Professional Story

Paula Amezola: ... briefly just introduce myself. I worked in public health for 12 years, and I want to move on and introduce my guest speaker here. Aileen has more than 10 years’ experience in public health, working with and providing support to local, state, and federal governments. She is also an active volunteer for the Los Angeles County Medical Reserve Corps. Please give her a warm applause.

Aileen Dinkjian: Hi. Thank you so much, Paula, for inviting me to come here today. I'm actually very excited because, honestly, how many of us said, "When I graduate college, I'm gonna get my MPH"? Oh, good, because I didn't know, because my undergraduate degree was actually in political science. After I worked a couple of years in the City of Chino, where I grew up in, there was a rising obesity epidemic in the San Bernardino Counties, which really woke me up, and I didn't realize there's a degree called public health.

I ended up going to the George Washington University for my public health degree. I was part of the American Public Health Student Association. This is public health campaign. It was really to try to promote what is public health, why are we getting this degree, why is it so important? You look around, and I learned everything is public health. Everything that we do, the air we breathe, everywhere we go, there's a lot of public health issues out there. It is not just sanitation that most people knew back then when I started considering a public health degree 10 years.

Anyhow, I did work for the City of Chino, like I mentioned. I also fell into a career in the federal government. I was actually part of the U.S. Department of Justice. I was doing some research administration there for the National Institutes of Justice. I mean there's just a myriad of experiences that we have in our careers.

How many of you have already a lot of experience doing some public health work right now? Great, I mean some of you don't and which is fine because you may actually after this presentation, I think you might realize you have more than you actually think. It just depends on how we depict and pull that information out. Without further ado, I'm going to turn it over back to Paula, who'll talk more about how to boost your guys' careers.

Paula Amezola: Thank you. I do wanna get a sense of who is in the audience at this point. For those that are online, please make sure you add it on the chat box. Janet will let us know after we go around the room here. Let me know how many are alumni here. Okay, no alumni today. We did have some alumni who RSVP. How many are here with an MPH on campus? Okay. What tracks are you here with?

Speaker 3: Policy.

Paula Amezola: Policy.

Speaker 4: Health communication.

Paula Amezola: Health communication.

Speaker 5: Health education and promotion.

Paula Amezola: Oh, okay. Health promotion and-

Speaker 6: Epi Biostats.

Paula Amezola: Epi Biostats.

Speaker 7: Child and family.

Paula Amezola: Child and family, fantastic. Anybody from MPH online present in the room, other than the program manager? Okay, thank you, Janet. Do we have anybody from the MS program? Yes. You're Biostats, [Sethi 00:03:48], or?

Sethi: Molecular epidemiology.

Paula Amezola: Molecular epidemiology. Thank you. Anybody else?

Speaker 9: [inaudible 00:03:55], Bio epi, and health education and promotion. It's on the chart. So Angela's bio epi, Ashley's health education and promotion, Sethi is bio epi, [inaudible 00:04:11].

Paula Amezola: Okay. I know we have a guest that is a prospective student. Thank you for coming to our event. We hope you join our family, our Trojan family soon. Well, okay, great. It seems like we have pretty much every track ... No MSW/MPH? Oh, no. Okay. It seems like pretty much maybe the only group that we're missing.

It's good to find out who's in the room before we have a discussion. That way I can give you some examples pertaining to policy, health promotion, or Epi Biostats jobs. But today what we plan to do is talk about our resume, then move on to the SAR method. This is really a way to write accomplishments, and then Aileen talk about cover letters and she will go over her LinkedIn profile, which I'm really excited.

I want to start by saying that my philosophy in doing career development is really that our professional life is part of our personal story. That's why I call this presentation a professional story because it's up to you to decide how you build your resume, your cover letter, your LinkedIn profile. So that it demonstrates your skills, your capabilities, your accomplishments, and also to help you transition between jobs, because I think that oftentimes we women, I would say ... there's only one man in the classroom. So this is for the women class ... we tend to only apply to jobs who we feel we're like almost 100% a match.

I encourage us to apply to jobs where we know we're gonna be passionate about, where we know we're gonna be effective and successful. Although you may not be doing that type of work, but you see yourself applying certain skills, transferable skills, from another experience where you can apply them there. This is really important as you move in your career, from entry to mid, to maybe executive positions. The moral story is, it's your story and it's your destiny, so live your life fully and own it.

Why do I think we need to think about our resume, our cover letter, and LinkedIn as a story? Well, when we meet someone and we start telling that individual, "Hi, my name is Paula, and I have a master's in public health. I worked four years at a clinic and I can do some data analysis." It's gonna be difficult for that person to remember me after someone has reviewed 100 resumes or has shaken 10 hands and met 10 other people. That's why I think it's important for us to utilize a story.

