Cover Letter Article

I found the cover letter article incredibly helpful. I've been writing lots of cover letters in the past two months and I think right now I have it 80 or 90 percent right, and now I can get it 100% right. Last month I was committing the mistake mentioned in the article of looking up a bunch of companies and sending a generic cover letter to all of them. Now I've gotten it more right, but I have been directing all of my letters to 'Human Resources' and not a specific person. A lot of these firms do not have someone listed on their website, and direct people to address their letters to "Human Resources," but now I think I should be calling the firms and asking them who is in charge of human resources or is the hiring manager, then sending it to that individual. I actually have started using the P.S., to say that I would be willing to take a temporary position with less pay to bridge me into full time work after the economic situation stabilizes.

I think that I have this figured out now...If I had only gotten it down a couple months ago!

Client Visit

In the presentation by our Redfern client, I was really interested with her take on making campus healthier from a planning perspective. It may be interesting to look at this project in terms of housing, meal plans, public space and student interactivity. It would be good to teach healthy habits freshman who have to live on campus so that they have those habits throughout college and hopefully the rest of their lives. This would include getting students involved on campus, not necessarily in clubs and activities but in social gatherings such as throwing frisbee on Bowman or going bowling at the union. When students interact in person instead of browse the internet or watch tv it makes them generally happier and healthier. It would also be a good idea to promote living on campus, which would get people to walk rather than drive, and doing so would require better housing. Doing a proposal for building new housing or upfiting existing housing would help Clemson housing make a better sell to the students to live on campus. We can also make freshman healthier by making their food source healthier, and Clemson has direct power over that in their meal plans. They should either get Aramark to serve healthier foods in their dining halls, or fire them.

Interview Mistakes

I have had a professional interview before. It was not for a full time job but a summer job, so I don't think the questions were as tough as what you should expect for an entry-level job interview. They were only taking me for the summer so I could get some experience and they could get some summer assistance, and they only needed to know that I was competent enough for that. I think my interviews generally went well. Generally the main things I was asked were to talk more about what was on my resume. I was asked where I went for my study abroad semester, and which cities were the best. I was asked about projects at Clemson. At my very first interview I was incredibly nervous because I didn't know what to expect. My hands were trembling as I flipped through my portfolio pages. I didn't get the job, but I probably wouldn't have anyway because they had already filled the position and I had an interview because of a communication error. But there is really nothing to be nervous about. I was never asked a 'greatest weakness' question or anything like that. Maybe it is different for other job descriptions though.

I agreed with most of the mistakes, but I don't know why it didn't mention the common mistake of not asking a question at the end of the interview. It did say that the questions you ask should be good ones, not questions like "does this company do so and so work," which you should know already. I thought that the last one about syncing your overall composure with the interviewer was a good one, ie joking around vs. serious, because your body language and mood will give the impression that you are like the interviewer, and people like people who are like them. The practice thing was good advice, and I think that the Clemson Career Center gives mock interviews to help you with that.

On another note, number 2 was "don't treat the secretary poorly," and the explanation looked like it was an explanation for a different question. I don't know whether that was an error, but I would like to hear the answer to that question because I didn't know that interviewees tended to treat the secretary poorly.

Free Topic: Economic Stimulus

I want to talk about this economic stimulus bill they are talking about a lot in the news, mostly because I have my own personal stake in this plan. I am searching for a job in the architecture industry. In a recession, or even a slight hiccup in the economy, architects are usually the first to feel it, because they are the first ones to act in the process of creating new facilities, and when plans for new facilities or renovations decline, they are the first to get laid off. Right now I am struggling to even get an interview because of the small workload of so many firms. If passed and implemented quickly, the stimulus plan, which funds transportation projects and school modernization, could put architects, engineers, and construction workers back to work.

However, I am sort of concerned about whether this bill, as is, will create a broad enough range of jobs. A lot of architects are concerned that a lot of the funding going towards these projects are, to use a phrase that politicians have been saying, "shovel ready" (ready to build but lacking in funds) and can put people back to work immediately. However, architects and engineers do not benefit from funds going to "shovel ready" projects. We also need to re-start projects that are "pencil ready" (partially through the design phase but incomplete) and begin new projects altogether. And we can all benefit from the long term results; more energy efficient buildings and better transportation and infrastructure. The US is the only industrialized country in the world without high speed rail. We rely too much on our cars, and the roads we drive on are falling apart. And, wouldn't it be nice to have an electricity grid that doesn't go out because of snowstorms? I believe our technology is advanced enough to achieve that. I'm not saying that the stimulus plan doesn't address these issues already, it's just a question of focus, and "how much."

Also, I'm concerned about the amount of money this bill allocates for tax cuts. I pulled this pie chart off of The New York Times' site:























See the light blue part there on the top right? The one that takes up about a third of the entire stimulus? Those are tax cuts. They plan to direct these tax cuts towards people in the middle and lower tax brackets, in hopes that they will spend more money at retail stores and stimulate the economy. While the middle class's recent restraint on spending money is part of the cycle that got us into this mess, I'm not sure that cutting their taxes necessarily means that they will start spending again. There is a complete lack of confidence among the middle class. They fear losing their jobs and are saving their money just in case they do. If they get tax cuts, there's a good chance that they may just save it or use it to pay their bills. This is what happened last year. Remember the "stimulus package" of 2008? The one that gave everyone somewhere between $300 and $1500, depending on marital status and number of dependents? I think that was a failed act for these reasons. It may have prolonged the stock market crash that happened in September, but it didn't stimulate the economy the way we hoped it would. I'm not saying that tax cuts won't work, but people need to have more confidence about their future in order to get the results we want.

That concludes my thoughts about the stimulus plan. Sorry if that bored you, but it's been a big point of concern for me lately.