Wrap - up (Reflection on the module)

Insightful, delightful, enjoyable, energetic, memorable; are some of the words I would like to use to describe the module ES2007S – Professional Communication.  I recall my very first week of ES2007S, where I had to stand in front of the entire class and introduce myself for two minutes. I remember telling Ms Lim – “Two minutes is not enough.” Thirteen weeks later, when I was made to stand in front of the whole class and share my final thoughts on the module for just two minutes, I could again feel myself complaining – “Two minutes won’t be enough to justify this module completely.” 

Thirteen Weeks. Each week brought with it new ideas, new topics, new discussions and new deadlines. Starting from the 7C’s to the oral presentation, all of them were not only activities that I had fun doing, but they were and will always be very useful lessons that I shall carry forward. Through this module I have come to realize that most of the disputes that occur are due to misunderstandings, arising due to the wrong means of communication. I can proudly say that I have become a better listener, orator and blogger over the course of these thirteen weeks.

Out of all the activities, my two favorite are the interview sessions and the blogs.

Being in the shoes of an interviewer, I was able to better perceive and take note of certain details and common mistakes that an interviewee tends to make. It made me realize that posture, facial expressions, tonality or even make up could have an impact on the interview performance. Despite being a Computer Engineering student, I always felt that I did not make full use of Web 2.0. However, this module got me a step closer to liking my major, thanks to use of blogs and the wiki platform.

I could go on forever on the various other lessons learnt over the course, however adhering to the 7C ‘conciseness’, I shall stop here before my readers fall asleep.

I would however like to end by stating that apart from the academic perspective, I will also remember my wonderful, energetic classmates. I am sure none of us will forget each other for a long time to come. After all, we have added each other on Facebook right after our last class, right? ;)

A Note of Appreciation –

Ms Lim, while you were penning down your opinion on our presentations and our behavior over the past thirteen weeks, I too was making mental notes on your performance as a teacher. Your positive points are your smile and your enthusiasm. No matter what you had to convey, you always managed to do it with a smile. As you said, a smile does put the audience at ease. Also, you had such fun activities planned out for us each class, which made it so refreshingly different from all the other modules I have ever had.

Thank you so much for correcting/commenting on my resume for the second time.It was great having you as my tutor.

I remember the message you had sent me after the first class – “I hope you continue to show your enthusiasm like you did in the first class.” I hope I have managed to live up to your expectations. J

Reflection on Oral Presentation

Five weeks, countless sleepless nights and a never ending 'to-do' list; all boiling down to just one day, one presentation and one impression. Looking back at those five weeks, I cannot believe that my team (OSA) and I pulled it off without a glitch. Sure, there were days when I would scratch my head, get frustrated with my teammates, get tensed thinking of the workload; but despite it all, I believe our team delivered good results.

My presentation was after the three day long Diwali (It is my favorite festival) break. I had spent the three days celebrating, shopping and travelling; as Diwali is one festival I enjoy to the fullest. However, I feel I should have reserved more space for my oral presentation preparation.

Presentations may not be my forte, but I definitely love standing in front of an audience and talking. Over the past 18 years and after countless presentations I have realized an important fact; I deliver a good presentation if I am very well prepared or if it is an impromptu one. A lukewarm preparation always results in a messy outcome. My preparation for the oral presentation was again, lukewarm. I started the presentation confidently but after stumbling upon a word, I began to panic. While presenting alone, I realized that I had stumbled open a few words, dint handle the wireless mouse quite properly and spoke a tad bit fast. While presenting, I kept thinking on how I shouldn’t have made those mistakes, and that further distracted me and broke my flow of thought. Nonetheless, thanks to all those friendly faces in the audience, I was able to overcome some of my disappointments and focus on the latter part of the presentation.

After my presentation, I ran up to whoever I could come across in the class and asked them if I had messed it up. They said “No, I thought you spoke well.” They also felt that my mistakes were not so evident. I don’t know if it was a customary reply or a genuine one, but judging myself and my previous presentations, I know that  I hadn’t lived up to MY expectations.

To summarize, I shall carry forward two very important lessons from this presentation–

1)     While presenting, focus on the content of the presentation and keep all other distractions at bay.

2)     Prepare well for a presentation. The outcome will be truly satisfactory.

Shruti Nayak

Effective Intercultural Communication

Cultures add variety, color and values to the human lives. The various styles of interactions, languages, thoughts, spiritualities, arts and sciences are attributes of cultural differences. It is this cultural difference that prevents our human lives from being mundane and monochrome. However, along with variety, they bring their very own share of intercultural conflicts.

