New for Aspiring Doctors, the People Skills Test

 By GARDINER HARRIS

Published: July 10, 2011

ROANOKE, Va. — Doctors save lives, but they can sometimes be insufferable know-it-alls who bully nurses and do not listen to patients. Medical schools have traditionally done little to screen out such flawed applicants or to train them to behave better, but that is changing.

At Virginia Tech Carilion, the nation’s newest medical school, administrators decided against relying solely on grades, test scores and hourlong interviews to determine who got in. Instead, the school invited candidates to the admissions equivalent of speed-dating: nine brief interviews that forced candidates to show they had the social skills to navigate a health care system in which good communication has become critical.

The new process has enormous consequences not only for the lives of the applicants but, its backers hope, also for the entire health care system. It is called the multiple mini interview, or M.M.I., and its use is spreading. At least eight medical schools in the United States — including those at Stanford, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Cincinnati — and 13 in Canada are using it.

At Virginia Tech Carilion, 26 candidates showed up on a Saturday in March and stood with their backs to the doors of 26 small rooms. When a bell sounded, the applicants spun around and read a sheet of paper taped to the door that described an ethical conundrum. Two minutes later, the bell sounded again and the applicants charged into the small rooms and found an interviewer waiting. A chorus of cheerful greetings rang out, and the doors shut. The candidates had eight minutes to discuss that room’s situation. Then they moved to the next room, the next surprise conundrum and the next interviewer, who scored each applicant with a number and sometimes a brief note.

The school asked that the actual questions be kept secret, but some sample questions include whether giving patients unproven alternative remedies is ethical, whether pediatricians should support parents who want to circumcise their baby boys and whether insurance co-pays for medical visits are appropriate.

Virginia Tech Carilion administrators said they created questions that assessed how well candidates think on their feet and how willing they are to work in teams. The most important part of the interviews are often not candidates’ initial responses — there are no right or wrong answers — but how well they respond when someone disagrees with them, something that happens when working in teams.

Candidates who jump to improper conclusions, fail to listen or are overly opinionated fare poorly because such behavior undermines teams. Those who respond appropriately to the emotional tenor of the interviewer or ask for more information do well in the new admissions process because such tendencies are helpful not only with colleagues but also with patients.

“We are trying to weed out the students who look great on paper but haven’t developed the people or communication skills we think are important,” said Dr. Stephen Workman, associate dean for admissions and administration at Virginia Tech Carilion.

Dr. Charles Prober, senior associate dean at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said Stanford always valued social skills in students — particularly the ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and establish trust with patients — but did not have a reliable way of ferreting these skills out until adopting mini interviews.

The system grew out of research that found that interviewers rarely change their scores after the first five minutes, that using multiple interviewers removes random bias and that situational interviews rather than personal ones are more likely to reveal character flaws, said Dr. Harold Reiter, a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who developed the system.

In fact, candidate scores on multiple mini interviews have proved highly predictive of scores on medical licensing exams three to five years later that test doctors’ decision-making, patient interactions and cultural competency, Dr. Reiter said.

A pleasant bedside manner and an attentive ear have always been desirable traits in doctors, of course, but two trends have led school administrators to make the hunt for these qualities a priority. The first is a growing catalog of studies that pin the blame for an appalling share of preventable deaths on poor communication among doctors, patients and nurses that often results because some doctors, while technically competent, are socially inept.

The second and related trend is that medicine is evolving from an individual to a team sport. Solo medical practices are disappearing. In their place, large health systems — encouraged by new government policies — are creating teams to provide care coordinated across disciplines. The strength of such teams often has more to do with communication than the technical competence of any one member

“When I entered medical school, it was all about being an individual expert,” said Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, the president and chief executive of the Association of American Medical Colleges. “Now it’s all about applying that expertise to team-based patient care.”

The nation’s 134 medical schools have long relied almost entirely on college grades and a standardized test, the Medical College Admission Test, to sort through more than 42,000 applicants for nearly 19,000 slots.

One-on-one interviews are offered but provide poor assessments of a candidate’s social skills because they reflect only one person’s view, often focus on academic issues and elicit practiced responses to canned questions like “Why do you want to become a doctor?”

Administrators at Virginia Tech Carilion say teamwork has become so essential to medicine that the school not only chooses its students based on their willingness and ability to collaborate effectively, but also requires students to take teamwork classes.

The school invests more effort in honing students’ social skills than almost any other and requires that students undertake community projects with nurses and other health professionals, who are even invited to school dances.

“Our school intends to graduate physicians who can communicate with patients and work in a team,” said Dr. Cynda Ann Johnson, the dean of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, which opened in August 2010. “So if people do poorly on the M.M.I., they will not be offered positions in our class.”

The problems these efforts address are profound. Dr. Leora Horwitz, an assistant professor of medicine at Yale, recalled an incident in her residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York when a medical student marched into the hospital room of an elderly minister surrounded by his wife and several parishioners.

