Write: Prove It! #2, Part 2
Write and submit a 500 word report on what you learned from your interviews. Submit your report in the comments below (split it into two comments if you run up against Blogger's character count).
This report should not simply be a transcript of the interview but should synthesize what you learned. Consider answering some or all of the following questions in your report:
- What did your interviewees say that surprised you?
- How do your interviewees make decisions about the form and/or content of their communications?
- What communication skills or strategies do you need to develop as you enter the workforce?
- How do your interviewees balance their other job responsibilities with their communication responsibilities?
- How important is communication to your interviewees' professional success?
Also, if you have not yet sent thank you emails/notes to your interviewees to thank them for their time, do that now.
I chose to interview Krysti Connelly, an employee for the Communications/Marketing office here at McKendree, and Elisha McDowell, a middle school pastor at Central Christian Church in Mt. Vernon, IL. Being a Speech Communication major, I am open to a career in communication and marketing. However, being heavily involved in my faith, if I felt led towards a ministerial job, I would be open to that, as well. Comparing the two occupations, I found that the workplace communication differed in several areas. For example, McDowell uses primarily email to communicate with other employees, while Connelly prefers face-to-face communication with other employees in her office and phone calls to colleagues not in the office. Another major difference occurred in the portions of autonomous and collaborative work performed. McDowell claims that 80% of her work is autonomous, such as preparing sermons, materials, and planning youth trips. However, Connelly says the majority of her work is collaborative with other employees in the office. All employees are needed to collaborate on magazine pieces, website articles, etc. It surprised me that McDowell often uses texting communication in her profession. She uses a free texting service that automatically sends out announcements through texts to students and their parents who sign up for the service. She also texts her ministry volunteers, other staff, students, and parents individually on a regular basis. An aspect of Connelly’s profession that surprised me is the number of different writing styles she is required to write in. She has to switch between AP, MLA, business, and website styles of writing often, depending on the project she is working on. McDowell has to decide the best form of communication to use based on the content of her message. For example, if she needs to communicate a special announcement to all students and their parents in the ministry, she will send a mass email, but if she needs to contact just a handful of students to remind them about worship team practice, she will use the form of texting. Based on Connelly’s interview, if I want to pursue any type of career in communications or marketing, I need to make sure I have strong written communication skills. I also need to be somewhat experienced in graphic design. Communication is vitally important to both McDowell’s and Connelly’s professional success. With her profession as a youth pastor, McDowell must communicate biblical messages to her students in a way that educates and strengthens their faith. It is her job to relate to middle schoolers with her communication. She must also be able to effectively collaborate with other ministers in the church to plan for the future of her ministry and report on youth events/trips. Because most of Connelly’s profession is based off of communication, her success depends on how well she communicates. Her communication represents McKendree University. She says, “We have to make sure we communicate in a way (written and verbally) that is educated and would represent the values of the institution.” She is also responsible for crisis communication. The words she chooses to release to the media must be within legal terms and be carefully written. If they are not, it would reflect back very poorly on McKendree, so there is a lot of pressure to communicate successfully. By interviewing both McDowell and Connelly, I learned that communication, in general, is important in almost every workplace, and that written communication skills are being sought out more and more in future employees.
ReplyDeleteLooks like this was a good pair of interviews! One thing you may want to check into is communication/marketing jobs with your denominational headquarters. I recently posted an internship with a Lutheran organization to the Professional Writing and Rhetoric Yammer page, so go check out that link if you're interested in a job like that. If you're graduating this year, you aren't eligible for the internship, but the internship description might help you see how you could combine your religious interests and academic/professional skills.
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ReplyDeleteI am pretty much set on making petroleum engineering my major and my future job but certainly it will be some type of engineering, if not petroleum then a civil or mechanical engineer. With keeping that in my mind, I knew exactly who to do my interviews with. My cousin who is 24 and is a petroleum engineer and her husband who is the same age but he is a civil engineer. I could not have come up with two better people to interview. They moved to Houston a couple of years ago and I am setting all my goals based on them. Since they both are very busy with work and they live 14 hours away, we decided that the easiest way to conduct their interviews would be over messenger. That way they could glance at it every so often and answer any questions I asked. So now on with their interviews. I’ll start with my cousin, Kelsey, since she has my dream job and career. I based my questions off of the questions provided in the blog. The starter question I asked her was “What communication skills are lacking among entry-level professionals in your workplace?” and she responded “Honestly I think its lack of confidence. Entering the work place right out of college is intimidating. So typically you see entry-level professionals as more timid and reserved”. I would have to agree with her, I know, personally, I am going to be very nervous and am going to need confidence. Next I asked “What mistakes have you seen people make in an entry-level positions?” she responded with “The biggest mistake that I have seen is that people don’t network. A huge part of advancing your career is having your presence known. If you do good work, but no one knows you, it doesn’t do you much good. My advice to anyone starting in any industry is to find a mentor that you can trust and that will help you advance in your career. Someone that will help you excel with your day-to-day work and give you advice but also someone who will have your back and make sure that others know how well you are doing.” I was blown away by the way she answered this, she nailed it. Next I asked her “What kinds of research do you do in your job?” and she said “I read a lot of papers and news releases. One part of my job is to know what kind of activity is going on in my areas. For that I use data from the internet to determine who are drilling wells and what the results of these wells are (good, bad, so-so) and why.” I thought was very interesting that at her level, she still gets some of her information from news articles. I then went on to ask her “How do you write effective presentations?” she answered “Know your audience and what they are looking for. If you are an engineer presenting to a geologist then you probably should go in to more detail. But if you are an engineer presenting to another engineer, you can probably assume they know most of the detail behind the work. I also think that it’s important to not be sloppy. Take the time to organize your data and also take the time to practice what you are going to say.” I thought it was interesting how she said to adjust the material to who you’re presenting it to. I asked her several more questions and can send you the full document if you’d like but since my paper is already getting long, I’ll cover just one more question and answer from her then continue on with her husband. The next question I asked her was “How do you communicate complex ideas to audiences with less technical knowledge?” she answered “I think visuals (charts, graphs, etc) are very powerful tools. I also believe in keeping the information as simple and to the point as possible. You don’t want to overwhelm the audience. I also like to make the audience feel comfortable enough to ask a question if they are confused or want more detail.” I like how she said you want your audience to feel comfortable enough so they can ask you questions.
ReplyDeleteNext, I will show the questions I asked Joe, trying not to repeat the questions I asked Kelsey. The first question I asked Joe was “What communication technologies do you use most often?” he responded with “Email because it is good to keep a paper trail of information, phone because direct communication is the best form, texting (rarely) only to tell someone to call me instead of a voice mail.” I was at first surprised that it was email but it made sense after he said it very easy to document. I then asked him “How do you manage your email?” he said “I struggle with managing my emails, but at Jacobs (current employer) we use outlook and it allows you to “Flag” priority emails and after you complete a certain you can check that flag as if you were to check it off of your task list. The program also lets you create folders for organizational use. The problem is that we are only allotted a certain GB usage and once we reach that quota the oldest emails begin to become deleted there for deleting the information trail. So I have to resort to putting them in a folder on our server and I sometimes forget to.” I do the same thing with McKendree email. I then asked Joe “What are your email pet peeves and how do they hinder communication in your workplace?” he said “From my prior answer allocated GB usage is a pet peeve of the company but on an email to email basis, people not using the “reply all” properly. I say properly because sometimes it is needed and others it is not.