If I say, "Hi, I'm a public health professional. I'm so passionate about working with underserved communities. When I worked at the Gay and Lesbian Center, I analyzed more than 3,000 clients every month, where we found out that there was an epidemic that had comorbidity between syphilis and HIV new incidence."

Now every step of the way, as I discuss the situation, that person might have made a connection. "Oh, this person worked at the Gay and Lesbian Center. Oh, I know that organization." Maybe when I said, "We found out an epidemic about syphilis and HIV," then they make another connection, and then you build on that step. Finally, accomplishments. "We discovered these epidemics, these outbreaks that were happening at the Gay and Lesbian Center." That's why I think a story is more successful.

As we move through this presentation, please keep that in mind, that in your resume, in your cover letter, in your LinkedIn profile, try to make these connections, try to be specific in the situation that you're in, try to demonstrate your actions. Don't just tell me your actions in a resume or in a cover letter. Demonstrate that you've done it. Give some specifics, some details, some quantities.

I said 3,000 in my introduction, and that was for a reason, because then you're going to remember, "Man, that's a lot of clients in that clinic." Give some results, some outcomes. This is really the core of this presentation as we move from one part of your professional story, which we're gonna start with the resume.

Now I just wanna be honest, and this is my opinion, I think that career development is built upon really old traditions and aspects that may be archaic and opinions that come from individuals in different sectors. I worked in public health, Aileen's worked in public health. I've hired people, I know Aileen has hired people, and our advice is coming from that perspective of working in the field, from hiring people in the field, from having a degree in public health.

My advice, I know for sure 'cause I've heard some other presentations on main campus career center that is tailored for the undergrads is very different in some aspects. So keep that in mind. This is our perspective, our opinion, and this is how we have been successful in our fields.

Let's talk about format. I just want to do a sound check. If I speak in the black microphone, is it louder than if I move here? Yes, okay. So this is working. All right. Let's go over the format. I'm just gonna give some pointers. I don't want to make this be an elaborate discussion, because at the end, we will have a peer option where we can pair up and review each other's resumes. Can people raise your hand if you brought your resume? Okay, so we have two, four, six, seven, eight. Perfect. We can pair up in four groups. Aileen and I will go around the four groups and give you some pointers as you do your peer review.

For those who are online, I have attached the resume checklist, which is the tool that we're gonna use to do the peer review. Hopefully, for online, if you want extra help, please make an appointment with me. I would be more than happy to review your resume, or you can do peer review. It's amazing to get feedback from your peers because they're taking classes with you and they can be like, "Hey, you took that class. Why didn't you put that experience?" So keep that in mind.

All right, so let's talk about format. I come from a thought that straight lines, lots of space between text and blank is the best way to format your resume. Some I see are getting more elaborate and more artistic with their resume. Now the only caveat about artistic resumes and things that have a lot of formatting, a lot of lines is that if you're submitting to organizations such as Kaiser, Alicare, where they have scanning softwares, even though you PDF it, it may be scanned inappropriately, and the format might be ... What I've heard is that a line might be a huge block instead of a line that breaks apart to segments.

Content. Now for format, keep it clean, keep it straight. That's my opinion. If you do wanna move into an artistic, more design format of your resume, please make sure that when you submit it, that you check with the person you submitted to or the HR, "Hey, did you receive my resume and was it clear?" Unless it says, "Do not call," you should always contact them and say, "I submitted. Did you receive it?"

Let's move on to content. Now what I want to say about content is I'm gonna further explore it in the next couple of slides. Basically, the main point about content is the number one question that I get from everyone, "Should my resume be one page?" My short answer, and my personal opinion is no. The answer should be your resume needs to be responsive to the job description.

If the content leads to a two-page resume, then that's what you need to submit. If you respond to a resume and it takes you one page, then great. I don't have any problems with a resume being one page. If it goes beyond two pages, what I encourage you is to contact the hiring manager and ask them, "Can I turn in a CV?" Because really beyond two pages, you should be turning in a CV.

We're not gonna discuss CVs, but for those who are here in person, we are planning something for the Ph.D students who typically work with CVs, and I encourage you to come to that in the Spring. That's all I wanna say about content. Keep it clear, concise, add some quantities, and ensure that you respond to the job description.

I think one mistake that we make is that we don't proofread our resume enough. A comma, a spelling error, a format that changes halfway through the resume can hurt you. A resume needs to be a polished finished product. If you are like me that you are an English speaker, that you learned English at a later age, it's important for you to have a native speaker review your resume.

