Now, let's think about the transferable skills you've attained in the exclusively
classroom. If you want to highlight the important skills discussed in
part one,
but have little or no work experience, don't forget to use your classroom experience
as an example. Here, I must give a tip of the hat to Fred Jandt and Mary Nemnich
for their discussion of transferable skills from on school experiences in their book,
Using
the Internet and the World Wide Web in Your Job Search (JIST Works).
These skills include:
Ability to meet deadlines, thrive under deadline pressure:
College is a cornucopia of deadlines. If meeting deadlines is an important skill
in the job you seek, by all means exploit in your cover letter your ability to do so.
Ability to handle multiple tasks: Remember how you wanted to smack all
your instructors for requiring simultaneous major papers and projects? Multi-tasking
is increasingly valued in the workplace, and your cover letter gives you the chance
to boast of your ability to juggle many projects at once.
Ability to achieve goals: Your good grades are proof of that skill, so
do boast about them if they're exemplary. You may have met other goals while in
school, too, such as graduating in three years instead of four (which may be why you
don't have any job experience). Any goal you've met while in school is potential
cover-letter fodder.
Ability to adapt: Your college years probably gave you your first
opportunity to make adult decisions and act independently. How did you handle
stumbling blocks and disappointments along the way? The way you rose above difficulties
can provide solid examples in your cover letter.
Writing skills: Jobs that require good writing skills are a lot more common
than you probably think they are. If you demonstrated your ability to write well in
college, you can highlight that skill in your cover letter. And, of course, your
writing talents should be self-evident from the quality of your cover letter as well.
Research skills: How many people who've been out in the "real world"
have research skills that are as fresh and recent as yours? How many know as much
as you do about, say, conducting research on the Internet? Probably not many, so
for jobs where this ability may be helpful, be sure to emphasize your research skills.
Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate
publisher of Quintessential Careers, is an educator, author,
and blogger who provides content for Quintessential Careers,
edits QuintZine,
an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and blogs about storytelling
in the job search at A Storied
Career. Katharine, who earned her PhD in organizational behavior
from Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, is author of Dynamic
Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot in the Door: Networking
Your Way into the Hidden Job Market (both published by Ten Speed Press),
as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes (Career Press); and with
Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, Write Your
Way to a Higher GPA (Ten Speed), and The Complete Idiot's Guide
to Study Skills (Alpha). Visit her
personal Website
or reach her by e-mail at
kathy(at)quintcareers.com.