Coming from India, a country known for its diverse and rich culture; I have had the opportunity to witness the bewilderment of some of my foreign friends on being encountered by various Indian cultural practices. While I was in the 12th grade, a family from Utah moved next door. It was a common practice for all the families in the neighborhood to give extra money to the gardener, apart from his weekly wages. The family from Utah, however, constantly failed to get the gardener to accept the extra money. This surprised them, as he would accept money from every other family in the neighborhood other than theirs. Were they doing something wrong? Did they not come across to the gardener as helpful people?

Well, this complication aroused due to the intercultural difference. In the Indian culture, it is customary not to instantly accept an offering of any sort. The offering is first declined by the recipient several times before it is finally accepted. This is done to prevent the recipient from being obliged to the donor in any manner. The culture in Utah was quite contrasting.Offering an item more than once, was considered to be a deliberate intrusion of the recipient's decision by the donor. Thus, when the gardener refused their offering the first time, the family politely withdrew the offering, leaving both the gardener and the family confused.

As a volunteer at the Youth Olympic Village, I have had some of my own share of wonderful cultural experiences.  I got to hear the simple word "Hello" in so many different ways. The Eastern European and the African countries said -"Bonjour", the Indians, Pakistanis and the Nepalis said -"Namaste" while clapping their hands together in front of their chest , while the Spanish said -"Hola"; just to name a few. In order to make the working environment more friendly I started addressing the athletes and the managers in their respective languages. Interestingly, even they started addressing me by saying - "Namaste", on finding out that I was an Indian. This showed that all intercultural communication barriers can be dissolved by simply showing the other party an interest in their respective culture. Clearly, we must not make our cultural differences our personal barriers of communication. While protecting and preserving our very own culture, I feel we must take time to understand the other exquisite cultures surrounding us. 

     Here are just a few pictures  of me along with the athletes I interacted with.

Nicaraguan Athlete 

Youth Ambassador from Papua New Guinea 

Athlete from Papua New Guinea

                                                                                         

Moldavian Athletes

Athletes from The Republic of Congo

      

Job Application

Yahoo! Careers

FIND YOUR BIG JOB

JOB DETAIL

USSR - Sourcing Requisition - USSR00

Location:

Sunnyvale, US - Sunnyvale

Req. Number:

31643

Date Posted:

2010/07/16

TECHNICAL YAHOO – New College Graduate

About Yahoo!

Think about impacting 1 out of every 2 people online—in innovative and imaginative ways that are uniquely Yahoo!. We do just that each and every day, and you could too. After all, it's big thinkers like you who will create the next generation of Internet experiences for consumers and advertisers across the globe. Now’s the time to show the world what you've got. Put your ideas to work for over half a billion people.

About The Job

We are looking for Software Developers (front-end and back-end), QA Engineers, Network Engineers, and Operations Engineers to help build and support Yahoo!’s suite of exciting next-generation products.

Minimum Job Qualifications

• Working towards a BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or related major

• Web-based server and client software development experience

• Strong Object Oriented design skills and proficiency in either C++ or Java

• Solid understanding of the software development process

• Development experience in an Unix/Linux environment

• Excellent troubleshooting and debugging skills

• Good communication skills (both verbal and written)

• Strong record of academic achievement

Preferable Job Qualifications

Depending on the position, some teams also prefer the following:

• Front-end: Apache, PHP, CSS, DHTML, JavaScript

• Familiarity with Perl, PHP, Python, LAMP

• Experience building or maintaining databases in MySQL

• Cross-browser, cross-platform coding

• Large-scale, large-user base website development experience

• Data mining, machine learning, AI, statistics, information retrieval, linguistic analysis

• Strong mathematical background

• Internship at a tech company a plus

EEO Statement

Yahoo! Inc. is an equal opportunity employer.  For more information or to search all of our openings, please visit http://careers.yahoo.com.

Shruti Nayak

#*** Block – C

25 Lower Kent Ridge Road

Singapore 119081

(65) 91** ****

Email – shruti.nayak@gmail.com

September 5^th 2010

Mr XYZ

Yahoo! Inc

Sunnyvale – US

Sunnyvale 94085

Dear Mr XYZ

This application letter is in response to the job advertisement found on the Yahoo! website calling for Software Developers and Operations Engineers. As a second year student at National University of Singapore, I am currently pursuing a degree in Computer Engineering alongside a minor in Financial Mathematics. Going by the job description and requirements, I believe I possess the required qualifications and experience for this position.

