After years of law schools and medical schools directing their attention and resources to attracting women applicants, business schools are now seeing the reaped rewards from these same efforts of enticing more women into MBA programs.  Historically, women enrollees have been considerably lower than their male counterparts.  That’s changing, though.  More business schools are bringing out the heavy artillery in their efforts, says A. Harrison Barnes, career coach and founder of EmploymentCrossing.com.  Private parties, all expense paid trips and other incentives  - such as cooking classes, of all things, are successfully wooing more women.

Some of the best business schools in the country are already reporting impressive growth from women applicants; sometimes up to 2 percent.  This means more women are going to be entering their business careers higher up the corporate ladder than in previous years.  The overall image is changing too, says the EmploymentCrossing.com founder.  “Women aren’t as likely to be intimidated when faced with a tepid response in a classroom comprised of mostly men”.

A University of Michigan at Ann Arbor study revealed the main reasons the numbers have always been low have to do with a lack of female role models, a lack of encouragement by their employers and the belief business jobs would mean they would have to make more compromises in terms of marriage and family. Women have been becoming brilliant physicians and attorneys for decades, now the gap is closing in business, as well.  A. Harrison Barnes says there’s one more reason women have sometimes steered clear of MBA programs that’s rather surprising: the quantitative capabilities are sometimes off-putting for women.  Still, the report found that more than eighty percent of women business school grads agreed the MBA contributed significantly to their careers and that the challenges were well worth the anxiety and efforts.

One school, the University of Indiana’s Kelley School of Business, offered cooking classes as part of its enticement methods.  Enrollment immediately increased by eight percentage points.  This is indicative of women who want it all – and believe they can achieve it.  From the results of this study, they’re right.  From the boardroom to the kitchen to the school plays, today’s contemporary woman is realizing there’s a balance to be had – and they’re defining it to fit their needs.

Women have long since known they can incredible medical and legal careers and now, they know an MBA is within reach – and they don’t have to make the sacrifices those before them might have faced. The Stern School of Business, located in New York, has traditionally had the highest proportion of female students and it’s now reporting ratios of forty percent and growing.  With more careers opening up, as evidenced by the trends on EmploymentCrossing.com, it’s clear there’s a new trend and for many, not a moment too soon.

The frustrating reality isn’t nearly as simple.  Getting an interview alone is an exercise in persistence and patience.

Here are 10 reasons for why you’re not landing that interview and what you can do to reverse the trend.

Your résumé and cover letter are as articulate as Courtney Love’s Web blog. If your application materials contain typos, grammatical errors and irrelevant or inconsistent information, employers will take notice — in a bad way.  Once you’ve looked over your résumé and cover letter to the point of dementia, take this advice from Joyce Gioia of the Herman Group: have three people, for whom English is a first language, review your résumé and cover letter before you send it.

Your cover letter is generic. Make it personal by tailoring it to the particular job and addressing it to a person, not “To Whom It May Concern.”  And include a sentence or two about how you are the right fit for that particular job.  If no contact is listed, take the initiative to find out who the hiring manager is by searching the company’s Web site or calling the reference desk.

Your letter is a CliffsNotes version of your résumé. Instead of simply restating what’s on your résumé, include new information like how you found out about the job, why you want to work there and what you can do for them.  Finally, close with something that will encourage a response, such as a request for an interview.

Your letter exudes self-consciousness, not self-confidence. If you don’t feel qualified for a job, why are you applying for it?  Don’t call attention to your shortcomings in a letter; emphasize your strengths by focusing on your skills, experience and ability.

You cross the line from sounding confident to sounding cocky. Don’t mistake selling yourself with bragging.  Putting “I would be an asset to your company” in your cover letter catches the eye; writing “You would be crazy not to hire me” turns the stomach.

Your MySpace page lists “binge-drinking” as a favorite pastime. Don’t post anything on a publicly accessible Web site that you wouldn’t want a potential employer to see.  Not all hiring managers run searches on job candidates, but some do, and it’s better to err on the side of caution.  Google yourself to see what comes up, because recruiters will see the same results.

You assume e-mail is enough. Hitting the send button on an online application is only the first step in landing an interview.  For one thing, not every e-mail is received or read.  Try following up your application by sending a paper résumé and cover letter via snail mail (indicating you’ve already applied online).  After that, call the hiring manager to see that they’ve received your application and check on the status of the job in question.

You assume the Internet is enough. The majority of all employment opportunities aren’t advertised, so be proactive: Contact human resources managers at companies you want to work for inquiring about positions available; register with a job recruitment agency; attend industry events to stay on top of news; and devote energy to meeting like-minded professionals who will be the keys to discovering more opportunities.

