Remote Meeting

So our remote meeting was pretty much a failure.  Meeting in person is much better or if you need to get information when you are a part a phone call would be much more effective.  In our remote meeting there were many technology issues.  At first only Sarah and I could talk and we couldn't hear Trent.  Then after a few minutes we all were able to talk.  We discussed our presentation and PowerPoint.  After awhile Sarah's connection cut out and Trent and I finished up some work.  Sarah tried to get back on but it wasn't working so we scheduled another time to meet in person to practice. 

I think remote meetings are a good idea to brainstorm ideas and assign work.  Then everyone in the group can get their work done before a final meeting.  Without technology issues, this can be really convenient and get rid of pointless meetings in persons. If a company needs to have meetings with people in different locations, then remote meetings are a necessity.  This was a good practice to see how it works.  Definite improvements would need to be made for it to be successful in the future.

Consulting Projects

This week has been a lot of work.  This has been a great opportunity to practice working as a team.  There are many aspects that go into being a successful team.  Everyone has to do their part and get it done on time.  Everyone needs to be willing to meet and work on it together as well.  As a team it is important to be able to brainstorm together and come up with creative ideas.  When everyone just throws out any idea and doesn’t feel embarrassed brainstorming goes much better.  Sometimes this can be hard after working on a project for a while because you start to run out of creativity and motivation and energy.

Our group has been working together well.  Our plan was we divided up to research our complaints on Alterra Pest Control.  We got back together and decided on the top three and began creating a report.  We outlined it and then split up who would write what.  Once that was finished we met back up to edit the report, create the powerpoint, and the handout.  This process of figuring out what to do, then doing the work on our own, and then meeting back up to complete and edit worked very well for us.

All in all, group projects are always way more work than you initially think they will be! Scheduling when everyone has many other classes and projects and work can be a challenging and frustrating task.  But, we got it figured out and made it work!

Design is Everything

Have you ever looked at a magazine and thought about why you are drawn to certain articles more than others?  I know that when I read a magazine I want to read the articles that have less text and a clear title that interests me.  If it has too much text, I usually just flip right by it.  I am sure we all flip by articles a little bit differently because we all have different view points and interests.

There is a more formal way that helps us understand why we don't want to read something.  The acronym is CARBS.
Color
Alignment
Repetition
Balance
Spacing

The use of color is very important.  It can't be too much.  It needs to be just a few colors that go nicely together and appeal to the eye.  It also needs to be appropriate for the topic.  Bright colors can't be used for an article about puppies dying.

Alignment must be appealing to the eye.  If one item is out of alignment, the article will just look wrong and your eye won't want to read the article.

Repetition is a good thing.  People like to see repetition.  Repetition in fonts, colors, and  themes make the article look well put together.

Balance is about the overall look of the article.  Do both sides of the article look balanced.  It doesn't mean that everything has to be symmetrical but they have to balance each other. A picture needs to be placed where it looks balanced on the other side.

Spacing is one that I think is the most important.  If there is no spacing in text, then I will not read it.  It needs to be broken up into chunks so my eyes do not get tired.  White space is a good thing.

Now the hard part is applying everything to the briefing article we are working on in class.  It is easy to pick out things you like and do not like in other people's work, but it is hard to make your own work look good.  Especially when I am the least artistic person and have horrible skills with editing and design.  But I am trying and I am learning and getting better.

Researchhh

Probably one of my most least favorite things ever about school is research papers.  We got assigned a briefing article which is a research paper condensed down to one page.  This can be difficult condensing all the information into one page.  But it can be done.

When I think of research, I think of endlessly searching through articles that do not apply to exactly what I want.  It takes so much time to find the articles that you want.  Research is just so time consuming.  But, the librarian said the reason most people do not like research is because they spend too much time doing it.  I 100% agree with her.  I do spend too much time.  She then went one to teach us ways to improve our research.  She showed different cites that are helpful.  She taught to us words like "and," "or," and "not."

This did cut a lot of time off of my research.  I have all my research and my paper is coming along smoothly. Hopefully I will be done soon.  My next dilemma is citing all of my sources properly.  That is an intimidating task in itself, at least for me.

Online Interview

Today I did an online mock interview with a classmate to get some practice.  I have done this once before and I got the job from it, but I definitely prefer interviews in person.  I get very distracted looking at the computer because I want to look the person in the eye but by doing that you aren't looking into the camera so it doesn't look like you are looking at them. It is a hard task for me.

My computer worked fine, but on his computer I was a black screen.  Once again computer issues can arise that you do not expect.  We continued through it because we could still hear each other, but if it was a real interview it might have caused a problem.

A mistake I made was that I didn't send him my resume in a pdf format.  My resume was all off for him.  That would look really bad in an interview.  I need to save a copy in a pdf to prevent from doing that again. I need to work on better eye contact as well.

Overall I thought it was a good learning experience, I asked him if he had any questions and he did not think I would do that so he hesitated a moment.  It helped both of us to remember to form questions ahead of time. We both had good professionalism throughout the interview so we were able to feel like it was a real situation.
Jordan Michaelson--5

Delivering Bad News

Before this class, I always got annoyed when receiving a rejection to a job because they always worded it in a round about way.  I would prefer to just say, "sorry, you didn't get the job." But we viewed different letters of delivering bad news letters and there is a benefit to not being so direct.

I never have had to write a letter delivering bad news before.  I have received bad news letters and rejection letters, but I never paid attention to how they were written.  When writing a bad news letter, the way you organize and write can make a big difference in how the recipient receives it.

To write a bad news letter, you are supposed to use an indirect approach.  The opening should give some information that applies to what you need to tell them but not say that you "firing" them.  It should lead into the fact that you are firing them.  Your body should give the bad news and reasons why.  Then the closing should give them a positive outlook.

This has changed my view of bad news letters.  They are harder to write than I would think. Now I won't be so judgmental when I receive a indirect letter.  I understand that it is the nicer way to write it.