Sunday, October 26, 2008

Miscommunication

One of the first jobs I had was working in a vets office. I was all excited because I love animals and thought it would be a great experience. Key word here is THOUGHT. I was mainly in charge of the animals that were boarding. My main duties were to clean their cages, give them food and water and document how much they had consumed to make sure they were eating. However, whenever I was done with all of that, I was usually completely clueless about what needed to be done. I would usually just ask other employees and help out around the office.

The vet ran and owned the office I worked in and most of the time I tried to avoid her because she had a nasty attitude and was NEVER friendly. One day in particular still sticks out vividly in my mind. The vet had taken the cat out of the carrier and left the carrier sitting on the floor while she went about finishing her business. She never mentioned that I should clean the carrier and put it back to together, but instead she just left it lying there. Several minutes later she came back in and started yelling at me for not cleaning it and removing it from the floor. I was stunned.

Instances like these happened often during the whole 3 months that I worked there. The vet never mentioned what she wanted her employees to do, she just expected them to magically know. I feel this caused barriers and miscommunication to occur frequently. When you do not specify, especially to someone new, tasks that need to be done and what they could do to help, you typically get outcomes you don’t want. These situations usually ended with her getting mad and being meaner than she normally is which was highly unfortunate. I feel that all these situations could have been easily avoided if she had delegated different tasks at the beginning of the day to certain individuals rather than letting them stand there completely clueless of what needs to be done. Communication is key in businesses. Managers need to tell employees what is expected of them and they need to create a system of delegating tasks so that everyone is on the same page of what needs to be done.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Mock Interview Reflection

As I was going into my mock interview I was slightly nervous. I seem to always get nervous before any type of interview whether it is a mock interview or the real thing. In order to help ease the nervousness I thought about what questions could possibly be asked and a few answers that would be the most appropriate. This calmed my nerves a little because I knew that if anything I would be able to answer at least a few questions and would have solid answers.

For the most part I was able to answer all the questions appropriately and with ease. The only questions I had a tough time answering referred to my greatest accomplishment. Unfortunately, there is not one huge accomplishment that I can think of that would just completely blow someone away. Hopefully as I continue my college career and move on into my internship, I will find one accomplishment that I feel really proud to share during an interview and one that makes me stand out.

Besides that one question, I felt the interview went really well. I was able to answer all the questions and felt confident about my answers. For my next interview, I will prepare a few answers again to questions I know will be asked. Hopefully, I will have completed or be in the middle of my internship so I will have experience that relates to my field.

I found this mock interview to be very helpful. I have had interviews in the past but they have been mostly for jobs I had in high school and throughout the summer. This interview will prepare me to answer questions that are usually asked by potential employers and those accepting people into graduate programs. I learned which gestures are appropriate and can express enthusiasm while others may convey that you did not like the question or do not know how to answer it.

Overall, the mock interview was a very useful tool and will help me in the future. It was a positive experience and I learned how to prepare for the interview and how to maintain a happy disposition and communicate that to the interviewer.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Presentations

This past week everyone gave a presentation based on something they were interested in or something they enjoyed doing. I found all the presentations interesting and enjoyed listening to all the topics. Some of my favorites included Adrienn's wine presentation, Lauren's presentation on how to facebook stalk, and Morgan's presentation on how she spends her Christmas.

Adrienn was very informative on how to properly open a bottle of wine and present it to the table. This summer was the first time I have ever worked as a server and let me tell you, those wine tools are tricky. I can say that I have never completely opened a bottle of wine with one of those things by myself. I usually made my tables help me which is embarassing I know. Adrienn did a great job explaining how to open the bottle properly and showing how and who to serve first. And I am always impressed when someone can actually use a wine tool. :)

I also enjoyed Lauren's presention on "How to Efficiently Facebook Stalk". I thought the topic was very entertaining and appropriate for this generation where facebook is so popular. I thought she did an excellent job and I definitely laughed. The facebook rap also added a nice touch.

Morgan did a great job presenting her nontraditional Christmas trips. I enjoyed seeing her pictures from Finland and Slovenia. It was interesting learning about different countries especially Slovenia since I've never heard of it. I think its really awesome that she gets to travel each year to places all over the world. I know I'm jealous!

All the presentations taught me something that I did not already know. I found all of them to be very interesting but these are just a few of my favorites.