“And he announces in front of everyone: ‘We found the reason for your problem. The syphilis test is positive,’ ” Dr. Horwitz said. “It was a devastating event for the family and the whole church, and this student had no sense for that.”

Even more dangerous is when poor communication becomes so endemic that the wrong operations are performed. A 2002 study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine of one such incident found that the patient, doctors and nurses went along with the mistaken treatment because they were used to being kept in the dark about medical procedures. A survey by the Joint Commission, a hospital accreditation group, found communication woes to be among the leading causes of medical errors, which cause as many as 98,000 deaths each year.

Using mini interviews to help address these problems, though, left applicants at Virginia Tech Carilion wide-eyed. One said one of her interviewers hated her, so she was thrilled to talk to others. Another said the system was unfair because some of the situations were drawn from news events she had not followed.

Of the 2,700 applications received by the school over the past year, admissions officers selected 239 to participate in mini interviews conducted over six weekends from August through March. The school has 42 positions in each class. Virginia Tech Carilion trained 80 people to be interviewers, including doctors and businesspeople from the community.

Andrew Snyder, 25, was clearly nervous when the bell rang the first time, but he seemed to relax as the process continued and was smiling by the end. Mr. Snyder said he loved moving from room to room and being asked to discuss some of medicine’s thorny problems. He was accepted and plans to attend Virginia Tech Carilion in August.

“I thought the whole process was more geared toward problem-solving than to me talking about who I was as an applicant,” he said. “And I liked that.”

http://www.nytimes.com/

The elephant in the interview room: Are you being passed over because of age?

“I can see the look in people’s eyes when they first greet me,” says Bill Wood, a 64-year-old from Minneapolis, Minn., who is looking for a job in information technology. “It seems to say, ‘This guy is going to retire soon; we don’t want a short-term permanent employee.’”

Cyndi Pauwels, a writer in her 50s from Yellow Springs, Ohio, has had similar experiences. “I was told (second-hand, off-the-record) by a headhunter, ‘We don’t hire older workers.’ I’ve read that the longer I’m unemployed, the less likely my chances are of finding anything, and I’m beginning to believe it.”

The current recession has been particularly hard on older job candidates. In March 2011, the duration of unemployment for all seekers averaged 39 weeks. But in April, the average length of unemployment for people over 55 surpassed the year mark (53.6 weeks), according to an AARP analysis of Labor Department data. And while age discrimination is illegal, that certainly doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have increased 35 percent over the last three government fiscal years compared with the average of the three years prior.

What is behind the longer length of unemployment? Lisa Quast, author of “Your Career, Your Way!” and president of Career Woman Inc. in Seattle, Wash., notes the following:

 

Corporate downsizing during the recession eliminated many of the middle-management positions previously held by older workers.

There are more entry-level positions available, and these are the positions into which young people are being hired. Higher-level positions are less numerous and harder to obtain, so it can take longer for older workers to find an equivalent position to what they previously held.

Older workers are further up the career and salary ladder. Many do not want to take a position beneath their skill level, so they hold out on accepting lower-level positions, thus increasing the duration it takes to find a position.

Yet even when older workers are willing to settle for less, they often get passed over. “I have dropped my salary expectations to allow me to compete with younger candidates,” Wood says. “The philosophy of industry in the past was to bring in ‘young guns’ that have fresh ideas and ways of doing things. Unfortunately for people in a similar position as me, companies are not changing that attitude and are missing out on a golden opportunity to improve the business by utilizing experience.”

Older workers often are perceived as outdated or stuck in their ways. Such stereotypes can be hard to shatter, but not impossible. “Show some enthusiasm. Discuss how you have been innovative and are a life-long learner,” says Robin Ryan, author of “Over 40 & You’re Hired!” “Demonstrate on a résumé and in interviews the results you have achieved in the last FEW years. Show recent training (especially your technical prowess) and innovations made on the job, such as creating something new, making process/system improvements or saving past employers money.” Ryan also notes that many mature workers appear “weather-worn and tired out” and suggests looking as vibrant as possible with a new hairstyle and a contemporary, well-fitting suit.

While being lively is one thing, trying to hide your age can backfire. “In some cases, I see older workers removing the dates of their college degree(s) or their earliest jobs from their résumé in order to appear younger,” Quast says. “However, savvy hiring managers are able to see the candidates in person and guesstimate age — and may then be forced to ask candidates to explain holes in their résumé, leading to questions of integrity and additional embarrassment.”

Focusing on what you can offer a company (wisdom and experience) rather than what you can’t (youth) oftentimes sets the tone. “If you sense the hiring manager is worried about your age, then take the first step to put him at ease by explaining how you believe your knowledge, skills and experience would benefit him and the position,” Quast says. “If you choose to ask about his concerns, do so in a highly professional manner, such as, ‘Based on my education, skills and experience, are there any concerns you have that I am not qualified for this position?’ The goal is to get the hiring manager to show his hand without you having to bring up the topic of age.”

