Articles
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD) refer to a group of related conditions in
which kids, and sometimes adults,
have trouble staying focused, fidget a lot, and tend to jump from one thing
to another. These students struggle in school because of
the need to sit and listen
quietly to the teacher, get assignments done, and prepare for exams.
If you suspect that your child may have ADD or ADHD, he or
she should be tested by a clinical psychologist, a psychiatrist,
or a developmental /behavioral
pediatrician to confirm the diagnosis. The standard treatment is either
behavioral modification
therapy (counseling and related techniques), such as may be conducted by
a psychologist, or drug therapy, as may be implemented by
a psychiatrist, with
such drugs as
Adderall (amphetamine) or Ritalin (methylphenidate), which are central
nervous system stimulants, but which seem to help children
cope with the disorder and
stay focused.
ADD and ADHD are mainly medical illnesses. However, in my fifteen
years as an educator and academic tutor, I have seen many
borderline cases, kids
that,
if
given the appropriate environmental stimuli at the right times, might
have avoided the problem altogether.
Heading It Off at the Pass
Why is it that so many children are now diagnosed with ADD?
Such a condition was uncommon back in the day. What’s the story? Well partly the observed
trend may be due to increased diagnosis, as doctors are more likely to make
a diagnosis of ADD if it is considered a common medical condition. But are
there
other factors that have led to an increase in actual prevalence of the condition,
rather than just increased diagnosis?
School and academic objectives are focused on long-term gratification.
Often times, the significance of grades is not brought home until
a student is
rejected by his first choice college, can’t get in to graduate or professional school,
or can’t find a job that he wants or that pays enough. It is true that
a parent can make academic success more concrete by tying grades to a system
of carrots and sticks, but other than that, grades remain pretty abstract. Some
students seem to be naturally motivated to keep up good grades; others don’t
seem to care too much.
Let’s compare academics to other influences that may be competing for a
student’s time and attention: video games, television, internet, instant
messaging, cell phone text messaging, ipods, and boyfriends or girlfriends. All
of these other ways that students can spend their time have an advantage over
academic pursuits: they offer instant gratification. Because children are often
exposed to these instant gratification inputs during critical brain developmental
phases of their lives, children’s brains become hard-wired for instant
gratification, possibly in the brain’s reward center, the limbic system.
In this educator’s opinion, another name for being hard-wired for instant
gratification is the medical diagnosis of ADD or ADHD. A study published
in the New York Times (www.nytimes.com) seems to support this assessment.
Two
groups
of toddlers were studied for language development skills: one group interacted
with people and practiced saying words, and the other group spent an equivalent
amount of time watching the Baby Einstein educational DVD. It was found that
the babies who watched the DVDs had developed language skills less advanced
than those babies who interacted with adults practicing speaking words. So
if your
child is or could become ADD, what should you do to sidestep this problem?
Mainly, get rid of the garbage, the software, the DVDs, the
TV, and the internet and start interacting with your toddler,
reading
books,
and
providing stimulating
play environments that encourage exploration and discovery.
Get your kids involved in activities that require discipline
and
focus as
early as possible.
Reading,
playing sports, especially with a competitive bent as opposed
to just running around, learning musical instruments, doing
regular chores,
building things,
taking care of a garden, working outside with a parent, taking
care of a garden, and learning languages are great examples
of things
that children
should begin
to do as early in life as possible. What these activities have
in common is that they all involve delayed gratification: the
idea
that
if you
want to do
something
well and get real enjoyment out of it, you have to work at
it; success does not just happen instantaneously. Great violinists
are not born
great violinists.
Also, for kids who are primarily hyperactive, it is especially
important to channel
their abundant energy in constructive ways by getting them
involved
in intense physical activities, in which they can release some
of that excess
energy.
In most families, it is very likely that kids will spend at
least some time on the previously mentioned distracters,
such as the
instant messaging
and
TV. So
what is a parent to do? First, try to delay introduction
of these distracters into your child’s life as long as possible. Second, put time limits on
the distracters, or make your children balance time spent with distracters with
time spent constructively engaged in the positive activities previously mentioned.
