Class Wrap Up

The last day of class was a great experience. I was able to listen to some great presentations and turn in the ever so stressful final biz project. However, what I enjoyed most about the last day of class was Professor Middleton's wrap-up. Her story of the paraglider that landed in the parking lot instead of the other side of the river was inspiring to me. Often we don't realize that we are focused on the wrong things and this can decide our fate. It's never worth it to be focused on the bad. Focus on your dreams and you WILL get there!

This class was a great learning experience and I know it will benefit me in my career as a doctor.

Individual Presentations

On Thursday I was able to present individually about managing social media. It was actually a pretty interesting topic to research and I felt like it was pretty exciting to talk about. I ended up presenting 4 times and was graded the very last time with a very large and distracting (haha) audience. I was a little bit nervous but I felt like I effectively used the suggestions and comments from the previous presentation groups to my advantage to improve my presentation. There were a few things I could still improve but I felt like I did well overall and the grade I received proved so. However, I've learned in this class not to care about the grade your receive. It rarely represents your true performance in the real world. This class is highly subjective though, so I can understand how difficult it is to grade, especially when the grader is bound to a rubric. I'm glad I've had the opportunity to develop my skills in this class and hope to continue using and developing these skills.

React and Group Presentations

Last Thursday we presented as groups and were able to receive and give comments on the presentations. I thought this was pretty helpful. Our presentation went really well. Brittany had the idea of starting with a great hook (the video) and ending with the second half of the video. We practiced a few times before actually presenting which was very very helpful but even more practice couldn't have hurt. I was impressed with all the presentations, including our own, and thought we did a really good job. There were some little things that I could have changed (like not having my back to the right side of the room sometimes), but overall, I felt like I was effective at conveying our message. One of the comments by Mrs. Middleton confused me because in an earlier class she said our focus should be on the speaker in our group. I did this, and she asked if I was afraid of the audience? hahaha. Sometimes this class confuses me. Which is sad, it being a communication course, but maybe it's just me. :)

Remote Meeting

The remote meeting was very helpful since our team has been very busy recently and it was difficult to find a time to meet in person. We could also finish some of our assignments and set some meeting times. It was helpful to use Google Docs to share files because everyone could colaborate together simultaneously. I will certainly consider using Skype or a similar program to have online meetings in the future as it is very convenient.

Interview

Despite some technical issues, my interview with Michael was fantastic. I felt I was successful at tying my answers back to the job itself and explaining why I would be the right person for the job. I felt like I could improve eye contact- though this was a little bit weird for me, because it didn't feel natural looking at someone through the computer screen. Michael was a great interviewer and asked some questions that really made me think. I really think this prepared me for a potential online interview in the future, especially since the technical issues very well could occur during the real deal.

Michael Hutchings 5

Research- You either love it, or you hate it

I'll be the first to admit that I hate doing research. I just feel like it takes way too much time to find out about a topic that someone else studied. Also, it's hard to see the results as quickly as you would if you were working on something else that didn't require research.

Despite all this, I thought the presentation given to us in the library was very helpful and will certainly ease the pain of finding informational sources on the topic I am studying. Perhaps the reason I don't like research is because I'm just plain old not good at it!

On a random note, can anyone help me figure out why LinkedIn is useful? I'm one of the rebels in the class that still haven't created an account. Granted, networking wouldn't really benefit me in the career that I am pursuing, but even then, I have a friend that is a successful businessman that says "the value of LinkedIn is the same as the value of screen doors on submarines." This meme was the breaking point for avoiding the otherwise 'pointless' social media tool:

I'm all ears to other opinions though. I am very open-minded about the idea, but as of now I have no other reason to believe (besides Professor Middleton's word) that it is useful.

By the way, for those of you who were interested in my last post about our new baby, my wife has a blog that she keeps that talks about life as a new mom. Some of you might find that interesting. She does write the blog in spanish though, so you'll have to use google translate if you don't know Spanish.

http://palmers1229.blogspot.com/2014/02/la-maternidad-en-mi-vida.html?spref=fb

Thanks for reading!

Make up post

I've decided to write a "make up post" for the week I missed when my daughter was born. I will try to make this somewhat class-oriented, but I'm sure you guys are less interested in that than hearing about my beautiful little girl. She was born on January 30, 2014 at 5:14 at 6 lbs and 9 oz. She was (and is) EXTREMELY hairy, just like her... Mom, obviously. :) She is very alert and loves to: dance, grunt, and stare at very particular spot on the cealing (Seriously, she spends 90% of her awake time looking at this precise spot and will adjust her head to get the best view of the amazing scenery). Of course she loves to eat and sleep (and not let Mom and Dad sleep), but we've decided to keep her nonetheless.

 

 

As far as class goes, I think the day I missed was about public speaking. It's too bad I missed that day of class, because although I've been told I'm a great public speaker, I do not feel that way many times. Some ideas to improve public speaking:

• Avoid filler works
• Eye contact- 2-3 seconds with each person before changing to another person
• Do good gestures, not distracting ones
• Have fluxation in voice
• Utilize floor craft (walk with purpose)
• Avoid and eliminate opportunities for nervous crutches/habits/movements

Cheers!

Getting a Chance at Your Dream Job

Thursday's lecture was awesome! The communication skills that we've learned so far in the course have taught us how to be a successful communicator, after landing our dream job and/or career. What we learned this week will help us to get that dream job we're after.

