How to Maintain a Routine at Home

 By Sam Bauer

I usually like to start off my posts with a bit of context, so as a full disclaimer I have struggled with anxiety and depression. If you’re wondering why I’m telling you this, it’s because generally people who suffer from mental illness benefit hugely from a set schedule and separate areas for work/relaxation. So for me, working from home absolutely stinks. I don’t need to be anywhere at a certain time, my morning commute is from my bed to my desk (in my bedroom), and I don’t leave my house unless I have to. Suddenly the time between now and my next deadline becomes this huge nebulous space that becomes hard to structure. You have too many choices but none of them are your choosing and the things you normally would have control over aren’t options anymore. Not to mention the overwhelming amount of distractions. 

That was a very long winded way of saying I know what a struggle this can be and it isn’t your fault if you’re having a hard time working from home. Your brain wants to be productive, it really does, but all of the cues it's getting from your surroundings are saying “Don’t work too hard, this our relaxing space”. Here are tips that work for me to ease that process. 

1. If at all possible, do not set up your workspace in your bedroom. I learned this one the hard way. Even if you can train your brain to recognize the bedroom as a workspace, then it means you won’t be able to relax and go to sleep because you’ll be permanently stuck in work mode.
2. Wake up at the same time you normally would and use set lunch/snack breaks. Technically you get up whenever you want, but my brain usually takes that as an excuse to go “I don’t want to work on this so go get snacks” or “We got up late so clearly it’s not a work day”.  
3. Wear some form of work clothes. It pains me to even write that because if I could live in sweatpants, I would. But remember that we don’t have the luxury of using location as a form of structure so we have to trick our brains in a different way. Do I hate dress slacks? Yes. Do they keep me productive? Also Yes. 
4. Turn off your phone unless you need it. You may have better self control than I do but if my phone is near me, then I’m going to look at it. And whatever self control I might have had at work is nonexistent at home. So do yourself a favor and turn off your cell phone. The telemarketers can wait.
5. Finally, just remember that when work hours are done, you’re done. Don’t force yourself to go back and answer emails or try and finish a project after dinner. Uch as you want to be productive, there’s only so much your brain can do per day. Setting a schedule for downtime will help you on track to be productive later.

When and How to write a Cover Letter

 By Sam Bauer

Your cover letter should be in a professional format. Think of it like a personal essay dressed up in business casual. I’ve used my cover letter as a general guideline for how to format your own.

Basic Structure: When writing a cover letter, you want the information to come across in a certain order. Most importantly, you have to start with why you are writing to the recipient and why you know who they are. Making the other person have to figure out who you are does not lend itself to a good first impression.  

Ex. Dear [Hiring Manager],

For a long time, I’ve known that my joy in life is to write. Creative writing, non-fiction, journalism, no matter what the style I enjoy the process. Over the course of my college career, I have discovered different methods of writing and the tools to help create the message I want. So, when I saw the opportunity to be a [Position] at [Company] on [Job Board], I knew I had to apply. 

The next paragraph is where you go into your skills and background. Your cover letter should work in tandem with your resume, not be a copy of it. 

Ex. With my degree, I now have a background in both psychology and literature. This may not seem specific enough to work as an Associate, but the art of communication is grounded in those two subjects. I have a basic understanding of social psychology, sensation and perception, health psychology, program evaluation, and motivation and self-regulation. All these subjects lend themselves to understanding why people make the decisions that they do and how to cheat that system. My background in business writing, creative writing, and study of the classics have all been case studies of communication. How does one communicate without alienating one’s audience? How can one not just absorb information but engage with it? Anyone who works as an [Position] needs to know those things.

Finally, make it clear how to contact you. It’s a simple step but if you misspelled something then it won’t matter how well you crafted the other sections. 

Ex. I would appreciate the opportunity to talk with you about what I can offer [Company] as a [Position]. I can be reached at my cell at (860) 759-7400 or via email at sambauer1170@gmail.com. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Sincerely,

Sam Bauer

We’ve figured the how, now we need to discuss the when. Here is the golden rule for cover letters: only offer it when you feel like it better explains what you have to offer. If you are applying for a machinist job for example, then you don’t need to emphasize your soft skills and your resume will show the work you’ve already done. Cover letters are mainly useful for opposite ends of the company, entry level positions and upper level positions.They are especially helpful in explaining gaps in employment. 

One last tip: I would encourage you to make your letter fill in the blank. Making a new cover letter for each job you apply to is not worth the effort. Not only will that effort go unappreciated but the longer you’ve been applying for jobs, the quicker your writing will start to deteriorate. That’s not to say what you’ve written can’t be improved over time but definitely do not write new letter from scratch.

BLS GM Interview

 Recent Interview with our General Manager

The Benefits of a Professionally Written Resume

 By Sam Bauer 

Before I begin this piece in earnest, I should add a personal disclaimer which is: I love writing. I took at least three creative writing classes across three different semesters in college and those semesters were by far my favorite. It also wasn’t by accident that the vast majority of the classes I took depended upon my ability to write essays, not my acuity with synthesizing numbers. 

With this in mind, I absolutely loathed writing my resume. It felt like I was trying to write a travel brochure for a town that no one had ever heard of and that also hated tourists. The whole concept of writing a resume seemed ridiculous in theory and proved to be depressing in practice. My life experiences didn’t look good on paper and trying to upsell them felt dishonest in a way I couldn’t quite articulate. So, when a friend of mine told me she had experience writing resumes and offered to look at mine, I jumped at the opportunity. The end result turned out better than anything I could have produced by myself. 

