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BBA Discussion Forum / How to Write a Cover Letter

« on: December 15, 2011, 09:59:46 AM »

A cover letter is your first — and perhaps only — chance to impress a potential client or employer. Don’t let that intimidate you, though. A cover letter is, in fact, your opportunity to shine. It gives an employer a brief glimpse of the potential success you bring with you. Your experience, your personality and your enthusiasm all play a part in helping you land the job. Don’t leave them behind when building your cover letter.

How do I write a Cover Letter? In general, be honest, genuine and professional. But the details can get a bit more complicated. Follow these simple guidelines to create a compelling cover letter that will be hard for an employer to resist!

Start with a warm and professional greeting. This person is considering hiring you – so your opening should encourage them to think of you as someone they’d like to work with. “Dear Mr. Smith,” “Dear John Smith,” or “Mr. Smith,” are all appropriate. “Hey Bob,” “What’s up, Jim?” or anything extremely casual should be changed to err on the side of formality. Don’t know the name of the person doing the hiring? “Dear Hiring Manager,” is a great way to set a professional tone from the get-go.

Get to the point. Your cover letter is not the time to write a novel about yourself. Let the employer know why you’re contacting them, what skills you have that make you the right person for this position, and where they can find more information about your work experience: “I’m interested in the position of Lead Blogger you recently posted. I have been a professional writer for nine years, and am very familiar with WordPress and Typepad. During my 3 years as editor-in-chief of Being Interested, I managed a team of writers that produced 5 blogs posts a week. You can see some of my own writing in my portfolio (www.odesk.com/users/~~…)

Hit the highlights. Most job postings will give you very clear hints about the type of skills the desired candidate will have. If you have these skills, you should mention them – repeating the employer’s needs for the role and how you fill those criteria will make it clear that you are the right person for the job: “You had mentioned that you were looking for someone with a background in creative writing and journalism. I studied both in college, where I majored in English. I began my career as an assistant editor at the local paper, where I learned to take a hands-on approach to investigative journalism.”

Follow directions. Many potential employers will ask candidates to fulfill a specific request in their cover letter. This is designed to help them One Wayquickly weed through applications, and cull out those who are taking the “copy & paste” approach to submitting resumes. If you’re asked to answer specific questions or include a keyword in your reply, make sure you do it! As an added bonus, calling out that they have requested this information is a great way to let them know you are about to make their hiring decision even easier:  “Per your request, here are the links to three articles I’ve written about local events, gardening or technology….”

Close the sale. Make sure you let them know your availability for the position and invite them to contact you to discuss further. It’s a polite way to “ask for the job” and reinforce your enthusiasm for working with this employer:  “Moving forward, I can dedicate 15 hours/week to your company, and my daily hours are negotiable. I’m very excited to assist you in making your blog successful – please feel free to contact me directly to discuss this position further.”

Reread, edit and consider. Before you click “send”, take another look at the job description. Did you address all of their criteria in your cover letter? If you were the person hiring for this position, would your cover letter fit the bill? Does your profile and your portfolio support your application for this job? (If not, don’t apply! Save your energy for a position that better suits your skills and abilities.) If you’re unsure, ask a friend to review the job posting and your cover letter, and listen carefully to their perspective – they might find a hidden gem that makes the difference in you landing the job!

Cover letters are the first view an employer or client gets of you, so make sure you’re putting your best foot forward. For more tips on crafting a successful cover letter, check out our previous post on Writing a Killer Cover Letter, a brief list of ways to ensure your cover letter is truly “killer”


Source:https://www.odesk.com/blog/2010/05/how-to-write-a-cover-letter/

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BBA Discussion Forum / 5 Ways To Make a Killer First Impression

« on: December 10, 2011, 09:26:29 AM »

Most people will judge you within the first second of meeting you and their opinion will most likely never change. Making a good first impression is incredibly important, because you only get one shot at it.

Princeton University psychologist Alex Todorov and co-author Janine Willis, a student researcher who graduated from Princeton in 2005 had people look at a microsecond of video of a political candidate. Amazingly, research subjects could predict with 70-percent accuracy who would win the election just from that microsecond of tape. This tells us that people can make incredibly accurate snap judgments in a tenth of a second.

