Interview Question: Why should I hire you?
July 29, 2009
Downloaded from http://cuberules.com/2009/07/29/interview-question-why-should-i-hire-you/ on July 31, 2009
Open-ended interview questions from hiring managers are great ways to solicit information from job applicants. What’s lousy about the open-ended questions, however, is when they are simply open-ended and not open-ended about the job. As a result, “Why should I hire you?” is a dangerous interview question. You have no context with which to orient your answer to what the hiring manager is looking for in the position. So your answer can be spot-on or wildly off base. Just what you want in an interview…
Start with your value to work; your personal brand. While each of us has done work that qualifies as a “position” — let’s say a nurse — each of us also brings particular skills to the job that differentiate us among nurses.
For example, my tag line is “rubber meets cloud.” I’m good at implementation of projects. I can see the high level of work and gateways and management intentions while being perfectly capable of getting into the weeds of the tasks with anyone to get the work done. That’s one of my special job skills that I bring to project management.
Or, my special skill as a manager is that I figure out how to get the best work out of each individual on my team. I have various ways of doing that, but I have a track record of getting teams working well together to get stuff done. You have that same unique set of skills for the work you do as well. It might be delivery, creativity, focus, problem solving, process fixing or a hundred other things. Use your personal brand to show value to the job description.
When you get asked an open-ended question about you rather than the job, the only criteria about the job you can fall back on is the job description. Consequently, before the job interview, you need to have already decided what value you bring to the major portions of the job description. You start with your personal brand values and then go through the job description and apply the values to the job. If the job description reads that the person needs to work in a fast-paced environment and one of your unique skills is your ability to quickly reorient your focus, you can build part of an answer to a “why should I hire you?” question based on the fact that you quickly change focus as the daily pace changes while still achieving your goals.
Having 2-3 of these “unique performance values” related to the “job description” will give you the cleanest way of beginning to answer the “why should I hire you?” question.
Scot Herrick
Friday, July 31, 2009
Avoid a Common Interview Pitfall
Avoid a Common Interview Pitfall
By Jessica Stillman
July 30th, 2009 @ 11:28 am
downloaded from www.bnet.online.com July 31,2009
Even if you’ve perfected your pitch and learned to summarize your accomplishments in a compelling and concrete way, interviews are not safe ground, especially for those who are relatively new to them. Interviewers have plenty of tricks up their sleeves, not least of which is questions seemingly designed expressly to trip you up. Putting aside the loathed “what are your weakness?” question, blog Cube Rules describes another type of interview question that seems to have no correct answer, calling these “forced choice questions” and giving examples:
· “What is more important to you, the money or the job?” Great, if I say “the money,” the hiring manager doesn’t think I’m motivated to do the work. If I answer with “the job,” the manager doesn’t think I’ll be upset with a smaller salary offer.
· “Do you prefer to work alone or with others?” Swell, I can like to work by myself and be thought of as a poor team player with no collaborative abilities, or else I work so well with others I can’t get anything done by myself.
Helpfully, Cube Rules also throws the floundering interviewee a life buoy, suggesting ways out of the bind. Perhaps the simplest solution is to says yes to both answers. For example, in response to the second question above, CR suggests a possible reply: “I like working alone when I need focus and productivity to complete my work. But I like working with people to brainstorm ideas, help get better solutions to problems and help others for what they need.” And if saying yes to all options doesn’t work? Then there is an alternative:
A second way to answer the forced choice is to pick a third option that isn’t presented by the interview question. “Do you work better with a manager that gives you free reign to complete your work the way you want or do you like being micromanaged to get your work done?”
For that type of question, you ignore both options presented and offer up a third alternative to answer this question. “I like a manager that provides clear direction, is open to seeing early versions of the work so we can make sure I’m on track, and to help clear obstacles that might prevent me from getting done.”