Had I not had my friend as a resource, I would have eventually invested in a professional resume writer. But why? I was already “good” at writing so why not just look at some samples and get started? Well truth be told, I did. But a resume is a sales pitch for your services. It requires the appropriate language and formatting to fit that purpose. There were extra-curriculars in my college career that I thought were barely worth mentioning in a conversation, let alone a resume. But my friend reframed them and suddenly they were my strongest selling points. And the thing is, you only need to make that investment once. As soon as someone else sets up the formatting, you can simply update your resume whenever you need to because the groundwork is already there. Spend the money once on a resource that lasts.

https://www.bestresumeforyou.com/

Who’s hiring and are they worth it?

 Who’s hiring and are they worth it?

By Sam Bauer

In my previous posts, I talked about what companies are expecting from the hiring process and which companies are taking care of their workers during Covid 19. Now it’s time to tackle a more basic question: who even is hiring these days and are they worth a resume? 

Before I get into the raw data, I want to first define what I mean when I say a company is “worth it”. A company that is worth it will fairly compensate you for what you are being asked to do. Working an all night shift for minimum wage with no benefits isn’t worth it in the long run because you are earning a wage at the cost of your health. All other judgment calls like career advancement and company culture are decisions that the individual will have to make on their own. But whether or not a company will treat their employees like people is a universal concern. 

These companies are hiring and they have been vetted through independent fact checkers:

Cisco - 1,200 positions

NVIDIA - 700 positions

Procter & Gamble - 600 positions

Apple - 600 positions 

Baxter International - 600 positions

Biogen INC - 500 positions

General Mills - 300 positions

HP - 300 positions

Texas Instruments - 240 positions

Allstate - 150 positions

The New York Times - 100 positions

Humana - 100 positions

Ford Motor Company - 100 positions

The Clorox Company - 100 positions 

General Motors - unknown  

*This list was made with help from Just Capital.

 

How has the hiring process been affected by Covid 19?

By Sam Bauer

There seems to be a lot of rumors flying around when it comes to hiring in the pandemic. Which is fair, considering the world economy was thrown upside down five months ago and we still haven’t felt the full impact of this pandemic. Plenty of companies are engaging in mass hiring but the national unemployment rate is record high with an additional mass of college graduates entering the workforce. With so much up in the air, it's hard to tell anything substantial about recruitment in this economy. 

One tangible effect of the virus is how many companies have switched over to online interviewing and recruitment in lieu of seeing potential candidates in person. In an article by Scott Steinberg published on CNBC, He points out the impressive statistic that 84% of recruiters have switched to remote interviewing. Of that number, more than half have shifted to using online job boards to widen their search for potential employees. Places who have resisted adapting with the internet so far, seem to have gotten the message: change or get left behind when the economy starts moving in earnest. 

This isn’t to say that companies don’t value face to face interviews. But the likelihood of that screening process being used for lower level positions is dwindling. Those who have been glued to the job boards might have already noticed this change. Big corporations like Amazon, Stop & Shop, and UPS have a questionnaire applicants fill out; questions about work ethic and past habits of taking office supplies. If the vacancy, resume, and answers all check out, then the process is over. Keep that in mind when applying for jobs. If you’re looking at an executive position, I wouldn’t skip out on practice interviews. But if you are a brave soul trying to be a grocery store worker in this insane time, don’t count on an interview being part of the process.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/24/how-recruiters-select-and-interview-job-candidates-amid-coronavirus.html

Which companies are taking care of their employees during Corona-virus

Which companies are taking care of their employees during Corona-virus

By Sam Bauer

It’s easy to talk about which industries are doing well during the pandemic. Streaming services have seen record increases in viewership, Costco’s bulk buying has become more attractive, and against all odds, people are buying Goya beans like there is no tomorrow. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is set to become the world’s first trillionaire because of Covid. But profit in those industries doesn’t mean that the entry level workers are seeing the same benefits. I’m not going to call them unskilled workers, I’m a firm believer that there is no unskilled labor, just undervalued skills. There has been an increase in worker complaints for Amazon, and it would not be an unfair assertion that the working environment has gotten worse in spite of Amazon’s continued success.

So who is taking care of their workers? Forbes does have an exhaustively researched list of the best companies to work in every industry. Unfortunately, it was written in 2019 and doesn’t factor in a global pandemic. Just Capital created a ranking system for the top 100 US companies committed to their workforce but even better, it has Covid Corporate tracker, which allows you to look up most major american corporations and see what benefits they are offering their stakeholders (links below). Time to do a little cross-referencing and see which names pop up the most.

• Facebook*- offering paid leave to parents who need to take care of children out of school.
• Zillow*- allowing employees to work from home for the rest of 2020.
• Cisco- commits to no layoffs during 2020.
• ServiceNow- commits to no layoffs and plans on creating 1,000 US jobs.
• Black Rock- commits to no layoffs and no pay cuts even if employees can’t come back to work.
• Microsoft*- offering back up care for the children and elderly relatives of workers.
• Alphabet*- offering financial assistance and paid sick leave.
• General Mills*- offering back up care and financial assistance.

*Companies that appeared on all three lists

I’d like to end this post with a huge thank you to anyone who does independent fact checking. You are

amazing and criminally underappreciated.

https://justcapital.com/reports/culture-of-health/

https://justcapital.com/reports/the-covid-19-corporate-response-tracker-how-americas-largest-employers-are-treating-stakeholders-amid-the-coronavirus-crisis/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/justcapital/2019/08/29/the-33-best-companies-for-workers-by-industry/#36e2fc487d3d