ReplyDelete EX Reply all not needed – Mass email in which an entire company will see it. Problem – builds up more emails which delete older emails
EX reply all need - for this one when you are talking about a specific project and people don’t reply all, it leaves you out of the conversation or other key contributors to the project out of the conversation which leads to confusion and everyone not being on the same page.” I understand his struggles with reply all because my team mates do the exact same thing. I then asked him “How do you decide what communication methods to use?” he responded “Depends on the situation. Emails are good for paper trails and for quick answers that you know right away, but me personally I like to hear the voice and tone of the persons response I am talking to, and to me direct contact (phone or face-to-face) seems to be the best method always.” I asked him several more questions and again I can send them all to you if you would like but in this I am just going to show one more. The final thing I asked Joe was “When are phone calls most appropriate?” he responded “I feel like phone calls are another form of face-to-face because it essentially as I said earlier, you can hear the voice and tone of the other person you are communicating with and can tell if they fully understand your meaning. So to answer your question I call whenever possible to people I cant see face-to-face such as field employees or people on different floors than I (although I prefer just to walk to there desk)”
The networking and confidence comments are definitely spot on. I think it's better to be cautious than cocky in a first job, though, since that shows that you're humble and willing to learn, so try to get a balance between confidence and caution. This couple is also a good place to start your professional network in this field. Don't hesitate to ask them if they know others you could do informational interviews with about the more technical aspects of your future profession.
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ReplyDeleteThe thing that surprised me the most from what I learned from my two interviews was how little collaborative work programmers actually do with other coworkers. Programmers often work remotely with other programmers around the country or sometimes even out of country; because of this, cooperate instant messaging has become the communication tool of choice due to the easy access and quick responses it allows for. However emails are also often used for more formal communication and for sending programs and other attachments. In regards to social media in the workplace, it is always beast to leave social media out of the work place. However, there are many tools similar to social media used by many corporate entities that allow programmers to upload their work for others to see and comment on which can be a useful way to communicate with others and get help with your work. Both people I interviewed made it very clear that the biggest mistake when it comes to communicating effectively is simply not communicating enough. The most stressful situation in programming is not being able to work on your task because you are waiting on others to send you a function for your program or they are just not keeping you up to date on their work. This leads perfectly the next piece of advice they both gave me: never be afraid to ask for help. Bugs are so common in the programming world, it is perfectly acceptable to have errors and occasionally get stumped for long periods of time, even in highly experienced programming jobs. Often a team leader or project manager will be available to step in and offer suggestions or inspect your program to attempt to detect what might be giving your program errors. However, people in this position are suggested to take caution as there is a right and a wrong time to step in and help (which is why experienced programmers are often given this job). Studies have shown that it takes about an hour to get in the zone and really get a picture in your head of everything that is happening in your program. You don’t want to let your coworkers get stuck for too long and delay progress. However you must decide if it could throw off their focus from their program if you step in and if you decide to step in, how much help is too much. If you change too much of someone else’s program it can severely throw off their whole approach to completing their program. In regards to autonomous programming in your workplace, managers often prefer to stick to small projects whenever possible. Workers will be given small tasks based on what they are good at. Therefore stand up meetings become the best way of communicating in the work place. Before work starts every day, everyone will go around and give a briefing on what they completed yesterday and what they plan to work on today. There are also planning meetings which usually occur once a month or at the start of a new project which are longer and go much deeper into what goes on in the workplace. Although it will vary greatly based on your job and what your current project is at work, both programmers I interviews believed that in a 40 hour work week a minimal 5 hours should be focused on communicating in order to remain successful in your job.
ReplyDeleteLooks like these were productive interviews. Social media is definitely changing workplace communication, so I don't think it's accurate to say that it should be left out of the workplace. Personal social media should be left out, but many companies are moving toward more use of internal, professional social media (like Yammer, Jive, or HipChat) to make project management easier. Also, the mental work of programming doesn't always mesh well with office culture (frequent interruptions, etc.), so definitely pay attention to office culture as you look at internships and your first job. You want a culture that will allow you to do your work effectively AND communicate effectively so you can be a successful professional.
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ReplyDeleteI decided to interview a woman named Dawn; she works at the Peoria County Probation office. This is where I will be doing my internship with this summer. Dawn has been a good family friend for many years now so the phone interview was very relaxed and casual, I felt comfortable asking her anything. Dawn works in the DUI Court through the Probation Office. We started off just talking about the basics, what she did daily and what type of communication she experienced through her day. Many of her answers did not surprise me, they were basic communication expectations: typing emails, presenting data, and working with clients both in person and over the phone.. One answer that did surprise me though was the amount of focus she put on being able to communicate effectively, professionally, and strictly, while still being friendly. While working with clients, it is important that you come across as stern. Many people she works with are stubborn and stuck in their ways. You must come across as the boss, showing that you mean business, but if you come across too strict, the person will mentally shut down and not find you as someone that is offering help. Dawn said you also need to think quick on your feet doing what she does. There are times when a situation can turn hostile without any warning. Using persuasive, yet calm, communication, you are expected to bring that situation back to a safe environment. Creating close bonds with fellow employees is really important. The way you communicate with the people you work with will be different than communicating with clients. Dawn said that her work area is very relaxed and friendly whenever things are going smoothly. Being able to create bonds and friends through communication with coworkers makes work more enjoyable she said. Also, they do many presentations about the data they have collected from the area. Dawn said that being able to present to supervisors about data that you are collecting is important. You need to seem calm, collective, and confident about the work that you are doing. I struggle a lot with confidence, which is not acceptable in this job. I need to be sure of what I am doing or else a client will question my credibility.
The second lady I chose to interview was Kara. She works at the Probation Office as well, however, she works in a completely different branch as a supervisor within the business. Kara conducts interviews through her position, which requires excellent communication skills. Kara must conduct herself professionally at all times during these interviews. She also must know a lot about the company and the way all different branches function since she is a supervisor. Her credibility is extremely important both as an interviewer and a supervisor. Also, Kara looks over written reports and must communicate with her employees about what has been conducted well through the report and what needs improved on. Kara spoke about using emails to communicate with her employees. Since she oversees many people, this is the easiest and quickest way to communicate with multiple people. Through email, she must be clear and concise so she does not receive emails back with questions about things that they did not understand. Kara talked about how she must effectively communicate with Judges, State's Attorneys, Medical Personnel and Social Service Agencies. The way she communicates with these individuals who are higher on the totem pole in this workplace is different than the way she communicates with her employees who are not as high up. While she can be relaxed with her employees, everything is strickly business with Judges, State's Attorneys, Medical Personnel and Social Service Agencies.
DeleteWritten communication was also something that both Dawn and Kara focused on. Dawn writes many reports on how court went for the day or after a checkup with someone she is overseeing. Through these reports, using the correct terminology, jargon, and abbreviations is extremely important so supervisors as well other employees can read and decipher what the report is saying. A misinterpretation in something this important can ruin someone’s future and lead to a possible lawsuit against the company. Accuracy is key.
Both interviewees said that they have to find that fine line of communicating effectively while not trying to scare off clients. This is something that I need to work on before entering this particular workforce. I struggle showing emotions many times, which could lead to a client becoming untrusting of me. I need to be able to find a way to communicate that shows a level of compassion while still being stern and effective.
Overall, I learned a lot about communication in the workplace and I feel more comfortable going into my internship. The most important thing that I took from these interviews is that your communication changes depending on who you are dealing with within the company.
Your connection between credibility and communication skills is a good one to keep in mind. Communication is how we show our academic/professional knowledge, and our communication style (written or oral) has a lot to do with how people perceive our credibility. Tamping down your emotional responses will definitely be a key to this in your field. I know some people who just keep mental notes on what they would say if they could say whatever they wanted, while others are more successful with some sort of mental mantra ("Don't React" or "Stay Centered" or something) that helps them keep the emotion out of their tone or body language during communication. It might be good to ask your interviewees or other professionals how they handle that aspect of their work, but it's probably a skill that you'll develop over time through observation of people who are good at that.