How can you ensure people are judging you accurately and also seeing your best side? You never want to give people an inauthentic impression — many people can intuitively feel if someone is being fake immediately. However, any time you meet someone for the first time, you always want to start on the right foot. Here are a few ways you can make sure people’s first impression of you is a good one:

Set an intention
The most important thing to do for giving a good impression is to set your intention. This is especially important before any kind of big event where you would be meeting a lot of people — i.e. conferences, networking events or friend’s parties. As you get ready or when you are driving over think about what kind of people you want to meet and what kind of interactions you want to have. This can be an incredibly grounding experience and works very well to focus on what kind of energy you want to have for your event.

Think about your ornaments
Clothes, make-up, jewelry, watches and shoes are all types of ornamentation and people definitely take these into account when making initial judgments. I highly recommend getting some of your favorite outfits or ornaments together and asking friends you trust what they think of when they see them. For many men, they do not realize that their watch can say a lot about them. For women, purses and large earrings or jewelry can also indicate a lot to a new person they are meeting. Make sure that what you are wearing and how you do your hair or make-up says what you want it to say to the people you are meeting for the first time.

Be Conscious of Your Body Language
Body language is a crucial part of first impressions. Everything from your posture to how you carry yourself to the way you’re angling your body. Often, simply being aware of your body language can result in immediate improvements. Another way to examine your body language is to look at yourself on a video walking around a room. Subconscious cues to keep in mind include noticing where you point your feet, the position of your shoulders, and the way you shake hands.

Avoid bad days
People who go to cocktail events or mixers after having had a bad day typically continue to have a bad day. If you are in a depressed or anxious mood, others will pick up on this from your facial expressions, comments and body language. If you’re having a bad day, stay home! Otherwise, find a way to snap yourself out of your bad mood. I find working out or watching funny YouTube videos before events often gets me in a more social, feel good mood.

Be interested and interesting
If you are truly interested in meeting people and are open to learning about who they are, they will get this in a first impression. We have all had the experience of meeting someone and knowing instantly that they were dragged here by a friend and are just waiting to get out the door and head home. When you are meeting people for the first time approach others with a genuine interest in who they are. This is often contagious and you will have better conversations and lasting connections when you are interested because they become interested.


Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/yec/2011/11/02/5-ways-to-make-a-killer-first-impression/

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BBA Discussion Forum / Words to Strike from Your Resume

« on: December 05, 2011, 10:53:59 AM »

If you’ve applied for a job recently, you’ve probably looked over that 8½  x 11” summary of your career more times than you can count—and tweaked it just as often—in pursuit of the perfect resume.

But before you add another bullet point, consider this: It’s not always about what you add in—the best changes you can make may lie in what you take out.

The average resume is chock-full of sorely outdated, essentially meaningless phrases that take up valuable space on the page. Eliminate them, and you’ll come off as a better, more substantial candidate—and your resume won’t smack of that same generic, mind-numbing quality found on everyone else’s.

Every word—yes, every word—on that page should be working hard to highlight your talents and skills. If it’s not, it shouldn’t be on there. So grab a red pen, and banish these words from your resume for good.

Career Objective
My first few resumes had a statement like this emblazoned top and center: “Career objective: To obtain a position as a [insert job title here] that leverages my skills and experience as well as provides a challenging environment that promotes growth.”

Yawn. This is not only boring, it’s ineffective (and sounds a little juvenile, to boot). The top of your resume is prime real estate, and it needs to grab a hiring manager’s attention with a list of your top accomplishments, not a summary of what you hope to get out of your next position.

Experienced
You can be “experienced” in something after you’ve done it once—or every day for the past 10 years. So drop this nebulous term and be specific. If, for example, you’re a Client Report Specialist, using a phrase such as “Experienced in developing client reports” is both vague and redundant. But sharing that you “Created five customized weekly reports to analyze repeat client sales activity”—now that gives the reader a better idea of where exactly this so-called experience lies, with some actual results attached.