You misrepresent yourself. It may sound like a no-brainer, but misrepresenting yourself on a résumé is bound to catch up with you.  Upon performing a reference check, Denise Moorehead, communications director of a non-profit service agency in Boston, once discovered a job candidate had left her previous job a year earlier than she’d admitted. It turned out that the candidate had gotten burned out and decided to take a year to temp and regroup, but thought the obvious employment gap would be held against her, so she simply lied about it.  “I figured if she’d lie about something this easy to explain, she might lie about the deadline-driven work she would have to do with me,” Moorehead says.

You give up. Remember that looking for a job is a full-time job.  If you’re not hearing back from employers, considering changing your strategy.  Experiment with different cover letters, revise your résumé on a regular basis and look for opportunities to add to your experience even when you’re not working (i.e. taking classes, participating in workshops, volunteering).

1. The Bad Interviewer. Not every professional who conducts job interviews with candidates knows how to conduct an interview effectively. In fact some are downright lousy at it. A bad interviewer might be unfocused, disinterested, unprepared. He or she might dominate the interview by doing all the talking or might ask inappropriate and illegal questions.

The unfocused, unprepared interviewer probably hasn’t read your resume and maybe can’t even find a copy. This hapless soul doesn’t even know what to ask you. Be sure to offer this disorganized interviewer a copy of your resume while asking, “May I take you through some highlights of my career?”

While the bigmouth interviewer is holding forth, make as many mental notes as you can (or jot them down if you’ve brought a small notepad). Don’t show your exasperation; instead be an attentive listener and hang on the interviewer’s every word. Try to get a word in edgewise by leaning forward and opening your mouth slightly, advises Anne Kadet on Smartmoney.com. If that doesn’t work, even a nonstop talker will likely eventually ask if you have any questions. At that point, you can ask questions or describe your fit with the company and the position based on the mental notes you’ve been making.

For inappropriate and illegal questions, see No. 6 below and try your hardest to keep the interview focused on your qualifications for the job.

1. The “Tell Me about Yourself” Question. Of course, this question is not a question at all but a request for a command performance. It’s the most commonly asked interview question, yet it frequently still rattles interviewees. The trick is to make your response a succinct summary of information that is specifically targeted to the job you’re interviewing for. (Sell yourself!) For example:

“My background to date has been centered around preparing myself to become the very best financial consultant I can become. Let me tell you specifically how I’ve prepared myself. I am an undergraduate student in finance and accounting at ___________ University. My past experience has been in retail and higher education. Both aspects have prepared me well for this career.”

The interviewer is not looking for your autobiography and probably is not interested in your personal life unless aspects of it are relevant to the job you’re interviewing for.

1. The “Weakness” Question. The conventional wisdom about responding to “What are your weaknesses?” used to be that the candidate should spin a weakness into a strength. For example: “I’m a perfectionist and don’t believe anyone can do the job as well as I can, so I sometimes have a hard time delegating.” That type of response has, however, worn out its welcome with interviewers. Other approaches include offering a weakness that is inconsequential to the job (such as being a poor speller and relying on spellcheck) or denying that you have any weaknesses that would stand in the way of your performing the job effectively. The former approach may work but be seen as shallow, while the latter sometimes lacks credibility. After all, everyone has a weakness.

An approach that seems to work well is to talk about an area that was once a weakness but that you have worked to improve. Here’s how you could frame the perfectionist example above in terms of professional growth: “I tend to be a perfectionist who has had trouble delegating tasks to others, but I’ve come to see that teamwork and capitalizing on everyone’s strengths is a much more effective way to get the job done than trying to do it all myself.”

1. The “Why should I hire you?” Question. The unspoken part of this question is: “Why should I hire you [above all the other candidates]?” This is your chance to shine, to really make a sales pitch for yourself. Use your Unique Selling Proposition to describe what sets you apart from other candidates. The employer will make a significant investment in hiring and training you, so tell the interviewer that this investment will be justified. For example, you could say: “I sincerely believe that I’m the best person for the job. Like other candidates, I have the ability to do this job. But beyond that ability, I offer an additional quality that makes me the very best person for the job — my drive for excellence. Not just giving lip service to excellence, but putting every part of myself into achieving it. Throughout my career, I have consistently strived to become the very best I can become. The success I’ve attained in my management positions is the result of possessing the qualities you’re looking for in an employee.”

1. “Off-the-wall” Questions, also known as “Wild Card” or “No-Right-Answer” Questions. Occasionally you’ll be asked an interview question that’s just downright weird and certainly doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the job — for example, a question like this: “If you were an ice-cream cone, what flavor would you be?” Interviewers often ask these oddball questions to see how quickly you can think on your feet and whether you can avoid becoming flustered. Others, unfortunately, ask them because they enjoy seeing interviewees squirm. Still others are amused by the range of creative — and not-so-creative — responses they receive.

