Final Reflection

How time flies! I can still remember the first lesson of Professional Communication like it was yesterday! Before I know it, its the end of the semester already. Looking back, I feel that I have really learned lots of things from this module. 

Two things that I have really learn from this module are oral presentation skills and interview skills.

This module requires a lot of presentation which includes the formal and the trial run. With each practice, I can feel myself improve little by little. Feedback and pointers from classmates make me realize what my usual oral presentation is lacking. I now know that my presentation needs to be more enthusiastic and cheerful. Not only that, I am able to witness superb presentations from classmates like Fiona and Sher Lynn. From them, and the feedback given to me by my peers, I am able to improve my presentation skills, which I am happy and thankful for.

I think that it is good that this module includes a mock interview. Just from that mock interview alone, I now feel more confident towards job interviews. This, I think, is due in part to my group mates Sher Lynn and Qi. Both of them can speak really well and can handle whatever tough questions that are thrown their way. Sher Lynn with her numerous job interview experience and Qi with his internship experience provide me with valuable and important tips. These includes how to answer interview questions in a way that is honest and diplomatic, how to speak using a more professional instead of a more casual way, how to inject my personality into the answers and not just giving textbook style answers. A majority of these tips have also been covered by Dr Jaidev in class.

All in all, this module has provide me with many benefits. I will definitely recommend it to my friends:)

Reflection on Oral Presentation

After a nerve-wrecking 30 minutes on Thursday, Oral Presentation is finally over!

Let's do a bit of evaluation.

Overall Team Presentation

Strengths:
I feel that overall, the team is well-prepared. In terms of slide transition, speech flow and the handing over of presentation part to the next speaker.

Even though the three of us have different distinctive style of presentation and speech flow, we manage to make sure that the pace of our presentation throughout is more or less consistent. Also, all of us manage to convey our enthusiasm in our proposal!

Weakness:
I feel that we did not make full use of Prezi.com. I have the feeling, as I have mentioned to Charles that Prezi was not fully optimised by us. I am sure that Prezi.com has a lot of wonderful tools and functions but we have only just touched the tip of its iceberg. However, for a first attempt and due to time constraints, I am quite happy with our slides. Kudos to Qi who is the IT savy one in our group!

Individual - My own

Strengths:
Smooth delivery of the presentation (thanks to numerous practices at home with my bored sister as the audience).

Oh, one thing that I am quite happy is that I have manage to inject enthusiasm in my presentation! Usually when I present I am quite monotonous or lifeless. So I quite proud of my own achievements.

I have also tried to make eye contact with everyone in the class but I don't know if its obvious.

Weakness:
I have to smile a bit as feedback is that I am too serious to the point that people is saying I am fierce! I remembered about enthusiasm but forgot about the smiling part...oh well..

I felt that certain parts in my speech I should have pause a bit more. But I was too nervous so I ended up giving only a short pause when it could have been longer to emphasize my point.

Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

During the July holidays, my whole family and I went to Korea for an eight-days vacation. When we were at the Korean Airport, I had a taste of how different Korea's culture is compared to Singapore. I was standing at the scan-the-bags belt there, waiting for my bag to come out when a Korean man who worked at the airport approached me from behind, jabbed me on my shoulder and told me to move along. No light taps on the shoulder and no "ëxcuse me" involved. I was quite surprised as I found it quite rude. I have never encountered such behaviour from the service industry. 

However, after spending a few days in Korea, I realised that such behaviour is considered acceptable in their country. The scenario that I had encountered is just a reflection of their patriachal society. In fact, Leo, our tour guide told us that it is not uncommon to see husbands beating up their wives in public 10 or 15 years ago. Of course, with Korea becoming more influenced by western cultures, the Koreans have now realised that such behaviour is unacceptable in other cultures and now women are treated more respectfully. However, Leo mentioned that despite such improvements, there is still gender inequality. Women are still expected to be subservient to their male counterparts.

However, on the bight side, there seems to be a shift or a change role of women. Korean dramas these days show men being caring and supportive while women are successful in their career. Perhaps the mass media hopes that through them, people's mindset will be changed and gender inequality will be reduced. Or perhaps the drama shows are just a way for women to go against their oppression.

It is quite interesting to me that just a simple scenario or behaviour of a person can reveal so much about the society or social structure. 

To practice a more effective communication, the Korean airport man should have lightly touched my arm or just muttered an "excuse me" with a smile on his face while asking me politely to stand to one side. After all, effective communication is a combination of verbal and non-verbal responses.