I can't see sometimes the grammar errors that I make, and that's okay because I have Janet here who does. At home, I have my spouse and I have other people, other colleagues that I reach out to and I network with, and I build this relationship so that I can go to when I need someone to review my grammar. I have had people review my abstracts. I have people reviewed my PowerPoints. It's really important for you to get in the habit of building these relationships where you give and maybe ask for favors in your personal, professional, and academic life. Proof read is a big mistake. Please, please don't. It's so easy. Don't turn in a resume with this problem.

I already talked about being responsive. The only thing I wanna say about your resume being responsive is that I think it's the number one rule. I know I put it here on the last thing, but it's because this is what I want you to remember.

If you don't do anything to your resume, I want you to ... If you're gonna turn in your resume, you're like, "I only have 20 minutes." What I want you to do is go through that job description, select things that are a match to the job description, and then utilize some of their language. You don't wanna say, "I do data analysis," when they're saying you are gonna run some frequencies, or you're gonna write a report and you submit in your resume, "I wrote an abstract." Use some other language. That's the simplest way to tailor your resume. Before I move to the next slide, I just wanted to see if Aileen has anything to add to this content.

Aileen Dinkjian: Yeah. I think proof reading's the number one mistake that happens often. I've actually had friends. And I'm talking about you should have people who are good at [inaudible 00:19:55] read your resume or anything that you write in general. So that way you get really good feedback. That's really sharpening yourself, and that's how I felt. I was a horrible writer. My resume was terrible, and I got butchered left and right, but that's how I got better at writing my resume. So proof reading, you hit on peers on that one. So that's what I'm gonna say to that, proof read.

Paula Amezola: Okay. This is a checklist. You don't have to take notes 'cause I have a handout for everyone. Basically, this summarizes ... As you go through your resume, these are the things that your resume should have. I talked about being clear, concise, and make a positive impression.

Your resume should not leave any questions unanswered. Sometimes I'll review and I was like, "Well, how many people did you collect the survey from?" That is a question that you should never leave blank because if you're gonna ... for those who are taking Tom [Molentez's 00:21:05] class, you do a program evaluation, you do a survey, you collect data. You need to state how many survey's we're collecting.

If you're working with three organizations to do a program evaluation, state that I have done three program evaluations. It is very different than I did a program evaluation. So be clear, be concise, and leave a positive impression. Now most reviewers read the resume for 30 seconds. So you really want to make sure that whatever line they read is a line that will be clear, concise and will be a match for the job description

We talked about punctuation and proof reading. One thing that I didn't mention about that is proof reading is, make sure that you ask a lay person that is not in our field. So we're in public health, maybe ask someone that is an accountant or someone that is a lawyer. And the reason is if they can understand what your role and your resume, it means that whoever gets your resume is going to know your skillset, your qualifications and your accomplishments. And that is very important.

So don't dismiss people that are outside your field, they're very important. If they don't understand what's on your resume, then probably a person that's an HR who doesn't know public health will also not know.

Speaker 3: So then what?

Paula Amezola: Yes.

Aileen Dinkjian: So I would actually encourage everyone to take advantage of the career services because who knows best than them to really look and scrutinize your resume and proof read it because you will get some amazing feedback and that's how I think we can help you guys advance in your careers.

Paula Amezola: These are some of fonts. I get this question asked, "Well what font should it be?" These are some fonts that are just clean fonts that I encourage you to think about which is Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana. I have here font 10-12 points, font size. I've reached an age that I don't like to read font 10, so keep that in mind. The hiring manager might be older than you and thus they might not want to read a tiny print. So I would say for me, and if someone's my age, 11 is the smallest I like.

We talked about having clean lines, about the formatting being consist throughout, and please make sure that when you put some blank space, so that it's easy to read as you move from one section to the next. And then each statement should have the following, and we're gonna discuss each statement in a little bit so just bear with me.

People say it should start with an action verb. Well I have seen many resumes and I think that if you're a good writer, you're a good writer and it doesn't have to start with an action verb. Have specific details. I think the number one reason why this is important is so that a person believes you, that you have this training, this skill, this experience. Then quantities, someone that has done one abstract or 1 brochure has a very different experience than some that has done 10. This is why you want to quantify.

Then as you build your resume it's important to have accomplishments. So be reflective in your projects, your current classes, be reflective in your practicum, be reflective in your internship, "What did I accomplish?" 'Cause it's not just skills. The reflection is an important component of being a good team man. And if you're not reflective of the work that you're doing then you will never know if what are your voids, what are your strengths. It's better to start now than to wait till your 40 or 50 and say like, "Oh, what are my accomplishments?"

So start now, your resume is a living document. It's your story. And as you gain your experiences, you want to add these experiences to your resume right away. I just went to a presentation last week on main campus and they said ... I had my resume open all the time. It's on my desk top and I open it all the time. Whenever I'm working on a project, I add it there.