Don’t let an off-the-wall question rattle you. Take a moment to gather your thoughts and respond the best way you can. There is rarely a wrong answer to this type of question, but quick-thinking candidates can turn the response into an opportunity to impress the employer. A response given by one of my former students has always stuck in my head as being a standout answer. The question was: “If you were a superhero, what would be your super powers, and why?” His response: “I think I would prefer to be a superhero like Batman, who doesn’t have superpowers per se, but who relies on his intelligence and use of the right tools to get the job done.”

1. Illegal Questions: It’s illegal to ask about age, marital status, children, childcare arrangements, and the like, but employers still do — or come up with subtle ways to ask, such as by inquiring about when you graduated from high school/college. It’s best to address the concern behind the question rather than the question itself by saying something like: “There is nothing about my personal status that would get in the way of my doing a great job for your company.” While it may also be tempting to point out the illegality of the question, doing so likely won’t endear you to the interviewer.

1. Salary Questions: As a screening device, interviewers often ask early in the interview what salary you are looking for. If you ask for more than the employer is willing to pay (or occasionally, on the flip side, undervalue yourself), the interviewer can eliminate you before spending a lot of time with you. That’s why the best tactic for salary questions is to delay responding to them as long as possible — ideally until after the employer makes an offer. Try to deflect salary questions with a response like this: “I applied for this position because I am very interested in the job and your company, and I know I can make an immediate impact once on the job, but I’d like to table salary discussions until we are both sure I’m right for the job.”
2. Questions about Being Terminated from a Previous Job. It’s always uncomfortable to be asked your reasons for leaving a job from which you were terminated. Don’t lie about it, but don’t dwell on it either. You could explain that you and the company were not a good fit, hence your performance suffered. Or that you and your supervisor had differing viewpoints. Emphasize what you learned from the experience that will prevent you from repeating it and ensure that you will perform well in the future.

1. Questions about Reasons for Leaving a Current Job. This question is similar to the previous question, even if you haven’t been fired. Responses about fit with the company and differing views from your supervisor can also work here, but remember never to trash a current employer. Always speak positively about past and present employers even if your experience has not been positive with them. Another good response in this situation is to say that you determined you had grown as much as you could in that job and you are ready for new challenges.

1. Questions about the Future. Interviewees are often asked, “Where do you see yourself in five (or 10) years?” Strike a delicate balance when responding to this kind of question, with just the right mix of honesty, ambition, and your desire to be working at this company long-term.

Avoid responses such as starting your own business, running for Congress, which suggest that you don’t plan to stay with the company.

It’s not totally inappropriate to mention the personal (marriage, family), but focus mainly on professional goals. Mention your career and company goals first, and tack on any mention of marriage and family at the end.

Your response could be: “I’m here to let you know that I am the best person for the job. If in the future you feel I would be a candidate for a higher level position, I know I wouldn’t be passed up.”

OR: “I hope to stay at the company and expect that in five years, I’ll make a significant advance in the organization.”

OR: “I would like to become the very best ______________ your company has.”

And then there’s my personal favorite, which a student told me a friend had used. Asked by the interviewer, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” The response: “Celebrating the five-year anniversary of your asking me this question!” While the response probably made the interviewer laugh, it’s probably not the best answer.

Final thoughts.
Job-seekers need to think of each interview question as an opportunity to showcase an accomplishment or strength. Every response should build momentum toward convincing the interviewer that you deserve to advance to the next level, whether that level is another round of interviews or a job offer.

Many colleges require interviews with an admissions officer or alumnus. They use interviews as a way to get to know you beyond the dry facts of your application and to let you ask questions about the school.

The Most Commonly Asked Questions

The secret to doing well on interviews is to practice. Do a mock interview with your parents or teachers. This may sound strange, but once you hear how much better you answer the same question the second time around you will understand.

To give you an idea of what kind of questions you will be asked we have compiled a list of the most commonly asked interview questions. Try to develop answers to these questions for yourself and use them in your mock interviews.

• Why do you want to attend X university?
• What is your strongest/weakest point?
• What have you done to prepare for college?
• What has been your greatest experience in high school?
• What do you want to do in the future?
• Tell me about yourself. (You should focus on about three things.)
• Tell me about your interests.
• Tell me about your involvement in extracurricular activities.
• Tell me about your family.
• What do you think about (insert a current event of the past week)?
• What is your favorite book? Who is your favorite author?
• Which of your accomplishments are you the most proud of?
• If you could meet any important figure in the past or present, who would it be and what would you talk about?
• If you could be any animal what would you be? Why?

Practicing answers to these questions will give you a huge advantage during the actual interview. Plus, think about how much less nerve-racking your interview will be now that you already have the answers to the questions.

