Friday, December 7, 2007

Advice...

Spring '08 class:

First of all I would like to say congratulations on picking a great business writing teacher! I think you will enjoy your semester with Angie. I really liked working with a real client on a real project; it made what we were doing seem like it actually mattered. And that was nice.

I don't have much advice to give you. One thing I would tell you, is to remember that each individual is unique with individual tastes and preferences. So, when you work on your project, know that your client may not have the same taste as you. You are not making this project for yourself, but for your client; and ultimately it is for whomever the client's audience is. Another thing is to not underestimate the amount of work that you will have to put into the project. Some days it seems really easy, but other days it is frustrating and overwhelming. Knowing that going into it should help you be prepared.

That is all the advice I have for you.

I do want to tell you how useful what I have learned in this class has been for me. I am graduating in a few weeks, so all the things we did, as far as the actual business writing is concerned, has been very applicable to my life as I apply for jobs and interview at grad schools etc... So try and take something away from this class. Don't just squeeze by, but make it work for you. Someday, sooner or later, you will need to know how to write all these business documents.

Have a great semester!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Free Blog!!!

For my free blog I am going to talk about the woes of trying to find a job for when I am no longer a student. This day is drawing very near, but there has been no luck in the job area so far.

I would love to start working somewhere in the beginning of January. Really, I like working full time. I did it this past summer and really enjoyed it. Last summer I was a bank teller; this was my first "real" job, believe it or not. I mean, I have worked before! In high school I worked at a dry cleaner for a little while, but that was only part time. Then I was a nanny for three summers for two different families. I love that (most days). Now I am a student, but soon it seems I will be nothing (as defined by my job title).

So where am I looking? Well, like I said, I worked at a bank last summer and really liked it. Therefore I am frantically searching any and all banks in the Clemson/Seneca area for openings of teller positions. I would love to go back to First Citizens Bank, which was where I worked previously. Unfortunately, they do not have any openings at the moment. I think I will email my old boss so that maybe if something does come open she will let me know right away. That would be great. But banks are not the only place I am willing to work. Actually, I am willing to work in almost any business setting. I think I would be a great in an administrative assistant type position. I love to organize and to be organized, to plan and schedule, to be creative, and to interact with people. Since my degree is in psychology (and I am probably going to be in grad school next fall for a counseling degree) anything in that area would also be welcome.

The trouble is finding the job openings. So far the Internet is not so good for this. I can't figure out how to find what I am just so sure is out there waiting for me! I am convinced that people are the answer... the best jobs are obtained through connections and a social network (and perhaps through many prayers)...

Friday, November 2, 2007

Group Work

I have really enjoyed working with my group. My group is great because everyone contributes and gets along well. No one has slacked off or been hard to work with.

I don't think we have really had any miscommunications. One time I sent an email to one of my group members that she never got. As a result, the revising I had done to the document we were working on did not get transferred to the document we turned in, but it really worked out okay in the end. There have been a few times when one of us could not make the group meeting, but that has not been a problem in completing the project or with dividing the work.

We email each other if we have suggestions, questions, or if we cannot make a scheduled meeting. This is a good way for us to communicate with one another.

I'm not sure that our work can necessarily be improved for phase 2, but we need to keep working well together in order to have the same success with the final project. We need to keep showing up to meetings and communicating with one another on our expectations and the individual work we are doing.

So overall this has been a good "group work" experience!

Monday, October 29, 2007

The Beautiful Mountains...

Yesterday Matthew and I drove up to the Black Balsam/Graveyard Fields area. It was more beautiful than I thought it would be! It was absolutely perfect. I thought the trees wouldn't change very much this year... or that fall would never come. But it is here! The mountains are perfect. It was definately worth the drive to be up there, even for only about an hour or so.

We are hoping that we can go camping next weekend with some friends... and hoping that the trees will still be gorgeous. We'll see...

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Mock Interview Reflection...

Last week I had a mock interview with Angie (who pretended to be from the Admissions office of Covenant Theological Seminary). I was interviewing for admissions to their Master of Arts in Counseling program. This interview was perfectly timed because I had the real interview just two days later! The mock interview really helped me to be less anxious going into the real interview.

What did I learn from the mock interview?
I learned that you do not have to be scared going into an interview. If you are interviewing for something you really care about or want to do, then you will not have trouble talking to your interviewer about it.

What did I already know?
I have only had a few real interviews before, and only one that was truly serious. I knew from those exeriences that I would probably be asked retrospective questions. I also knew that I would be given the opportunity to ask questions of my own. I knew to dress professionally, not chew gum, and try not to fidget nervously.

