5 Out-of-Date Job-Search Tactics “Is it still correct to use ‘Dear Sir or Madam’ in a cover letter?” a reader asked in an e-mail. “That isn’t such a great idea,” I wrote back. “No one uses ‘Dear Sir or Madam’ anymore, unless they’re actually writing to a madam, such as Heidi Fleiss.” I’m not sure my e-mail correspondent caught the joke. It’s not that using out-of-date job-search approaches brands you as older. Employers pay us, in part, to be aware of trends and phenomena that affect the workplace. Here are five formerly useful, now dangerous job-search approaches that hark back to an earlier age. 1. 2. 3. Groveling doesn’t work, which is why compiling and mailing goofy lists such as “here are 10 reasons you should hire me” are terrible things to do. 4. 5. Still, the last thing you want to do as a job-seeker is seek brownie points by whipping out a file folder full of clippings at an interview or by saying, “I spent the weekend researching your company.”
Books about Africa The Medieval Garden Enclosed Wednesday, December 18, 2013 Stories from the Understory Detail of hazel tree in The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle (from the Unicorn Tapestries), 1495–1505. The common hazel, or Corylus avellana, is an understory tree native to Europe and western Asia and is widely distributed from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. ShareThis Friday, December 6, 2013 Going out of the garden . . . Dear friends, I’m leaving The Cloisters and New York City for a country life, and want to say farewell and thank you to the many thousands of visitors around the world who found their way to The Medieval Garden Enclosed over the course of the last five years and five months. Please do look for future posts, as my colleagues carry on—a post on the medieval significance of the hazelnuts included in our holiday decorations will be coming up soon. —Deirdre Thursday, October 24, 2013 Transplanting the Medieval Garden Read more » Friday, October 11, 2013 Fall Garden Day Friday, September 27, 2013 Read more »
do job-seekers really need an elevator pitch? A reader writes: I recently visited my grad school on behalf of my employer as part of their college recruiting team. My objective was to collect resumes and speak with students regarding our summer internship program. I’ve worked the career fairs before but have not done so in a couple of years, and at this one I noticed some students doing something that I found off-putting. They’re making an “elevator pitch” for themselves. Several of the students using this tactic also used aggressive body language, tried to read the notes I was writing on the back of their resume, and demanded that I give them my business card or work email address (which is not permitted by HR). Colleagues who help with college recruiting at other institutions are reporting similar experiences. Yes, it is very much a thing that (some) college career centers are telling students to do! And it’s not just an inexperience thing — because there are plenty of inexperienced candidates who don’t do it, as you saw.
The Belgian designers taking low-key luxe to new heights Axel Vervoordt – the designer, antiques dealer, collector and gallerist – is often cited by design insiders as laying the foundations for the quiet aesthetic that has become synonymous with Belgium’s design archetype. For most, his appearance at the Biennale des Antiquaires in the Grand Palais Paris in 1982 proved a pivotal moment. “His taste was relatively unknown outside Belgium, but he had an epiphany in preparation for the Biennale,” says Wim Pauwels, the design specialist whose publishing house Beta Plus has produced some 25 monographs of Belgian architects, designers and landscape architects. Vervoordt continues to be the designer of choice for many famous clients. Vincent Van Duysen, the architect whose international profile is such that he must rank only slightly below Magritte and Hergé in the league table of famous Belgians, has been defining his own form of rich refinement since establishing his practice in 1990. Tactile materials are a key feature of Belgian design.
First Foot | The Medieval Garden Enclosed Coltsfoot blooming in a pot in Bonnefont garden. The scaly stems and bright yellow blossoms of this early-spring-blooming member of the daisy family emerge well before the foliage; the hoof-shaped leaves appear only after the flowers have set seed. This notoriously invasive Eurasian species is best grown in a container. Tussilago farfara, known in the Middle Ages under the Latin names ungula caballina (”horse hoof”) and pes pulli (”foal’s foot”), is still called coltsfoot, ass’s foot, or bull’s foot in English, pas-de-poulain in French, pie d’asino in Italian, and hufflatich in German. A plant of roadside verges and waste grounds in its homelands, coltsfoot readily accommodates itself to a variety of habitats. Detail of coltsfoot flower. Despite a long life in Western herbal medicine, modern chemical analyses have shown that Tussilago contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids that have a toxic effect on human liver tissue. —Deirdre Larkin Sources: Anderson, Frank J., ed. Grieve, Maude. Pliny.
Why You Should Take 5 Minutes to Google Yourself Today Image via Pixabay/Hebi65 One of the first things recruiters or hiring managers are likely to do when considering you as a job candidate is Google you to see what you’re all about. Investing the time and energy into building your brand online is essential in landing a good job. Not sure where to begin? Follow this five-step checklist to cultivate a strong personal brand online that’s discoverable, professional, and impressive. 1. First things first. Have a trusted friend or colleague offer an external set of eyes for the same search. Only publish things to the Internet that you wouldn’t mind a recruiter seeing. tweet Make sure that you, and they, toggle over to Images, Videos, and News searches as well as the default Web search. If any content comes up on the first page that you feel doesn’t reflect well on you, especially in the eyes of a hiring manager, prune it if it’s something you own, like a tweet, a video, a pin, a Google+ post, or a blog post. 2. Image via Pixabay/Settergren 3. 4.
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