Finally, resist making blanket assumptions that companies only value youth. “The real-life experience of older workers can be of huge benefit in the business world, especially for start-up companies with a lot of young workers,” Quast says. “If you are truly worried about your age being a negative factor, seek out companies who could benefit from your expertise and sell them on yourself and your skills!”

By Beth Braccio Hering, Special to CareerBuilder

 

Harry Potter wizard series to be sold as e-books

Author J.K. Rowling announced Thursday that her seven Potter novels will be sold as e-books starting in October — ending the boy wizard’s status as one of the highest-profile holdouts against digital publishing.

“You can’t hold back progress,” Rowling said. “E-books are here and they are here to stay.”

The magical stories that conquered the world in print form will be available as audiobooks and e-books in multiple languages exclusively through a new interactive website called “Pottermore” — an announcement that delighted fans but deeply disappointed booksellers.

Rowling, one of the world’s most powerful authors, is bypassing established online retailers like Amazon, although the creators of Pottermore say the books will be compatible with popular e-readers including Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s Reader and Apple’s iPad.

“It’s very important to Jo to make the books available to everybody, not to make them available only to people who own a particular set of devices, or tethered to a particular set of platforms,” said Tom Turcan, chief operating officer of the new venture, Pottermore Ltd.

He said prices for the e-books would be announced closer to October.

The website is a partnership with Sony Corp. and its online shop is described as “a potential outlet for Sony products.” Rowling spokesman Mark Hutchinson said Sony was selected as “the most appropriate partner.”

Booksellers who have sold millions of Potter books reacted strongly to the news they will be shut out of the electronic version. Jon Howells, spokesman for Britain’s Waterstone’s chain, said the Harry Potter book launches “have become the stuff of legend at Waterstone’s and other booksellers.”

“We’re therefore disappointed that, having been a key factor in the growth of the Harry Potter phenomenon since the first book was published, the book trade is effectively banned from selling the long-awaited e-book editions,” he said.

The Potter books have sold about 450 million copies worldwide and spawned a hit movie franchise and a theme park. Forbes magazine has ranked Rowling as one of the richest women in Britain, with an estimated wealth of $1 billion.

“Pottermore” has been the subject of intense speculation among Potter fans since it appeared on the Internet with the words “coming soon.”

Rowling also has written 18,000 words of new Potter material for the new site, which promises to immerse users in her world of wizards, combining elements of computer games, social networking and an online store. She says the site includes “information I have been hoarding for years” about the books’ characters and settings.

The project unveiled in London lets Potter fans delve into the world of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Sections let users shop for wands in Diagon Alley, travel to Hogwarts from the imaginary Platform 9 3/4 at London’s King’s Cross train station and be sorted into Hogwarts school houses by the perceptive Sorting Hat.

Along the way are wand fights, games and new information about characters beloved around the world, including Harry’s reviled relatives, the Dursleys.

The site goes live July 31, when 1 million registered users will be chosen through an online competition to help flesh out the Pottermore world. It will be open to all users from October, in languages including English, French, German and Spanish.

Initially the site will follow the plotline of the first book, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” with the six other adventures added later.

“(It’s) a way I can be creative in a medium that didn’t exist when I started the books back in 1990,” Rowling told reporters, adding it allowed her to incorporate the thousands of “stories, drawings, ideas, suggestions” she still receives from fans four years after the last Potter book was published.

Harry Potter fans who have been sharing their enthusiasm online for years should be delighted by the new digital world, but Rowling said she wanted to keep the emphasis of the site firmly on the written word.

“We’ve had a lot of requests for online games,” she said. “I wanted to pull it back to reading.”

The last book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” was published in 2007, and Rowling said she still has no plans to write an eighth. But she said Pottermore was a way to reconnect with a character and a universe she loved.

“It is exactly like an ex-boyfriend,” Rowling said. “Finishing writing Harry — I have only ever cried in that way and that much when my mother died. I have never cried for a man the way I cried for Harry Potter.”

There may yet be another Potter book — a long-anticipated encyclopedia. Rowling said she was still considering compiling one, with the proceeds going to charity.

“Will there ever be an encyclopedia?” Rowling said. “Possibly.”

The final Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2,” has its world premiere in London on July 7. Hutchinson said timing of the website announcement had nothing to do with the Warner Bros. movies.

By JILL LAWLESS

The Associated Press

Five Ways to Hold the Right Kind of Attention

No matter how talented or accomplished you are, you cannot always count on attracting and retaining the attention of others. Too many options compete for everyone’s attention, and they multiply with each passing day. It will be more and more challenging to rise above the noise and hold onto the attention of those who matter to you.

Attention provides leverage. The more people we can attract and motivate to join us on a challenging quest or initiative, the more impact we are likely to achieve. So, what are effective ways to attract and retain the kind of attention that helps us to address the challenges we face? Here are five steps that build on each other.

1. Embrace mystery – Frame really gnarly problems that are relevant to you and need to be solved. Help people to understand why these are such significant problems and why so many people have stumbled in trying to solve these problems. It probably will not attract the people looking for easy answers or silver bullets, but it can attract those who are naturally curious and looking for stimulating challenges.