DeleteTo learn about communication in the workplace of computer scientists, I interviewed two professionals with varied computer science backgrounds. One is James Feher, a professor in the Division of Computer here at McKendree, and the other is Brian Delaney, head of the IT department at Crossroads Community Hospital in Mount Vernon, Illinois. What I learned was not surprising to me, but reinforces my belief that computer scientists can no longer sit alone in a room with a computer and still hope to compete in today’s business-focused world. Even when not part of a team, computer scientists must constantly interact with others, both in their profession and outside of it. In fact, both interviewees stated that they frequently had to explain their work to others who did not have a similar technical background. For this, the ability to relate to others and explain difficult ideas using analogies and common language is necessary.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, they explained that it was important to establish a connection with the people they work with frequently. Someone you know is more likely to work with you instead of being demanding. One aspect of this is setting up face-to-face meetings whenever possible. Email and other electronic communication just doesn’t have the personal quality that a face-to-face meeting does, and many people will be friendlier and more open when seeing the person their decisions will affect right in front of them. The amount of sociability will vary widely depending on the workplace: some places demand a professional demeanor at all times, while others may be more relaxed, but there is always something that can be done to avoid becoming just “the computer guy” to everyone.
Most of the time, however, email communication is frequent and unavoidable, so practicing proper email etiquette is mandatory. Some of the most common offenses include: treating email too casually (being unprofessional, using “text-speak”, not including proper greetings), forwarding emails or sending replies to too many people, and not including enough information when communicating via email. It is important to take the time to carefully craft an email whenever possible instead of writing it quickly and unprofessionally.
Finally, when others are speaking, listen, take notes, and keep records. It reflects poorly on you to have to ask others to repeat information, or to deliver work that doesn’t meet the requested specifications. When you have to speak to others, be prepared. Plan everything out beforehand, especially when giving an important presentation. Also remember to keep things concise. After about 20 minutes, you will start to lose members of your audience, so keeping your presentation lively, colorful, and as brief as possible are all required for effective communication.
Getting the views of actual professionals has been beneficial, and keeping these guidelines in mind, managing communication in the work environment will be a lot simpler. It doesn’t matter how good your work is if nobody understands it, and it doesn’t matter how great your ideas are if you can’t share them with others. Communication is a big part of any business environment, and computer science is no exception.
One of the key themes to pay attention to is the listening and note-taking aspect of being a professional. You can even document meetings after the fact by sending a follow-up email to confirm that you understood expectations that were communicated to you orally. Preparation for meetings and other communication-focused interaction will help you present yourself as a professional, too, so that advice is good as well!
DeleteI interviewed Shayna, who works in Communications at SIU and Melissa, who has worked in social media marketing for Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams and as a freelancer. Communication is vital to both of these jobs. Communication is especially key in freelance jobs because companies differ and it is important to have all the right information from them. A struggle that Melissa talk about is that as a freelancer she works with all sorts of different places and they usually have different policies and different ways of doing things. Some have a clear idea and others do not. So communication is key to figuring out what a particular company wants and how they want to go about it. Some clients are easy and others can be really difficult, so you have to have a good communication and be good at dealing with people. It was not that surprising but it is not something that I necessarily think of is how much you have to pay attention to trends, tools, and the like, when working in social media. In class, we have looked at the potentially disastrous was that images and hashtags have been misused on social media, but you still do not really think about all the things that play into successful social media marketing. One thing that came up as a struggle for many people is the ability to reach out to people in a variety of ways and figuring out what works best in a particular situation. These are things that are not taught, people just kind of have to figure it out. Both said that it safest to use the most professional means of communication that they have at least to start with. But more places are becoming more relaxed and so it can sometimes be confusing. They both said to be professional and figure things out from there. A lot of the time, the form of communication just depends on the situation. Both said that email is the most common form of communication for them. Melissa calls people more often than Shayna, who works in an office and has regular meetings. Melissa said that at Jeni’s they tended to have a pretty relaxed environment and communication was a lot less formal than at other places, but as a freelancer she doesn’t really know the environment, so starting professional is always safe. Melissa also stressed the need to find a balance between personal and professional presence on social media sites. There is no way to keep the two separate, but is important to show a professional side since employers will look at social media especial when social media is the field you want to go into. So you have to find a way to present yourself on social media that you are comfortable with both employers and friends seeing. I think that I need to work more on being comfortable with reaching out to people in a variety of ways as was mentioned. I also think that I need to work on creating a better, slightly more professional social media presence.
ReplyDeleteThe problem-solving theme that's emerging here is one to pay attention to. The "figuring out" process is one that's made much more challenging in freelance work for the reasons Melissa stated. However, if you can do it well and anticipate your client's needs/expectations, you'll make yourself a valuable employee or contractor. The "figuring out" process is so relevant in social media because that landscape changes so quickly. If you can figure out a way to be on the front end of trends, that will help, too. You may want to check out this article on the Young House Love bloggers for more thoughts on keeping balance between the personal and the professional in your media: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/garden/when-blogging-becomes-a-slog.html
DeleteI interviewed two employees in the computer science field, Jon works as a contactor at Unisys, and he works at the USDA in St Louis, he writes codes for them. The second person I interviewed is Tony, and he works at Scottrade if you do not know what it is, it is a brokerage firm and he writes software for them. Dealing with computers I expected most of the communications to deal with email, or a program like link to communicate with each other, but at Scottrade Tony communicates 40% of the time by meetings, and other face to face conversations. Although he does prefer email unless it is urgent then face to face conversations are best. For Jon he works mainly by himself, but every morning him and his team will meet up for 15 to 20 minutes to talk about what they’re going to do today, and after that they do not meet up unless someone has a question with the code. For deciding on what type of communication to use is the geography of the work place, scotttrade has a lot of buildings that separate everyone, and this causes the issue of if they can meet face to face that is great, but because of the geography he will have to send more emails. Same for Jon he will email mostly, very little face to face or phone conversations. For both jobs for incoming employees or entry level workers, they both need to know how to email in a professional manner, and know how to understand the problem, and know how to tell a non technical person what is going on, and how they will fix it but it terms that the client will understand. They both mentioned that they balance their work with the communication very well. They will work on coding their programs, and a lot of the time they can just use Google to help them because somewhere in this world someone has done what they are trying to do. If they get stuck they will email someone above them, or call someone to come help them. Also, there are times when they do their program and it works, but they will still go and ask their teams to double check, and make sure it is doing what it is suppose to do, as well ask if there is a faster, and better way to program it. Basically work comes first, then communication. Without communication for both Jon and Tony then they would not be as far as they are today. Without knowing how to communicate professionally they would not have got their jobs. Once they got their jobs without communication they could get fired because there is a high amount of collaborative work in their jobs, more then I would have imagined. Also, with poor communicating skills when a client needs help with a problem, and you know how to solve the problem, but do not know how to explain it in a way that the client can understand it then they may not choose you because they don’t believe you know what you are doing. Both Jon and Tony use analogies like comparing the problem to cars or sports, things that everyone will be able to compare it to. They gave me a lot of information on entry level mistakes, the biggest one that they kept repeating as that entry level people need to learn how to understand the problem.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you got some good advice here. When you have a very content-heavy job (a job where your knowledge is key to your success), you sometimes have to work harder at making the communication side of the equation work. Corporate culture and knowing your own work habits and preferences will be a key to success. Sounds like these guys have workplaces that effectively balance communication with content. Other places don't do that as well, which can lead to interrupted work and lower productivity. Just something to keep in mind when you begin your job hunt!
