ways to answer depending on your particular story, and you’ll have to determine what works best for you. Think in terms of what you learned, significance, importance, any effect the situation had on you, etc.

 

Whatever your unique story, grab the readers’ attention and tell it with passion.  Above all, make sure your essay answers the question.

6 Things NOT to Expect from Your First Job

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startup-594090_1920Most of us have high expectations of our first job out of college. We create a vision of where this first job will take us, even creating timelines for achieving success.

Others share our visions of grandeur, with high-fives from friends and huge sighs of relief from parents who can finally claim they are now fiscally responsible for one less person.

It’s great to have a career vision and strategy; the problem is that often our expectations for our first job are unrealistic. We fail to think of what NOT to expect from our first job.

Not sure where this comes from; it may be a combination of information gathered from college career centers, professors, other students, social media, and even parents.  Add a bit of imagination, some hope and desires and you’ve got a recipe for disappointment.

Some will be quick to blame Millennials, as clearly they feel “entitled” and obviously are to blame for any misunderstanding of the work world. Not so fast; I’m pretty sure most of us were at least a tad bit disappointed by the ugly truth that was our first job.

If there’s blame to be placed, it’s on the rest of us who have gone before – including parents – for not setting the record straight.

This is for anyone who is about to graduate, or who has recently joined the workforce.

6 Things NOT to expect from your first job

  1. A Huge Salary. This is all relative. Many starting salaries today seem exorbitant to us career veterans who had to eat Ramen noodles with our starting salaries.  Yet I know better than to argue with a recent grad. The point is this is your first job; you have little to no skills yet that command a large salary.  Work hard, make yourself invaluable and the salary will follow.
  2. Quick Promotion. Somewhere it became popular to promise candidates a quick rise to the top, or at least the next level. Reality Check: The only thing you are promised at hiring is the job you are being hired for. Period. After that, the clock starts ticking again and you have to prove yourself to a company full of people that don’t know you.
  3. Praise for a Job Well Done. Parents of Millennials have done kids no favors here, encouraging them in all endeavors even if they performed terribly. It’s nice to be told “Good Job” at work, but it’s rare. It’s your job to do a good job; that’s why you were hired.  So don’t expect any special recognition for it.
  4. Control of your time. Others are counting on you at work, which means you are not able to come and go as you please 100% of the time.  Be considerate; arrive on time to morning meetings; stay late if necessary; possibly work weekends despite the fact that your friends are out on the town. Even your vacation needs to be taken with the consideration of your boss and teammates in mind. Someone has to be available in case of a crisis, right?
  5. Doing the Work vs. Reinventing the Wheel. Armed with a freshly minted degree, it may be difficult to understand why the company isn’t anxious to have you completely revamp the way it does business. Sometimes it’s best to listen and learn first, then once you’ve got a real understanding of how it works, make a suggestion based on experience.
  6. Your career will be defined by this job. Who came up with this? While your career will be influenced by EVERY job you have, you are not defined by your first job. If that were true, I would be an engineer, despite the fact that I’ve had a successful career in marketing and PR, and am now a Certified Professional Career Coach.  Don’t put this pressure on yourself. Accept your first job; work hard at it; learn from it – the good and the bad – and apply those learnings to your next opportunity.

It’s okay to have high expectations. Just try to avoid unrealistic expectations that may lead to disappointment.

Dig in to your first job. Learn from it. Grow.

 

Show Don’t Tell: Interview Advice for Students

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Despite the snow and ice from the Siberian Express, technically its spring and college students are in full interview mode. Some are looking for summer internships while those ready for graduation are seeking full-time employment.

Because of this my phone and email are buzzing constantly with students seeking interview advice.

Biggest question I’ve gotten so far involves responding to the inevitable, “Tell me about yourself.”

So simple, yet complex at the same time, and something that so many stumble on.

The solution? We practice as if I was the interviewer. I ask the students to show me what they’ve got.

Responses include a variety of descriptive words that, in the students’ mind, give the interviewer a good picture of who they are.   I call them “fluffy” words. 

Fluffy words include “Determined”, “dedicated”, “detail-oriented”, “leader”, “passionate”, “risk-taker”, and “driven”.  The list is endless.

While these words may actually be true about the candidate, they don’t really help.  The interview needs to see the concept in action, not just hear the words.

What the interviewer needs is a good old-fashioned grade-school style “show and tell”.

I’m sure you remember show-and-tell.  It was fun to hear about Billy’s vacation to SeaWorld and that he was chosen to feed the dolphins.  But it became more impressive when he pulled out the framed photo of him standing on a platform with the trainer in front of the entire crowd with the dolphin in mid-air grabbing the fish from his hand.

The conviction or proof of your words is in the story that surrounds them. 

My favorite uncle was a real character (doesn’t everyone have such a relative?) who was the ultimate salesman.  He could sell ice to an Eskimo living in an igloo.

He was also a charmer who never met a stranger.  He would tell people that he was the Lone Ranger; it was his opening line.  Once he had their attention, he would prove his identity by pulling a silver bullet out of his pocket.  That was the Lone Ranger’s calling card; he always carried a silver bullet.

Just to be clear, my uncle was not the “real” Lone Ranger, despite carrying a silver bullet in his pocket.  In the world of sales, where building an honest relationship is important, this was his way of proving that he could be trusted.  “I told you I could prove I was the Lone Ranger with a silver bullet and I did”.

My advice to the students is to show the interviewer what they are capable of through short stories about their work.

Show how they are leaders: “As president of the engineering society, I managed an annual budget of $10,000 and led the direction of the student-run board, including decisions on fund raising, social activities, and hiring speakers.”