Obviously landing that dream job requires first professional school, internships, or more "lowly" jobs. However, these give positions give us the opportunities to eventually do what we love. One thing is for sure; interviewing skills will be used time and time again leading up to that moment.

The quality of our resumes, cover letters, and interview skills are what give us the opportunities to further develop and utilize our communication skills. Arguably, I think good interview skills is the single most important skill for us students to have.

Our grades, academic success, and professional school exam scores allows us to get a foot into the door. However, once inside, the only thing helping us out to actually be offered the job position, internship, or into professional school acceptance is our communication skills. As  a previous medical school applicant, I can attest that I knew people with 4.0's and very high MCAT scores get plenty of interviews at medical schools, but were unable to matriculate anywhere. Why? Poor interview skills, or simply poor interpersonal and communication skills.

Sure, public speaking, presentations, writing an effective letter, learning to use power point, and all the things we've learned leading up to now in the semester are very important. I just have the opinion that what we talked about on Thursday is more important to us now as it allows us to further utilize these skills to a maximum after landing our dream job because of our kick-@ss interview skills.

Cheers!

Camera Shy

This Thursday in class was one of my favorite classes so far because it made me uncomfortable, which enabled me to learn. I usually don't have any big problems with public speaking, but this time, I did.

Maybe it was because I knew there was a camera and that I would soon see every mistake, or maybe it was because I haven't got much sleep recently due to my beautiful little daughter waking up multiple times each night. All I know is that I got pretty nervous and my thoughts became scrambled.

It was interesting because just last week we talked about things NOT to do when speaking. I remember thinking "I don't think I do any of those things" when Professor Middleton was telling us what to avoid. Boy was I surprised when I saw myself on the REACT website. The experience wasn't all bad, though. I defintely learned a lot about myself just by seeing how I present and reading the comments provided courtesy of Professor Middleton. I definitely feel like I have learned from some of my mistakes and will be able to more effectively present on the next ocassion that arises (and hopefully avoid the leg spasms). :) Thanks for reading.

Another week of GRAMMAR

Another week of grammar! Thankfully, I'm feeling more comfortable than last week with the grammar rules. I just hope to be ready for the exam that we have next week. I haven't started the practice exam but I am very certain that it will be helpful in preparing for it. I did notice that it is multiple choice not "incorrect or correct" like the quizzes we've been given and I am grateful for that. Multiple choice should be a little more manageable.

On a different note, I felt a little awkward when Professor Middleton asked us to raise our hand if all of the information about networking was helpful to us, as I did not raise my hand. Don't get me wrong, I personally think MCOM 320 has been helpful so far and will continue to help me, but the networking topic doesn't really apply to my career choice. As many of you may know based on the questions I have asked during class activities, I am headed to medical school and I plan on setting up my own practice somewhere. While some of the information that we talked about was useful, most of it just seemed over the top, or unapplicable to my profession. I do realize that those taking this class are mainly business-type majors, who most certainly find this information helpful. I will continue to try to take the most out of every class event and lecture even though it may not be entirely applicable to me.

A Humbling Experience

This Thursday was a humbling experience for me. I admittedly am not the best writer in the world but I have always thought that grammar is where I shine. When to use they're, there, and their? - Child's play. When to put commas, semi-colons, etc? - Simple and straightforward. Well, on the first sentence structure quiz I got a 27/38 and before correcting the second quiz with my team I probably would have received maybe 50%. I'm usually not the arrogant type or the kind of person that thinks he's better at something than he really is, but these realities sunk in fast.

 While I say these quizzes humbled me, I am obviously half-joking, because, for starters, the quizzes didn't count. Also, I think it's important to keep everything in perspective and even if those quizzes did count, it would have taught me the same lesson that I have learned anyway: I need to study grammar. Thankfully, I think that these quizzes helped me most by realizing the importance of paying attention all aspects of the sentence. There are many possibilities for error and each one of those possibilities should be checked (and in my case double-checked). I struggle a little with noticing everything the first time, as I try to be as efficient with my time as possible. My goal for the grammar exam is to check for these "possibilities of error" previously mentioned in a timely fashion and to study the material thoroughly.

Week 1- Successful communication

The first pre-test that was given to us  was an opportunity for me to really think about something for a moment: What is successful communication? It's been years since I've taken a writing course, but one of the things that I do remember is that successful communication through writing should be clear and concise. What then, should be included in a formal letter to Mrs. Middleton requiring us to answer 3 simple questions? I think the answer to this question is subjective and changes from person to person. I'm curious to know how successful communication is defined and how we will be taught to execute it throughout this semester.

 
Some of the pointers that we received on the first day of class were that in order to successfully communicate, shocker- you have to talk about something! Sadly, I know people that struggle with this, but as a man of few words, I have never really had a hard time giving significance and meaning to what I say. What I do feel is applicable to me though, is not being vague when communicating. As we saw in class, when the police phone operator told the man to "make sure he was dead" the man understood that he needed to kill his friend to make sure he was dead. The English language unfortunately has a lot of ambiguity and I think it's important that we learn how to avoid that and to be precise as possible when communicating. I intend on applying this by conscientiously paying attention to how I communicate with others and think if I'm being specific enough to successfully communicate my thoughts.