Third, put content limits on the distracters, as not all distracters are equally
troublesome; a child who discovers pornography on the internet is much more likely
to run into addiction and time loss issues than that one who watches Gilligan’s
Island on Nick-at-Nite. This may mean installing internet monitoring software
such as Net Nanny or Surfwatch. Fourth, put the distracters into the category
of a privilege to be earned rather than an automatic right; students who are
not performing up to their capabilities should lose these privileges, until their
performance improves. Fifth, allow the student time with distracters only after
they have completed what they are supposed to do. This means that you as a parent
need to know what is happening with your kids’ academics so that you can
monitor their task completion. Of course, children who lack motivation need more
monitoring than those who are highly self-motivated. Finally, keep in mind that
distracters can be in the form of people just as much as technology. Before your
send your child away for that weekend sleepover, ask yourself the question: “Would
I be happy if my child were to become more like their friend ________?” because,
whether you like it or not, that will be the effect of your child spending time
with that friend. Help your son or daughter cultivate friendships with people
whose values are the same as your own, and exercise your veto power when it comes
to their friends who do not share your values. Relative to ADD and ADHD, there
is nothing worse for an ADD student than putting them in the company of friends
who are also ADD. Each person reinforces the other’s inappropriate
behavior, worsening the condition for everyone. So help your son or daughter
to achieve
academic success by encouraging relationships with high achievers. If you
put these recommended techniques into practice, it does not guarantee that
that
your son or daughter will never develop ADD; however, it does decrease the
likelihood
that, if he or she is a borderline case, he or she will develop full-blown
ADD with all of its concomitant costs.
Addictions to Technology
Does your student (son or daughter) spend hours on the computer
doing who knows what while his or her grades suffer? He may
be addicted to technology. Technology addiction is a serious
problem which can greatly hamper a person’s chance
of academic success. Technology addiction usually comes in
specific
forms. Common technology addictions include gaming, instant
messaging, text messaging, downloading pornographic materials,
watching movies, watching TV, watching online videos, and
surfing the internet.
What are the tell-tale signs of a technology addiction? They
include one or more of the following:
- Spending hours a day on the computer, cell
phone or TV, while doing poorly in school
- Staying up late on the computer every night, leading to
daytime sleepiness, while accomplishing little
- Not interacting with real people as part of a normal,
healthy social life
- Loneliness and depression
- Having pain in or both hands and arms from repetitive
motions on the computer
- Engaging in evasive conduct, such as placing one’s computer at an angle
where it cannot be easily viewed by another from behind, locking the door to
the student’s bedroom, taking a long time to answer the door,
or having a quick rush of activity on the keyboard when the parent
comes in, as the student
tries to conceal what he or her is doing on the computer
- Poor grades, below what the student is capable of
- Receiving reports from the student’s teachers that homework
is not being completed
- Being unable to do anything, such as have a normal
conversation, without the student continuously text
messaging from his
cell phone
If these signs sound all too familiar, there is a good chance
that your student has a technology addiction. Bring the issue
to the student’s attention.
Have a heart to heart discussion with them, raising your concerns. There is
a good chance that even if they do have a problem, they will deny it. Be ready
to offer evidence to support your contention, such as low grades, reports from
teachers of sleeping in class, difficulty in getting up in the morning, having
incomplete work, failure to complete home chores, failure to maintain adequate
hygiene and appearance, having an unusually messy room, engaging in evasive
behavior,
and/or evidence of intentional deception. If he denies that there is a problem,
it may be that he is correct, or it may be that he is in denial himself, or
that he or she knows there is problem but does not want to admit it.
Professional assistance may be required to help them overcome
the condition. This may include counseling, medication, behavioral
intervention, or
some combination thereof. In any event, ensure that you are not enabling
the
condition by doing
nothing. Here are some ideas to help you as the parent to help your
student to overcome this pathological condition:
- Set strict time limits for computer or
other technology usage
- Place the computer in a public area
where usage can be strictly monitored
- Place the computer screen facing the open part of the
room, so that material on the screen can be easily viewed
from behind
- Buy inappropriate content-blocking software such as
Net Nanny or Surfwatch that can be used to prevent access
to
inappropriate internet
sites
- Have an open door policy or no knock policy during the
times in which the student has internet access
- If the student’s computer is located in the bedroom, place
the computer table facing the back of the room so that the screen
can be viewed from behind
at all times
- Tie use of the computer, cell phone, or other technology
to certain benchmarks, such as maintaining a minimum
GPA, and follow
through
on threats if the
student does not meet the stated benchmarks within the
stated time period
- If the student claims to need the computer for a school
assignment, have an older sibling, parent or academic
tutor work with them
on the assignment
to ensure
appropriate use of the computer
- Periodically do random checks of the sites visited
link from the View History button on Internet Explorer.