DeleteI interviewed two employees in the computer science field, Jon works as a contactor at Unisys, and he works at the USDA in St Louis, he writes codes for them. The second person I interviewed is Tony, and he works at Scottrade if you do not know what it is, it is a brokerage firm and he writes software for them. Dealing with computers I expected most of the communications to deal with email, or a program like link to communicate with each other, but at Scottrade Tony communicates 40% of the time by meetings, and other face to face conversations. Although he does prefer email unless it is urgent then face to face conversations are best. For Jon he works mainly by himself, but every morning him and his team will meet up for 15 to 20 minutes to talk about what they’re going to do today, and after that they do not meet up unless someone has a question with the code. For deciding on what type of communication to use is the geography of the work place, scotttrade has a lot of buildings that separate everyone, and this causes the issue of if they can meet face to face that is great, but because of the geography he will have to send more emails. Same for Jon he will email mostly, very little face to face or phone conversations. For both jobs for incoming employees or entry level workers, they both need to know how to email in a professional manner, and know how to understand the problem, and know how to tell a non technical person what is going on, and how they will fix it but it terms that the client will understand. They both mentioned that they balance their work with the communication very well. They will work on coding their programs, and a lot of the time they can just use Google to help them because somewhere in this world someone has done what they are trying to do. If they get stuck they will email someone above them, or call someone to come help them. Also, there are times when they do their program and it works, but they will still go and ask their teams to double check, and make sure it is doing what it is suppose to do, as well ask if there is a faster, and better way to program it. Basically work comes first, then communication. Without communication for both Jon and Tony then they would not be as far as they are today. Without knowing how to communicate professionally they would not have got their jobs. Once they got their jobs without communication they could get fired because there is a high amount of collaborative work in their jobs, more then I would have imagined. Also, with poor communicating skills when a client needs help with a problem, and you know how to solve the problem, but do not know how to explain it in a way that the client can understand it then they may not choose you because they don’t believe you know what you are doing. Both Jon and Tony use analogies like comparing the problem to cars or sports, things that everyone will be able to compare it to. They gave me a lot of information on entry level mistakes, the biggest one that they kept repeating as that entry level people need to learn how to understand the problem.
ReplyDeleteI interviewed Shawn Sweetin, an Infrastructure Service Manager at Thomson Reuters, and Professor Sameer Dutta a Computer Science teacher here at McKendree University. Being an Information Technology major, I’d like to be on the support side of my field, but recognize the likelihood of ending up on the software side of computing. Something I thought was surprising about the interviews I conducted was how different the answers were between the two. Mr. Sweetin uses a unique communication method called Cisco Jabber that creates video conference calls with people halfway around the world. He spends approximately 75% of his time on communication. Dr. Dutta spends about 15% reading and responding to emails. This large discrepancy definitely came as a surprise,I thought the level of communication would stay consistent in the computing field. This goes to show that the computing field can be very different at times, jobs a not as consistent as I believed.
ReplyDeleteI learned from my interviewees that communication is something you need to actively participate in. That includes meeting, phone calls, and emails.I know I generally like to stay at home, not minding the email chains I send to my professors. Though at that point,I should be setting up a meeting so I am not flooding someone's inbox with short messaged email,I should set up a meeting. Also, when meeting with a team of coworkers,I should be actively engaging in the conversation. Being reserved will lead to more question later when they could have been answered at the meeting.
I know that I need to improve my emails so they look more professional. Being short and to the point on an email is an art form that I have yet to discover. But after discussing with the two professionals,I realized I need to worry more about face to face interaction. Speaking professionally on the phone and in the workplace is something that is usually lacking in entry level employees according to Mr. Sweetin. Young employees may even be aggressive in emails but never say a word in a team meeting. Asking questions is important, but make sure to ask those questions in the most optimal fashion. If the question has multiple points to it, a face to face talk is most appropriate. Unless time is a factor a simple question that is unlikely to lead to multiple questions can be answered with a simple email.
Communication is a very essential element of Mr. Sweetin’s success. As a manager, employee production is always the biggest concern. Without the proper and professional communication, his team would not have a clear goal to work towards. Goals can change day to day in the IT support field. If everything is functioning properly, then projects and production can be worked on. If a server goes down for some reason, then everyone's goal is now to get the servers up and running. Without communication, employees would be disorganized and falling over each other trying to do the same job. First there needs to be a meeting to discuss which teams are going to be changing from their autonomous roles into troubleshooting. Then those teams need to discuss who researches the fix while others continue to monitor the situation. That is why communication is vital in IT support.
You're getting good advice from Mr. Sweetin! Active involvement in meetings can be a challenge at first since you're not used to participating. One strategy as an entry-level employee is to find a mentor on your team who can talk you through things you may have missed after the meeting is over. They can give you background and context, you can ask questions you may not have wanted to ask in front of everyone, and you can get a better sense of how you can participate effectively in the future. A good manager will help you learn to participate effectively, but if they aren't filling that role, look for a peer who can. You'll also have to learn workflow management tools in your profession, but those change so often and are not consistent across various workplaces, so it's hard to practice them before you start working. However, showing employers that you have good research skills and can learn new processes quickly should be enough.
DeleteFor my interviews, I decided to interview Dr. Elisabeth Erickson, a previous worker in the sports industry and now professor at McKendree, and Sam Lidisky who works for the St. Louis Blues. Dr. Erickson has worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Milwaukee Brewers, and Michigan State. She worked in communication with all of these teams, but I knew that she would know how communication is used across the board for the sports industry. In my interview with Dr. Erickson, she explained that social media is one of the biggest ways the sports industries communicate to their audiences. This is highly important for the finance departments of sports teams because they need to market themselves in order to gain a crowd and increase revenues. One this that I found interesting is that Dr. Erickson said how you communicate with coworkers depends on the person that you are trying to communicate with. For example, if you are close with your boss, and can speak in a casual way they may suggest that you can text them if you need anything. This is about the only time texting a superior is appropriate. Any other time, Dr. Erickson suggests phone calls. I believe that this is also the best way to communicate in a professional way. A phone call allows for less confusion in communication, and also is significantly more efficient than waiting for an email. One thing that both Dr. Erickson and Sam suggested for entry-level professionals is to work on the professionalism of emails. One thing that is seen a lot by entry-level professionals is that they either use “texting talk” while sending emails, or they do not use a salutation while emailing a superior. One of the good things about using email is that it forces entry-level professionals to be better at writing. Many people applying for a job will be over looked if they cannot communicate well through email, or hold a conversation on the phone. Both Sam and Dr. Erickson agreed that people able to talk about the job that needs to be done and write professional emails are automatically steps ahead of coworkers that cannot communicate that well. When emailing Sam he said that the best way to communicate complex ideas to the entry-level workers is to both verbally and physically show them. A lot of the time new employees do not know where things are in a stadium, or they aren’t sure exactly how to do something. Being able to tell your superiors that you aren’t sure how to do something, especially in the front office for a team, is very important for finances because if something is messed up in the finance department, the team could get into a lot of trouble. One more thing that I found interesting that both Dr. Erickson and Sam agreed on is that is that working in the sports industry is about 60 percent independent and 40 percent collaborative. I thought that it would be the other way around. They both explained to me that it is mostly independent because you have to do your own part of projects. So even though you may be working on a project with your coworkers, most of the work that is done is independently. With these interviews I learned that it is highly important to improve writing skills especially when communicating with superiors, and being able to speak to coworkers and bosses in a professional way will take you far.
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised at the 60/40 split and thought it might be something closer to 80/20, even. From what I've seen and read, sports communication requires coordination more than collaboration. That means that your team needs to make sure that everyone is promoting the same message or whatever, but you'll mostly divide the work so each person has responsibility for individual tasks that contribute to the overall mission or goal. Use these interviews as a way to build your network.