By Jessica Stillman
July 30th, 2009 @ 11:28 am
downloaded from www.bnet.online.com July 31,2009
Even if you’ve perfected your pitch and learned to summarize your accomplishments in a compelling and concrete way, interviews are not safe ground, especially for those who are relatively new to them. Interviewers have plenty of tricks up their sleeves, not least of which is questions seemingly designed expressly to trip you up. Putting aside the loathed “what are your weakness?” question, blog Cube Rules describes another type of interview question that seems to have no correct answer, calling these “forced choice questions” and giving examples:
· “What is more important to you, the money or the job?” Great, if I say “the money,” the hiring manager doesn’t think I’m motivated to do the work. If I answer with “the job,” the manager doesn’t think I’ll be upset with a smaller salary offer.
· “Do you prefer to work alone or with others?” Swell, I can like to work by myself and be thought of as a poor team player with no collaborative abilities, or else I work so well with others I can’t get anything done by myself.
Helpfully, Cube Rules also throws the floundering interviewee a life buoy, suggesting ways out of the bind. Perhaps the simplest solution is to says yes to both answers. For example, in response to the second question above, CR suggests a possible reply: “I like working alone when I need focus and productivity to complete my work. But I like working with people to brainstorm ideas, help get better solutions to problems and help others for what they need.” And if saying yes to all options doesn’t work? Then there is an alternative:
A second way to answer the forced choice is to pick a third option that isn’t presented by the interview question. “Do you work better with a manager that gives you free reign to complete your work the way you want or do you like being micromanaged to get your work done?”
For that type of question, you ignore both options presented and offer up a third alternative to answer this question. “I like a manager that provides clear direction, is open to seeing early versions of the work so we can make sure I’m on track, and to help clear obstacles that might prevent me from getting done.”
Friday, July 24, 2009
Facebook, Twitter and More: The New Rules of Social Networking
By Elaine Pofeldt
published on BNET.com 7/16/2009
If you aren’t using social-media sites to tap into career and business opportunities in today’s tough economy, you should be. A survey released in January by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that more than one-third of all Americans now have profiles on social-networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, up from just 8 percent in 2005. And it’s not primarily kids, either:
The average LinkedIn user is 40 years old; most Twitter users are now 35 and older; and people
from 35 to 54 now represent the biggest group of users on Facebook. “You get access to people via LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter that you can’t get in other ways,” says Sharon Rich, founder of outplacement consulting and coaching firm Leadership Incorporated. “I think it’s mandatory to be on there.”
Social-media sites can become a time suck, so you’ll need to limit the time you invest in them each week. But done right, social networking is a powerful way to build your professional reputation, find out about job opportunities, and keep abreast of the latest news and gossip in your industry.
Things you will need:
• An updated resume. Have this handy so you can transfer relevant information to different social-media sites quickly.
• A digital photo of yourself. Get a good head shot of yourself showing you at your professional best to use in your profiles.
• Your e-mail contact list. Once you join a network, you’ll want to quickly send invitations to connect to your professional contacts. In many cases, this can be done automatically using tools on each site.
Build a Powerhouse Profile on LinkedIn
LinkedIn’s business-only focus makes the site popular with successful professionals (so far,
the site has 43 million members in more than 200 countries), so it’s the best place to start your social-media push. LinkedIn’s large amount of traffic also means that your profile there is likely to be the first thing that potential employers and clients see when they google your name, so it’s important to invest some time in building a strong profile. “Why not tell the story your way?”
says Randy Hain, managing partner of Bell Oaks Executive Search in Atlanta. Hain knows
firsthand the value of a good profile: He recently signed a client (who will do an estimated
$100,000 to $200,000 worth of new business this year) when the client searched for Hain’s LinkedIn profile after reading an article he wrote in a trade publication.
Checklist
How to Shape Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
• Seek out recommendations from past bosses, key clients, colleagues, and direct reports to create a 360-degree picture of your strengths. Tell them that you’ll be happy to do the same for
them.
• Instead of a generic job title at the top of your profile, such as “Owner of John Doe and
associates,” use a short description of valuable credentials that you can quantify, such as “20-year veteran of $100 million in high-tech mergers,” advises Chris Muccio, author of the
book 42 Rules for 24-Hour Success on LinkedIn.