Sounds much better than “I am a proven leader on campus”.

The interviewer needs to understand what we’ve done; they want to see our fun vacation photos or see the proof that we’re the Lone Ranger.

Remember to show your experience to the interview. Don’t just tell it with fluffy words.

Random Acts of Mentoring

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Airports and air travel fascinate me.  First, I’m still thrilled to get on a plane.  The fun of going away to see something different has not diminished, even though I have to undress in the security line to get to the gate.

Then there’s people watching.  Airports are THE BEST for this!  Viewing the fashion statements is enough to keep me occupied for hours, with everything from tuxedos to tank tops.

Most recently I had the “privilege” of seeing a woman dressed as Batman (or should I say “Batwoman”) including the cape.  No, it was not Halloween.  She even carried a colorful posterboard sign that said, “Ka-Pow!” which she would hold in front of people’s faces and shout the words.  Fun to watch, but sadly she sat behind me on the flight and Ka-Pow got old after the first time.

As I was standing in the airport terminal at my gate, I was mesmerized by the orchestration of planes, people and luggage.  Like a well-oiled machine planes came in, refueled, loaded/unloaded people and baggage, and take off again.

Okay, sometimes the system isn’t perfect – planes are delayed and luggage decides to go to a different destination – but it really is phenomenal that this is happening day-in and day-out, all over the world.

Wonder what the Wright brothers would think if they could see this?  Did they ever imagine that their one flight – in front of naysayers – would eventually turn into a world-wide travel system that we completely take for granted?

You never know exactly how your actions might impact someone else.  Your passion could make a difference to one person, a group, a neighborhood or the world.  Who knows?

And you may not actually see the impact.  But you have to know and believe that it’s there. If you’re lucky you might see a glimpse of it. Hopefully those you impact will understand the value and make an impact of their own.

We don’t need to be as innovative as the Wright brothers to leave a legacy; simply find something that interests you.  It could be a passion for science and research that allows you to work towards a cure for a disease; a love of animals could turn into a pet-related service or business; volunteering anywhere provides much-needed resources.

For me, my passions are many, but there is one that stands tall above the rest – mentoring. Particularly college students about to embark on their careers.

As a mentor, my goal is to listen first, then share my experience to help the students on their career journey.  I’ m passionate about it for several reasons, mainly because a mentor is something I wish I’d had.  It would have been great to have had access to an experienced mentor working in my field of interest when I was in school and throughout my career.

The students I’ve met are seriously smart, courteous, engaging and fun to be with.  They actually think my career is cool, or awesome, or whatever it is kids say nowadays.  I don’t have all the answers to their questions and am not there to solve problems, but to guide them to success. Together we talk and strategize and come up with a possible plan of action.

My mentees know they can call me with any question and I’ll give them a straight-forward answer. Even if it’s one they don’t want to hear.

I’m luckier than the Wright brothers. While I may not impact the entire world, I get a sneak peek at the impact I’m making, one student at a time.  And I love it.

Robe Envy

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There had to be 1,500 robes walking solemnly into the ceremony. The arena was hushed as parents, relatives and friends watched the procession.  Occasionally a camera flash pierced the silence.  One by one, the robes took their place and the ceremony began.  This would be one of five such ceremonies over two days.  Yikes; that’s a lot of robes.
My niece was in one of those robes. It was her college commencement.  Hard to believe she’s old enough to graduate from college, and with a degree that is way more difficult than mine.  I could tell from the dangling cords decorating her robe that she was a member of an honor society.  Something I never achieved during my collegiate years.
With six nieces and nephews, Hubby and I will be attending many commencement ceremonies over the next 15 years. That’s a lot of robes; many heartfelt commencement speeches by dignitaries; a lot of listening to “pomp and circumstance”. Wonder if we could get Aerosmith to play at one of these things? Sure would be different.
I loved watching the doctorate candidates, followed by masters and then bachelors, each in a robe.  It was then that I discovered I have robe-envy.  Sure, I have the masters and bachelors robes.  But I want the fancy robe, the one with the velvet trim and colored hood that comes with obtaining a PHD.  Since I have no aspirations to become a professor, the degree would have little significance for my career and wouldn’t lead to more money.  I just want to say I achieved the feat.  It would be fun to have my friends call me “doctor”.  And the robe itself is beyond coolness.
Honestly, I just want the recognition that comes with working hard to achieve a goal.  And to hear someone cheering for me.  That’s not too much to ask, is it?  Hubby says I should go for the robe and the PHD that goes with it, if I want to.  Still contemplating the idea of going back to school.  It’s been a while since I wrote an academic paper.  The idea of research makes me a bit nauseous.  Of course I guess it might be easier nowadays, with the Internet. No more nights at the library trying to figure out the Dewy Decimal System simply to get a book that turned out to be less than good.  I’m still mad at that Dewy guy.  And all that reading!  If it’s not a romance novel or People magazine, I’m not too interested any more. 
Still, the lure of the robe is tempting. The feeling of accomplishment that comes with achieving a goal. And the recognition from others that I did it.  I made it. My hard work paid off.  Recognition like this is rarely seen once you enter the work force.  If you’ve ever been laid off, you know that getting recognition for your work – no matter how small – is really valued. And missed when you’re without a job.
So yes, I’m considering the possibility – however remote – of attempting to get the fancy robe. 
In the meantime, I’ll have to settle for the recognition that comes with working hard and that my years of experience are valuable.  I may bling-out my bathrobe until I can get the fancy robe.  Go ahead and be jealous. Robe-envy is hard to shake.
© Tami Cannizzaro 2012 All Rights Reserved