2. Focus inquiry – Don’t try to suggest answers. Frame interesting questions instead. Help people gain a foothold by posing questions that intrigue and motivate them to start investigating the mysteries that lie ahead.

3. Excite the imagination – Provide some “what if?” scenarios to illustrate the possibilities that await those who manage to come up with creative answers. Paint the pictures but make it clear these are only pictures. Stimulate people to pursue the questions with a lot of energy and creativity.

4. Limit availability – Lots of people will seek you out if you are successful in exciting the imagination. If you try to connect with everyone, the conversations can spread you way too thin. Be more selective in your availability – you will often provide even greater incentive to tackle the problems, rather than simply engaging in conversations.

5. Be authentic – If you try to game this, you will be found out and the backlash will be significant. So, here is the catch—if you are not genuinely engaged in addressing these problems yourself, you will not be able to sustain the attention and effort of others to come up with creative solutions. On the other hand, if you are on a quest yourself, leading by example, you could have a contagious effect and the encounters you have can help both sides to learn from each other.

Do these techniques actually work? Well, think of how Martin Luther King excited and mobilized a broad group of people to tackle some very challenging social problems. On a completely different level, one leading tech company in Silicon Valley regularly attracts the attention of the venture capital community by sharing its most difficult technology problems and suggesting that they would buy the start-ups that come up with creative solutions to these problems. Or look at the way professional astronomers have mobilized a global network of passionately engaged amateurs to learn more about the vast universe beyond this one planet.

This kind of attention is priceless and powerful. We will all need to find ways to generate it and harness it. This is not just an opportunity, but increasingly an imperative. We are all experiencing increasing economic pressure as individuals and institutions. In this kind of environment, we not only need leverage, we also need to more rapidly improve our performance. We all get better faster by working with others. To do this, we first need to attract the attention of others. If we fail to attract that attention, we will not get better faster in an increasingly competitive global economy, and we could be marginalized. That is why attention is becoming more valuable at the same time that it is becoming scarcer.

 ~John Hagel and John Seely Brown / Harvard Business Review

How to Handle Raise Request

“Can I have a raise?”

Five little words cause a lot of stress and frustration. In many smaller organizations — and even some larger ones — there’s no formal compensation policy. There may not even be an HR professional available to consult on merit increases and other pay issues. In these companies, you are likely to encounter direct requests from your staff members for a raise. Absent a policy, people assume that if they want a raise the only way they can get one is to ask for it.

Of course, the best solution to this problem is to set some kind of compensation policy so these decisions don’t have to be handled in a one-off, spur-of-the-moment fashion. But as a manager, you may not be in a position to determine what your company’s policy will be, particularly if your company is a small owner-operated firm and you aren’t the owner. To have to say, “You’ll have to talk to Mr. Jones about that,” lets everyone know that you have no power or authority in the really important areas.

Raise-requesters usually offer up a combination of reasons why they deserve a pay increase: They’ve done an outstanding job and therefore deserve an increase. (Regardless of the truth of the assertion, this reason is almost always offered.) The scope of the job has significantly widened. The person is underpaid compared with peers in the office or what the going rate for the job is at other organizations. The cost of living has gone way up since the last salary adjustment. And there’s always the universal “I just need more money” motive.

If you are the decision-maker, the best approach is to thank the person for bringing the matter to your attention along with a promise to get back with an answer by a specific date. From there, talk to other people in leadership positions in your company about the whole issue of compensation. Is this raise request a unique event, or is it the tip of an iceberg of compensation grumbles?

Then, fairly assess the situation. Keep in mind the difference between the value of the role that employees perform and their value as individuals. They’re not the same. Every job is worth a certain amount. That amount is determined by the market, not by the quality of the individual’s performance or their need for a greater income. It may be that the limit of the value that can be placed on a particular role has simply been reached. The refusal to grant a salary increase here is not a reflection on the person’s value as an individual but the worth of the job to the company, no matter how well it’s performed.

But let’s say a review of the individual’s salary-change request tells you that a pay increase is appropriate — the person is, in fact, underpaid compared with others in the company who are doing similar work, or it would be difficult to replace the individual if she left at anywhere near the salary the raise-requester is currently getting. Don’t immediately grant the increase. If a salary increase is granted directly following a request, word may spread that all individuals in the organization are underpaid. The unfortunate precedent will be set that the way to get a salary increase is simply to ask for it. You will then be held hostage to all the other raise requests that will immediately follow.

Instead, initiate a second conversation. Explain how the amount of money paid an individual is a function of two things: the value of the job itself and the quality of performance of the person doing the job. Ask the individual to examine both how she might enhance her performance and how her job can be made more valuable to the organization. What additional duties might she assume? How much extra responsibility is she willing to take on? How much extra effort is she willing to put forth?

