Cover Letter for Scholarship Application Sample and 20+ Tips

Cover Letter for Scholarship Application Sample and 20+ Tips $100,000+.Thats the average price of a four-year college degree.Looking at going to grad school? Thats at least another $30k on top. But there are ways you can ease that pain.Scholarships, grants, and research grants offer incredible opportunities and freedom from debt.But to land a scholarship you have to prove yourself to the committee through a convincing scholarship cover letter.And well help you get it written.This guide will show you:A best-in-class scholarship cover letter example.Scholarship cover letter samples that prove your worth to the committee with relevant goals and achievements.A full guide to writing a cover letter to help you get that life-changing scholarship.Want to write your cover letter fast?Use our cover letter builder. Choose from20+ professional cover letter templatesthat match your resume. See actionable examples and get expert tips along the way.Sample Cover Letter for a ResumeSee more cover letter templates and create your cover letter here.One of our us ers, Nikos, had this to say:[I used] a nice template I found on Zety. My resume is nowone pagelong, notthree. With the same stuff.Create your resume nowScholarship Cover Letter SampleArmando Gutierrez4215 Duval StAustin, TX, 78751(512) 522-6167gutarmando@gmail.com10/11/2019Adrian ClarkULN Coordinator2304 Whitis AveAustin, TX, 78712Dear Mr Clark,Having been accepted to UT Austin for the 2019 fall term to pursue a Bachelors in Architecture, I am writing to express my desire to participate in the University Leadership Scholarship Program. For as long as I can remember, Ive had a strong passion for architecture, my favorite Texas landmark being the pink granite edifice of the State Capitol. Im particularly excited by the opportunity to join a network of leaders who help to maintain UT Austins reputation as a world-leading public research university.My parents came to Texas as immigrants and have worked tirelessly in low paid jobs to provide for our family. If I am accepted to the progra m, I would be the first member of my family to benefit from a college education. My goal is to use my education to give back to the community. I want to specialize in designing affordable and environmentally sustainable housing. My passion for this field was inspired by my winning virtual city design for the National Future City competition, and I am all too aware of the impact of high housing costs and environmental destruction on underprivileged communities.Servant leadership is the philosophy I intend to follow as a program participant and alumni. I want society to benefit from my education and UT Austin to gain prestige as an institution providing innovation for the greater good. This scholarship would enable me to achieve these aims. In fact, my high school principal is an alumnus of the program. She has been a huge inspiration to me and many others, and I hope to follow her example should I be accepted.Please get in touch to arrange a meeting with me. Id love to tell you more about my upbringing and my desire to give back to my community through my further education.Best Regards,Armando GutierrezP.S. Id also love to discuss how my experience in volunteer mentoring and academic coaching of younger students could contribute to the programs leadership aims.When the review committee sees that, youre already winning.Looking for tips on how to make your scholarship resume pass pass the litmus test? See this guide: Scholarship Resume Sample: Template and Complete GuideNow, heres how to write a cover letter for a scholarship application, step-by-step:1Use The Best Scholarship Cover Letter Template FormatGetting a college scholarship isnt easy but the formula for a successful scholarship cover letter is. Just follow this checklist and your letter will be as well structured as the best degree programs out there.Scholarship Cover Letter SampleChecklistYour contact infoThe scholarship organizations contact infoDear (addressees name)Paragraph 1: introduction and a b ig achievement fitting the scholarshipParagraph 2: key information about you and why you fit the scholarshipParagraph 3: show your passion + why you want itParagraph 4: your call to action (CTA)Best regards + your name + titleP.S.add valueApart from the right section order, theres one more thing that all best scholarship cover letters need.This is good formatting.Heres how to make it right:Cover Letter For ScholarshipFormatting BasicsSet one-inch margins for an eyeball friendly frame of white space.Left-align your letter, its easy on the eye, too. Dont use justification, its against the rules of business letter formatting.Use the correct spacing: 1 or 1.15.Double-space between paragraphs. More eyeball friendly white space.Go pro. Use a digital copy of your handwritten signature in your sign-off.Save your job application documents in PDF format. Its the best file format for cover letters because it keeps the layout intact. Keep a copy in another format though because some institution s wont accept PDF.Thats the theory section dealt with, lets put it into practice. The very first part youll write is a header and a scholarship cover letter header is a bit like taking attendance in class.Boring but necessary.Youll need your name, address, phone number and email address first. Then the date, and the name and address of the person youre writing to.Heres how to get it right:Scholarship Cover Letter ExampleHeaderArmando Gutierrez4215 Duval StAustin, TX, 78751(512) 522-6167gutarmando@gmail.com10/11/2019Adrian ClarkULN Coordinator2304 Whitis