Why Blowing It Is Not Blowing It

If after your interview, you feel that you did not do as well as you wanted to, you are not the only one. Everyone has doubts after their interviews, especially the first one, and regrets not having asked a particular question or made such and such an insightful comment. All of this is apparent only after the interview is over. (Of course!)

As you replay the interview in your head, all kinds of clever responses that you could have made will come to mind, and your few mistakes and stumbles will appear glaringly large. This is perfectly normal. Fortunately, unlike you, your interviewers were not placing your every gesture and word under a microscope. While you may remember that you accidentally ended a sentence with a preposition, your interviewers will not.

Interviewers are looking not for the details but for an overall impression of you. If you did your mock interviews, appeared relaxed and confident in answering their questions, and engaged in two-way conversation, you will have made a good impression. But since nothing will keep you from thinking about what you should have done, take advantage of this, and try to remember some of your better ideas. You may have an opportunity to use them in your next interview.

There may be no good-paying job waiting for you. Those who have already graduated and are still searching for a job in your career field know that. And for you seniors graduating in 2009, many fewer good-paying jobs waiting for you. That said, the more prepared you are — and the more you maximize your job-search efforts — the more likely you will be one of the lucky ones who does land a great job.

It’s certainly not the best time to be a recent college graduate or a college senior, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on finding a good job and retreat back home to your family’s basement (since your mom has already made your bedroom into her workout room). Nor should it mean you give up on a job-search altogether and forge on to grad school, hoping by the time you finish your graduate degree the job market will be better.

No. Instead, if you follow the advice in this article, you can increase the odds that you will indeed be one of the lucky few who find a good-paying job. And yes, by the way, these strategies will work in all economic situations — but they will especially help in times of uncertainty.

The job-search advice in this article is separated into tips for those who have already graduated college or

Are about to in December and those who will graduate next spring.

Recent College Grad Job-Search Advice

1. Obtain Job Leads.
The most important activity for recent graduates is finding and developing job leads, defined as actual or potential job openings. The best job leads come from your network of contacts — partly because they are the most current and partly because you may be able to leverage inside information about the job to tailor your resume and interview responses to become a top prospect. Plus, employers favor applicants referred to them.

If you don’t have a big network (and everyone’s is bigger than you first think), or you don’t have many contacts in a certain industry, occupation, profession, or location, one of the most underutilized tools — especially for new grads — is the informational interview. As the name implies, it’s a meeting in which you seek information (and further contacts and potential job leads) from the person you interview. Informational interviews are a powerful resource and should be a key tool in your job-search plan.

While informational interviews are about expanding your network, enough cannot be said about the many positive outcomes from this technique. Many former students who have conducted informational interviews have eventually received job offers as a direct result of their informational interviews. In fact, one out of every 12 informational interviews results in a job offer. That’s why informational interviewing is the ultimate networking technique, especially considering that the purpose of informational interviewing is not to get job offers. Read more in our Informational Interviewing Tutorial as well as my Career Doctor response: What are informational interviews –- and why should I do them?

There are, of course, a number of other ways to generate job leads — and you should try to incorporate many of them in your job-search. For more details, read this article: 10 Ways to Develop Job Leads.

2. Polish Personal Branding.
The next activity to tackle is developing — or putting some sparkle — on your personal brand. While you can’t really change the experiences you have had at this point, you can position them more strategically — while sharpening how you express that experience on your resume and in job interviews.

While business and marketing grads might have a bit of a leg up on the lingo, the underlying fundamentals of personal branding is simply to make you a more attractive job prospect to employers. This process involves not only re-examining all of your previous experiences (full- and part-time work, volunteering, class projects, work-study), but also researching each potential employer to understand the organization’s needs and package yourself to be the perfect solution to solve their employment needs.

You don’t need to be a business graduate to build and sharpen your personal brand. We have all the tools you need, including a tutorial, in this section of our site: Personal Branding and Career Self-Marketing Tools.

3. Never Stop Your Follow-Up.
Remember how you kept hounding that one professor to raise your grade — how you would not take any other answer because you felt you deserved the better grade? And remember how it worked? The same holds true for job-hunting in the sense that the job-seeker who regularly follows up with prospective employers — continuing to build your case and express interest and fit with the organization — will be given the most serious consideration.

Yes, it’s true that you have already invested quite a bit of time and energy — obtaining job leads, writing and polishing your resume, preparing for interviews, and taking part in the interviews — but sometimes the difference between getting called back for another interview and getting eventually rejected is follow-up.

Follow-up starts before you even get called in for an interview by contacting the hiring manager (after you have applied for the position) to ensure he or she has all the information needed to make a decision. Follow-up starts after the interview with a thank-you letter to each (yes, each) person who interviews you and continues later with calls or emails to the hiring manager

to highlight your fit and continued interest in the organization. (As hiring decisions lengthen in duration, staying in touch with the hiring manager becomes even more important.)