(It
looks like
a circular
arrow.)
If these interventions do not seem to be working, set up a
consultation with a qualified professional who has specialized
training/experience
in child
development and addiction. Have the student evaluated for technology
addiction, and then
follow the expert’s recommendations to help the student overcome his
or her addiction.
Hopefully, you will never have to deal with technology addiction
with your son or daughter. But if the signs listed above sound
only too
familiar, there is
a good chance that your son or daughter is addicted to technology
and needs
professional assistance. Take affirmative actions to nip this
problem in the bud. Don’t
simply float along, because the longer you wait to intervene, the harder the
problem will be to solve. Act as quickly as possible, and the problem can likely
be solved before too much damage has been done.
Goal Setting and Metrics
We all need goals to give ourselves something to shoot for. How can we determine
if our goals are, in the first place, attainable, and secondly, whether we
are on track to attaining them? If we find out we are behind schedule or not
on track to successful attainment, how do we close the gap? Or if the goal
is unrealistic, at what point do we know to reformulate our goals?
One way to determine whether our goals are attainable is through
testing. We can be tested to tell us what we are naturally
good at, and what we are
naturally
weaker at. Being weak in a subject area, such as math, doesn’t mean that
it is not attainable, but it may require more hard work than someone who is
naturally skilled at it. Usually, but not always, people enjoy what they are
good at, and
enjoy less what does not come easily to them.
So let’s say that you know your goal, maybe say to become a doctor. Now
the question is, how do you know whether you are cut out for the field and on
track to attainment? Work backwards. Look at the characteristics of successful
candidates in your field. They don’t faint at the sight of blood. They
can handle pressure. They don’t mind working really hard for a really long
time. They have high GPAs. They are skilled in math and science, and mostly have
good people skills. If you don’t have those characteristics, maybe you
are not cut out for the field.
Suppose you hope to attend an elite Ivy League school. Now
GPAs need to be close to a perfect 4.0, and test scores need
to be in the 95th percentile
and above.
If you are a student with ambitions for admission to such a highly competitive
school, and you are falling short, what should you do? First of all,
don’t
let things get out of hand. Address the shortfalls as quickly as possible.
Use your teachers as a resource by attending their office hours and coming
prepared
with questions. Consider hiring a well-qualified, respected tutoring firm,
such as Logos Tutoring, to get back on track. Plan on increasing your study
time by
as much as 50%. Minimize distracters by turning off your phone, instant messaging,
television, games and other interferences during your study time. In other
words, keep your work time and play time separate. If you keep at the program,
you should
expect to see some improvement in 2-3 weeks.
Finally, keep in mind that, for many of us, even 110% is not
going to be enough to get admitted into that highly competitive
Ivy League school.
The number
of highly qualified candidates is simply much greater than the number
of
available seats. All you can do is do your best and optimize your performance
using all
available assets, and after that, fell good about the fact that you
gave your best efforts. If you are borderline, hedge your
bets by considering
a first
choice
option and two or three backup plans. That way you still have opportunities
available if your first choice option doesn’t pan out.
Once you have given your best efforts and optimized your resources,
if you are still not on track to your goal, it may be time to reformulate
your goal.
Maybe
instead of shooting for that Ivy League school, aim for a good state
university. Maybe instead of medicine, a career as a nurse might
be more
realistic,
yet still fulfilling. By resetting your sights on goals that are
realistic, you
will avoid
the inevitable disappointment that will come later. Don’t give up on your
dreams. Just don’t forget the connection between your dreams and what
you are doing now to get there.
How to Develop Good Study Habits
The greatest Greek philosopher, Aristotle, said, “We are
what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a
habit.” For students who do not have good study habits,
what should be done?
Create a ritual
A ritual is something that someone does repeatedly. For a tennis
player, before a player serves the ball, he may bounce the ball
a few times to help him focus.
This allows him to hone his mind for what he is about to do. Good study habits
require a ritual as well.
What would be an example of a ritual involving good study habits?
Here is a scenario. A student gets home from school at 3 PM.