So you might say, "Well that's a long resume, if I'm constantly adding things." And this person is like way older than me. Like someone that's been in the field for 20, 30 years. Maybe what they do is what I do, which I have a long resume and when I'm transitioning to a new position, I select the skills or the accomplishments that are relevant to that job descriptions and I'll include those.

But then I can turn in a resume that is tailored for a job description in an hour, because all I'm doing is selecting instead of writing because I'm constantly adding to my resume. Now I just need to practice and leave it on my desktop because I have it on my Google Drive and I can never find it. So that's what I wanted to say about accomplishments and adding these as you go along in your career and right now in your academic career too. Anything you wanna add Aileen?

So there's a lot of resumes out there. I like resumes to be simple. These are the headings that I love to see on everybody's resumes. I'm gonna show you a template so you don't have worry. The only thing I wanna say here is relevant experience. We get caught up too much whether all this is in chronological order. It doesn't really matter as long as we pick one. Pick a format and stick with that. This is a format I like. I like to put relevant experience because then if I have a gap in my resume, they know, "Oh, it's because she's only including relevant experience. She's not doing chronological." So get a format, stick with it. This is the format I like.

What are some optional sections. These are some optional sections. In a CV ... this is the last thing I talk about CVs, you can put all of these sections. In a resume, I encourage you to only include them if it's pertinent to the job description. One example could be you're applying your health promotion, and health education, and you're gonna be teaching kids how to eat healthy. And promoting physical activity. And you're a marathon runner, and maybe you're a Yoga instructor, well, I think that's very pertinent information to include any activities or any hobby section because these activities are directly relevant to the job you're applying to.

Another example is, once you get to like a mid-career level, I see job that state things such as like, "Candidate is a recognized leader in a community." Or some phrasing around that. Well, then I encourage you to use honors, memberships and maybe community leadership. And what you would do what you would say like, "I got an award from Hilda Solis. So I got an award from the mayor for tobacco control." that's how you would use it. It's relevant to the job you're applying because they wanna know that you're a leader, and you're a recognized leader. I don't see that in entry level but I do see it in mid-career and definitely in executives, Aileen.

Aileen Dinkjian: What I've included also as an optional resume heading is trainings. Keep track of all the trainings you taken, writing trainings, budget training, those will become handy and useful. Because the tracking part I do write and attach everything that I've done and who knows when. And you look back and pinpoint like, "Oh, I'm applying for the job, did I do that? I don't remember. Because my brain starts to diminish after five years." So I was like, "Oh, yeah, I did do that."

So I was I would highly that trainings, conferences you might, or any presentations you've given especially in class, or if it's really important to the work that you're going to be doing, papers you've written that you're presenting, I would include it. I mean why not? I think it would be very ... it doesn't hurt you. I think it really does develop our career story, professional story about your career, what you're going to do

Paula Amezola: That is great. See, I knew this was gonna be helpful. At the beginning I said, "I'm gonna ask you if you wanna add anything?" Because it's important, I learn something new. One thing that I haven't included here are certifications. Like IRB, and HIPAA, and clinical trials, these are all things that as students you get for free here at USC, and you can put in your resume. And then when a job that requires you to have these certifications, you already have them. And it gives you a leg up, because these certifications can take 10 to 20 hours to get online. And if the employer doesn't have to invest that time for you to do them on their payroll, then guess what? They're gonna do it. So keep that in mind.

So the certifications that you can gather here at USC online are HIPAA, then Clinical Trials and IRB. And I would suggest if you have any aspirations for research, just go get them, ASAP.

Aileen Dinkjian: And some of them are free 'cause after you graduate, there's a price tag to training. So take advantage of the free training.

Paula Amezola: Yes.

Speaker 5: Where did you find those?

Paula Amezola: The website is city.com. This is a template. It's very simple as you can tell. it does embellish any one section, it just shows that at the very top what's the most important. Your contact information when you graduate, you're gonna put your degree there. That's the number one mistake I see people make, they don't put their graduate degree next to their name in their resumes. And executive Summary. If someone spends 30 seconds reading a resume, wouldn't it be great for them to have two sentences that summarizes your resume right at the top? And that's all they read and they're like, "This is the person for us." They're in the interview pile now.

So I get this questioned asked all the time, "Well what should my resume look like?" For those who have not started or don't like their format, this is a template for you to use. For those who have something that they like, just build from it, and try to see how you can put some white space and make each section clear.

So we talked a little bit of how a story is important because it helps whoever is reading a resume, or whoever is listening to your introduction make connections to their personal life and how this ... I had this stepping ladder there so every time you talk about a specific component of your story, they can make a connection, and you can move up the ladder to a fruitful long-lasting relationship.