DeleteI chose to interview Dr. Schutzenhofer, a professor for the biology department at Mckendree, and Tyson Zobrist, an employee for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Dr. Schutzenhofer and I got to know each other good though last year and she was the one that opened my doors to Botany and got me really interested in a career in Botany. Tyson is a good family friend for many years. Both interviews were really casual because I knew both so well. Being a Biology/ Environmental Studies major, I am open to a career in communication and documentation, communicating both orally and written. Comparing the two occupations, one a teacher, and the other a government employee their communication was different but similar in some ways. The communication knowledge I gained from both interviews was very helpful. For Dr. Schutzenhofer, communication plays a big important role in her career. She spends 80 to 90 percent of her day through communication, whether it’s through email, meetings or teaching class. Which did not surprise me for being a professor. Dr. S. did mention one aspect that entry level professionals lacked was professionalism, communication and writing skills. People going into a career do not communicate effectively. She did say a pet peeve for her is freshman students not knowing how to email a teacher without “texting.” Students lack concise direct writing skills, that students write in “fluffy writing” and not technical writing. The number one advice she could give an entry level professional is professionalism and to get rid of procrastination. Communication is very important for a teacher whether it is communicating to her class through software documentation which she spends 40 percent of a week doing or communicating to other colleagues. Being a professor of Biology you do a lot of research with reading literature, writing proposals, species identification and data analysis. You have to be able to make decisions about the form and or content of communications teaching whether it is power point, literature readings or through dvds, self-made or found online. For Tyson Zobrist, communication also plays an important role in government employment. I only hope to work for the government like he does. Tyson does a lot of the same communication as Dr. Schutzenhofer. does such as emailing other employees, meetings, oral and written communication. He also draws up permits for cutting down trees and such alterations to the land. Tyson communicates a lot of his day through emails to different branches and locations of the Army Corps of Engineers. He also has the opportunity to work from home, tele-work, communicating from home to work. Tyson did a lot of software documentation; in a given week he spends 50 to 60 percent a week to software documentation writing up permits and looking at maps of ground. Another important communication skill is the ability to talk to landowners explaining what’s going on with their land and what they can do about it. Both interviews were very helpful in showing me different types of communications and important information to consider at both the teaching and government level. To enter both workforce you need strong communication skills especially in software documentation. I gained a lot of experience with Dr. Schutzenhofer because I am so interested in her area of study. I hope to be able to take her advice and use it in my future with an internship in Botany.
ReplyDeleteYou may have seen these already, but MoBot has a number of internships available: http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/about/additional-information/internships.aspx
DeleteThis location is farther away (past Pere Marquette), and they don't advertise internships, but you could contact them to see if it's possible to do one. I went hiking there once and thought it had a lot of opportunity for environmental development/education: http://www.mccullyheritage.org/Opportunities.html
You've gotten a lot of great information from these interviews. Keep talking to Dr. S. about developing your skills. If you have a broad range of communication skills, that will open up different kinds of work. I know she recently wrote a grant, too, so there are a lot of genres you could be asked to work with in your future career!
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ReplyDeleteOut of the list of people I wanted to interview I chose Dr. Ike Ohu who is an assistant professor of Industrial Engineering at Gannon University in Erie Pennsylvania who was also a researcher in collaboration with other Engineers around America on how fundamentals of laparoscopic tasks can be used as an ergonomic discriminator between laparoscopic and robotic surgery. The other was Benjamin Nana Antwi, an Industrial engineering supervisor at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) in Toedo Ohio. I intend studying industrial engineering in graduate school and will lean more towards the working environment than lecturing. There were similarities in some areas of my interviews but there were also differences in communication in an industrial facility and a lecturing environment. One difference was that Dr. Ohu has to schedule meetings and make conference calls with other professors while Benjamin being a supervisor was given the privilege to walk to the Directors office in his factory and make direct face-to-face communication on a daily basis which according to him improves interpersonal relationship with his employers. Benjamin said there are some employees especially entry level engineers who know just the theory of how some equipment functions and he has to break down step-by-step processes on what to implement and sometimes have to give them a checklist on a daily basis in order not to encounter catastrophic situations in the work place but Dr. Ohu believes that most of the people he communicate with have the same background and he does and he just has to give a little explanation to people around him with a less technical background and every one will be on the same page. For example Dr. Ohu said there was a time during his research that he had to work with a medical doctor at Washington University in Saint Louis and he just gave brief explanations on how his equipment will record every move of the doctor during a surgery and will play this recording to practicing surgeons to train themselves and improve before performing a surgical process and he said these doctors were on the same page as he was with just few explanations. Both of the Interviews I conducted agreed that they try as much as possible to cut out on social media in their professional lives and keep social media like Facebook for their personal lives. Dr Ohu cautions what shows up in his private life. Dr. Ohu said he does research with other professors around the United States and sometimes professors from other fields and emphasized on collaboration in his work place as something one cannot escape he said sometimes he makes video conference calls with professors that he work with on the progress of their research and uses software like Mathematica and AutoCAD to go over necessary steps in reaching their goal while Benjamin said that research in his work place is done with employees and said everyone in his research team must have an understanding of how some applications like MatLab and AutoCAD works because they use these applications at most times during research processes while he compiles findings from the research and to present it to the management. Based on both interview, pursuing a carrier in industrial engineering requires effective communication, verbally and written, and you’ll have to express ideas in technical languages or have to break it down in bits for better understanding. I got to find out that communication is a necessity in the field of industrial engineering and the way in which one would communicate will depend on their immediate environment.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like these interviews helped you have a better understanding of the range of communication skills you'll need in your profession. As you see from their experiences, the ability to explain technical concepts to collaborators will be a key communication skill in your profession. There has been a lot of research on communication's effect on engineering failures (notably, the Rogers Commission Report on the Challenger disaster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Commission_Report ).
DeleteMy first interviewee was Patty Greene. Ms. Greene is the Director of the Thelma Keller Convention Center in Effingham Illinois. She holds my dream job. She handles everything from meetings and tradeshows, to weddings and class reunions. My favorite thing that Ms. Greene said to me was that the most important communication an event coordinator ever participates in is the communication with him or herself. This made me realize that I will need to work on my note taking/schedule making skills. She said that her planner is her lifeline.
ReplyDeleteShe then told me that, although no two days are the same, she always starts her day by reading her emails. She feels that constant communication is the best courtesy to give. “Ninety percent of my day is done through emails and Internet.” I asked how she dealt with having emails flooding in all while she is working or prepping an actual event. And she said explained that she didn’t think she should have to respond to the emails immediately, but within a 24 hour timeframe. Also, after her emails she checks in with her department heads. She said that these can range from face to face meetings, phone meetings, or emails. She emphasized that whichever form of communication is used, it is important to make sure everyone knows what is going on that day, week, etc. If there is any chance of uncertainty you should make sure to try and clarify. Collaboration is important to event planning as well. She says she regularly meets with her sales team and review all social media together.
Ms. Greene feels that effective communication and being on top of your game at all times is incredibly important to event coordinating. She believes her communication is why she can boast an eighty-nine percent re-book ratio. As for communication in the beginning of event coordination, I would most likely be handling face to face communication with clients (mainly small meetings), and assisting them on the day of the event.
My second interviewee was Sarah Rueter, my stepmother. Sarah is the Director of Development and the Director Education and Administration at the Effingham Performance Center. I really enjoyed what she said to me about making sure the purpose of the event is communicated effectively. She said that whether her event is for entertainment, education, fundraising, or a combination of the three, it is important that the purpose the client wants is the actual end result.
Sarah reiterated the importance of effective email communication. She starts her day with emails and continues throughout the day with her emailing as well. She also talked about making phone calls. Sarah said that making sure everyone is on the same page is essential to an event’s success. She said a coordinator can accomplish this by making emails concise and phone calls purposeful.
A cool aspect of her communication is selling the performance center. “I may do a walk-through of the theater if a patron is interested in renting the building and go over what is all possible in the space they are possibly renting.” She said she has to make sure she emphasizes the features she knows the potential client is looking for. And if there are places the EPC may fall short, she uses communication to let them know how the EPC can compensate and how the service provided by her and her fellow coworkers will make the event worthwhile.
Sarah also uses visual communication regularly. She creates the fliers that are both printed and posted on social media pages. She said she always uses research on the event to find the key selling points to include in the posts and fliers. “You can NEVER do too much research on your event.”