He has an hour
to do
whatever
he wants:
watch TV, call his friends, instant message, check email or surf the
web. Then he has one hour to exercise; any type of exercise
is fine. He is done
with
his non-academic time by 5 PM. He comes home, takes a shower, and eats
dinner. It’s
now 6 PM. He has had some fun, blown off some steam, gotten cleaned up and had
a good dinner. From 6-9 could be study time. No cell phones. No TV. No IM. No
internet, except for research purposes, which is cleared ahead of time with the
parent. Absolutely no distractions. If he finishes all his homework before 9,
he can read ahead for his hardest classes. If he’s not done with
his work by 9 PM, he can use some flex time to work past 9 PM and still
get enough
sleep.
At or soon after 9 PM, he can start getting ready for bed, winding down
his activities and giving his brain a rest before getting to bed and falling
sleep.
That leaves
8-10 hours of good sleep time so that he can be alert and awake for his
next school day.
Is this the only study ritual that can work? Absolutely not.
It’s
just an example. Some people do their best work first thing in the morning.
For
such a student, it may make better sense to get up early at 5AM every day
to study.
The specifics are not important; what is important is that the student
has a study ritual and follows it religiously. This will allow each student
to
reach
his maximum potential.
What if the student does not want to follow a study ritual? Before
getting locked into a battle of wills, examine the student’s potential and his actual
performance. If the student is performing up to his potential, then there is
no need to change his study patterns. Certain individuals may work well using
a free-form study method, studying intensely as needed but without following
a set study ritual. This is somewhat unusual, but not necessarily indicative
of a problem. If you are not sure whether your student is performing up to his
or her potential, have the student tested by a clinical psychologist trained
in administering IQ tests, and determine a plan of action after the test results
come in from the trained expert. Show the clinical psychologist your son or daughter’s
grades and ask him whether your student is working up to his or her potential.
If the student is not performing up to his potential, then a system of
carrots and sticks needs to be implemented. Offer incentives for your student
to adopt
and follow a study plan, and throw in some progressive penalties (sticks)
if the student fails to make measurable changes.
Also, calling and emailing your student’s teachers and getting frequent
progress reports are essential. Red flags include not turning in homework, turning
in incomplete homework, or completing work in a sloppy or careless manner. Such
actions are not indicators of a student who is trying to do his best but struggling
in the execution, but rather of a student who does not care about whether he
or she does his or her part. If the student is not on task, privileges need to
be slowly taken away, one a time, until the student gets back on track. When
the student finds out that he is going to lose his phone, his weekend privileges
with his friends, and/or his internet access, he will begin to care about making
a good faith contribution. Once the student’s performance improves,
his privileges should be slowly returned in a measured manner, one a time.
Treating a child like royalty when he is shirking his academic
responsibilities is irresponsible; as a parent, you become
an enabler to your child’s
lack of discipline and/or laziness. The longer a parent waits to intercede
in a situation
where the student is not using effective study habits, the harder it becomes
to overcome this situation later. By the time a student fails all of his
classes in his first semester in college because he had not previously
acquired good
study habits, it may be too late to take corrective action. In any event,
that black mark on his transcript will not be helpful to his future success,
even
if he does pull up his grades at a later time. Therefore, it is imperative
that a parent take action at the earliest possible time. If the parent
follows the
recommended protocol, the parent will have the best chance of keeping the
student on track before it is too late.
Landing Your First Job (or Your Next!)
OK, you’ve worked hard and gotten through four years of
a challenging college education. You’ve heard rumors
of a competitive job market, and you want to know how to maximize
your chances of landing that sweet job right out of college,
so that you can put that four years of learning to good use
and
start paying off those ugly student loans. But how to do it?
That is the question.
Believe it or not, the process of landing that first job starts
well before you walk the stage and get handed that fancy
piece of paper. In fact, it starts as
soon as you begin your college degree. That is because the single most important
predictor of employability upon graduation is grades in college, although
other factors include the number of job opportunities in
your field and your alma mater.
The second best predictor of employability upon graduation is experience
in the field. That means that the sooner you get your feet
wet in the industry, the
better chance you have of finding a job upon graduation. So then the question
becomes, how do you get your feet wet in a given industry?
A good place to start is your school’s Career Development office. (It may
have a different name at your school, and it may be a part of your “college-within-a-college”,
such as the Jones College of Engineering, rather than in a centralized office.)
The main function of the Career Development office is to help graduating students
find jobs. They also are supposed to help undergraduates find summer internships,
externships and volunteer positions. So instead of relaxing on the beach all
summer, your mission, if you are serious about landing a competitive position
right upon graduation, is to find a summer internship in your field, and work
there, in a paid or volunteer capacity. Keep your internship goals realistic.