When these issues have been successfully settled, the pay increase can be granted with both you and your subordinate can leave the table satisfied. With a few extra steps and strategic thinking, answering difficult compensation questions can be a breeze — and not a headache.

by Dick Grote  The Conversation- Harvard Business Review

Job Hunting Strategies to Get You Noticed

Feb 14th, 2011

So now you’ve got to look for a job. Maybe you’re experienced at this, maybe not. Maybe you’re a hot commodity, maybe not so much. Reportedly there are 5 applicants for every position, so for sure there’s more competition. I can say with certainty that no matter how great you are, among those five is at least one person smarter, younger, out of work a shorter time or with better credentials than you.

So, is it hopeless? Of course not. 9.5% unemployment, means 90.5% employment. You just have to be smarter and faster and yes, maybe settle for less pay, shorter hours, and/or fewer (or no) benefits. But if you need to have a job as soon as possible, you’ve got to start right away as the longer you’re out of work, the less desirable you are to a prospective employer.

Preparing Yourself

Update and target your resume for a few companies that you want to work for even if there are no job openings at the moment. Concentrate on those in growth industries, energy, health, security, for example. If you go after what you want, you’ll have better focus and determination.

When applying for positions, make sure you follow the instructions given. If they say, “no calls,” then don’t call. This seems obvious, but it’s easy to forget when you have a pattern going and then someone asks you do something in a way to which you’re unaccustomed.

Put your resume online. It makes it easier to find. There are many free places to do that. One of the easiest and best ways (also free) is to use blogging software, like WordPress or Google’s Blogpost. All you need is one page for this unless you want to elaborate in which case you can do that also. Just use your name, i.e., yourname.wordpress.com and you don’t need a domain name and you can reuse it for something else when you’re done having your resume online. Perhaps a blog about your job hunt?

Updating also includes updating your computer skills if they are rusty or non-existent. There are many courses given at the community level to help you in this area. Also, get a professional email address if yours is more like daffyducklovesdaisy @ whatever.com.

Learn how to speak about yourself effectively. Find some sample interview questions and write down your answers and do it until you feel confident speaking them aloud. No one employer will ask all of them, but if you prepare for any contingency, the confidence you’ll get will help you be a powerful and interesting interviewee. No matter what, it’s a good skill to have in life.

Doing Your Research

Do your homework about the organization and speak to your knowledge in an appropriate way in your cover letter. Have a list of questions prepared should you get to speak with someone. (Not “how much does the job pay?”, but more like “how did your company (or division) overcome challenges to growth last year?”)

Get the names of key people in the organization. Call the companies, get correct spellings and titles. Mail (by US Postal Mail) your personalized cover letter and updated resume. Speak to the specific skills and qualifications they are looking for. It’s “what can I do for X Company” approach, not the other way around. Try saying in your cover letter you’ll call on a certain day and time to be available for any questions they may have and follow through on that. If this sounds a little gimmicky to you, remember those 4 other smarter, younger, more qualified people. If you get to speak to someone and it’s a “no” or “I haven’t looked at it yet”, find out what you need to do to get noticed.

Getting and Staying in Touch

If there are no openings now, write a letter to the person who has the job you would want in that company, and request a short (telephone or email) informational interview about three things they would recommend you do to land a job in their field. Be creative and appropriately flattering to their position and knowledge in the field. Who could resist this? The possibility of landing such interviews and the information and networking potential here is worth any amount of resistance you might have to the idea. It works.

When you land an informational interview, make sure the last question you ask is, “May I stay in touch with you?” Keeping yourself in front of key people can never hurt. If they say “no,” thank them and move on.

No matter what the situation that got you a face to face with someone, follow up with a thank you note. Thank them for their time and ask (if it wasn’t covered in the meeting) what weaknesses you should address based upon their time with you. Another opportunity a) to learn and b) to keep in touch. An online search will yield tons of examples of post-interview or post-informational interview thank you notes.

Reinventing Yourself

Be open to possibilities you might not have originally considered like:

Freelancing or consulting. Many companies are farming out work to save on benefits. If you need a paycheck more than health insurance or a pension, this might tide you over or even create a new focus for you in the form of a new business.

Temporary work. Many a temporary position led to a full-time job. At the least it can help pay the bills until one comes along, possibly broaden your experience or keep your skills sharp and fill in resume gaps.

Consider job hunting your new job, although keeping busy at other endeavors can help fill in the gaps in your resume should you not have any temporary or part-time work to put on it. If you already were volunteering, volunteer more, or find something to do that shows you were trying to enrich your employment potential.

Janice Salomon is the creator of http://theamericanidle.com, a comprehensive blog/website offering the latest resources, tools, tips, news and information for anyone affected by job loss or change. From what to do if you get laid off to negotiating the unemployment insurance maze through job hunting or career change, we’ll help you with your journey. Come visit today and tell us your story about you survived and conquered being The American Idle.

~employmentdigest.net@bill

Mixed-Race Students Wonder How Many Boxes to Check

Multiracial students confess to spending sleepless nights worrying about how best to answer the race question on college applications. Some say they wonder whether their answers will be perceived as gamesmanship or a reflection of reality.