What would I have done differently?
Two things come to mind. First, I struggle with holding eye contact (or even pseudo-eye contact, like looking at someone's forehead) while answering questions. This is something I need to work on. The reason I don't like to maintain contact is that I feel distracted and like I cannot think well enough to answer the question if I am making continual eye contact. However, the consequences of looking around while answering may be that I come off as dishonest, uninterested, or scattered, none of which are impressions I want to give during an interview.
Second, even though I know that I will be given the opportunity to ask questions, I never have many (if any) to ask. I think it makes a better impression on the interviewer if a person has something intelligent to ask, showing that they are thoughtfully considering the position for which they are applying. If I could do it again, I would force myself to think of at least one good, intelligent question to ask.

Overall the mock interview was a good experience. I feel that it helped prepare me for real interviews, specifically the one I had last week. As they say, practice makes perfect.

On a seperate note, below is the link for my team blog. We are the Habitat Helpers! Feel free to visit this blog and catch up on what we are doing for our project.
http://habittathelpers.blogspot.com/

Monday, October 15, 2007

Class Presentations...

I have enjoyed everyone's presentations. I love that we can each do them on whatever we want. This means that our topic is something that is interesting to us (probably) which means that hopefully it will be interesting to the class.

One specific presentation that I liked was Megan Craig's. She did her presentation on the psychology of color. I am a psych major so everything related to psychology is interesting to me. I enjoyed learning the different feelings evoked by different colors. I also liked how Megan showed us examples of the colors being used by advertising and marketing people for the purpose of the emotion or feeling that they promote. I thought here PowerPoint was good too because it incorporated each color she was talking about and had appropriate images to illustrate what she was saying.

I look foward to seeing everyone else's presentations this week, as well as giving my own.

Monday, October 8, 2007

I'm going to be an aunt!!!


We just found out that my brother and his wife are going to have a baby! I am really excited about being an aunt. They live in Greenville, so they are nice and close.
I am extra excited about the timing because my husband and I will more than likely be about 800 miles away next fall, and I was very sad about them maybe having a baby while we were gone. Now I will get to be around while she is pregnant and when the baby is born. That is good news!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Interviews...

I generally do not enjoy the interview process. In all honestly, I don't actually have very many interviews under my belt; only about 3 or 4. But I already know that I hate questions like "Give me an example of a time when..." because I have a terribly hard time remembering things like that. I don't know why. It isn't that I don't have any experiences that fit the criteria, I'm sure I have plenty, but I simply can't think of them! My favorite interviews are the ones where the employer has pretty much already decided that they are going to hire you... that is my kind of interview. Since most interviews are not like that, here is what I learned from a few of the articles I read...

(Articles from careerjournal.com)

I looked at one article which was about body language. Body language is something I am somewhat aware of because I am a psychology major and we have discussed it (briefly) in a class or two. For example, if I am standing with my arms crossed I usually remember at some point that this makes me appear "closed off," unfriendly, or disinterested. Like the article points out, my arms are most often crossed because I am cold, not because I don't want to be where I am or in a certain conversation. One aspect of body language that is hard for me is crossing one leg over the other knee. I am extremely used to sitting like this, and am generally most comfortable in this position. However, apparently it is much better to sit with flat feet or crossed ankles for some reason. But when I sit like that I am very uncomfortable! Also, I think sitting with your legs crossed like that is somewhat lady-like and, since I am a lady, acceptable; but I could be wrong.

Another article I read was about interview questions. Seeing as how I have issues (mentioned above) with answering certain kinds of popular interview questions, I thought this article might be interesting. It actually made me want to avoid interviews as much as possible. It mentions one person, an example of a good interviewee, who said he always has about seven good stories to use in an interview to point out his qualifications. First, I am generally a bad story teller and second I just don't like to go on and on about myself like that. I am usually really good at remembering details, being concerned about details, and taking care of details; yet somehow when I tell a story I forget key details! So I do not want to be telling lots of stories in an interview. It gives the wrong impression of me! So that article did not help me very much...

The third article I looked at was about avoiding blunders during an interview. This article listed the most common mistakes that are made. The only one I think I would tend to have a problem with would be a lack of knowledge about the company. Knowing that this is not my strong point will help me to make sure I do my homework before going into an interview.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Ten years down the road...

What do I imagine my life being like ten years from now? That is not an easy question to answer. I feel as if anything could happen. But, here is what I see at this moment:

A few moments ago I started the process of applying to grad school. My husband and I would both like to begin grad school at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri in the fall of 2008. I would like to pursue a Masters of Arts in Counseling, and my husband would like a Masters of Divinity with which he would become a pastor. I am very excited at the prospect of attending this school, although we are not 100% sure that this is where we will end up. So, assuming that we do go to Covenant next fall, we will likely be there for about 4 years. My degree will only take 2 years if all goes as planned. This means that I could begin doing what I really want to do in about two and half years; and that is exciting!