AveAustin, TX, 78712What about salutation?For a formal document like a scholarship cover letter stick with [Dear Title Surname]. Like Dear Mr Clark in the example above.Warning! Do not use To Whom It May Concern. Its more old-fashioned than your creepy Uncles mullet. Worse, it puts you at a disadvantage.Personalization is powerful.Thats because using a persons name actually activates their brain and makes them pay more attention. So make sure you flip that switch.Get more formatting tips in our expert guide: Cover Letter Format: Complete Guide to Cover Letter Layout2Start Your Scholarship Application Cover Letter RightThink of your scholarship cover letter as your elevator pitch.You have two minutes to impress and make the committee genuinely interested in your application.Heres how to get them hooked faster than you can say schools out for summer. Show passion and understanding for the scholarship program plus a real insight into the benefits youll bring to society after completing your area of study. Come in strong.Lets see how to put it to good use with an example.Scholarship Cover Letter Sample First ParagraphUndergraduate ScholarshipRIGHTHaving been accepted to UT Austin for the 2019 fall term to pursue a Bachelors in Architecture, I am writing to express my desire to participate in the University Leadership Scholarship Program. You will see that these speak for themselves. For as long as I can remember, I ve had a strong passion for architecture, my favorite Texas landmark being the pink granite edifice of the State Capitol. Im particularly excited by the opportunity to join a network of leaders who help to maintain UT Austins reputation as a world-leading public research university.Thats not just good, its great.Passion, dedication and insight work together to create a powerful first paragraph. And a nice little humblebrag helps, too.WRONGI want to participate in the University Leadership Scholarship Program to help support my study of a B.Arch at UT Austin. As you can see from my application, my GPA and academic record are near flawless. Ive wanted to study architecture for years and this scholarship would help me do that.Thats all brag with no humble. No understanding of the scholarship and no passion. All achievements and no heart.The board wont even bother reading the application. Now for a sample suitable for a postgrad research grant.Scholarship Cover Letter Sample First Parag raphResearch GrantRIGHTHaving been accepted into the Masters in Education program at Northwestern University, I am writing to express my interest in participating in the Gates Millennium Foundation Program. I have overcome the disadvantages of an underprivileged background to obtain a B. Ed. graduating summa cum laude. As you will see, the research I intend to pursue is focused on the programs aims of academic excellence and the empowerment of the underprivileged. This scholarship would help me pursue those aims and directly benefit the lives of others.This is a great introduction that zones in on the aims of the program. Theres useful info about the applicant and it whets the appetite for more detail to follow.WRONGI am writing to apply to participate in the Gates Millennium Foundation Program. My undergraduate academic record is high achieving and I graduated in the top 1% of my cohort. I have been accepted into the Masters in Education program at Northwestern but I will struggle to fund this myself, so being accepted for this grant would be a life-changer for me.All about me. No understanding of the program either. It sounds like a generic scholarship cover letter template.Whatever sort of scholarship you apply for, make the introduction passionate and focused. Show from the outset that youre a good fit for the programs ethos.Weve got more great advice on cover letter openings in our guide: How to Start a Cover LetterNext, the main event.3Write a Sensational Middle for Your Scholarship Covering LetterYouve got a compelling introduction, but youve got to keep the review committee reading. Model yourself on the great teachers youve had. They keep you entertained for the whole lesson.You have to keep your readers entertained for the whole letter. To do that, you need two middle paragraphs.The first details why youre the best candidate for the scholarship and what you hope to achieve. The other shows your motivation and passion for the scholarship program.Under graduate Scholarship Cover Letter ExampleMiddleRIGHTMy parents came to Texas as immigrants and have worked tirelessly in low paid jobs to provide for our family. If I am accepted to the program, I would be the first member of my family to benefit from a college education. My goal is to use my education to give back to the community. I want to specialize in designing affordable and environmentally sustainable housing. My passion for this field was inspired by my winning virtual city design for the National Future City competition, and I am all too aware of the impact of high housing costs and environmental destruction on underprivileged communities.Servant leadership is the philosophy I intend to follow as a program participant and alumni. I want society to benefit from my education and UT Austin to gain prestige as an institution providing innovation for the greater good. This scholarship would enable me to achieve these aims. In fact, my high school principal is an alumnus of the p rogram. She has been a huge inspiration to me and many others, and I hope to follow her example should I be accepted.The committee is convinced!This just works. It covers the applicants needs and personal circumstances perfectly.It also mentions what