So I get asked a question, "Well, how can I put a story in my resume." And the way that I think you can do that is by writing accomplishments. And accomplishment, I like this method, and I didn't develop it, I'm not taking credit, this is all very the website. But I really appreciate the components and the ease to remember it. So you talk about the specific problem that you were trying to solve, and area of responsibility. So I know I gave a lot of examples about Epi. But let me give you an example that I think it's really important. If you ever get a chance to do financing, do it. Financing is that type of skill that wherever you take it, it's gonna be a great a skill to have on you resume. So you might ask, "Well, the problem is that we're spending too much money." And the action is, "Well I took the reimbursements, and I took too much money at conferences. I took the reimbursements, and I compared them across the different people that were going to these conferences, and I found out the results were that people who stayed at conference hotels spend more money than those who bought their hotel through KAYAK.

And so there's just this simple example of building an accomplishment. You talk about the situation, and the problem, and you talk about your actions, and then the results. Now I'm gonna give you an example that maybe ... and this is an actual example two years ago, Cedars-Sinai was having this problem. So they needed to put electronic medical records in the hospital, otherwise they were not gonna be able to receive federal funding.

So the action that a person took was that they researched these different medical record systems, they negotiate in bids. They recommended three options to the board. And the vendor that was chosen, he then went back and negotiated a 25% decrease. The result is the hospital now has an electronic medical record, both patients and the stuff are noticing the efficient delivery of the care. And how do you put that into a one-sentence, is here.

So, "Save the hospital 25% off their bid to implement their EMR, by researching, negotiating, and resolving on a system that improved the delivery of care to patients. Then the students ask me, "Well, does every bullet point need to go in this one now?" But short answer is no. My long answer is try to write as many accomplishments you can, because the more accomplishments you have, the more successful your resume will be, and effective. And you will look like an all-star candidate, okay?

So that was it for me. Before I move on, does the audience or online have any questions about resumes, or the star method? No? Well I don't wanna delay any further, but Aileen here is going to go over the so-called out dated cover letter which both her and I agree that-

Aileen Dinkjian: Yeah, it's pretty outdated. How many of you have cover letters already? Yeah, that's what I ... because honestly I think every time I try to write a cover letter, I always go blank. It's like when you think about a cover letter, you sit down in front of a computer and you're trying to target this job that you want, right? And you're like, "What the heck am I gonna write?" I think of it as a blind date, it's like well, I don't know this person, what am I gonna tell them about myself that will make them like me, right?

So, what is a cover letter? So, a cover letter announces your availabilities. You have to think of it as like a trailer to your professional story. What is it about you that will make them want you specifically, because that first sentence is critical to getting their attention, right? Just like any time you write an essay, you have to grab their attention. If you're like, "Hi, my name is blah, blah, blah." You know, all right, next, they're all gonna sound the same, cover letter to cover letter to cover letter.

So, there are typical sentences most people have written that I've seen as Dear so and so, I just recently learned about this person and they include the ID number of the position, which I think is a good idea to include the ID number or the position number only because it seems like it helps save the employer's time to look at what position was this for and it's like a hidden rule kind of, if you give more details about what you know about the position, there are better chances of them to look further into what you're interested in.

So, you wanna introduce yourself and let them know that you're interested and that you know about the positions, not just a generic cover letter that you're writing but ... I'm gonna move back up. I would actually encourage you to have a template, start off with a template, right? A cover letter template that you can refer to all the time just like a resume. You can tailor it every time you find a job because often times I have seen cover letters that didn't even match the job that you're looking for. So, don't send out a generic resume, it will be a waste of your time number one because no one's going to look at it, and number two, you wanna target. You have to be very specific just like your resume.

Self advertisement, okay, what does that mean? What do you think you should include in your cover letter to help advertise yourself. You're thinking, "I wanna summarize my resume," so, how I approach a cover letter, you wanna say something that's probably not in your resume, right? So, this is the part where in the body of the cover letter, you wanna get into details about the job that you're looking for. Like for me, I work right now at USC as the research administrator for the Clinical & Translational Science Institute.

How did I get there? I mean it really goes back to drawing back to my past experiences. So, I knew nothing about science, you know, translational science, what that it all meant, clinical trials, all foreign to me. How did I get the job, right? The cover letter. I included in the body that I have had years of experience in program management, I threw in key words, research, right? And it's really letting them know that you have a genuine interest 'cause you wanna sound authentic also in your cover letter. You should indicate you having searched the organization, you're not gonna put someone you know, like, "Hi, I'm very interested in this job at UCLA," what?