Certain job descriptions require specific academic credentials, so if you don’t
have them yet, it is probably not worth your time to apply for such a position.
However, it may be worth it to start working on attaining qualifications that
you identify on several job postings relevant to your industry. Also, don’t
over-state your intentions for the job; if you are applying for a summer-only
position, don’t fill out applications for full-time, permanent positions.
If you get hired, later on when you depart you will burn your bridges with
that employer.
Another good resource besides your school’s Career Development office
is connections through your family, friends, or professors with whom you have
rapport.
Certainly the easiest door in to an industry is family connections; if you
have them, use them!
If you’ve hit dead ends so far, try internet job posting sites such as
monster.com. Focus on jobs in your industry that are labeled as “intern” positions,
or have a statement of “No experience required” attached to the posting.
This is usually done by companies who want to save some pennies by hiring newbies
and then providing the training themselves. A caveat is that if you get hired
by such an operation and things don’t seem to be quite right, such as a
company that seems to cut corners on safety, is engaged in sketchy business practices,
or doesn’t seem to want to do the correct paperwork for their employees,
run away as fast as you can!
If you have tried all of the above and have struck out, temporarily
surrender your expectation of getting a paid position, and focus
on attaining a
volunteer position. People like free stuff, and companies are no
exception. There
are still two reasons why a company may not want to hire you even
if you come
at no cost:
they think you will gunk up the works, or they are concerned that
you will expose them to legal liability. If your desired
career/position
is one
that involves
high stakes, such as in the field of law or engineering, if you do
get hired as a volunteer, you will not be doing anything significant
for
quite some
time. So does that mean volunteering is a waste of time? Absolutely
not. For one
thing, it looks good on your resume or curriculum vitae (CV). Secondly,
you can look
at your volunteer position as an opportunity to shine. The surest
way to turn your volunteer position into a paid position
is to make yourself
indispensable.
Offer to do the jobs that no one else wants, do them with a cheerful
and upbeat
attitude, and work as hard as you possibly can at them. Initially,
you should expect to do the least desirable and/or the most brainless
jobs.
But if you
do a great job with those assignments and have a good attitude, you
will be given
a little more responsibility, often with greater challenges involved.
Each assignment that you complete correctly and on schedule will
give your boss
more confidence
in giving you more important assignments. You begin to transition
from being totally expendable to being a highly valued member
of the team.
What often
happens in such cases is that after you complete your volunteer internship,
the company
has become so dependant on you and your contributions that they offer
you a paid position. Voila, you have turned “nothing” into something.
Another matter to consider is your resume. (**Insert hyperlink
to article on resumes.) Standard format is one page and should
only
exceed that
in rare instances,
such as where enormous diversity is relevant to a particular position.
Rather than following a chronological order, instead order by relevance
and weight.
If you were a CEO before you ended up in a lower position, list
your CEO title first. Most companies scan resumes electronically
before
they are
ever seen by
a real person, and they are likely to look for buzzwords relevant
to the position. For example, if the job is in biotech and involves
recombinant
DNA technology,
they will be looking for those keywords on your resume. Words like
led, initiated, coordinated, participated, founded, and the like
are better
than a bunch
of words quoted from your last job descriptions. Focus on specific
accomplishments from
your previous assignments.
If you have tried all of the above and haven’t hit pay dirt, consider
a job as a consultant. All you need to do is figure out what you know how to
do,
get some business cards made up at the local copy shop, get some fliers made
up advertising your services, and post them at strategic locations, such as
coffee shops, bookstores and/or wherever you think your customers will be.
Before you
know it, your phone will be ringing off the hook with business. Finally, if
nothing at all pans out, it may be time to reset your goals and aspirations
to something
more realistic, or consider going back to school for additional training, credentials,
or certificates. Happy hunting!
Staying Balanced
Having a student who is a “workaholic” sounds like a dream come true.
Is it possible, though, to have a student who is too focused on academics? The
short answer is an emphatic “Yes.”
There are two primary reasons to try to balance academic work
with other activities: pragmatism and enjoyment of life.
On the issue of pragmatism, the fact is that
admission to competitive programs at every educational level favors people who
are well-balanced over those who are more one dimensional. For two applicants
to medical school with the same grades and MCAT scores, the one who has the more
diverse hobbies, interests, extracurricular activities, and volunteer work will
have a better chance of acceptance than one who has focused exclusively on academics.