they hope to achieve and reinforcement of understanding the programs philosophy.WRONGI come from a family with limited financial resources. It would be incredibly difficult for me to cover the expense of tuition fees without assistance. I am incredibly passionate about pursuing a career in architecture, I just need some help to make it happen. I am committed to using my education to help others too so the committee can be confident it is making the right choice in awarding the scholarship to me.Next candidate, please.Its eager, but wheres the detail? Wheres the understanding of the scholarship program?Lets take another look at our postgrad research grant candidate.Research Grant Scholarship Cover Letter ExampleMiddleRIGHTMy underprivile ged background has given me a unique perspective on the power of education to provide opportunities and empowerment. My aim is to complete a thesis focusing on inclusive practice in the classroom to ensure that no child is left behind or discriminated against due to the circumstances of their home life and upbringing. This would enable more students to reach the goals I have already had the privilege of achieving.Ensuring that every child achieves their maximum potential is my chief inspiration as an educator. I intend to ensure that the committees confidence in me is paid forward to spread the benefits to future generations.Thats powerful. It shows a deep personal understanding of the scholarship and a personal affinity with the intended area of study that shows the committee the money will be well spent.Theyre ready to sign on the dotted line.WRONGCompleting my undergraduate studies has been an immense financial burden. I am committed to advancing my potential as an educator even further but I need assistance to do that. If I am successful in being given this grant, I fully intend to use my further studies to improve the provision of education.Lackluster and no detail. Next.When making a resume in our builder, drag drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your resume here.Create my resume nowWhen youre done, Zetys resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.Tempted to write a longer cover letter? Dont be. Find out why in our guide: Cover Letter Length: How Long Should a Cover Letter Be?4End Your Cover Letter for Scholarship with a Call to ActionYour cover letter is almost perfect.But theres one last thing before you can graduate top of the cover letter class. You need to beat the competition and get in front of the committee for a scholarship interview.How? Youve just got to ask.Use a CTA to do it right. Give them a reason to want to meet you.Undergraduate Scholarship Cover Letter SampleCTARIGHTCan we arrange a meeting, so I can tell the committee how my experience in volunteer mentoring and academic coaching of younger students could contribute to the programs leadership aims?Best Regards,Armando GutierrezP.S. Id also love to discuss how my winning virtual city design for the national Future City Competition inspired my drive to create affordable and sustainable housing.That sample asks for an interview and delivers even more focus on the program's aims. Its relevant and compelling. Worthy of an honors degree in itself!This is the spot where you can really make use of your achievements. For a scholarship it means showing what youve done that really goes beyond the call of duty.Good grades are great, but cast your net wider. Volunteer work, extra-curricular activities, hobbies, sports. Any area you excel in that demonstrates your abilities is a good bet here.In fact good grades really arent the final word. Only 55% of scholarships are won by str aight-A students.WRONGI thank the committee sincerely for taking the time to review my application. I confirm that all of the required documents are enclosed and I look forward to meeting you in person to discuss my application further.Low-energy, old-fashioned, all ask, and no give. Theres a place scholarship cover letters ending like this end up.The trash.Pro Tip: The P.S. is your secret weapon. It makes the committee sit up and pay attention. Use it to add another relevant achievement and get them sold on interviewing you.This closing strategy is the most effective. It works equally well for grants and postgrad research, too.Just follow the formula of adding value to your invitation and youll be set.One last thing.For all types of scholarship cover letters use the right formal closing. Sincerely is always a good go-to, but there are alternatives.Try these for a finishing touch as classic as a mortarboard on graduation day.Top 5 Scholarship Cover Letter Closing SalutationsThank yo u,Best regards,Kind regards,Sincerely,With best regards,Cant think of a great offer to finish your scholarship covering letter? Get inspired. Read our guide: How to End a Cover LetterKey TakeawaysLets summarize how to write the perfect cover letter for scholarships:Use the right format. It makes your letter more readable and sets you up as an A+ candidate.Start by showing an understanding of the programs ethos and passion for the field of study. Prove your relevancy to the committee.Cement your worth in the middle of your cover letter for scholarship. Show off your personal attributes and end goals. Stay relevant to the program and show the committee the impact youll make.Finish with a CTA. Ask the question and offer something in return. Get your application read and get that interview.Put in a P.S. for the cherry on top.Scholarships can change lives. If you want more advice on how to get the scholarship covering letter right then please ask in the comments section. Wed love to help .