I am so incredibly excited to make it into the field, especially after talking to these successful business women. I know I will need to work on my emailing skills and my personal communication scheduling/organizational skills. I do feel that I have a start of face to face communication skills, but of course there is always room for improvement.
Looks like you're making good connections between your academic preparation and your future profession with what these interviews are telling you! One thing I would add is that if you're trying to rent spaces, you have to get really good at using descriptive language so your potential client can "see" how the space could help them meet their event goals. Pictures and videos can help, of course, but descriptive language supplements visual evidence when you talk to a client by phone or email.
DeleteFor my interviews, I decided to interview Mary, who works as a nurse, and Anastasia, who works at a tech company in their customer service/financial data division. Despite these two jobs being in fairly different areas it was reassuring to see some of the common themes we have read about come in to play in the workplace. Mary described her workplace communication as being vital due to it dealing with patients that have diverse medical histories and being on top of those issues that may arise was something she stressed as being important. Something that did surprise me about Mary’s communication method was that nurses still use pen and paper by preference and only in the last 2-3 years did she have to transition to leaving notes on a computer. Anastasia on the other hand did not surprise me with her communication methods. She and her coworkers use “GChat” to constantly keep in touch to find out who is coming in when, covering shifts, or arranging meetings in addition to email.
ReplyDeleteSomething that I personally need to become better at in terms of communication skills would be to better follow up with individuals in a group setting. Too often I let time slip by as a due date approaches and I don’t follow up with individuals that may be jeopardizing the progress of the project. When put in a leadership role, I need to make myself as well as others accountable for the success or failure of the project. Speaking of responsibilities, both Mary and Anastasia mentioned that toll of always trying to be connected or available. Mary expressed trouble adapting to the ‘newer” conventions of emailing notes to co-workers who came in for a night shift later in the day or week to keep the entire team of nurses abreast on what was happening on the floor. She found this especially true when she was the “head nurse” for a given day. Rather than spending the day on the floor as she prefers, she instead would have to spend time in a back office managing incoming shipments of medicine or coordinating schedules. Despite her preference she stressed the importance of doing whatever you have to do to make the floor run as smoothly as possible since ultimately she is doing this to get her ill patients better and out the door. Anastasia on the other hand had a different perspective on things. Being more technologically adept, she found it easier to arrange things, cover shifts or find out what was going on in the company faster. However, she mentioned that as easy as it was for her to find out things, others may want to get answers just as fast, and having to reply promptly to messages directed at her could be daunting when she was handling phones in the office or when she was home on a day off. Even when off, she sounded like she carried a bit of the office around with her still. That was something I had never considered personally having to deal with but I could certainly see it being the case if I were to work in a more tech-heavy field.
Oh. Work/Life balance is definitely an issue, particularly in tech. If separation of your work and your life is important to you, pay close attention to company culture when seeking employment. Do employees regularly answer email most evenings? Is there an expectation that you'll be available even when on vacation? How many hours a day will you be connected to work? Start-ups are notoriously bad about work/life balance. Having laundry/catering/video games at work may seem like a nice perk at first until you realize that those perks are there so you can stay at work longer. On the other hand, more established companies may have a better handle on project workflow and will be a better fit if you want more separation between work and personal life. Just something to think about as you consider your future job search.
DeleteI chose to interview a director of events in Chicago and an executive director of programming in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised when I learned how much communication is incorporated into everyday task. Just having a brief meeting, you have to look at body language, what you want to execute in the meeting, and how to go about the execution. All of these things factor into how an employee will produce work.
Well when I interviewed the exec she told me that she uses different outlets to communicate with certain people. She learns what they use most often and directly comes for them using that channel. If there is a meeting that needs to be made it is because they have a lot of information to cover and they need to make an action plan. If she talks to them over the phone or face to face, she needs answers right then and the conversation needs to be very direct. If she is using email, then it needs to be direct as well, but can be more for planning ahead on ideas. So depending on the type of employee she has she will communicate with them through one of these outlets, so that they feel comfortable, and will get what she needs done.
If I want to be where my interviewees are then I need to be more direct in what I want from others. I noticed that in the interviews they talked about how they don’t get a lot of productivity when they give wiggle room for the employees to work, but when they tell exactly what they want and how they need it done, they get what they ask for. I feel that it is a good technique to have. Communication skills that I feel will be valuable for the workforce would be to observe others so I know how to help them and get what I need out of them. Also to listen, which I am not good at now, and to always be professional. If I want to someday be in charge of employees or a section, I need to keep my professional stance because once that is taken away people will not take me seriously and won’t give good work.
They tie them together. In order fulfill the job requirements; you have to be able to communicate effectively. When you’re being responsible at work that is watching what you would send via email making sure it comes across the way you want. How you talk to your employees and make them feel comfortable at work is a responsibility that goes into both communication and work. Your job is to make sure the people you work for are productive, and to make that happen you communicate what you need in a way that they will understand. Both communication responsibilities and the responsibilities they have in their position tie together seeing that communication is the foundation.
Communication got them to where they are today. If they were not able to communicate and exhibit their work abilities, then they would not have top positions. I feel that being able to communicate what you need, communicating the way someone needs or wants you to, or communicating to others in a way that they understand and want to do the work is very important. Communication is everything when it comes to being a director of events.
These are very good people to have in your network. Keep asking them for advice when you need it so you can stay connected to them and so they can help you build your network. Observation and listening are great ways to learn how to adapt your behavior and communication practices to any given workplace, so that's definitely good advice. Learning to be a good supervisor or manager can be difficult if you don't have good models to look up to, so hopefully you have good experiences with your managers in your entry-level positions.
DeleteFor my interviews, I interviewed two recent graduates of the Computer Science division that have positions in the field. Because of the research that I have done in this class so far, most of what they said didn’t surprise me. They both are responsible with communication with others frequently, which is something that would have surprised me before this class. One thing that did astonish me however, was that they both seemed to be able to easily communicate with others, no matter the medium. Both were trained in how to communicate in their respective position, but I didn’t expect it to be so natural for the two of them.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to communicating, one stated that they were trained to explain to others efficiently, while the other was trained to be more specific. After the interviews, I took that to mean that they had different audiences and so their criteria for expressing themselves was clearly different, albeit both important. They both could have been thinking of different forms of communication also. If they were commenting my code, I would want it to be as efficient and clear as possible. During a meeting, they may want to use more words to describe something if the topic is particularly difficult for nontechnical people, if they happen to be present. For the form their communication is in, they both have meetings that occur daily, although they both have weekly meetings that are more important and they also frequently wrote emails and commented code, whether it was theirs or someone else’s.
As for skills that I need to develop, they both suggested speaking and writing down my ideas when I code something. This may include some comments in the code to explain it, whether or not I think it is simple. This way, my skills will increase naturally and others will find it easier to work with me. As for another skill I need to work on, I should probably work on being more comfortable with public speaking. By gaining that skill, I would find it easier to share my ideas with others and my ideas to be taken seriously by them as well.
As for balancing job responsibilities with their communication responsibilities, they both expressed that they began to treat the communication responsibilities as if they were a normal part of their responsibilities. This is the case because the emails, the meetings, the group work, commenting code, etc., were so common that they both treated the communication responsibilities as being normal parts of the position.
One interviewee viewed communication as fairly important, while the other viewed communication as very important to their professional success. This may be because the former mainly worked by himself, with occasional meetings, while the latter was working in group constantly and almost never worked by herself. For my opinion, I think that communication is very important to both of their professional success due to the frequency in which it occurs for them and other professionals in the field.
You got some good advice during your interviews. The ability to explain technical information to multiple audiences will make you a valuable employee. Public speaking may or may not be a key element of your job, but participating effectively in meetings probably will be important to your success as a professional. You have to be able to assess priorities, advocate for yourself when you feel you're getting a disproportionate workload, critique decisions that may affect your team, etc. All of that takes good understanding of the corporate culture and the context of any given product. You can't learn those things in school, but you can use strong research and observation skills to help you perform well in the workplace once you're employed.