As to the second reason, enjoyment of life, this refers to
the fact that someone who is over-focused on academics to
the exclusion of an active social life, volunteer
work and extracurricular activities, generally speaking, will not live as fulfilling
and happy a life as someone who is more well-balanced. Forging strong relationships
with others and having hobbies and interests one is passionate about are key
elements to a happy life. What is the value of a perfect 4.0 GPA if it is achieved
at the cost of quality relationships and a happy life? As the Good Book says, “There
is an appointed time for everything” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). So it is with
academics and the rest of life.
Thus, we see that there are both pragmatic and quality of life
reasons to develop relationships and interests outside of
the strict scope of academia. Even in
the school setting, as opposed to the work setting, the “workaholic” phenomenon
can be a real cause for concern. If your student seems to fit this profile, sit
down ands talk to them and communicate your concerns. See if they would be interested
in starting some new extracurricular activities, such as taking up a new sport
or instrument, joining some clubs such as Outward Bound, doing volunteer work
for a service organization such as Doctors without Borders or Habitat for Humanity,
joining church-related youth groups, or the like. Encourage him to spend time
with appropriate friends, go to age-appropriate movies, have supervised sleepovers,
go out to appropriate entertainment venues, and so on. It may sound a little
funny to encourage your straight-A student to pursue such activities, but for
individuals who are over-focused on academia to the exclusion of other things,
this may be a good idea.
Success in school does not exist in isolation from happiness
in life. Forming well-balanced, psychologically integrated
individuals is certainly no less important
than having a 4.0 GPA and a perfect 2400 SAT score. Everything comes down to
finding a happy medium for a well balanced life. The Good Book, as one would
expect, got it right.
Writing a Curriculum Vitae (CV)
A curriculum vitae (CV), literally the “race of life,” is a
document similar to a resume, but more detailed. It has several components:
contact information;
personal information; employment history; education; professional qualifications;
certificates and licenses; honors and awards; publications; books; professional/academic
memberships; and interests. It is slightly more academically focused than a
resume, and thus is frequently used in academia. Students requesting letters
of recommendation
from professors should submit a CV to the letter writer. In order to write
an effective CV, it is helpful to keep a file to keep track of your accomplishments.
In the Contact Information section, all relevant contact information should
be included, including name, home and work address, home and office telephone,
cell
phone and email information. Personal information should include date of
birth, place of birth, citizenship and VISA status, if relevant. Employment
history
should generally be in reverse chronological order, with position details
and dates. It can be broken up into work history, academic teaching positions,
and
research and training. Education should be limited to undergraduate, graduate,
postgraduate and postdoctoral training. Professional qualifications should
include certifications, accreditations and technical skills, such as
software familiarity
and technical prowess. Certificates and licenses should include the date
and status (active or inactive). Honors and awards can include any academic
or professional
awards, including military service, if applicable. Publications should be
identified as peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed, and those submitted
for publication as
opposed to those accepted for publication, or already published. Electronic
publications can be included. Presentations, abstracts, and exhibits
can also be included
here. Grants may also be cited. Professional and academic memberships can
also include committee membership and titles.
In general, the CV should be updated regularly to include the most relevant
and pertinent information. It should be comprehensive, but also clearly
written and
concise. The focus should be on skills rather than just work and job descriptions.
The font should be clear and readable. Pages should be consecutively numbered,
and headers and footers with name and page numbers should be included.
All citations should be accurate and complete. Have someone else, such
as a colleague
or a
consultant, review your CV for errors. When the CV is used in an institutional
application, any gaps in employment history should be able to be explained
by the applicant in the interview. Review your CV carefully before interviewing;
an interviewer can ask about anything on there. A one page letter of intent
should
accompany the CV, which should be carefully prepared. In general, it is
not a good idea to use special effects or fancy fonts. And it is not
a good idea
to
exaggerate, as it will cause the applicant to lose credibility with the
interviewer and the institution.
If you follow all of these pointers on effective CV writing, you will be
on track to getting that coveted academic appointment!
Writing a Resume
Everyone knows that having an effective resume is an important
aspect of getting the big interview. What are the keys for
a successful resume?