And I've seen mistakes happen like that before, so, you want to be able to just do some background information, you point out that, "You know I know you have this specific program you're launching, I'm very good. I've been a part of program that has always been at the early stages of development, and I'm very good at launching programs and these are examples of my experiences." And that's what led me and got me into my field now, is because the CTSI which is where I work at was very early in their stages at USC. So, I've been a part of that. And I would encourage you to just think about how you can apply your personal experiences and incorporate to what you know about the organization, definitely do your homework.

Relate the organization directly to your experience and your how you're a good fit, like, what's your feeling? If you write a cover letter and you're like, "I don't want really want it, but I need job, and I need ... I just need to send this out because I'm getting tired and it's not really what ..." It will show, that's clearly obvious, it will show in your cover letter. And you have to prove yourself. Like, if you are wring something and you are passionate, how many years have you ever done a blog or written personal journals or anything like that, it's almost like that. If you have that enthusiasm when you are writing your cover letter, it will show and it will be a good benefit to you.

Speaker 4: That was a segment-

Aileen Dinkjian: Oh, segment, okay. Opening paragraphs, okay, let's talk about opening paragraphs. And it must ... a cover letter one page, I think that's enough. Who wants to read more than page of a cover letter, it's too much. So, you wanna introduce yourself and then mention your position.

Like I said earlier to the position that you are applying to, indicate how you learned about it and express your interest. Maybe you knew someone and that's a bonus point. I think of it as, you know, "You might know anybody at USC? I do, I knew Paula. Oh let's say you, "Paula I'm gonna put you down as someone that I knew at USC," and then ... this is where we're gonna get into LinkedIn and why it's important to network and keep in touch with people because you never know.

And then sharing about how you found out about the job, how you learned about it and express your interest. So, what is it about the job that you are interested about? Is it because, oh, it's Biostatics, I love numbers. I've known numbers and I've always succeeded in math. I mean, sometimes you can even ... if you did really well in math and you wanna talk about your scores and high school or college, you just excelled in math or in numbers and ... numbers and letters I guess. Then you wanna point that out, that this is something you are good at.

The body, right? The paragraph, where you share your qualifications and specific experiences for the position. So, this is where you wanna talk a little bit about experience, right, examples. Not only do you mention in your resume, be specific. But you wanna now pull out, like what is it from your experience that will match this job? And when I say match, match it directly to the T.

Because you wanna talk about ... like if you are ... "What's in my job interest that you guys are looking for right now, I just wanna get an idea if you guys are aware of anything. Is it program management? I'm in the research field. You guys are looking into community work which I love," you and talk about it. If you are applying for let's say a program manager position that you are going to be leading a new center in the community, talk about what is it that you know about the community?

Even if not directly or related to the center, what do you know about the community that no one else knows? So, when you think about cover letters, think about also your competition. Who is applying, who is possibly applying for this job? Is it a director, is it someone with more experience than me? How are you gonna make yourself more competitive? Oh, is there a question?

Speaker 4: No, I was just wondering online students it's what field of research and disease prevention-

Aileen Dinkjian: Oh great. Oh good, research or disease prevention, that was my field, I was helping Goshen Prevention and Community Health and definitely if there's an epidemic or if there's an issue in a community that you are trying to address, HIV or whatever, you wanna let it out why you are interested in that job. And how you are gonna help bring value, added value to that position and to that center. Oh, one key thing I think is always impressive is to learn about the organization's mission, that's key.

If you don't know what the organization's mission is, what they're all about, I mean why are you playing. I mean is it really in mind of what you wanna do? And even in your interview, the mission is out there, if you can memorize the mission and repeat it back to them, that's like a deal breaker. I think I've seen some people do it. I've used it myself and it really opened eyes. People look back and say, "Wow, they looked at our mission, or, "They memorized our mission." So, that's a tip, definitely a tip.

So, closing memoir and closing your resume, summarize your qualifications. Then say, "Again, thank you so much for this opportunity ... to apply for this position, I am very excited for the possible opportunity to work at this as a blah, blah, blah," and then include your contact information. "I will make myself available as soon as possible," and whatever you wanna say. I always feel like, when you write a cover letter, you don't wanna make them wait, "Oh, I'll make myself available in two weeks ... oh." Oh, I don't ... I don't know, I just don't like ... I don't feel comfortable making employers wait. I just feel like, if they've have an urgency to fill a position, you wanna fill that urgency too. So, most important, why should they employ or hire you? I actually set that question. What is it about me? What is about the competitions and all these resumes they are looking at? What makes me unique? What makes me different from everybody else? It sounds a cliché, but I had to really emphasize that.