Also eliminate: seasoned, well-versed

Team Player
If you’ve ever created an online dating profile, you know that you don’t just say that you’re nice and funny—you craft a fun, witty profile that shows it. Same goes for your resume: It’s much more effective to list activities or accomplishments that portray your good qualities in action than to simply claim to have them.

Instead of “team player,” say “Led project team of 10 to develop a new system for distributing reports that reduced the time for managers to receive reports by 25%.” Using a specific example, you show what you can actually accomplish. But simply labeling yourself with a quality? Not so much.

Also eliminate: people person, customer-focused

Dynamic
While resumes are meant to highlight your best attributes, some personality traits are better left to the hiring manager to decide upon for herself. There is a difference between appropriately and accurately describing your work skills and just tooting your own horn. Plus, even the most introverted wallflower will claim to be “dynamic” on a piece of paper because, well, why not? When it comes to resumes, keep the content quantifiable, show tangible results and successes, and wait until the interview to show off your “dynamism,” “enthusiasm,” or “energy.”

Also eliminate: energetic, enthusiastic

References Available Upon Request
All this phrase really does is take up valuable space. If a company wants to hire you, they will ask you for references—and they will assume that you have them. There’s no need to address the obvious (and doing so might even make you look a little presumptuous!). Use the space to give more details about your talents and accomplishments instead.

In a crummy job market with a record number of people applying for the same positions, it takes more than a list of desirable-sounding qualities to warrant an interview. Specific examples pack a punch, whereas anything too dependent on a list of buzzwords will sound just like everyone else’s cookie-cutter resume. So, give your resume a good once-over, and make sure every word on that page is working hard for you.


Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2011/11/04/final-cut-words-to-strike-from-your-resume/

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BBA Discussion Forum / Re: Significance of classroom learning

« on: November 16, 2011, 11:42:58 AM »

I would like to add few comments with Sibli sir. Before that, I am grateful to Sibli sir for arising this fantastic topic in the forum. thank you so much.

In this world, everything is going properly as we see in our eyes. but in the back side of this effort we usually ignore. Its easy to see something happen but tough to plan, think , implement. here comes the importance of knowledge, expertise, dedication. to achieve these virtues, one must need to study to learn.

Sometimes we tell, classroom doesn't provide the practical learning. I am somewhat agree with this statement but to have the abstract knowledge, one must have to have the empirical background that is the basement of learning. My question is, where will one can develop the knowledge base/foundation?   Its very simple to answer. It's the institution are providing this basement to all of us.

To learn something properly, there should have the proper environment, system and structure. Classroom is meeting this quest to all of us. We can have the required flavor to learn the knowledge into the classroom. Sometime, group learning is more easier than alone. We can explore new ideas, thoughts into the classroom which sometimes is not possible to discover. So, classroom is the perfect place to develop our knowledge base.

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BBA Discussion Forum / Re: DIU Teacher Students Class Feedback System

« on: November 13, 2011, 10:53:56 AM »

Dear Students,

I would like to ask you a question to all of you. Is there any university in our country who is connected the teacher with students 24/7? We prove to others that we are the first and more dedicated to improve the education quality through this system. This system is so easy and fantastic media to get the help from your teacher any time. you can access this system from any where you are in.

I will request all you, please avail this opportunity to have the taste of innovation and modern education.

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BBA Discussion Forum / Re: Mr. Masum Iqbal- the right Head of BBA

« on: July 31, 2011, 09:20:59 AM »

I really feel precocious and honored to work under his headship. He deserves all the thanks. May Allah long live him. 

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BBA Discussion Forum / Adopting Unfaire practice in Exam

« on: July 19, 2011, 10:13:18 AM »

Students are so much intentional to adopt illegal practices in the exam to get good results. We should motivate them not to do in that way. My question is why do the students come to university? For gaining knowledge or results?

If we strive to earn knowledge then result will automatically good. I would like to draw the attention of the students (those who want to just complete the education not to earn knowledge), please know your intuition to earn higher education. You need to fight thousands of candidates every semester to survive. Because, right now, students are graduated from 54 private universities and about 10 public universities every semester.

If you deprive yourself to gain knowledge by adopting illegal practices, what will you carry for you future life?

"Think Yourself"