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

Practice Makes Perfect - Online Interviews

Beware of the "spinny" chair.

My first experience with an online interview was great, except for one small detail; I was swaying in my spinny chair. When my interviewer saw me rocking back and forth, it must have been very distracting. I did, however, answer the questions that were asked to me confidently.  I will stand by what I said last week; PAR stories are crucial. I was prepared with a few but the questions I was asked weren't conducive to me sharing them. Having even more PAR stories would ave helped.

It was more of a challenge to let my personality show during the online interview.  Gestures are not as easily perceived and suddenly the impression I think I am giving of myself is not the same as it would be in real life. One potential advantage to the online interview is that both parties may not want to spend as much time on the interview as they normally would.  This would obviously depend on the circumstances, but because it isn't real life interaction and you don't know the person, this could cut the time for the interview down a bit. From now on (needless to say) I will be more aware of the chair I am sitting in during interviews.  I plan to prepare more PAR stories and cater the answers to questions to the job description.

5/5 Josh Quist