Best Jobs For People Who Are Creative

Best Jobs For People Who Are Creative Would you classify yourself as creative? Do you find yourself confined by the structure of a typical 9 to 5 job? Do you dread the idea of being boxed into a cubicle? Creative people need jobs that hone their attention, interests, and skills. If this sounds like you, here are some great career options you should consider. Hair and beauty While working in the cosmetics industry may not be something you have previously thought about, people who work in hair and beauty are extremely creative. They get to help people change their appearance and inspire self-confidence. This industry is very social, so if you like experimenting with different things and talking to like-minded people, consider a job as a hair-dresser, make-up artist, or everything in between. Journalism and writing As one of the more obvious outlets for creative minds, writing can be both personal and social. Journalism and writing offer a means for creative type who cannot easily express themselves out loud. Journalism has the potential to be different to other forms of writing because it offers a chance to engage more obviously with other people and events to find a way to express a story. Marketing and events Many creative people work as promoters of certain products and services. In marketing, imagination is key because you need to understand people, the product and how to get people to become interested in the product. Marketers often promote and plan events in which they have to create visually stimulating and entertaining arenas to sell a product. Photography and film A lot of the time, creative people are often the most shy. As a creative type, you probably enjoy staying behind the scenes and expressing yourself in ways that do not involve much speaking. Enter the world of photography and film. Photography is a great escape for shy creative people who wish to see the world differently and engage with people on different levels. The same is true for filmmakers who are happy to provide the words for others to speak to the world. Home design: in and out Other jobs for creative types can include helping people to decorate their homes and backyards. This creative industry allows you to work with your hands while also creating and allowing others to collaborate with you. Home design is often interpreting someone’s ideas in a way that is practical and cost-effective. You can use your imagination to build and design products that people can use for years to come. Entertainers Performance based jobs are the epitome of creativity. When you perform, you use your whole body to create. You interpret and change yourself to become something else. While performance based jobs are harder to find and sometimes harder to maintain, the driving factor is passion. Those who adopt a performance based job often find themselves drawn to other creative roles at the same time. Some industries require a little training while others will likely require fairly extensive study. For the latter, groups like Careers Australia  offer a range of qualifications and training that can help you begin your new career. It’s just up to you to put your career plans in motion!

Finding it Difficult to Find a Job

Finding it Difficult to Find a Job Here’s What you Should Do: Here’s What you Should Do: In the current economic climate we live in, many professionals and recent graduates who are seeking new job opportunities find it difficult to find these. Even if they’ve got the work experience, educational achievement and other specific qualifications, it is not guaranteed that these things will get you the interview. If you can relate to this, then have a look at the following tips and tactics you can use that could make it easier for you to find a job you like. Recruitment websites There are many recruitment websites these days that make it more convenient for you to stop having to scan the internet. With job alerts and cv upload services, you are likely to at least find a couple of jobs you could apply for. What’s important to remember here, is to upload your general CV. As you know, or at least should know, is that it is of great importance to tailor your CV to the job you are applying for. That means that if you are looking for a creative function, you need to list your creative skills in your CV, whereas if you are looking for a more technical function, you need to list your technical skills. So when uploading your CV to these recruitment websites, be aware of your CV and ensure that it appeals to a wide range of jobs. Twitter Twitter is the perfect social media tool to find jobs. All you need to do is type in a keyword in the search box such as “marketing role” or “job”, hit enter, and all of the tweets that include these words will appear. If you know the location of your desired job, then consider typing in “job” and for example “London”. Most likely, a twitter account that specifically focusses on jobs in that area will appear. If you follow the account then it works just like a job alert service from a recruitment website. LinkedIn LinkedIn is an excellent tool for researching jobs, employees and companies.       Company pages provide lots of information in terms of press releases, locations and vacancies. View the list of employees and see what it is that the company is looking for. Look at their educational achievements and previous work experience compared to the role they have got at the company. This will give your more insight as to whether you stand any chance. Also, consider upgrading your account to Jobseeker. This will make you more visible, letting recruiters message you with greater ease and showing you everybody who has viewed your profile.   Search Engines Search engines prove to be an excellent tool to use as well for finding jobs. Quite often, jobs are advertised on company websites as well so it is important to be able to find these. By using the right keywords, relevant pages will appear. This technique usually works best for job seekers who know or have an idea what kind of job they prefer. For example, if you are looking for a marketing position in Los Angeles, then type the following in the search engine “Marketing Executive” OR “Marketing Manager” AND “Los Angeles”. The results will only show you pages that have got these keywords on their site, making it easier for you to relevant vacancies. __________________________________________________________________________________