DeleteI chose two completely different platforms for my interviews. I decided to keep variety in my research because I am still trying to figure out what I want to do with my future career. While I did step out of my comfort zone and ask for interviews from high-ranking individuals, I did not receive a great response rate. For this reason I decided to speak to a researcher at Facebook and a Navy recruiter.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I will start with my interview with Liz Lingelbach. Liz gave me a lot of insight on her job at Facebook. She claims communication is hands-down one of the most important factors to her job. She works in teams to accomplish goals. Her and her team study the way customers use Facebook and develop new strategies to improve consumer experiences. With communicating in these teams brainstorming, understanding the task at hand, and understanding each group members’ strengths are important skills. Liz works for a social media company, so she is encouraged to use Facebook in a positive light. We discussed more about the benefits of working for Facebook. The company focuses on the growth, development, and collaboration of employees. Facebook encourages working in teams. It is rare to find offices. The office has an open floor plan with desks. Her advice to entry-level positions and graduates applying for positions is; creativity is key. She said be honest and let the hiring managers know what your goals and ambitions are. Companies want to know what you expect from them too.
Next, I talked to Lieutenant Jared Shorter. I met Lt Shorter at the McKendree career fair. We talked about what I could expect as an officer in the Navy. I looked into this path because I have considered joining the military. While communication was not our main discussion I did get a sense of the importance. I would be working with a team with Information Warfare or working as an Information Professional. The importance of communication is more critical in these positions as safety is involved for many. If there is any misunderstanding between professionals the results may be devastating. Lt Shorter and I discussed how I would be of use in communicating my previous knowledge to students in training. Officers are responsible for training soldiers. Technical knowledge is critical in the information field. We could not discuss specific research projects because of classification. The type of research I would be dealing with is scientific or academic rather than workforce research. One thing I found interesting when following up with Lt Shorter was the different types of emails. Most emails were informal and informational. However, when he sends some attachments a note at the bottoms warns me of the protected/sensitive materials. I am warned the email is for official use only-privacy sensitive. Any unauthorized disclosure may result in both civil and criminal penalties. I can expect to receive more emails like this as an officer. Other office environments will vary on location. Lt Shorter says the environments are usually tropical and I will typically be on a beach!
Good job taking initiative to aim high for these interviews. Even though social media and the military seem so different, a lot of the research skills you'll need to succeed in both are similar. Liz is right that good companies will want to know your expectations. That's partly because they want to see how well you'd fit with their corporate culture and partly because, if they're thinking ahead, they're anticipating the roles you could fill as you move up in the company. If that reciprocal relationship is important to you, definitely pay attention to it during the interview process and ask about what roles you could fill within the company in 3-5 years. No matter which direction you go, developing the ability to communicate technical information to non-experts will help you be successful.
DeleteI choose to interview Kyle Hawk who is a Web Developer for the company The Loft, a child company of Buckeye International, and he is also my cousin. My second interview was Shelly Colson who works for World Wide Technology and I met her while applying for a job with her company. What surprised me the most about these interviews was how much employees rely on each other on a daily basis to get projects done and Kyle mentioned communication is crucial. Also, Shelly mentioned how important emailing was in her position since that's how she gets in touch with people when recruiting and to keep in touch with other employees. In the interview with Kyle, he mentioned that not only does he affect the decision but he also relies on his boss and other employees to revise the work being done a project. Sometimes it can even be the client themselves giving feedback. Also, another point made by my other interviewee is that it's important to use communication when writing reports about a project, which in her case was testing software, in order for it to be clear for people referencing off of it so they can give feedback. As said by both of them, being verbal is a must when coming into the job. One said it might be hard at first but it's crucial to finishing successful tasks on time. Another point made is that you have to keep others updated otherwise it could cause a “domino effect” down the road. Other strategies included being thorough as possible when updating daily, ask questions to gain knowledge of what you're working on, participate in discussions, and if you mess up it’s ok, just take a baby step back in order to fix your mistake. Shelly stated that it's important to stay organized when coming into the job and to be on top of things including communication because the pressure of work can build up. However, some jobs make it easier for you to keep track of your work and stay on top of communication. For example, Kyle said at his work, his company uses a software called basecamp to keep all the projects together and to get new projects from his boss. It the company's’ employees to add task as well as complete them and clients were able to voice their opinion on basecamp too. Overall, communication is vital for success in the career field that I am going into. Between emails, projects, reports, and code, it all has to demonstrate effective communication and be revised. However, some tasks don’t require as much revising as others, like an email to another employee as Shelly mentioned. Another example is how Kyle receives updates when a teammate has changed something about a project and he talked about how that really helps keep the project synced up to date. After conducting the interviews, I found that collaboration and communication is the key to a successful career. Especially in my career field because there is many different types of communication that I would need to use such as reports, code, emails, and meeting up with teammates.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a lot of their communication relates to project management--making sure everyone is doing what they're supposed to do when they're supposed to do it. Basecamp and other tools like it are likely to become more common in workplaces where there's shared responsibility for project management (rather than one where all responsibility is centralized with a single manager). You can see a basecamp demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGf6tI5XU_E
DeleteRather than knowing particular management software (because there are too many options for you to learn!), though, you'll want to convince potential employers that you can learn how to use their project tech quickly and effectively, so keep that in mind in case a question about that comes up in an interview!
My first interview was held with Tyson Zobrist. Tyson works as a Wildlife Biologist for the Army Corps of Engineers. His job as of today is writing permits under the Section 404 of the clean water act. Part of section 404 is based upon preservation or mitigation of a Wetland. Tysons job is to write permits to contractors or land owners when they are working near, or on a wetland. Since wetlands are a big part of our ecosystem they are protected. It is Tyson’s and many others job to ensure wetlands remain unharmed. They can accomplish this by writing very detailed permits to regulate the amount of work that can done on a wetland.
ReplyDeleteDuring my interview with Tyson the one thing that seemed surprising to me was the length of one of these permits and the process he must go through to make one. I thought it was a much shorter process than what it actually is. The documents were very detailed and included professional maps created by Tyson. When I asked Tyson about what he includes in the permits and how detailed does he get with them he simply responded “it all depends on the project the landowner or contractor is working on”. He said if he was working with an oil company regarding a pipeline going through a wetland the permit becomes very detailed including GIS mapping and countless on site visits with the contractor. If it is a farmer wanting to widen a drainage ditch then the process can become more simplified.
When we talked about skills and strategies about communication in the workplace Tyson had a lot of information. He talked about being well organized when it comes to dealing with multiple permit applications. Tyson said “you want to have your ducks in a row before meeting with the contractor on site”. He also said the main goal of each project is to clearly understand the project. Without clarification you could hand a contractor a permit for something that doesn’t go along with the work needed to be done. Tyson said clarification in his communication is a great deal as well. “You have to be clear in your documents and maps of what the contractor can and cannot do when impacting a wetland. If you’re not clear you will encounter a bunch of problems you don’t want”. Through the rest interview I learned communication is a big part of Tyson’s job and to be successful you must show clarity and be very detailed.
My second interview was with Rob Cosgriff also an employee for the Army Corps of Engineers. Rob’s Career is a Forester. His main goal is timber restoration along the Upper and Lower parts of the Mississippi River. Like my first interview, Communication plays a big role. When Rob is tasked with a new restoration project he must create documents regarding what kind of work he is suggesting to be completed. This can include the types of trees that need to be planted, the type of maintenance on the site that needs to be done, and the cost of the project. After completing all the required documents Rob must present his proposal to a board where they make final changes. “You want to be able to answer all questions the readers may have in your documents you prepare” said Rob. He also said you must be very accurate on any information you hand over and to have reasoning for your decisions. “To be successful in my job Communication is a must.” Also like my first interview Clarity is a big key to success. Rob uses clarity when working with the contractors who are planting these trees for the restoration projects. He must point out locations and provide detailed maps of each tree planting site. Overall both of my interviews provided me with a lot of communication background that takes place in their work environment and has showed me just how important it is for the field I am currently pursuing.
