Presentations

My classmates and I have had to give presentations over the last two weeks.  Out of all the presentations I saw, I enjoyed David Gordon's the best.  I thought he was very creative with the topic of The Best Active Athlete.  David made his presentation very humorous and thought of how his audience would react.  For me the best part of his presentation were the reasons why he named each athlete the winner in the tournament.  I learned that Usaine Bolt was the fastest runner.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Joe Broerman's Cincinnati's Skyline Chili.  Joe gave some background info on its origination.  The thing I enjoyed most about Joe's presentation was him actually bringing the chili for us to taste after having presented about it.  Anytime someone talks about food, I usually get hungry...so what better way to full-fill that appetite.  I learned that Cincinnati is famous for this chili.  I also thought the imagery that Joe showed of an old man enjoying his three-way and having a bib on at an old time restaurant was hysterical.

And last but not least, Ryan Cromer's presentation on Racquetball was informative.  I guess it caught my attention because I use to play racquetball some.  The way he described the sport about a little rubber ball flying through the room between two to four people was pretty funny.  Some of the imagery grossed me out about how people have been hurt in the sport, such as a bloody eye from being hit by the ball and not wearing goggles.   I guess with his presentation I was able to connect really well since I've played the sport for some amount of time.

Cover Letters & Advice

For this week's blog, we were asked to respond to a link about cover letters and their advice.  I think that some of the general advice was helpful.  You obviously would not want to send out a generic cover letter to a mass amount of companies, but you want to instead be specific, direct, and to the point.  I did not realize the majority of the focus of the cover letter should be geared towards the company.  I have always thought of it as another means to market yourself with the resume.

I think that most cover letters are probably ignored in larger companies and like the article said they tend to look at the resumes and already have some type of recruiting program in place.  On the other hand, with smaller companies, if they are interested in your resume, then yes they probably will look at your cover letter.  I was unaware of the ratio of cover letters to resumes that large employers only read.  I did not realize that it was such a big gap.

Client Project

After having the client visit in class, I havn't had any really outstanding ideas.  I think I will be more inclined to use the marketing based strategy and come up with a catchy video that has a provocative slogan.  My biggest concern is that we do something creative, nothing too mediocre that won't grab the public's attention.  Perhaps something funny enough to spark an interest first and then more into the details.  Things are going alright in our group.  I do not have any questions at this time about our project.

Interview Mistakes

I recently read an article that listed the 10 biggest interview mistakes which included: 

1)Don't Ask Stupid Questions

2)Don't Treat the Secretary Poorly

3)Don't wait to respond when asked questions and don't give false/promissory or inaccurate information in your response.

4)Don't forget to ask follow up.

5)Don't forget to follow up.

6)Don't rely solely on the interview.

7)Don't forget to practice.

8)Don't be afraid to ask for help.

9)Don't forget to prepare for the phone interview.

10)Don't sweat the little things.

After having read this article, I agree that all of these are large interview mistakes and can hinder the outcome of applying for a job.  I believe that there are further things you can do to prepare for an interview rather just forgetting or not doing these tasks.  Something that I would do, is research the company that you are interviewing and come up with questions for them so that the interview can be a dialogue rather than a one sided questionnaire.  Many times if you do research about the company and ask questions in an interview, the decision makers will be impressed and more likely to hire you.

My last professional interview went very well.  It was very small and private, and consisted of meeting at a table with 3 architects.  I showed them some of my selected academic work, demonstrating to them that I had the capability to perform certain duties and conveyed my professional goals.  The atmosphere was pretty relaxing outside of being a little bit nervous and the dialogue went smoothly.  I responded to their questions in honesty and based on their facial expressions and their tone of voice.  At the end of the interview, the architects responded by offering me an internship.  This upcoming week, I have another interview with the same company, but for a different position now that I am graduating.