Myths we hold about workplace stress

Myths we hold about workplace stress Before we get to my list of ways to decrease stress, I want to debunk some myths. First of all, stress at the workplace does not always cause unhappiness. Your workplace happiness hinges more on whether or not you like your work than on whether or not your work is stressful, according to Alan Krueger, professor at Princeton University. That said, declaring that you thrive under stress is a delusional justification for procrastination. Sure, there are people who cant figure out how to deliver on anything until the last minute. But this is a crisis in confidence (fear of starting for fear of failing) as opposed to stunning brilliance unlocked by stress. And lets get something straight about bringing pets to work. Employees love a dog at the office, but there is not evidence that dogs at work decrease stress. There is only evidence that they make people work longer hours at the office. So maybe life would get less stressful for dog lovers if you leave the pets at home, work fewer hours and get a social life. Heres why decreasing stress matters to me: People who are less stressed exude more confidence than people who are more stressed. I do everything in my life better when I am feeling more self-confident, and I bet you do, too. So, in an effort to buoy self-confidence, heres a list of things that will decrease stress at work: 1. Do yoga. In the bathroom. Of course, doing yoga anywhere is a good idea. But during the workday, tension builds up every hour, and you cant do real yoga in your cube without calling attention to yourself for being eccentric. So go in the bathroom and do some downward dogs. A few in the middle of the day can relax your body clear your mind and keep productivity and creativity at higher levels. (Hands on the bathroom floor? Ive been doing it for years and havent gotten any diseases. Thats what the soap is for.) 2. Make a friend. If you have a friend you can depend on at work, you will have less stress and more happiness on the job. If you have trouble making friends, researchers say you should put a plant and some candy on your desk. Please, I do not want to see one single person commenting on how young people today text message so much and dont know how to have relationships. Its the baby boomers who have spawned a whole industry about how to make friends, how to control your ego, how to make conversation. Generation Y is already great at doing stuff like that . 3. Fill your downtime carefully. Running errands during lunch increases stress because you worry about getting back to work in time, according to Dorothy James, professor at Texas AM University. And if you work at home, beware: People who spend their unscheduled time slots doing housework have greater number of health problems than those who pass the time socializing or exercising, according to the Journal of Occupational Health (in an article I cant find, but was cited in Self magazine.) 4. Fix your ergonomics. If your body is a pretzel at a computer your mind starts pretzeling as well, to cope with the physical pain. So, wouldnt you know it, Google has its own, in-house ergonomics expert to make sure people take care of this stress. If you dont have a personal ergonomics guru, an easy thing to do is to make sure you use a mouse instead of a touchpad whenever you can. A more difficult thing is to learn to use one of these keyboards that manage to look like they will break your wrists while promising to preserve them. 5. Monitor yourself. Like everything you might want to change about your life, the more closely you monitor it, the more youre likely to make the change. So you can gauge how stressed you are by taking this test. To be honest, though, I didnt take it myself. Most of the problem behaviors like do you set unrealistic deadlines for yourself? and do you find yourself overeating? were actually integral to my getting this post written.

