The last week of MCOM

Well ... Mcom 320 has come to an abrupt halt.  With all the craziness of the end of the semester I didn't realize that this was our last class.  It has been fun.

Luckily, I immediately got some practical use for my Mcom knowledge after it was over.  I asked for a letter of recommendation from one of my science professors, and he wanted me to send him my resume.  I'll admit I used the feedback from my resume in class to make an awesome revision to it.  Letter head and all.  My brother asked me to look at his resume and I was able to give him some solid advice because of what i have learned.

While this class was quite a battle for me the last few weeks, I will be grateful the next time I have to give a presentation for the experiences I've had here.  Thank you all for a great semester.

-Parker

Professional Presentations

Wow.  The personal presentations we gave as a class this week were awesome.  This was a great experience, and I learned a ton.  The beauty of this assignment was that we got to practice a few times before the real deal.  I honestly feel like I could present in almost any setting now as a result of going through this class.

I was freaking out on Tuesday and Wednesday about how I was going to do this, which made the pay-off of successfully completing this assignment so much sweeter.  It was great to use the flip charts, even though I don't know if I will ever use one again.  There will surely be other events and situations where power point isn't available and I will have to know how to work with other media forms. The take away lesson from this week is that I need to practice presenting and get as much feedback as possible.  I have always been told that, but this made that concept so much more real and tangible for me.  I am excited to see everyone else's next week!

Remote Meeting Blog Post

Meeting online is an interesting experience.  The simplest way I can think to describe it would be a watered down version of speaking face to face.  My team and I used Face time after failing to use Facebook video.  We took turns meeting with each other and delegating team assignments.  Face time makes using hand gestures difficult unless you have a place to set your phone down, but other than that it works extremely well.

Almost our entire project was done using Google docs and power points. This made accessing the project and adding information easier at times that we couldn't meet as a group.  Everything for our power point slides surprisingly turned out well; we didn't have to reformat anything.  Luckily, Jeff in our group is an expert on using the Google drive tools, so that was a great resource for us.  

Consulting Project--What a Rush

That was easily the most business-esque thing I've ever done.  In the past I would see this as a nerve-racking experience, but now it's a rush.  I love it.  It was great to go through the process of having to prepare a report and presentation.  If I were to do this in real life now I actually feel like I could do a decent job.  I was made aware of the pitfalls that this type of work introduces.  The question & answer session was the hardest part for me.  If we weren't familiar enough with the content of our presentation we would not have been able to answer the questions that we asked.  This brings me to my "what now?" for this week.  With reports or presentations in the future I will be certain to prepare above and beyond what is required so that I can be a reliable source of information and earn the trust of peers and bosses.

Stunning Facts

The most memorable part of class was when Professor Middleton threw out the statistic about one in four girls and one in six boys being sexually abused by the time they are adolescents.  That really got my attention.  That five minute presentation was really something else.  She is scary good at speaking publicly.

Anyway, the point is that the stunning facts and they way we present them show that we care enough about what we are saying that we will make an effort to get the audience's attention.  I'll probably remember RIKSMAR for at least another month or so--hopefully longer--as a result of her presentation and energy.  The details in RIKSMAR have led to me to the conclusion that I must make an extra effort to care about the content of my presentation if I am going to succeed as a presenter.  If I'm bored, everyone else will be too.

Just a Small Epiphany

We recently received our grades on the resume and cover letter assignment.  I don't want to go into too much detail, but I'll just say that I was a little disappointed in my score. Obviously the points I lost were due to mistakes I made, so I was only upset with myself; however, I began to think about mistakes and how they relate to the learning process.

Avoiding all mistakes in life is impossible, but I should make an effort to avoid them when it is possible.  With a class like this it is impossible not to make some mistakes, but everyone will make different kinds of mistakes based on their past.  Even though we can learn from these mistakes and from being corrected, we also have to get a grade based on those mistakes.  The person that learns the most in the class could thus be the person who receives the lowest grade.

These thoughts led to others about our current education system in general and whether or not it is the best way to teach students.  It is definitely practical, but it could be better tailored to the learning process rather than just the outcome of a grade if students and teachers were willing to work on a more personal level.  There is a lot more detail I could go into, but I'll leave it at that.  What do you think?

Research is fun, right?

This week we started research for our briefing article.  This may be the first time that I am sincerely interested in the topic I am writing about.  Most other classes haven't quite given me the liberty to choose exactly what I want to write about.  Because business relates to essentially every professional field, there are  a lot of options.  I am working towards medical school, so I chose to write about how Obamacare will effect primary care in the United States. Not only does this information help me as a potential patient, but also as a future doctor.
Sadly, I haven't felt the same desire in the past as I do now to be involved in what is happening in our country.  Education that we can gain from classes is excellent, but knowing how it applies and relates to a changing society is crucial as well.  I plan to read more articles relating to business and current events to better prepare for my career.

 
This is slightly unrelated, but if we aren't paying attention life will do this to us.  Until next time folks.

Parker