They wanna see what's different about you or they wanna see what you are capable of and be honest. Definitely be honest and articulate the connection to the job description and your skills and qualification. I mean, you can briefly bullet point these in your cover letter, your skills like, "I am very strong in my writing abilities and have drafted multiple grants or even multiple ... whatever you've done, reports delivered yada yada yada. Those things, I mean ... the thing about probably about ... probably about saying that you are good at writing and then they find a spelling error in your cover, that's like there, "Oh, this person doesn't pay attention to details."

So, that's not a problem, pay attention to detail about your cover letter. And then we are gonna emphasize, proof read, proof read, because many times I have written cover letters and completely scratch it off, is that I won't like it and sometimes I tweak it. And then when you make changes to your cover letter, many many times, you are gonna have to see ... you are gonna read it over and over and over and you are not gonna catch that one there. So, I do agree that you have to have someone else, fresh pair of eyes look at it.

Speaker 9: Can I ask you a quick question?

Aileen Dinkjian: Yeah.

Speaker 9: If someone's looking to move the one field to the next, you wreck it for another field, so my augment is in education going to public health, do you recommend that be brought up in there?

Aileen Dinkjian: Yeah. Why not? If it's relevant, if they are going from education to public health and they are gonna be a health educator, I definitely think that's a strong background. That you had in an experience in educating and public speaking and developing a curriculum or something that will transfer into the field of public health. And you don't ... I mean, it's so general and so wide what you can do with your past experience. As an example for me, political science was my background, completely opposite. How did I get into public health and how did I transfer those skills, right?

Like what did I know about public health? It was very difficult because you are gonna look at these. Like, "All of her experiences were all in local government and she wasn't really important," but it was public health. 'Cause I was working in the community addressing specific health issues. So, if there's an ... in the field of education where the student was addressing some specific health issues or anything or have any research or done anything in the field of health, yeah, I would totally tie that in. So, any other question so far? Yes.

Paula Amezola: I wanted to add. One other things about ... at the very beginning we talked about how pretty much everything around us is public health. And we need to realize that the number one thing that as a society we can do to improve the health of humans is to educate more people. And so starting a cover letter by saying that could be very impactful for someone that's hiring you. And they could see ... it could show that you are now gonna be well versed in education and in public health. 'Cause public health is all around us.

The reason we wear seat belts is because of public health, the reason we have safety measures in our cars and our exhaust is because of public health. The reason we have a smoke-free campus is because of public health. And I think it's important. for us to explain that in our cover letter ... that makes us unique candidates. We're constantly being ... we compete against nurses, nurse practitioners for jobs and quality improvement. And a nurse has great skills, but a nurse has a lot of great skills one-on-one and we have a lot of great skills in studying populations.

And so, if I was writing a cover letter for quality improvement, that's what I would talk about. About the great skills I have about looking at problems in a group setting. Because we're competing with nurses and nurse practitioners, people who have been in the clinic and we have other skillsets and that's okay. We need to penetrate these fields because we have done great good for our society and we can continue penetrating different sectors of our ... of employment to make things better for everyone.

So, remember how we started, public health is everywhere and it has infiltrated into a lot of sectors. So, that's how I wanna answer that question and I'm it took so long with that.

Aileen Dinkjian: Yeah, never discount your past life or past on experiences, definitely incorporate them every time, every opportunity you get. Any questions so far? Any other questions? No? Okay. All right. Now we are gonna get to the fun part. How many of you have a LinkedIn? All right. How many of you guys have 100% all-star? Okay, oh, great, we have one, yes. So, LinkedIn actually ... I mean now we're at this digital age where most people can just look up anybody.

And LinkedIn is really your professional networking site. Well, one thing we wanna talk about is you have a resume, you have a cover letter, now you have a LinkedIn. It's like you have too many things to manage, but you know what, it's really beneficial. LinkedIn is ... I mean, I wanna know, what do you guys think of LinkedIn, what is to you? Well, is it meaningful for you, do you think that it even matters? I see a yes, no, kind of ... "I've had LinkedIn, but I've never updated for 10 years."

So, LinkedIn is not just a place where you can just brag and put on a bunch of accomplishments. But there is a large potential. Because you know what, guess where the employers are. Many of them are on LinkedIn and maybe your potential colleagues will be in LinkedIn. And you have people that you'll meet that will be on LinkedIn. So, it's important that you develop a profile that's 100% complete. Why? Because if you meet someone and let's just say marriage. Are you gonna marry that's 50% you know? Are you gonna commit or hire someone that's like, "Oh, I know this close to 90%." No, you want a staff with a profile of 100%. You wanna know what you're getting yourself into.