You got some great information from these interviews. One challenge that these guys deal with is making decisions about how much of their detailed content knowledge to share with various audiences. Sometimes regulations (like for permits) will require more detail because that detail creates a record that can be used to critique a decision after the consequences of that decision play out. That critique can be used to help future decision-makers make more effective decisions, too. However, they also have to take technical information and make it clear to non-experts, so if you can do that, you'll make yourself a valuable employee down the road.
DeleteI interviewed Tyler Schwierjohn, he works for Anthem insurance. I also interviewed Lindsey Beers, she works for some consulting insurance company. I am a finance/actuary major and would really like to be an actuary in the end. Talking to both of these people opened my eyes to what I’ll be able to do when I graduate and how to get the job I want in the end. First, to become an actuary you have to constantly take exams, which are very challenging until you finish all of them. Before I talked to them I thought that I had to take my P exam first; but after talking to them I found out that there are other exams I can take first that will help me quicken the process. It will also allow me to get a job right out of college rather than having to wait six months after I graduate to get my dream job. I also found out that they both work from home, which is something that I would like to do once I am trained enough in my field. Through Lindsey I found out that I can be a counselor to several insurance companies around the country, instead of what I thought I had to do or what I thought every actuary did. Before I talked to them I thought that every actuary just took numbers and figured out the probability of things, to make the rates that people pay. After talking to them I found out that I can console insurance companies and several other cool things. I found out that my career is a lot broader than it seems.
ReplyDeleteLindsey said that all she uses IM mainly and link, for communication. She only works from home; so they use link where she can see other people’s screens and they can see hers. She does a lot of collaborative work. She said she might have four projects going on at one time. One she might be waiting on more information for and so on. The most important skill you can have for her job is to be good with collaborative work and communication.
Tyler uses communication more than Lindsey. He works from home some days, but not every day. He has at least one formal meeting a month, where he has to give a presentation. He told me a lot about how to be successful when it comes to giving a presentation and just communicating in the workforce in general. His main points or advice was to practice, don’t be afraid to mess up, watch people, and preparation. When he talked about watching people, he told me to watch my crowd’s reactions and make sure they are tuned in. He also said to watch how my mentors and bosses give presentations, to help make mine better.
The main form of communication for both of my interviewees was email and IM. They don’t have a lot of face-to-face meetings or communication because they work from home so much. Tyler did tell me though that if he has a subject that could have different perceptions. He will call them or try to set-up a face-to-face meeting; that way they are on the same page and things can’t be perceived the wrong way. I learned a lot from both of them and will definitely stay in touch, because I feel like they could help me a lot on my road to becoming an actuary.
The advice to pay attention to your crowd and mentors is great. You'll learn general things (like what makes any presentation engaging) but should also pay attention to the way that people make appeals to their specific audiences--how they communicate detailed information to people who just need an overview or how they emphasize certain ideas because those support the mission of the company. While I know you want to work from home eventually, if you do that right away, you'll miss out on some of that observation time and may not be able to build as strong of a network, so keep that in mind as you make your decision. A hybrid approach like Tyler has might work better for you at first so you can have those communication interactions and improve your skills.
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ReplyDeleteI decided to interview my former boss at Lewis University, Athletic Communications Assistant Director Derrick Sloboda, and Sport Management professor at McKendree University, Dr. Elizabeth Erickson. I choose to interview these two professionals because they represent the two jobs I wish to have in my professional career. After college I plan on becoming an athletic communications assistant and for two to three years working solely in my profession, following that I plan to return to school for my Master’s because I'm going to be honest I'm only a sophomore and I'm ready to never look at another textbook or hear another lecture again. With that I'm going against myself because I understand that the life of an SID is hard and long nights become long weekends that turn into never seeing any family I will have in the future. So once I decide to settle down I want to go back to school to receive my doctorate in either communications or business to teach at a college or university. Then my life will be textbooks and lectures, what a coincidence. Dr. Erickson once worked as an SID ten years ago and during her time there she was at the cornerstone of the new technologies, such as in-design and social media, becoming huge ways that athletic departments were communicating with their athletes, students, and future students. Before she left, the department still had everything separate in terms of adobe, Photoshop, etc. leaving tasks that are now simple a daunting task. The types of research she did for her athletics was more focused on looking up past records for game notes and whenever the team was about to surpass or come near any milestones. During her time as a teacher she has developed pet peeves such as then people do not properly spell things out or when you do not properly greet a person in the salutation line of an email which could all be avoided if the person called which is always acceptable especially when you need to hear the other person’s voice confirmation. However if you are on the road traveling with a team texting is acceptable because you do not know what the other person is doing. Something both Derrick and Professor Erickson agree on is that entry-level professionals are lacking is communication and writing skills. They disagree on the type of work they preform, where the professor stated it was a 60-40 split between individual-collaborative whereas Derrick said it was more 20-80, individual-collaborative. He also said that around 40% of his job is spent on communication such as emails, weekly meetings, or games with 90% of his job being software documentation. Face-to-face meetings occur at least once a week or whenever there needs to be a dialogue, he is teaching someone how to work, or for demonstrations which are also all reasons to call the person in lieu of emailing them. However, texting is only acceptable whenever you are comfortable with the other person and during game days for convenience. All in all communication is a vital aspect to my future profession as an SID and eventually professor. In addition to that focusing on my writing skills will but me ahead of any other applicants.
ReplyDeleteI decided to interview my former boss at Lewis University, Athletic Communications Assistant Director Derrick Sloboda, and Sport Management professor at McKendree University, Dr. Elizabeth Erickson. I choose to interview these two professionals because they represent the two jobs I wish to have in my professional career. After college I plan on becoming an athletic communications assistant and for two to three years working solely in my profession, following that I plan to return to school for my Master’s because I'm going to be honest I'm only a sophomore and I'm ready to never look at another textbook or hear another lecture again. With that I'm going against myself because I understand that the life of an SID is hard and long nights become long weekends that turn into never seeing any family I will have in the future. So once I decide to settle down I want to go back to school to receive my doctorate in either communications or business to teach at a college or university. Then my life will be textbooks and lectures, what a coincidence. Dr. Erickson once worked as an SID ten years ago and during her time there she was at the cornerstone of the new technologies, such as in-design and social media, becoming huge ways that athletic departments were communicating with their athletes, students, and future students. Before she left, the department still had everything separate in terms of adobe, Photoshop, etc. leaving tasks that are now simple a daunting task. The types of research she did for her athletics was more focused on looking up past records for game notes and whenever the team was about to surpass or come near any milestones. During her time as a teacher she has developed pet peeves such as then people do not properly spell things out or when you do not properly greet a person in the salutation line of an email which could all be avoided if the person called which is always acceptable especially when you need to hear the other person’s voice confirmation. However if you are on the road traveling with a team texting is acceptable because you do not know what the other person is doing. Something both Derrick and Professor Erickson agree on is that entry-level professionals are lacking is communication and writing skills. They disagree on the type of work they preform, where the professor stated it was a 60-40 split between individual-collaborative whereas Derrick said it was more 20-80, individual-collaborative. He also said that around 40% of his job is spent on communication such as emails, weekly meetings, or games with 90% of his job being software documentation. Face-to-face meetings occur at least once a week or whenever there needs to be a dialogue, he is teaching someone how to work, or for demonstrations which are also all reasons to call the person in lieu of emailing them. However, texting is only acceptable whenever you are comfortable with the other person and during game days for convenience. All in all communication is a vital aspect to my future profession as an SID and eventually professor. In addition to that focusing on my writing skills will but me ahead of any other applicants.
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