Job Post, Application Letter & Resume

Job Post

Internet Application Letter

Subject: Chemistry Laboratory Analyst- Ong Li Hui Angelia

Dear Hiring Manager

I have a very strong interest in pursuing a career as a Chemical Laboratory Analyst. As a recent graduate from National University of Singapore (NUS) studying chemistry as a major, as well as graduating from Nanyang polytechnic (NYP) with a Diploma in food science, I believe that I am a strong candidate for a position at Baxtar Healthcare Company.

My working experience with conducting laboratory test procedures and safety measures was during my three-month industrial attachment program with the Fraser and Neave Limited (F&N) company while I was in my third year of study in NYP. There, I assisted in laboratory tests on food ingredients to be used in food production. I successfully applied my laboratory skills for the chemical testing of food samples in accordance with analytical methods like texture analysis and HPLC techniques. In addition, I was responsible for maintaining biohazard and food safety standards, and ensuring proper handling of potentially hazardous chemical and biological agents.

My laboratory skills were further horned during my pursued of a chemistry degree in NUS. Routine laboratory sessions allowed me to be familiar with different analytical equipment. Not only that, my knowledge as well as applications of these laboratory testing was further enhanced, thanks to the school’s comprehensive course syllabus.

I am confident that my ability to work well with others and my initiative qualify me to handle the responsibilities of the position.

My resume is enclosed for your reference and I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your consideration.

Yours faithfully

Ong Li Hui Angelia



Resume

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

A group of secondary friends and I meet up quite frequently. Last Friday, we met up again, and X was late for two hours. I was not happy as this was not the first time that she was late. In fact, she is usually late for our gathering, ranging from 15 minutes to one hour. However, this was the first time that she was late for so long (two hours).

"what took you so long?" I asked her.

"I over-slept,"she replied. And pretended that nothing has happened by reading the menu.

When I questioned her whether she had set an alarm, she said yes, but that she had not heard it rang. Perhaps, she was in too deep a sleep.

I told her that this has happened quite a few times already and that I was uncomfortable with it. Then I proposed a solution. I told her that maybe two hours before the meeting I will call her to check with her.

She said okay, but looked unhappy.

Qn 1) Do you think I could have handled it better? What do you think that I should do?

Qn 2) Can you think of any other solutions?

Lessons Learned From Peer Teaching

1) To avoid talking too fast during presentation/teaching, we can always pose questions to the audience. For example, "Are you with me so far?"

2) To avoid speaking with a monotonous voice, varies the tone in a sentence by placing emphasis on the words you want. Hmm, maybe this can be improved by listening to a recording of myself and PRACTICE!

Effective communication skills

To me, communication involves a lot about talking as well as listening. That is why, I feel that a person with good interpersonal skills normally have good communication skills as well. Or is it vice versa?

Anyway, having effective communication skills to me is important because of several reasons.

Firstly, I am in my second year and will be graduating soon. Looking at the course syllabus, I saw that it covers resumes and application letters. Having a well-written resume is important as this is the first thing that an employer looks at, which means this will be the first barrier of getting a job. A  resume actually reflects a lot about a job-seeker. If a resume is disorganised, messy, with a lot of grammatical errors and a lack of essential personal information the employer may think, "Hmm, this person is probably a careless, messy and absent-minded person." And there goes your chances of getting the job. Thus, I feel that a well-written resume is the first step of securing a job, which will help me when I try to get a job after graduation.

Secondly, job interviews are crucial in getting a job. This will be the second and/or last barrier of getting a job. And this is the hardest barrier for me! I am normally nervous during interviews and will not perform at my best. In fact, I went to two job interviews during the school holidays, looking for a temp job. Due to my lack of confidence and interview skills, I was not chosen. This experience helps me realise that having a good resume is not enough! No matter how much achievements you put in your resume, if you cannot speak well, employers will not think well of you. To them, a poor speaker will probably have poor interpersonal skills, which means that he or she will probably have a hard time working in a team.

Lastly, communication skills are important in our daily lives. All of us have to communicate with other people. The question is, "How good are we at getting our message across to others?" Having good communication skills will helps to prevent misunderstandings and conflicts. This is important not only in school but also in workplace as well. This is because in school, we do a lot of group presentations and projects which requires a lot of communication. In workplace too, having a good team dynamics and relationships will enable working life to be a happier and stress-free one. A person who loves her job will do well in her job.