• Fill out the “Interests” section with pursuits, such as charitable projects, that reinforce your
value to potential employers and clients.
• For consistency and branding, use a good head shot of yourself as your photo, and use the same photo on other social networks, advises Megan Hendricks, director, employer relations at the College of Business at the University of South Florida.
• Opt for a free vanity address for your profile that uses your full name, such as
linkedin.com/in/janedoe, so colleagues can find your profile easily.
Use LinkedIn’s Tools to Research Potential Job Opportunities
LinkedIn’s profiles of more than 360,000 businesses and organizations can be used to gather invaluable intelligence on job openings and opportunities. Start by entering your target company’s name in the search bar at the top of the page and specifying “Search Companies” to find its LinkedIn profile. From there, you can see the names of current employees that are in your network, job openings, the names of recent hires, employees who have left the firm, and even the top feeder company and the most popular next employer among those who have left.
You can also choose to “Search Answers” on the name of a particular firm to see questions
its employees have posted for other members to answer, their replies to other questions, and Q&As that mention the company. These pages can provide useful information on the corporate culture or current challenges the company is trying to solve that will help you with your cover letter and interview strategies.
To find out about unadvertised job opportunities, try contacting people you know at the target
company, including those who are second- or third-degree connections (to contact them, you’ll
need to get an introduction from your mutual contact first). If your network is small and you
don’t know anyone at the target company, consider upgrading to a paid business account on
LinkedIn, which starts at $24.95 a month. With one of these accounts, you can contact anyone
on the site directly, although there’s a limit on how many people outside your network you can
contact per month. When contacting strangers, it’s a good idea to browse their profile and see if there’s any common ground in either their work or personal interests you can point to that will make your initial message warmer.
Another way to expand your network is by joining LinkedIn discussion groups pertaining to your industry and becoming active in posing and answering questions. Bill Snyder, 42, recently ended a long job search by answering a question on LinkedIn about which were the best conferences for meeting the heads of nonprofit organizations. The question turned out to have been posted by the founder of a start-up called We-Care.com, who then invited Snyder to a lunch the next time he was in town. One month later, he offered Snyder a job as the company’s general manager.
Tweet Your Way to Greater Career Visibility
Twitter is a fast-growing “microblogging” site that lets you send out frequent 140-character
messages (“tweets”) to a network of people who have opted to follow you, as well as to follow
the updates of anyone in your network. Many professionals use Twitter to send short bits
of useful information, such as business tips or links to interesting articles, to help build their
professional visibility and make new contacts. The trick is to make sure you limit yourself
to messages that are truly useful (or at least entertaining), so that they’re of value to your
followers.
To make sure you build an appropriate audience, go to the “Settings” menu and check the box
that says “Protect My Updates.” This will enable you to approve each new follower request
— a smart move if you want to block spammers on the site. Conversely, choosing to follow
well-connected thought leaders in your field can help keep you abreast of trends in your
industry, as well as the latest gossip. One good way to find people and sites in your industry
is to search by what are called “hash tags” — key words preceded by the “#” sign that people
can include in their tweets to make them searchable. For example, to find people posting about law or lawyers, you’d search under “#lawyer,” take a look at all the relevant tweets, and then choose to follow some of the people or groups with the most interesting posts.
Master the Delicate Art of Using Facebook Effectively
Facebook can be a great way to reconnect with old friends who may now be in a position to
help you with your career goals, as well as to stay in touch with colleagues on the site. But
since there’s always a chance that someone in your network could post an embarrassing photo of you or make comments you don’t want your work contacts to see, make sure you’re familiar with the site’s privacy settings before building out your network of friends. Go to “Settings” at the top of your page, choose “Privacy” from the pull-down menu, and you’ll come to a page that lets you control who can see almost every posted item on your page, who can post messages to your wall, and even whether strangers can search for you and how much of your profile they can see.
