Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Why should you attend Job Fairs, workshops, Seminars and Clubs at your school?

 

Last Friday, on March 25th I attended my first workshop here at LIU in my three years I have been a student here. I did not go, because I wanted to attend, but because my Professor for Management of Human Resources had required us to attend. I forced my self up early last Friday and went to school for the first time on a Friday. The workshop was the 6th Annual leadership Skills Development Workshop hosted in the gymnasium. The moderator Frank Ross, as well as the panelists were LIU alumni, who came to talk about and answer questions about their careers and jobs in their respective fields.Mr. Ross is the managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office of the accounting firm KPMG LLP, positions he held from July 1, 1996 to December 31, 2003. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Accounting at Howard University, Washington, D.C. and the Director of its Center for Accounting Education. For the past six years, he has been working with the LIU's School of Business Administration to sponsor  the Annual leadership Skills Development Workshop.

The workshop lasted all day. we started the day with breakfast and some informal meetings. We then sat at different tables with five to six other students, whom we became a group with.  Then, the presenters and the moderators talked about many different things that affect our personalities. What I liked the most about this workshop is after a brief presentation, usually a few slides of PowerPoint, the presenter would ask each group a question which a group member had to get up to the microphone and discuss what the group had discussed. I really learned a lot about myself and my career in this workshop, and that's is why it is of critical importance to attend these kind of events as a student especially if you are undecided. Check this website to learn about possible careers for you, http://www.jobweb.com/studentarticles.aspx?id=76.

Aside from the fact that the workshop was unnecessarily long, it was effective in that many students including myself left with more knowledge about our careers and education. One of the earliest exercises we did as groups, we had to each generate a "Burning Question" which was to be asked later to the panelists. Some, if not all of our questions were answered with real answers from the panelists usually with a motivational experience they had. One of the questions  that seemed to resonate with many of the students was the future of job market and "how to stand out?".
Again why should you attend workshops and job fairs as much as you possibly can? Well, let's be realistic, the economy is not in the best shape it has been in years, and after graduation, you will be another college graduate available in the marketplace or workforce.

We all know there are secrets to each trade, and as a college student and future graduate you need to learn the secrets to becoming a successful student and an outstanding job candidate. These secrets are usually not hidden, but they are revealed to you in these kinds of environments by people who have been in that path before you. They can teach you a thing or two about what you might face in the future. You will also expand your social and professional base. It's a rare opportunity you can seize to form relationships with professionals in your perspective career to expand your networking base.

You can even ask some participants to act as advisers, mentors, or coaches to you in your pursuit of your goals. Moreover, you will also find out that many other students share similar career aspirations whom you can associate with, form personal and professional bonds with, and express concerns and dilemmas with.

The best thing about these events is that they are free. You are paying a lot of money to get an education here at LIU, but they only teach you from, sometimes outdated textbooks and sometimes outdated professors who have not been in the real workforce for decades, but these events offer real life examples as well as advices to college students pursuing their careers. Further, you can land an internship and possibly a job attending an event. An upcoming event that I am sure not to miss  is Best of Brooklyn Career Fair on April 5th, here at LIU, and you should not miss it too. Check out some of the employers who are looking for YOU.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Developing an Audience Profile

All forms of business message writing require three important steps, planning, writing, and completing.  Writing the actual message is not the difficult part. However understanding what constitutes planning is important to getting one’s point across effectively and easily. Although, defining one’s purpose is important to successful writing, developing an audience profile is the key.
            What does it mean to develop an audience profile and how does it serve the writer? After defining the purpose of your message-whether to inform, persuade or to collaborate- you need to analyze your target audience to help plan your message. People always need to fulfill their intrinsic needs from anything, so you need to let your audience know what they will get from your message. They want to know how your message will affect them personally or professionally. To fully comprehend the needs of your audience, you need to determine several factors in analyzing them.
            For you to analyze your audience, you need to identify who are your primary audience, determine the audience size and geographic distribution, determine audience composition, gauge the audience’s level of understanding, understand their expectations and preferences, and predict their possible reaction. You need to figure out Who are these people? What do you know about their age, class, gender, education, or political position? You also need to know the audience attitudes towards the topic, and what values they have. 
           The reason why I chose this topic is because when I write messages I tend to lose my intended audience. I usually have shortcomings in terms of who I am writing to and what for. Also, I tend to lose focus on my original audience.  To me, analyzing my audience more carefully will help me get my point across easier, and keep me focused on satisfying the needs of my audience. Moreover, the textbook is very helpful not just for writing better in school and getting good grades, but I feel if I master it, it would save me a lot of time in the future and make me a more successful communicator.
            The textbook suggests that for simple, routine messages, you usually don’t need to analyze your audience in depth. On the other hand, complex messages, or messages intended for indifferent or hostile audiences, one needs to take the time to study their information needs and potential reactions to the message.  For the example from a real-life case where developing audience profile is presented, I chose an article from the Wall Street Journal Corporate News section about Google. The article is dated February 24th 2011, and is titled Google Tool To Move Microsoft Files To Web. According to the article, Google will offer Microsoft Office documents on Google servers that can be available to share with other users.  This is an enhancement that will enable users to take Office files and upload them to Google’s servers under unique Web addresses, so they can be accessed from any internet-connected device through Google’s Docs. The article about Google’s Docs relates to developing an audience profile in two categories.
            The first category is the corporate readers, or people who will speculate on the effectiveness of this new tool as a new investment for Google. The article is written to showcase what Google is doing to establish itself as an online software seller.  The intended audience profiles are clearly those who will determine if Google’s move will be successful, affecting Google’s shares. The second audiences in this article are the general reader. Besides how Google developed Google Docs, the article exposes its development to the reader and what it does. Inevitably, the article will generate buzz in the business world, where Office tools are mostly used, and an increasing need for easier accessibility is visible. The new tool offered by Google is introduced as Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office.
            How will Cloud Connect improve business communication? Undoubtedly, this is a great step in liberating Office users. Sending files as attachments did not mean the receiving party will be able to access it. Sometimes people have different versions of Office, or the operating systems are not compatible. Cloud Connect will enhance productivity, because people can share files more easily from anywhere they are, with any platform they are running.
              Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular in business communications today, but is vulnerable. The reason why many people are hesitant to make the move to sharing their work online has been the security risk. Business people are genuinely distrustful in making that leap to cloud computing, even if it were more accessible. Generally, Business people rely on their internal networks to communicate, but if Google and Microsoft can convince their users that their content are secure, more people will move toward cloud computing. To see what Google's Cloud Connect is all about and what you can do with it, view the demo video