What Practical Real Life Difference Will an Increase in Intelligibility Make?

Everybody wants people to grasp what they say, so a high intelligibility score is better than a low score. It is a no-brainer. Speaking accurate English sounds and words makes life much better for the speaker and the listener!

Recall the range of scores for our clients before any accent reduction instruction has been between 2% and 85%. The average was 38% for accurate English pronunciation.

But exactly what practical real-life difference will a 30, 40, 50 or even 100%, which is a doubling of intelligibility, make for a talker.

Here are some rules of thumb. For graduate students doing a teaching assistant job, university departments prefer the students aim for at least 70% intelligibility. That level vastly reduces complaints from the university undergraduates in the labs and recitations.

International speakers themselves who reach at least 65% intelligibility say they have more confidence and comfort when speaking English.

Those who reach 80% intelligibility often boast of glowing praise from employers and colleagues.

Yes. You and many are brave in seeking the new path to the joy of accurate English pronunciation. Weird but true and lovely. It is all about focus. See the speech tip below on “focus.” Don’t be embarrassed by “fuckus.”

Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos  for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.

Check out our advanced weekly speech tip program, our new subscription called ClearTalk Weekly, www.subscription.cleartalkmastery.com

Rerun from May 15, 2013 and again Sep 1, 2016.

Careers- Getting Hired— Don’t Forget the Cover Letter

Cover letter—Get a competitive edge with a cover letter.

Cover letters are a graceful way to introduce yourself, express your personality, and impress a hiring manager with your experience and writing skills.

A bonus for you:  You can tailor the cover letter to a specific company in ways you cannot with a resume.

Tips for you—

• Find the decision maker’s name and use it in the salutation. Use a colon after the salutation.
• Keep it short and no longer than three or four paragraphs.
• For first paragraph, describe why you are writing—for example answering an ad, or perhaps referred to the company through networking or perhaps you learned that the company was expanding.
• In the middle paragraph, explain why you are a good candidate and show your knowledge about the company. Convey a clear story about your career and highlight specific past achievements. Do that as a narrative or bullet points. You can also highlight qualities that may not fit in the structure of the resume.
• Finish the letter and indicate you will follow up in the near future. Sign off with a “Sincerely,” or “Thank you for your consideration,” followed by your name, and, if you like, your email address.
• Include your letter in the actual text of your email message or place it above your resume in an attachment. Don’t put it in a separate attachment since a busy hiring manager may not click on it at all.  If you place it in the text of your email message, make it shorter than if you use an attachment.

Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos  for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.

Check out our advanced weekly speech tip program, our new subscription called ClearTalk Weekly, www.subscription.cleartalkmastery.com

Rerun from 08/24/2016

Careers – Getting Hired— Four Steps to a Perfect Resume

Did you know that companies have favorite times for eliminating positions… and you.  I know from personal experience—the experience of our students in the last 15 years.

Thankfully, organizations actually do try to avoid eliminating positions and letting go of employees before or after the Christmas or Winter Holidays.  They often do this dastardly deed when one quarter ends and another one starts (when they have crunched the money data). To be blunt, that means July or August, October, and April are favorite times to terminate employees.

Also, this aside.  A word to the wise. My experience via my students over the last 15 years has been that most often, but not always, organizations in the USA rarely hire between our Thanksgiving (late November) and about January 20^th.

For every trend or rule, there are exceptions.  One of my all-time favorite Human Resources executives landed a job right after the Christmas/Winter holidays.

Back to the point!  For job hunters, life is difficult these days.  Top fear is the resume.

For many job hunters – especially the entrepreneurial kind, the day is upon us when traditional resumes by themselves are not sufficient.

Instead, job hunters today (already!) need to rely more and more on narrative bios, personal websites, or preformatted resumes posted on social networking sites like LinkedIn.

That said– it is still wise to have a traditional resume ready.

Experts widely agree that there are two major areas to focus on to ready your resume for a company or recruiter to view: format and content.

Format is easy to do. (Our next blog will give hints for preparing an online resume.)

Important tip for the traditional resume—make it simple and easy to read once it is scanned.

• Most organizations use applicant tracking systems (online recruiting tools)
• So for those organizations your resume is scanned regardless of how or to whom you submit it

On the content side of writing a resume, you are a product competing against many other similar products.

• So you need to write your resume so it is easy for anyone who reads it to see whether you are the fit they are seeking for the particular job they are filling.

Here are simple steps and “tests”

Profile and title. Put a title at the top. Perhaps not your current title, but the type of professional you would call yourself if someone asked.  For example, “I’m an experienced marketing manager.”

Follow that title with a profile.

• Customize the profile for every job for which you apply
• Your profile should tell the recruiter or reader of the resume who you are, what you bring to the organization and what you are seeking for in a job

     Test: Have someone read your resume for 10 seconds.  If they cannot tell you the particular type of job you are intending to attract, then the recruiter will fail also to do that.

Professional and Personal Development.  Recruiters and hiring managers first want to know your professional strengths and work experience and formal education.  Therefore, before you list your personal accomplishments, focus on what has helped you develop professionally.  Make those easy to find.

Create a professional development section.  If room, do add one or two more lines where you include anything personal that does these things:

• Distinguishes you from others
• Shows strengths you bring to the job
• Go for Great!
  • For example– Running a Good but not great
  • Training for your fourth full triathlon? That is superlative

Test: If your supplemental skills are spread all over your resume – languages, technology skills, post graduate certifications, do this:

• Organize them in one place
• Limit personal details to one or two outstanding successes

Positions Listed Separately.  If you have been promoted, show that.  Progression and moving up the career ladder is important.  That shows:

• Commitment to a job, to a company and to success

Don’t lose yourself behind strange titles.  Simplify your titles in a professional and honest manner so the reader understands

• For example, “Junior Lead-Accountant III” should be listed just as Accountant.

Test: If your title changed and your responsibilities increased, make it obvious in your resume!

Overall Differentiation.  Imagine this- A position opens for a marketing manager.  The recruiter gets 200 resumes for the position.   The 20 the recruiter is even considering have generally the same skills.

If you list only your basic responsibilities, you will just be one of 20.

Instead:

• Do stand out and don’t just include what you did, but how you did it, and for whom
• Don’t dump a list of keywords into your resume
  • That might get you a glance or quick look from a company, but a resume with purposely placed keywords is quickly recognized like a sore thumb and stands out these days like a Christmas tree on Halloween in a grocery store.

Instead:

• Focus on applying for jobs that fit you
• Carefully write your content to be persuasive
• Think like the best product brands. How do they stand out? How are they special?

Test: If your resume reads like a job description, wrong!  Solution? Make the content stronger and eye-catching to show what you have accomplished.

Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.

Check out our advanced weekly speech tip program, our new subscription called ClearTalk Weekly, www.subscription.cleartalkmastery.com

Rerun from August 17, 2016