Facebook is also rife with professional groups that you can join and subsequently exchange news with others in your industry and make new contacts. Simply type in the name of your profession or industry into the search bar and you’ll see a list of relevant groups, most of which you can join immediately. While these groups on Facebook are sometimes not as active and professionally focused as those on LinkedIn, they still can be a good way to meet new people.
Facebook can be particularly useful for getting the word out and building a community around
a new business venture, but experts advise setting up a separate “fan page” of your venture
to avoid making your personal page too promotional. John Mooney, principal of marketing
firm JRM Communications LLC, recently advised a Manhattan client who sells waffles from
a mobile truck to create a Facebook group. The client sends out news of the truck’s future
whereabouts to people in his network that he’s invited to become fans, which has helped increase sales significantly. “They’re all in New York, and they’re all really into food,” says
Mooney of the group’s members.
But of course. Social networking is all about quickly finding people in every possible niche.
Especially the one that matters most to your career: that marvelous niche of folks who might
just help you succeed.
Copyright © 2009 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
published on BNET.com 7/16/2009
If you aren’t using social-media sites to tap into career and business opportunities in today’s tough economy, you should be. A survey released in January by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that more than one-third of all Americans now have profiles on social-networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, up from just 8 percent in 2005. And it’s not primarily kids, either:
The average LinkedIn user is 40 years old; most Twitter users are now 35 and older; and people
from 35 to 54 now represent the biggest group of users on Facebook. “You get access to people via LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter that you can’t get in other ways,” says Sharon Rich, founder of outplacement consulting and coaching firm Leadership Incorporated. “I think it’s mandatory to be on there.”
Social-media sites can become a time suck, so you’ll need to limit the time you invest in them each week. But done right, social networking is a powerful way to build your professional reputation, find out about job opportunities, and keep abreast of the latest news and gossip in your industry.
Things you will need:
• An updated resume. Have this handy so you can transfer relevant information to different social-media sites quickly.
• A digital photo of yourself. Get a good head shot of yourself showing you at your professional best to use in your profiles.
• Your e-mail contact list. Once you join a network, you’ll want to quickly send invitations to connect to your professional contacts. In many cases, this can be done automatically using tools on each site.
Build a Powerhouse Profile on LinkedIn
LinkedIn’s business-only focus makes the site popular with successful professionals (so far,
the site has 43 million members in more than 200 countries), so it’s the best place to start your social-media push. LinkedIn’s large amount of traffic also means that your profile there is likely to be the first thing that potential employers and clients see when they google your name, so it’s important to invest some time in building a strong profile. “Why not tell the story your way?”
says Randy Hain, managing partner of Bell Oaks Executive Search in Atlanta. Hain knows
firsthand the value of a good profile: He recently signed a client (who will do an estimated
$100,000 to $200,000 worth of new business this year) when the client searched for Hain’s LinkedIn profile after reading an article he wrote in a trade publication.
Checklist
How to Shape Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
• Seek out recommendations from past bosses, key clients, colleagues, and direct reports to create a 360-degree picture of your strengths. Tell them that you’ll be happy to do the same for
them.
• Instead of a generic job title at the top of your profile, such as “Owner of John Doe and
associates,” use a short description of valuable credentials that you can quantify, such as “20-year veteran of $100 million in high-tech mergers,” advises Chris Muccio, author of the
book 42 Rules for 24-Hour Success on LinkedIn.
• Fill out the “Interests” section with pursuits, such as charitable projects, that reinforce your
value to potential employers and clients.
• For consistency and branding, use a good head shot of yourself as your photo, and use the same photo on other social networks, advises Megan Hendricks, director, employer relations at the College of Business at the University of South Florida.
• Opt for a free vanity address for your profile that uses your full name, such as
linkedin.com/in/janedoe, so colleagues can find your profile easily.
Use LinkedIn’s Tools to Research Potential Job Opportunities
LinkedIn’s profiles of more than 360,000 businesses and organizations can be used to gather invaluable intelligence on job openings and opportunities. Start by entering your target company’s name in the search bar at the top of the page and specifying “Search Companies” to find its LinkedIn profile. From there, you can see the names of current employees that are in your network, job openings, the names of recent hires, employees who have left the firm, and even the top feeder company and the most popular next employer among those who have left.