Aia Sarycheva, 18, whose father is from Sudan and mother is from Russia, will go to Yale next year on the strength of her grades in 12 Advanced Placement courses and an SAT score in the mid-2200s. (A perfect score is 2400.)

In the “Demographics” section of the Common Application, which is accepted by Harvard, Yale and more than 400 other colleges and universities, Ms. Sarycheza, who attends Stuyvesant High School in New York City, checked two boxes: black and white.

“I was aware that should I get into the college I wanted to get into, that there would be stigma around it — to put it bluntly — that I got in because I’m black,” said Ms. Sarycheva, who describes her skin tone as “coffee with a lot of milk.”

“The thing I want to convey,” she continued, “is that I didn’t check the box because it would give me some sort of admissions boost. I checked black, along with white, because that is who I am.”

Without clear guidance from the colleges, mixed-race students often turn to one another for advice, and their conversations spotlight how contentious the multiracial factor is in admissions.

On the Web site College Confidential, for instance, there are many streams of heated conversation on the issue.

At close to 3 a.m. one winter morning this year, a student from Germantown, Md., calling himself “Bigshot3008” kicked off a discussion with a question: “How do you guys feel about biracial (specifically half black, half white) students applying to college as full black, just to get our incentives? I personally think it should be frowned upon and that it is unfair.”

The incentives that Bigshot3008, who is black, was referencing fall under the umbrella of affirmative action, a principle to which most highly selective private and public institutions subscribe as a means of redressing past racial injustices.

In an interview, Bigshot3008, who would not give his real name as not to jeopardize friendships, said that he posted the question one sleepless night as he worried about whether he would get into the University of Virginia. (He did.) He said he knew biracial students at his high school who only embraced their minority side when it came time to fill out college applications.

One response to Bigshot3008’s online query came from “MarinebioSax,” who later identified herself to a reporter as Maya Taufete’e-Paguada, a high school junior from Memphis. Ms. Taufete’e-Paguada identifies as black, Latina and Pacific Islander, and said she had been thinking deeply about the ethics of the race question, knowing that she would have to make a choice on her own applications next year.

“Of course it’s unfair,” she wrote on the site in reference to what is now commonly referred to as “passing as black.” “But people will do anything to get that little extra advantage in admissions.”

For her part, Ms. Taufete’e-Paguada said there will be three boxes checked.

“I’ve always been taught to embrace my multiracial identity,” she said.

Though he will not begin his senior year in high school until the fall, Kennedy Francis Quay Edmonds, 17, of New York City said he already knows which boxes he intends to check on his college applications. He attends Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., one of the nation’s premier prep schools, and said he will present himself to colleges as part Asian. His maternal grandfather is Malaysian; his father is white.

“A lot of people said, ‘You’re just a quarter, that’s not enough,’ ” said Mr. Edmonds, a member of Mosaic, an affinity group for multiracial students at Andover. “But I feel like it’s enough because it’s very culturally important to me.”

Mr. Edmonds, whose Asian features are very subtle, added, “What’s important to me is that the college knows I have this other culture and experience in my life, even though I’m only a quarter. You can’t take everything at face value.”

~ SUSAN SAULNY and JACQUES STEINBERG

You won’t hear “you’re hired” if you spell it “your hired”

Each spring, schools from around the U.S. send their best spellers to Washington, D.C., for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. At the Bee, a moderator tosses out words that most of us have never heard before, and these prodigious pupils rattle off a stream of letters as if stromuhr and Laodicean are everyday words. If you saw the film Spellbound, you understand how gripping this display of linguistic skills can be. You’ve got silent Ks and hidden Ms and tricky origins that complicate words. It’s so exciting even ESPN broadcasts the Bee.

We watch in awe as students a fraction of our age spell words we never heard before and probably will never hear again. Yet, judging by the amount of typos I see on a daily basis (including the ones I write), many of us are having trouble with some basic words. Ridiculous doesn’t have an e; too is not the same as to. These misspellings don’t mean we’re not as smart as the youngsters at the Spelling Bee, it just means we’re not as focused on accuracy as they are. Yet, we should be because spelling matters, especially when you’re looking for a job.

Rather than let spelling be something you don’t think about much or a terrifying monster that looms over every cover letter you type, we think you can easily handle it. Here are a few tips for impeccable spelling and why it matters on a job hunt:

1. Check (and check again) the names of companies, references, interviewers
Names are some of the easiest words to spell incorrectly because there are no definitive ways to spell them. Thom or Tom? Stacy or Stacey or Staci?  Don’t ever assume you aced the spelling the first time, especially when typing out the name of the hiring manager of people you interviewed with. Check e-mails, business cards and online profiles to ensure you’re spelling their names correctly. Failing to do so will be a glaring error that suggests you have no attention to detail.

Above all else, spell your name correctly. You laugh now, but believe me, it happens.