7 things you only find out as a graduate visiting your old university - Debut

7 things you only find out as a graduate visiting your old university - Debut Hey there, guys. Alex Ekong here, recent University of Birmingham graduate. That still sounds extremely weird to say, and I’m not quite sure how I made the transition from waking up at 2 in the afternoon and watching reruns of Pointless hungover to being a law-abiding citizen with a 9 to 6 in just 3 months, but I’m glad I did. These days, now I’m writing at Debut, I’m inspired, happy and I feel like a different person. But like many just joining the working world, I wondered how the new me would fare doing the old me’s lifestyle. So, in quite possibly the longest answer to ‘So how was your weekend?’ of all time, I’m gonna tell you all about what it’s like to be a graduate visiting your old uni and all the funny, useful and sobering lessons I learnt. You’re a tourist A photo posted by Alex Ekong (@andthenalexsaid) on Oct 13, 2016 at 1:25pm PDT Was it always this nice here? No, but seriously, was it? So, Birmingham recently completely overhauled their main hub, New Street Station, and it’s amazing. It’s a challenge to cast my mind back to Applicant Visit Day and imagine the small, drab, dusty station that my Virgin train spat me out in, because it doesn’t exist any more. In it’s place stands 3,300 sq. miles of white walls, huge skylights and toilets that flush with rainwater. Trains are the last thing you’d expect in this building it looks part-hospital, part-high-end shopping mall and part-cathedral. Thing is, I’ve been here before. It was finished just before I started final year. But now, visiting with just a gym bag full of clothes and no other burdens, I’m actually seeing it for the first time. Why did all my old hangouts seem so new to me now? It’s amazing what you miss when you’d been looking at the ground the whole time. You’re 100 years old The euphoria of it all came undone by the time I hit my old stomping grounds, Selly Oak the charming Southwest Birmingham town that houses UoB students, with a population density to match most favelas and whose streets once reportedly held the title for the most reported cases of chlamydia in the UK. Back then I could look around and see peers, recurring characters, friends. But scarcely any of those remain for me now. Most of my friends who  are still here have run for the hills the satellite towns of Selly Park and Harborne to escape the Selly Oak madhouse. My earliest memory of anything is from when I was about four years old. That means that when the youngest person living here first made sense of the world, I was already eight. Eight. I already knew a ton of swear words by then! And thus in that moment, I knew the world that had been mine had moved on without me. So I assimilated with the crowd making their way to campus, looking just like everyone else but feeling much, much older. Your university campus will never be finished If you thought your university was going to stop building things just because you left, you were heavily misinformed. Birmingham Uni’s campus was a building site the whole time I was there. New halls of residence seem to be expanding into all the available space. The new library stands tall, glassy and yellow next to the old one which has been fenced off for demolition. The site of the new sports centre is still blocking off my favourite route to the Guild. As I walked the long way around, I looked at my watch. If I still had lectures, I’d be late by now. Nice to know that some things never change. There’s so much cool stuff you missed out on A video posted by Alex Ekong (@andthenalexsaid) on Oct 21, 2016 at 10:40am PDT You never really get a chance to do all the cool things your uni town has to offer, not least because, sadly, your student loan is not infinite. But being a tourist (a gainfully employed one at that) does have it’s benefits. Namely the chance to explore the town centre at your leisure and actually shop without having to add the prefix “window”. This, as you can imagine allows for fun things like going to Selfridges and randomly buying a kit so you can make sushi with your boys at their house. You still love your awful SU club night Love it. Fab n’ Fresh, the weekly Birmingham University party at the Guild of Students was just as sticky, boiling, overcrowded and chaotic as I remembered it. Sure, you’re surrounded by hordes of strange teenagers, but the pretentious Shoreditch nightclubs I frequent nowadays never quite satisfy my yearning for the turn-up. Even with a tight two-man crew of myself and my final year medic pal, I still had a whale of a time. You know you went hard when the DJ follows you on Instagram. Your university life was amazing The good times you have at university are the best times you have in your life. I have to admit, I made friends for life, learnt a million things about myself and I was able to do a whole bunch of amazing things that I wouldn’t have the time, resources or inclination to do now that I work full-time. Going back to Birmingham brought all this to the fore for me and even though I felt like a completely different person than who I was 6 months ago, my old life was still here and I could slide right back into it if I wanted to. But you don’t miss it. Achievement unlocked: First day of work ? #dowhatyoulove #journalist #debutcareers A photo posted by Alex Ekong (@andthenalexsaid) on Sep 5, 2016 at 11:30am PDT But to do that would be to ignore all the restrictions and struggles that inevitably come with being a university student. Sometimes, the safety net is the thing that keeps you from really flying. It can feel like your university is your whole universe at times, and sometimes that can get claustrophobic. The first thing most people I knew who had been there for 3 years or more said to me was how much they wanted to be out in the real world. Life after graduation is scary and uncertain because anything can happen. But on the plus side, anything can happen. So don’t think that post-graduation, your life is over. The next step is terrifying but it’s the best one you’ll ever make. Feature image courtesy of Unsplash Download the Debut app and you could totally grab yourself a summer internship  way before anyone else. Follow Alex on Twitter @AndThenAlexSaid Connect with Debut on Facebook and Twitter