You can also choose to “Search Answers” on the name of a particular firm to see questions
its employees have posted for other members to answer, their replies to other questions, and Q&As that mention the company. These pages can provide useful information on the corporate culture or current challenges the company is trying to solve that will help you with your cover letter and interview strategies.
To find out about unadvertised job opportunities, try contacting people you know at the target
company, including those who are second- or third-degree connections (to contact them, you’ll
need to get an introduction from your mutual contact first). If your network is small and you
don’t know anyone at the target company, consider upgrading to a paid business account on
LinkedIn, which starts at $24.95 a month. With one of these accounts, you can contact anyone
on the site directly, although there’s a limit on how many people outside your network you can
contact per month. When contacting strangers, it’s a good idea to browse their profile and see if there’s any common ground in either their work or personal interests you can point to that will make your initial message warmer.
Another way to expand your network is by joining LinkedIn discussion groups pertaining to your industry and becoming active in posing and answering questions. Bill Snyder, 42, recently ended a long job search by answering a question on LinkedIn about which were the best conferences for meeting the heads of nonprofit organizations. The question turned out to have been posted by the founder of a start-up called We-Care.com, who then invited Snyder to a lunch the next time he was in town. One month later, he offered Snyder a job as the company’s general manager.
Tweet Your Way to Greater Career Visibility
Twitter is a fast-growing “microblogging” site that lets you send out frequent 140-character
messages (“tweets”) to a network of people who have opted to follow you, as well as to follow
the updates of anyone in your network. Many professionals use Twitter to send short bits
of useful information, such as business tips or links to interesting articles, to help build their
professional visibility and make new contacts. The trick is to make sure you limit yourself
to messages that are truly useful (or at least entertaining), so that they’re of value to your
followers.
To make sure you build an appropriate audience, go to the “Settings” menu and check the box
that says “Protect My Updates.” This will enable you to approve each new follower request
— a smart move if you want to block spammers on the site. Conversely, choosing to follow
well-connected thought leaders in your field can help keep you abreast of trends in your
industry, as well as the latest gossip. One good way to find people and sites in your industry
is to search by what are called “hash tags” — key words preceded by the “#” sign that people
can include in their tweets to make them searchable. For example, to find people posting about law or lawyers, you’d search under “#lawyer,” take a look at all the relevant tweets, and then choose to follow some of the people or groups with the most interesting posts.
Master the Delicate Art of Using Facebook Effectively
Facebook can be a great way to reconnect with old friends who may now be in a position to
help you with your career goals, as well as to stay in touch with colleagues on the site. But
since there’s always a chance that someone in your network could post an embarrassing photo of you or make comments you don’t want your work contacts to see, make sure you’re familiar with the site’s privacy settings before building out your network of friends. Go to “Settings” at the top of your page, choose “Privacy” from the pull-down menu, and you’ll come to a page that lets you control who can see almost every posted item on your page, who can post messages to your wall, and even whether strangers can search for you and how much of your profile they can see.
Facebook is also rife with professional groups that you can join and subsequently exchange news with others in your industry and make new contacts. Simply type in the name of your profession or industry into the search bar and you’ll see a list of relevant groups, most of which you can join immediately. While these groups on Facebook are sometimes not as active and professionally focused as those on LinkedIn, they still can be a good way to meet new people.
Facebook can be particularly useful for getting the word out and building a community around
a new business venture, but experts advise setting up a separate “fan page” of your venture
to avoid making your personal page too promotional. John Mooney, principal of marketing
firm JRM Communications LLC, recently advised a Manhattan client who sells waffles from
a mobile truck to create a Facebook group. The client sends out news of the truck’s future
whereabouts to people in his network that he’s invited to become fans, which has helped increase sales significantly. “They’re all in New York, and they’re all really into food,” says
Mooney of the group’s members.
But of course. Social networking is all about quickly finding people in every possible niche.