Programming has always been my strong point. C, C++ and Visual Basic are some of the programming languages I am most qualified at. However, I also do have considerably knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, C#, SQL with a high level of proficiency in Microsoft related programs (Excel, Power Point, and Word).

Apart from academics, I actively take part in co-curricular activities such as AIESEC (largest student organization in the world) and the Quantitative Finance Club as their marketing officer. With distinctions attained in the English examinations held by the New South Wales University, I can say that I have a good command over the English language.

As mentioned in my resume, I completed a two month internship at Robert Bosch Gmbh as a software developer in C#.NET. Thus, I have the relevant experience of working in a fast paced software development firm. Having learnt three programming languages over a period of five weeks during my internship, I believe I am a fast learner and can grasp the work culture and ethos of the company quickly. With a fresh perspective on things, I ensure to work with full dedication and my utmost sincerity.  

I really look forward to meeting you and I hope you would take the time to arrange for an interview.

Thank you

Yours sincerely,

(Signature)

Shruti Nayak

Enclosure - Resume

Analyzing Interpersonal Conflicts

Interpersonal conflicts are a part and parcel of every relationship whether it’s with our friends, siblings, relatives or our very own parents. The key to a healthy and sustainable relationship lies in our ability to manage these conflicts.


Strangely, most of the conflicts I have had to encounter revolve around me and my family; namely my mom, dad and elder brother. Here’s describing just one of the many conflicts –


Ask any Indian parents about their thoughts on the importance of the 12th grade in a student’s life and here’s what you’ll get –“12th grade? That’s the most crucial stage of any child’s career. His/her entire future solely depends on it.” Sounds clichéd doesn't it? Well, my entire 12th grade went about me having to hear this quote on a daily basis, sometimes on an hourly basis as well. It felt like I dint have a life anymore. I was restricted from my tradition of staying at school till 5 just hanging out with friends, parties’, talking on the phone or even watching more than 2 hours of television. Here I must take time to give my parents some credit for not having banned all of these earlier, but nonetheless it seemed ridiculous to me at that point of time. The more my parents kept restricting me, the more I felt like disobeying them. On the contrary, there were times when I realized the gravity of my situation and would study for hours without a break. Even then, my parents would interrupt and ask me to take a break. I was furious and often felt like asking them –“Are you kidding me? You’ll never be happy with what I do, will you?”


However, months later when I got my results, there was no doubt that all their hard work had finally paid. Had it not been for them, I doubt I’d be sitting here, writing a blog for all of you to read in one of the most renowned university. Clearly, throughout the whole period, their motives had been right and my judgment wrong. All they wanted was for me to have a sound education and no unwanted distractions.
 Now, looking back, I regret for not having seen things from my parents perspective. Had I done so, I would have actually made things simpler for myself, don’t you think so?

“The art of communication is the language of leadership.” - James Humes

It’s a common assumption that good communication is merely based on the right choice of words. However, this is not entirely true. Human gestures, facial signals as well as the tonality are just as important as words, if not precede it. For example, consider a scenario where one says ‘Thank you’ with a scowl on their face. Such a situation often leaves the listener in a dilemma and arouses confusion, such as – ‘Was he being sarcastic? ’. Gestures, facial/vocal signals and words commingle to form what we call – ‘communication’.

Effective communication is an art; if mastered, could remove all barriers caused due to misinterpretations, help in solving problems and work as a confidence booster. With a passion for travelling, I intend to visit as many countries over the years as I possibly can and with such an inbuilt desire, communication becomes an essential tool for successful interaction with people belonging to different nationalities and varied cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, in today’s corporate world, effective communication can do wonders to a person’s career. Even as a student, I face various situations, such as interviews, presentations, meetings etc. where my personality is wholly judged by my gesticulations, expressions and words. In such situations, I believe, perfecting the art of communication becomes crucial for expressing my desired thoughts and feelings.

Since the human mind is mostly doubtful and sometimes cynical, it becomes one’s responsibility to ensure that the receiver is able to differentiate between sarcasm, humor, disappointment and gratitude. After all, any form of communication is said to be effective only if the sender and the receiver are in sync with the message being conveyed. As Murphy deduced -

“If a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in the way which does the most harm”.

Effective communication bridges all interpersonal voids and via this module (ES2007S – Professional Communication) I hope to enhance, if not perfect my communication skills.