The first one is to figure out what kind of job position
you want. If you don’t
know what you want, then it’s kind of hard to figure out how to get there,
right? Once you know what your career objective is, it becomes easier to tailor
your resume to that career objective. If you are applying in more than one field,
write a separate resume for each industry/job title. Once you’ve identified
your objective, ask yourself what are the keys to attaining such a position.
This can include relevant training and education, and also may include job
experience. For example, if you are applying for a position as a senior engineer,
this may
require several years of job experience in this field. You need to fit your
experience and qualifications to the job you are applying for. That means a
combination
of getting the training and experience relevant to your desired position, and
listing the relevant information on your resume.
The next thing that you need to determine is whether you want to
use a functional resume format (sometimes called a skills resume)
or a chronological format.
In a functional resume, work history is organized by relevance and skills
instead
of chronology. Most resumes will follow the chronological approach, in
which positions are cited in reverse chronological order. However,
there are several
reasons why one might want to use a functional approach: changing careers;
moving into or back into the workforce; present unemployment; job hopping;
temp and
contract work; or having significantly more impressive past positions than
present. The functional resume helps show how prior work/educational background
is relevant
for the present job the applicant seeks. After career info, educational
background should be included. This section will be longer for
recent grads, including
internships and educational awards, and shorter for those with extensive
work experience.
What are the essential elements that must go in any resume? The header
should include a full name and all relevant contact information, including
email
and cell phone contacts. There should be a career objective stated, showing
how your
skills relate to the job you are seeking, and a summary of qualifications,
explaining, if applicable, why you are switching careers or re-entering
the workforce. Employment
history by date or relevance is also a requirement, as well as educational
background. (Education should go first for recent grads.) A section on
skills is also a good
idea, including certifications, software experience, professional memberships,
foreign languages, public speaking experience, and the like.
Resume formatting should be simple, with minimal use of underlining,
all caps, italics and bolded text, and no gimmicks such as graphics
or shadowed
text should
be used. One page is a standard length, but a resume may be longer
for extensive work experience or when relevant to the industry.
Helpful Hints
- Short and sweet- hit your high points and move on. Don’t
repeat yourself.
- Trade places with your reader. If you were hiring for a particular position,
what would you look for in a candidate?
- Use bullets with keywords and buzzwords from the industry and the job
posting rather than long paragraphs.
- Use strong verbs that show you are a go-getter, such as founded, built,
led, supervised, managed, initiated, developed, prepared, or
presented.
- Avoid the first person.
-
Data, data, data. Better to say “Raised sales by 25% per year” than “Was
a great salesperson.” Also, what you achieved in different
positions is more important than what your job description
was.
- Hit your strong points early and often.
- Match your resume to the job you are applying for. Your bullet points
should roughly match the key words in the job description.
- Keep it upbeat. No one wants to hear your sob story.
- Try to leave open spaces in your resume. It is like seeing a totally
uncluttered room. Totally gorgeous!
- Keep your font size readable; 10 point font is the minimum. Rarely should
a resume run past two pages, and should only be 2 pages if you
have extensive, relevant
experience.
- No typographical or grammatical errors are acceptable.
- Keep your resume up to date.
-
Don’t include references unless asked to do so.
- Have as many skilled people as possible review your resume before you
ship it out. Consider hiring a consultant as well or a qualified
firm such as Logos Tutoring;
this is your career we are talking about! Also, resume writing
books can be helpful.
Keep these points in mind and you will greatly increase your chances
of getting that interview for your dream job. After all, that’s what the resume
is for in the first place!
Writing Personal Statements
Are you intimidated by those one page essays on “Why do you want to become
a ____?” You are not alone. A lot rides on that essay. What is the best
strategy for the personal essay?
One important overriding principle of the Personal Statement
is to avoid generalities that are not supported by specific
examples. For example, if you are applying
to medical school, don’t say simply that you want to go to medical school
because you want to help people. This is a cliché, and will draw nothing
more than a collective yawn from the admissions committee. You can say that you
were inspired to become a doctor by the feeling of fulfillment you received when
you did volunteering with Doctors Without Borders in Sudan during the summer
of 2003, handing out needed medicines, teaching basic sanitation techniques,
and assisting a surgeon under less than optimal conditions. Now what was a cliché becomes
a matter of substance.
Another point that bears mentioning is to view the essay from
a different perspective: that of the Admissions Committee.