Especially the one that matters most to your career: that marvelous niche of folks who might
just help you succeed.
Copyright © 2009 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
TIPS FOR WRITING PROJECT-BASED FELLOWSHIP APPLICATIONS
PROJECT-BASED FELLOWSHIP APPLICATIONS:
TAKE CUES FROM THOSE WHO KNOW
What Works:
• The Sooner the Better: The best time to start thinking about and researching fellowships is during your first summer or the beginning of your second year.
• Your Fellowship Network: Identify people who can help you with the application process, including career services/public interest advisors and faculty or alumni who received fellowships and/or served on fellowship selection committees. Create your own team.
• Get to Know the Application: Read application instructions in detail, and provide exactly what is asked for. Fellowship proposals are as much science as they are art.
• Don’t be a stranger: If you have pre-application questions for the funder, ask them. Your thoughtful questions and concerns can make an impression on the funder.
• Build Host Relationship: A relationship with your would-be host is a vital part of the successful fellowship application (and the successful fellowship). It’s best to apply with an organization that you have previously worked for. But if that is not possible, it is wise to still propose a project that relates to work you have done, so that you can demonstrate that you have the knowledge, skills, and passion to do the job.
o A legal services director who has successfully hosted several fellows says, “[I]n all but one instance, our applicants have had experience with us as a summer and/or semester intern…. [W]e can write a more persuasive letter from the host perspective if we know the work of the student … Having worked with the student as an intern also helps us to more effectively assess how well the student will fit into the organization on a permanent basis.”
• Host is Key, but You’re the Principal: The fellow should drive the application process. Reviewers can immediately tell when the host is fishing for funding.
• The Silver Bullet: Your proposal should identify the problem you will address and make clear why your project is the solution to that problem.
• Demonstrate Your Passion: It is not enough to declare that you are passionate. Demonstrate how your passion has manifested itself in your work/school experiences!
• Client Focus: It’s about the clients, not about you and your career goals. Make sure to emphasize how your project makes an impact and who the beneficiaries of your project are. Can you get client input for the proposal?
• Catchy Title Won’t Hurt – Your application is competing for attention with many others. Can you craft a lead-in sentence that captures the essence of your project?
What to Avoid:
Do NOT sell yourself short. Yes, it’s true that fellowships are sought-after and competition is fierce. But you must throw your hat in the ring. Fellowships are individualized experiences for committed individuals who catch the reviewers’ eyes. Your application can do this.
Do NOT be sloppy in your application, and do not veer too far off the course they set for you.
Do NOT take yourself out of the proposal driver’s seat. A senior program manager at a funding organization notes, “Sometimes when I read an application…it reads like the host organization supervisor thought up a project and then found a fellow to fit the bill rather than a personal passion coming through in the project description.” Funders wish to support a specific project driven by a fellow, not a new staff attorney position for the host organization.
Do NOT give up. Do not be discouraged if you apply for, but don’t receive one of the “bigger” fellowships like Skadden or Equal Justice Works. Every year highly qualified candidates with fabulous projects are not successful simply because there is limited funding. Do not take it as a judgment of your qualifications. Get back into PSLawNet and look for the many remaining fellowships with later deadlines, find the ones that are a good fit for you, and start applying!
Do NOT be too vague and/or unrealistic. Avoid making the project proposal excessively grand, including too many ideas (i.e. the kitchen sink). While the goal is typically for the project to sustain itself after the fellowship term ends, the fellow should still specifically map out realistic objectives to be achieved during their term. (Note: The opposite can happen too when the application is too narrow and not capable of sustaining itself so that the reader cannot see it lasting two years and beyond).
Do NOT underestimate the importance of a project timeline. Reviewers look not just at what you want to do, but how you plan to do it. The best project idea goes nowhere if there is not well-conceived plan for implementation.
These fellowship tips were offered by several individuals who play key roles in the fellowship application process, including former fellows, senior staff at fellowship funding organizations, senior staff at fellow host organizations, and law school public interest career counselors who have successfully advised past fellowship applicants.
