Got a lot of requests to write about success tips for the New Year. I was reluctant because I’m not there yet. However, here are three quick tips based on my little experience.

1. Don’t leave anything to chance. Plan your success and figure out the various steps required to get there way in advance. Be intentional about your activities toward achieving success.

2. Write the vision down and make it plain. Write also the various steps/milestones to achieving each and if possible, timelines for each. My visions are written down and positioned in strategic places in my life including the bedroom, school bags. I read them every day before bed and first thing when I wake up and also tick them off as they come to pass. All my visions for the last decade have been ticked off. I may not be able to explain why and how it works but trust me, it works. At least it helps you focus your effort. If you speak about it long enough, it may become your reality! Hab:2:2

3. You have not, because you ask not!Ask for help from both God and man. If you don’t believe in God skip that part. A closed mouth is a closed #Destiny. Remember the king granted the widow’s wish because she asked and was persistent about it, Luke 18:5. With faith, we speak things into existence.

To your success in 2020.

Happy New Year!

Feel free to add yours

Today, we talk about preparing a Smart CV

You remember that Section called “Objective”, eliminate from your CV. It does more harm than good. Instead, use a smart headline that focuses on your skills.

For example:

‘Award-winning Graphic Designer’

.’ ‘Full Stack Software Developer with 6 years of experience

If sending the CV abroad, don’t include the following:

– Age or Date of birth

– Gender

– Marital Status

– Number of kids

– Religion

– Secondary school education or high school qualification

– State, Local Govt.

-etc.

In general, avoid things that are not necessary for evaluating your capabilities, skills, and qualifications. They may unconsciously bias people’s judgment or distract them from focusing on the important things.

Keep the CV neat and smart

I still get a lot of CVs with all these.

RitaOrjiTips

Read more details here

In previous tips, I highlighted how important it’s to get to know profs’ work and how it relates to your interest and previous work before contacting them. Following that, many asked where they can find a prof’s research. This appears basic, but it’s one of the common questions I get.

In today’s tips, I will quickly tell you three places to check that out, but before that, remember research is driven by curiosity. If you’re able to use LinkedIn, you should be able to surf the net and find any information.

To find profs in your area of interest or in a department, first, go to the University’s website and click on programs, departments, faculties. The name may vary depending on the Uni. There, you’ll see a list of programs. When you find a program of interest, click and go to the department’s website. There you will see profs in that department and summary of work and a link to their website where they provide details of their research. You can find any University website via Google. For e.g., if you type “Canadian Universities” on Google, it’ll display the list of all Universities and link you to their website.

To access profs publications that you can’t be accessed via their website, go to https://scholar.google.ca or https://www.researchgate.net and search using the prof’s full name. You may be able to access the preprint version of most publications from these two sites free.

#RitaOrjiTips

Let me burst your bubble. Irrespective of how outstanding your profile may be & how good you think you are, you’re not a UNICORN. You’ll still compete for a slot.

This’s not what I intended to talk about feel it’s necessary to clear this illusion before I continue.

After my last a prospective student contacted me justifying why reviewing prior work doesn’t apply in his case. According to him, he’s a unicorn with respect to his research interest. He believes nobody has worked on anything related and hence it’ll be a waste of time reviewing previous work. He feels he’ll be doing profs favor.

I like his it’s without bases, hence seems like sheer arrogance. Having first-class honors is not enough!

If you’re like him, better wake up, I’m yet to see a unicorn in research. Not even a can make such a claim. Innovative Ideas Are Not Born In a Vacuum.

If you’re a 1st class holder, focus on showing that you’re not just good at passing exams. Success in research requires much more! If you hold a lesser grade, focus on showing there’s more to you than your results. I hired a 2.1 over 1st class due to complementary qualities.

#RitaOrjiTips

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

Engage Profs with their own research

It’s good to talk about yourself, qualifications, skills, past, and current research, however, don’t waste the whole email space talking about yourself. Profs are human and appreciate when you show that you read their work and engage them on that.

You can provide insights on how you hope to extend their work, overcome identified limitations of their work. How their work relates to what you’re doing or have done, and how you can fill in a gap or solve known problems in the area. The email shouldn’t be all about you.

I’ll suggest you use the first paragraph to engage the prof deeply on their own work and eventually talk about how it relates to your own work (past, current, & future) in the second paragraph. This requires that you take your time to study their research – current & past. This’s where many students fail. Doing this’ll help you avoid exercise in futility and ensure contact only appropriate profs.

If you can’t take time to read and synthesize profs’ work, you should rethink graduate school. It’s a MUST. Next, I’ll show you how to find profs and their work based on popular demand. I need good reactions (likes, shares, and comments) to continue…

Feel free to contributions

RitaOrjiTips

Avoid mass emailing professors or sending generic emails to many profs at a time when looking for admission.

In many Universities in North America, getting a supervisor is one of the criteria for admission to a research-based graduate program. Even when not required, getting a supervisor increases your chances of success in the competitive admission.

This’s often a daunting task and you may need to contact many professors before you get a single response. Mass emailing profs and sending generic emails will not make things easier, it worsens it. It irritates profs and increases the likelihood that no one will read your email irrespective of how good you may be.

Customize your email to each prof starting with Dear Prof. ). E.g., Dear Prof. ‘Dear Prof. Rita’). Reflect specific things about the prof’s work that attracted your attention & how it relates to your past experience and future interest.

I’ll advise against using greetings such as ‘Hi Rita’, ‘Hey Rita Orji’ and other variants even if you’re a friend, sibling, or you think he) is younger. This email should be strictly formal and depict you as a respectful person.

#RitaOrjiTips

Don’t request or get a recommendation/reference letter from a random person, a friend, or a family member who has never worked with you or taught you. Their evaluations are assumed to be biased and will not count much.

I get requests from online connections daily asking for recommendation letters for admissions or jobs. This is not to your advantage since I haven’t worked with most of you and can’t say anything concrete about you. Even if I am able to say anything meaningful, it may not count and you would have wasted an opportunity to get a valid referee. Avoid.

There is nothing wrong with providing a summary of key achievements in relation to your time with each referee that they can build on to write your reference. They may not be able to remember all of them. It also makes work easier since people are generally busy. In fact, I will strongly advise you to do this.

#RitaOrjiTips

Just a reminder, when applying for jobs or admission: ‘Use the job title as the email subject line. Never leave this blank or use things like, CV or looking for a job, etc. If you are not applying for a specific role, then indicate the types of roles you are looking for instead.’

To be continued…