2. Don’t rely on spell check
Listen, spell check is an amazing invention that has made life easier for everybody. However, it’s not perfect and shouldn’t be used as the authority on all things spelling. For example, a good spell check might catch some grammatical mistakes, but it won’t always know that you meant “through” instead of “threw.” Both words are spelled correctly but they’re not interchangeable in the least. If your résumé boasts of your “righting” abilities, don’t expect a call from the hiring manager.

3. Avoid slang
Thank you, Internet, for making us forget that “want to” is actually the grammatically proper way to say “wanna.” The same goes for “gonna,” “whatcha,” and “srsly.” We’re a world that loves abbreviations, especially in e-mails and texts, but they don’t translate well to the professional world. Using abbreviated netspeak in an informal e-mail is fine, but when you’re trying to impress a potential boss stick to standard English. Employers want to know that you’ll be a strong representative of their brand, so prove you know the difference between “b4” and “before.” For realz.

4. Have a proofreader
The hardest part about making sure you don’t misspell something is knowing what you might be misspelling. Not everybody’s blessed with the spelling gene, and it never occurs to some people that supposedly and supposably are not interchangeable words, and some people won’t even acknowledge “supposably” as a valid word. The easiest way to solve this conundrum is to let someone else look over your résumé and cover letter because they might catch a mistake you didn’t even know you were making. Have your significant other, friend, roommate or even your (hopefully smart) child take a look before you hit send.

5. Stick with the language you’re comfortable with
One surefire way to ruin your writing is to use words that you think make you sound smarter. In reality, they don’t. Not only will your syntax will sound weird because it’s not natural to you, but you are also going to be using words you don’t know how to spell. Suddenly your attempt to sound sophisticated has turned your correspondence into a word jumble that looks like an eye chart. Save yourself the headache and write in a way that makes you feel comfortable while still using proper, traditional grammar.

Another reason you want to display your most honest writing is so that you’ve set an accurate expectation for your writing. Pretending you’re someone else in order to get the job, only to be unable to perform at that level on a daily basis, is not going to be fun for you or your boss. Be honest in your writing style.

Not everyone is a gifted speller, and it’s a skill that’s more important in some occupations than in others. However, in today’s world where many of us spend our days sending e-mails and writing reports, knowing how to communicate with error-free writing is a skill you can’t afford to lack.

How has spelling played a role in your career? Does it not matter or is it one of your most used skills? Have you had a boss who relied on you because he or she couldn’t spell in the least? Let us know.

~Anthony Balderrama

7 tips for improving email etiquette »

According to 2009 research from international consulting firm Deloitte, the average office worker sends around 160 emails and checks his or her inbox more than 50 times per day. If practice really made perfect, we’d all be Olympic gold medal-winning emailers by now.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I still hit the “send” button in the exact instant that I spot a typo, and I still get emails that give me the funny feeling that a co-worker didn’t mean to hit “reply all.”

Despite tons of practice, it seems that email etiquette is still something most of us are working to perfect.  

So, in honor of National Email Week (what, that wasn’t on your Outlook calendar?) we talked to a few communications experts about proper email etiquette. Here’s what they had to say about what makes a good email, and what gets your message sent to the trash folder.

Do:

Be concise: “Email is intended for short, informational messages,” says Jodi R. R. Smith, president of Mannersmith Etiquette Consulting in Marblehead, Mass., and author of “From Clueless to Class Act: Manners for the Modern Woman.” “Keep in mind that with some email systems it is possible for the recipient to read just the first three lines of your message without ever opening the email. Make the first couple lines count.”

Double check: “Never, ever skip the spell check and double check the word is not changed to a word you did not intend to use,” says Diane Gottsman, owner of The Protocol School of Texas, a company that specializes in corporate etiquette training. “Spell check is not foolproof if it picks up a word that it ‘thinks’ you mean.”

While you’re rereading your email, also take a second to ensure that the correct person’s name is in the “To” field. It can be easy to accidentally type in the wrong name, especially with email programs that auto-complete email addresses when you start typing.

Be professional: “Treat email like a professional correspondence, because it is. It’s the only communication most executives see and you will be judged accordingly,” Gottsman says. That means spelling out words in their entirety (no “U,” “LOL,” etc.), using correct capitalization and including an email signature with your contact information.

Professionalism should extend to the style and formatting of your email as well. When choosing fonts and creating an email signature, use the “Phyllis” test. Anything you think Phyllis from “The Office” might include in her emails should be avoided in yours. This includes cutesy fonts like Comic Sans, email wallpaper, and signatures with flash animation or your favorite quote.

Be pleasant: You probably know from experience that it’s hard to tell whether someone is being sarcastic or serious via email. “Watch not only what you say, but how you say it,” Smith says. “Using all capital letters is considered yelling.” The same goes for sentences with excessive punctuation — ending a sentence with “!!!” or “???” will just make you seem angry.

Similarly, suggests Robby Slaughter, owner of Slaughter Development LLC, a business productivity firm based in Indianapolis, start your email off with a friendly greeting, not an order. “The word ‘hello’ followed by the name of the recipient does wonders in ensuring your email is well received and actually read,” he says.