I mean that's what really LinkedIn is. You want to tell a full professional story about yourself. You don't want them ... you don't want any employer to guess or assume anything about you. You want to give them your online reputation about what you are able to do. So, your online profile is your digital business card essentially. Who has a business card here, visible business cards? All right, one. Now everyone has, now you can all have online business cards. Because you would never have it incomplete, your LinkedIn profile.

Users with complete profiles are forty times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn. And this is again one of those deal breakers. The summary part of your LinkedIn is just a general opening statement. Again in your trailer, what do you wanna talk about yourself? How do you see yourself that with lead you to the career that you wanna be in? And this is where the hiring manager and recruiters read. They're looking at your general summary and saying, "Hmm, okay, this person is an Italian and they've done this."

And this is place where you can add your objective, similar to your resume. What is it about that you are looking to do? You know, "I want to get into the field of helping children at a clinic and developing a program." So, you wanna talk about your objective, your executive summary or your values deep in. Describe what motivates you and what you are skilled at. And you don't wanna say anything on your summary like, "Oh, I'm a recent graduate." Or, "I just graduated and looking for a job." I mean, it's kind of saying, "I'm available guys. I'm single." Who wants that? It's not really attractive. So, you gotta think about, "How am I gonna be attractive to the employer essentially," right?

So you want to make recruiters see something about you that you know, "Oh, this person's professional," and they are thinking about recruiting me now, "Maybe we should invite them for an interview." Because if they've gone through your resume, they've gone through a cover letter, what's the next step. They're looking at your profile and saying, "Okay, what do they have? What are people saying about them, if they have any recommendations," which I will talk about later.

So, the most important section, experience, write down your experience. I have seen LinkedIn profiles where they'll just write their name or their job, organization and their title. Write, what did you do. Be specific, what did you do and goes back to your accomplishments. Write about your accomplishments. "You know, what I increased this number, percent of ... I don't know, rate of something," in your accomplishment. Or, "I created a new program and developed a team of bright people and led this into an award-winning, whatever." Write it. Why not?

You gotta really promote yourself and one way that you can promote yourself without saying anything is going online, you're not writing anything, you already did the work. So, this is your opportunity to document your background, include all your jobs, part-time jobs, make sure you have at least one accomplishment for each. One, just one, think of one. You know, "I worked at Starbucks at one point and I've helped manage a team." Team, right. That's another skills that's important. Can you work with any people?

And they like to see that you are well-rounded and it's also important to post photos, presentations, you can also include trainings that you've taken in your classes. Any training you've done, images do say a thousand words. So, if you have a PowerPoint presentation that you've created and you wanna upload and you're so proud of it. You're like, "It's just sitting inside my disk drive. It's just sitting there and not getting recognized," then just post it online. People will see what kind of work you've done and that you've actually given a presentation.

Education, include all education after high school including summer program. So, this is really important because you can include additional courses that you've taken that could be relevant to your job. And honestly, if you can't find your resume or your cover letter, at least you can go, login online and see, "Oh, you know what I uploaded this." 'Cause that happened to me actually. I had a link to an article that I forgot I was actually a part of. That I contributed to. I was like, "Oh, yeah, it's actually on my LinkedIn Profile," and I'm sure someone has looked at some point.

How many of you guys have volunteer experiences? I'm sure all of us have some sort of volunteer experiences, whether it's at church, whether it's community, whether it's at school, recognize yourself for being a volunteer. If you have important cards that you are involved with, that you want to indicate. I mean, "I'm an animal lover, I've done an organization where I help rescue dogs and cats, hosting an event for that." I mean, people wanna know what you're about. What you're passionate about, what your work is about. This is why employers and recruiters often see this experience as a value.

And one thing about volunteering, I'm gonna have to mention is that if you have no experience like work experience, volunteering is your experience. Paid or unpaid, you know what, I think my volunteer experience is what led me to my next phases of my career. Because it shows that I will spend like how many hours to get something done. This could be your internship or your practicum, right? You can include that as part of your volunteer experience. So, LinkedIn, this is my profile. Does it link out?

Speaker 5: Let me try, just able to click it and share your screen.

Aileen Dinkjian: All right. Oh, it doesn't share.

Speaker 5: What do you see?

Paula Amezola: I still see the-

Aileen Dinkjian: Oh you do?

Speaker 5: I still see a little.

Aileen Dinkjian: Oh okay. That's okay. I'll go back to the ... how do I go back?

Paula Amezola: Maybe can I try something. Let me try ... I think stop sharing.

Speaker 9: Let me try it.

Paula Amezola: That's okay.

Speaker 9: It wasn't very many. There's only one person up here.

Paula Amezola: Oh, okay, there's only one person.

Speaker 9: I wanna share my screen.

Paula Amezola: Share my screen, connecting. Okay, allow.

Speaker 4: Help them (silence).