Visit PSLawNet for more information on postgraduate fellowships: http://www.pslawnet.org/postgraduatefellowships
TAKE CUES FROM THOSE WHO KNOW
What Works:
• The Sooner the Better: The best time to start thinking about and researching fellowships is during your first summer or the beginning of your second year.
• Your Fellowship Network: Identify people who can help you with the application process, including career services/public interest advisors and faculty or alumni who received fellowships and/or served on fellowship selection committees. Create your own team.
• Get to Know the Application: Read application instructions in detail, and provide exactly what is asked for. Fellowship proposals are as much science as they are art.
• Don’t be a stranger: If you have pre-application questions for the funder, ask them. Your thoughtful questions and concerns can make an impression on the funder.
• Build Host Relationship: A relationship with your would-be host is a vital part of the successful fellowship application (and the successful fellowship). It’s best to apply with an organization that you have previously worked for. But if that is not possible, it is wise to still propose a project that relates to work you have done, so that you can demonstrate that you have the knowledge, skills, and passion to do the job.
o A legal services director who has successfully hosted several fellows says, “[I]n all but one instance, our applicants have had experience with us as a summer and/or semester intern…. [W]e can write a more persuasive letter from the host perspective if we know the work of the student … Having worked with the student as an intern also helps us to more effectively assess how well the student will fit into the organization on a permanent basis.”
• Host is Key, but You’re the Principal: The fellow should drive the application process. Reviewers can immediately tell when the host is fishing for funding.
• The Silver Bullet: Your proposal should identify the problem you will address and make clear why your project is the solution to that problem.
• Demonstrate Your Passion: It is not enough to declare that you are passionate. Demonstrate how your passion has manifested itself in your work/school experiences!
• Client Focus: It’s about the clients, not about you and your career goals. Make sure to emphasize how your project makes an impact and who the beneficiaries of your project are. Can you get client input for the proposal?
• Catchy Title Won’t Hurt – Your application is competing for attention with many others. Can you craft a lead-in sentence that captures the essence of your project?
What to Avoid:
Do NOT sell yourself short. Yes, it’s true that fellowships are sought-after and competition is fierce. But you must throw your hat in the ring. Fellowships are individualized experiences for committed individuals who catch the reviewers’ eyes. Your application can do this.
Do NOT be sloppy in your application, and do not veer too far off the course they set for you.
Do NOT take yourself out of the proposal driver’s seat. A senior program manager at a funding organization notes, “Sometimes when I read an application…it reads like the host organization supervisor thought up a project and then found a fellow to fit the bill rather than a personal passion coming through in the project description.” Funders wish to support a specific project driven by a fellow, not a new staff attorney position for the host organization.
Do NOT give up. Do not be discouraged if you apply for, but don’t receive one of the “bigger” fellowships like Skadden or Equal Justice Works. Every year highly qualified candidates with fabulous projects are not successful simply because there is limited funding. Do not take it as a judgment of your qualifications. Get back into PSLawNet and look for the many remaining fellowships with later deadlines, find the ones that are a good fit for you, and start applying!
Do NOT be too vague and/or unrealistic. Avoid making the project proposal excessively grand, including too many ideas (i.e. the kitchen sink). While the goal is typically for the project to sustain itself after the fellowship term ends, the fellow should still specifically map out realistic objectives to be achieved during their term. (Note: The opposite can happen too when the application is too narrow and not capable of sustaining itself so that the reader cannot see it lasting two years and beyond).
Do NOT underestimate the importance of a project timeline. Reviewers look not just at what you want to do, but how you plan to do it. The best project idea goes nowhere if there is not well-conceived plan for implementation.
These fellowship tips were offered by several individuals who play key roles in the fellowship application process, including former fellows, senior staff at fellowship funding organizations, senior staff at fellow host organizations, and law school public interest career counselors who have successfully advised past fellowship applicants.
Visit PSLawNet for more information on postgraduate fellowships: http://www.pslawnet.org/postgraduatefellowships
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