Don’t:

Avoid face-to-face conversation: Sometimes, it’s just easier and more effective to walk into your boss’s office, or pick up the phone and call your customer. “Remember this rule: Email is more for coordination than it is for communication,” Slaughter says. If you have a lengthy project or proposal to discuss, schedule time to talk to the person face-to-face or over the phone.

Similarly, email shouldn’t be used to resolve conflict, or as a method of avoiding confrontation. “Don’t hide behind your computer,” Smith says. “Don’t use email as a shield to avoid having a conversation or a face-to-face interaction.”

Copy your whole team: “This is like scheduling a pickup from two taxi companies ‘just in case’– you’re wasting almost everyone’s time, and most of the recipients will assume that someone else will answer,” Slaughter says.  

Send an email when you’re angry: In the heat of an angry moment, it is way too easy to fire off a scathing email full of things you’d never actually say to someone’s face. “Wait until you cool off before putting something down in writing,” Gottsman says.

While most of the experts we heard from agreed on the above points, there were some divided opinions on a couple of popular email practices, notably:

• The use of emoticons in work emails. Some experts said they were OK, because they helped signify the tone of the email (i.e. putting a at the end of the sentence to tell the recipient you are joking), while others thought they were simply unprofessional.
• Whether or not the “Sent from my BlackBerry” or “Sent from my iPhone” should be kept at the bottom of emails from wireless devices. Some argued that it should be there, to alert the recipient that formatting issues or typos are a result of emailing on the go, while others said it should be removed, because it’s a dead giveaway to clients and colleagues that you’re not in the office.

~Kaitlin Madden

Why Aren’t Employers Calling Me Back?

You write a killer cover letter, tailor your résumé to highlight skills described in the job ad and double-check your application before sending to make sure it includes everything the company requested. All that is left to do is sit back and wait for the employer to contact you.

But as days turn into weeks without hearing a peep, questions arise. Did they get my material? Has the job been filled? Did they just not like me?

Here, experts weigh in on what might be behind that silence — and what you can do to get the conversation rolling.

The reality of the situation

Companies truly are glad that people want to work for them. Unfortunately, many places simply do not have the manpower to offer individualized responses.

“Given the volume of applications an HR office receives, you should not expect a response beyond an automated ‘we received your application’ unless they are interested in interviewing you,” says Pennell Locey, senior consultant for Keystone Associates, a career management consulting firm headquartered in Boston. “In the event there was no auto-response, you can send a note via snail mail to someone in HR along with your résumé to ensure that they received it.”

But is there anything one can do besides play the “wait and see” game?

“After submitting a job application, it is wise to follow up with a telephone call to the appropriate contact within a week to 10 days,” says Mary Massad, vice president of talent acquisition and retention strategies for Administaff, a professional employer organization headquartered in Houston, Texas. “Some individuals might feel that following up may be perceived as being pushy, but this actually demonstrates to the employer that you are conscientious, organized and professional.”

When following up, Massad recommends asking if the application was received and if any additional information is needed. (Of course, if they didn’t get your application, offer to send it again.) “It also is important to restate your interest in the job, but don’t be overzealous.”

Locey suggests trying to stand out from the masses by seeing if you can find a contact at the company who can single you out to the hiring manager and speak to your strengths. “That can be beneficial to you (you may get an interview) and to the company (finding a candidate who someone is willing to vouch for).”

The waiting game, part 2

Job seekers who are fortunate enough to generate employer interest may feel like their days of waiting are over. In truth, however, an interview (or even two or three) may simply usher in a new era of frustrating silence.

According to Locey, if you have interviewed with a company and not heard back within two weeks, chances are that one or more of the following is happening:

They are talking to several candidates and it is taking awhile to get them all scheduled.

They can’t get the interviewers together to discuss the candidates post interview.

You are not the first choice but are strong enough that they do not want to say “no” yet.

Having talked to several qualified people has changed the hiring manager’s view of the job and he is working behind the scenes to upgrade or shift the role.

“The best thing you can do is try to set some expectations during the interview about what the company’s process is,” says Tracy A. Cashman, partner and general manager of the information technology division of Winter, Wyman — one of the largest staffing firms in the Northeast. “Ask when you can expect to hear if you are selected for the next round. Take that date, add a few days to it and then don’t be afraid to politely follow up.”

Sending a thank-you note immediately after the interview can help set the stage for further contact. Follow-up strategies later in the game may include:

Sending an e-mail that reiterates interest and offers to provide any additional information.

Finding an article on a topic discussed during the interview and sending it with a note as a way to show you are thinking about the company.

Phoning the person who interviewed you to thank her again, to ask if there is an update on the position and to share anything you might have forgotten in the initial interview.

While employer silence is anything but golden to an eager applicant, stay positive by remembering that the day will come when the quietness will be broken by the sweet sound of a job offer!

Beth Braccio Hering researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues for CareerBuilder.com. Follow @CareerBuilder on Twitter