This brings us to what I really want to do. There are actually two things to which I feel drawn. The first is to be a counselor at a church, specifically for women. At most churches, the pastor is trained in counseling; but the vast majority of pastors are men. Also, there is not a big supply of female counselors working in the church environment. This means that there may be times when women feel they have no one within their church (who is a trained counselor) with whom they can seek advice about certain issues. It is this void that I would love to be a part of filling. The other area that I feel drawn to would be working for some kind of nonprofit organization, particulary a crisis pregnancy center. I have always felt passionately about abortion and long for women to know that aborting their baby is not their only option, and that they are not alone. I feel that the education I would receive at Covenant Seminary would help prepare me for both of these work environments.

So to summarize, ten years from now I hope to have my masters degree and be working in a church or a crisis pregnancy center. However, that is not the only thing I hope to be doing. If my husband is the pastor of a church, I hope to be serving along side him at that church. Also, I would love to have started a family at this point. If we do have children, then I would like to only be working part-time so I could stay home with them when they are not in school.

Ten years from now I hope that I am more mature, more in love with my Savior, still very in love with my husband, and learning more and more what it is to serve others. I hope that I am still close to my family. And I hope that I have a cat :O)

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Web 2.0

Well, now that Angie explained the title a little bit I think I understand Web 2.0 to mean that the web is finally something anyone can use... they can find things easily... and they can also contribute easily. In the past it was difficult to understand. There were lots of codes that you had to know in order to make a web page. Now there is no need for the average person to ever have to deal with the code in order to post something.
Also, I think the video was pointing out how much easier this makes communicating information. The beginning of the video (with the pencil writing and erasing) shows the "old way" of communicating which was time consuming and messy and then shows how easy it is to type and to change things as you go. No big deal.
How does Web 2.0 affect someone entering the workforce? They need to consider what they have placed on the internet that is a reflection on them (such as on a blog, on facebook, or on myspace). Now employers can easily do a search on the internet to find out things about prospective employees. But also it means that someone about to enter the workforce needs to be up to date on how to get around on the internet for email, research, and other such things. This may be an advantage for young people looking for jobs, in the sense that they are probably more familiar with this type of technology, having "grown up" with it.
Along these same lines, this could be a disadvantage for those already in the workforce if they are not familiar with it. However, it is also a benefit to current workers because it is making things easier for them.
In the midst of all the advantages of Web 2.0, the easy access and ease of use, there are other things to consider (or reconsider as the video puts it). We must always be making sure that things like copyright and privacy are being updated as technology advances. With more information being easier to get to (as well as personally put out there) there is a greater need to be aware of your own privacy. What do you want to make available for anyone and everyone? And what do you want to protect? What needs to be regulated in order to protect people from themselves?
Nothing is there that we don't put there... that is how the machine is us... and how the machine is using us. Without us, it ceases to grow, to change, to have any meaning. It is in our contributions and use that we express ourselves... the machine tells about who we are.

Monday, August 27, 2007

A little about me...

Hey everyone, my name is Megan. I was born and raised in Greenville, SC. I got married a little over 3 months ago to a wonderful man named Matthew (And yes, we had M&Ms at our reception). People are usually shocked when they find out I'm married because I look so young, but I am 21 (not 16) and about to graduate in December! Now that college is almost over, I feel like it has absolutely flown by. I have loved being here at Clemson.

I am a psychology major, sociology minor. I love my major because it is SO interesting! I admit, there were a few boring classes along the way, but overall it has been a great experience. When I came to Clemson I was a history major. I like history, but I knew I didn't want to teach. Teaching is not my gift. So, after much debate, I decided that what I really wanted to do was help people. I changed to psychology with the hope of going on to get my masters in counseling or social work.

I love to go hiking and backpacking in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. For our honeymoon we went to Jackson, Wyoming, and I got a taste of the spectacular Teton mountain range. I also enjoy fly fishing, although I am fairly new to it. I have been an avid runner in the past, but have not had a chance to keep it up this past year. I am hoping that I will be able to get back into it this semester. I'm not a marathon gal, but I thoroughly enjoyed participating in the Cooper River Bridge Run a year and a half ago (and hope to do so again this coming spring!). I like to read, but rarely have time to do so outside of class these days. However, my hubby and I just started reading the Harry Potter series together. We are on book 2 and loving it. One of my favorite Clemson activities is ultimate frisbee! I can't wait for the fall intramural season to begin; I just hope it cools off by then!

I am looking forward to working on this project for Habitat for Humanity. Last spring I did a little work on a Habitat house my church sponsored in the community, and I really enjoy the experience. It is exciting to me that our business writing class is being used in such a positive way!