Every candidate wants something
from the
school: maybe a prestigious name or maybe a ticket to practice a lucrative,
well-respected,
and fulfilling career. However, from the school’s perspective, they want
to know what the candidate can do for them. If the school is research-oriented,
they are looking for candidates with research experience. If the school is
publication-oriented, they may want students with a track record of publications.
So, a Personal Statement
is in many ways a sales pitch in which the candidate answers the question of
what the candidate can do for that institution. A candidate who does not satisfactorily
answer that question will most likely not be admitted into the program.
A third overriding principle of the Personal Statement worth
mentioning is primacy: the first thing that you say will
set the tone for the essay,
and
generally make
or break your Personal Statement. Start with a bang, usually with a hook:
a story, an anecdote, or a life-changing experience, something that will
capture
the reader’s
attention, and yet also be relevant to the essay topic.
Once you have captured your reader’s attention, you can go on to lay
out why you think you are cut out for the field or school. This may involve
discussing
experience in the field, and extracurricular activities that may be relevant,
even if only by analogy. For example, if you are a competitive diver and you
are applying to medical school, clearly diving will not help you to be a good
doctor. However, many of the same traits that you displayed to become a successful
diver may also help you to become a good physician: dealing successfully with
pressure, adversity, and stress, and having successfully demonstrated goal
setting, hard work, dedication, and discipline in your training and performance.
Next, if applicable, you’ll want to discuss any problems that show up in
your background. This could include low test scores, a low GPA, a bad semester
or year, run-ins with the law (it happens, you know), academic or disciplinary
probation, taking off time from school and work, or anything else problematic
in your background. Get it out there; don’t try to sweep it under the
rug and hope no one will notice. I can assure you that the admissions committee
will
flag any problem areas, whether you bring them up or not, so your best bet
is to raise any issues yourself, and then try to spin them in your favor. Keep
in
mind that many programs also include background checks as standard operating
procedure and may verify any claims made. So if you had a bad semester or year,
was that because you were also helping to take care of your very sick mother?
If your grades were continuously low, was that because you were also working
full-time while in school to support your family? If you had a run-in with
the law, was it an experience that you learned from? If your test scores are
low,
is it because you do not test well, but did your demonstrate your abilities
with consistently high grades? These are the type of arguments that you can
make to
take some of the bite out of a problem area. Overcoming adversity is a powerful
theme, whether it be racial discrimination, poverty, displaced families or
physical handicap, so if that is part of your background, turn it into an asset
rather
than a liability.
We have mentioned some of the things to include in your Personal
Statement. What about what to leave out, or what not to do? First
of all, don’t brag about
a high GPA or high test scores. The committee will notice this in any event and
there is nothing gained by bragging. For that matter, don’t brag about
anything. You can communicate the same information without bragging. For example,
if were selected as an All-American in basketball, you can say that due to excellent
coaching, great family support, and God-given gifts, you were fortunate to be
selected All-American in basketball. You have communicated the information you
wanted to, but you’ve given everyone else the credit. In addition, don’t
whine or complain. Admissions committees don’t want to hear that life’s
not fair. If you have encountered obstacles in your life, they want to know about
that, as well as how you overcame such obstacles. Third, don’t make something
out of nothing. For example, don’t blame low grades on a grandfather’s
extended illness unless you were in fact the primary caretaker. Committees have
seen that too many times to give it much weight. Further, don’t hire
someone to write your essay. There are many reasons for this, including integrity
of
the admissions process, academic honesty, and the fact that there is no one
more qualified to tell your story. Many schools also will have you do writing
samples
on interview day to validate that you are actually the one who wrote your essay.
How should you end the essay? You started with a bang, now
you have to end with a bang. But this bang is a little bit
different.
This
is where
your
sales pitch
reaches a crescendo. You summarize all the key reasons why you
should be accepted into this field, school or program. You are
recapping
what you’ve already
said, but leaving out the supporting examples. You conclude with a statement
that for all of the aforementioned reasons, you will make a positive contribution
to this institution and field, and therefore should be admitted. With a strong
conclusion, you will enhance the overall impression that your Personal Statement
makes, thereby increasing your chance of admission.
Finally, once the Personal Statement is written, review it
for grammar and spelling mistakes. It must be completely
free of
errors. Give
it to anyone
who is a master
of English to review. The more time and effort you and others
spend refining and reworking it, the better it will be.
Hopefully, you have found these guidelines helpful. Put them
into practice, and you will greatly improve your chances
of admission in to your desired
program.
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