Ditch your annual staff survey Heres a better way to find out what your employees think

Ditch your annual staff survey Heres a better way to find out what your employees think Ditch your annual staff survey “You know that haunting feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when your best employee gives you her two weeks notice? Annual employee surveys just let that happen â€" they do nothing to empower managers to fix issues before they become major problems.” That’s feedback from David Niu, founder and CEO of TINYhr, the company behind the innovative employee sentiment tool TINYpulse. Annual staff surveys are at the core of HR practices at many major companies. The assumption is that managers will glean valuable insights that will help them create happier, more engaged employees. And admittedly, this is a prudent purpose: Companies with engaged employees enjoy more than 50 percent revenue growth compared to their industry peers , and engaged employees are 87 percent less likely to leave a job, saving hefty recruitment costs. Given that 70 percent of the U.S. workforce is either not engaged or actively disengaged, companies really should be concerned. But from Niu’s perspective, the problem is actually misguided execution of those surveys. Annual employee surveys receive notoriously low response rates, often as low as 25 percent. That’s not surprising, since these surveys are usually 50-plus mind-numbing questions long. Plus, by the time the data is collected and analyzed, it’s usually out of date. Several months can pass between the analytics are ready, and more employees will have probably leave for new opportunities before then. The solution TINYpulse targets that problem with short weekly surveys. The primary aim is to gauge how happy employees are in real time (or as close to real time as possible), giving managers actionable insights that they can use to tackle problems before they become organizational nightmares. Amy Balliet, co-founder and CEO of Seattle-based creative agency Killer Infographics, explains how weekly surveys revealed that she was a major bottleneck for her team. “I was able to make the right changes before things got too bad,” Balliet said. “With TINYpulse [my employees] have become more engaged and empowered to help grow the company. They use the weekly surveys to identify process issues, share fun stories, and build each other up.” Balliet assumed issues that were low priority to her were also low priority to her employees, but feedback in the TINYpulse surveys revealed that her lax attitude was causing morale problems. As the economy grows, companies will find increasing competition for talented workers. And as millennials flood into the workforce, companies will need to adjust to a talent pool that loves to be heard. Balliet’s use of surveys to keep employees involved on a weekly, not yearly, basis proves that annual employee surveys just don’t work in a fast-paced work environment. Niu admits that companies don’t need to ditch the annual staff survey completely, but for organizations whose annual review processes are linked to a survey, you could be missing day-to-day problems. “Quick pulsing surveys can actually be a complement to your annual employee survey,” Niu said. “You can capture major organizational shifts annually while still measuring the quick changes in sentiment that impact short-term employee behavior.” Information is your friend, and gathering employee feedback on a regular basis will arm managers with timely information that they can act on. Try using these weekly surveys to learn about what’s engaging for your team, what you can do to correct issues, and how you can drive toward a happier and more profitable company.

Tough (Question) Tuesday What are you shakin out today

Tough (Question) Tuesday What are you shakin out today Shake It Polaroid Print by greengrassdesign Whenever somethings bothering my husband   a bad day in general, something that wont get out of his head, or just something dumb that was said/done I tell him to shake it out. Then I make him do it, mostly because it makes him laugh, but also because it does make him let it go. Hes now taken to say the same thing to me when Im in a funk, and we always shake and laugh together. Yup. Were pretty adorable (in a nauseating way). So, take That Thing thats annoying/frustrating you. What are you shakin out today? (Yes, I mean this literally, so once you got it, really shake it out then share what you shook in the comments below!)