Blog Topic #12

"Assume that you're going to the capital city of another country on business two months from now. (You pick the country.) What key features of business etiquette might you consider? Why?"

Well, I have been to two foreign capitals in my life (three if you count the Isle of Mann), London and Taipei.  Both have significantly different cultures from the US.

If I were to go to Taipei for business, I would have to do a lot more research so that I do not commit a faux pas.  I would have to learn such things as the proper greeting and how to bow properly.  But at the same time, you need to be careful not to overdo their traditions so that you don't seem like this is a novelty and you are belittling their culture.  There is a fine balance of being respectful and absconding their culture.

The English are closer to the States in business but they certainly have their own business etiquette.  However, misunderstandings are easier to handle because of the cultural similarities.  It is easier to see the discomfort in a situation when the cultures and language are similar.

Blog Topic #13

"What are you doing to prepare for your upcoming team research report project? What is your role in the project? What have you learned (from the project itself or your team experience)?"

Well, I am a little bit behind on writing this one as our team project is done and we present tonight.  But I can tell you what I did and what our team did.

To prepare for the project, we started a google doc to write our paper and to generally communicate.  It was slow going at first because we were all very busy with other things.  We broke the research into three basic sections:  advantages/disadvantages, costs, and security.  My section was on costs.

I researched the given costs of cloud computing as well as the hidden costs and wrote my section.  We all contributed to the other sections of the report, but I have to admit that the ladies did most of the work.  I did ask several times if there was something that they needed or wanted me to do though!

I cannot say that I explicitly learned a lot from this project; a little bit about cloud computing pricing and some of the hidden components of that.  I am sure I gained something but I cannot quantify it at this time.

Blog Topic #14

I do not have the exact wording but I believe that I am supposed to reflect on my expectations and what actually occurred.

I know that I expected to be annoyed with the single spacing after periods. That was true. It is very hard to break a habit of several decades!

I also hoped that I would have a habit of writing in this blog by now. That however is not the case. I still have to remember to write once a week and I did not always remember to write/post promptly.  And it is still hard to get into a routine being as busy as I have been this semester.

I am pleasantly surprised with the type of writing projects that we have been assigned.  I feared too much writing for the summer semester but the schedule was very workable.  I had at least a weekend between when an assignment was issued and when it was due.

Blog Topic #11

"Reflect on your own presentation. How did it go? What worked well? What didn't? What will you do differently next time? What did you learn?"

I think that my presentation went pretty well.  Obviously, I won't know really how others thought I did until I get my grade or my feedback notes, but I think things went pretty well.

The main concern is the animated gifs that I used in the presentation.  I do not know if they were too much or too distracting.  I was doing a presentation on animation so I felt that the only way to show what I was talking about was to use actual examples of animation.  It probably would have been better if they only played once.  I would probably do that again, depending on the  feedback I receive. 

Blog Topic #10

"What did you do (or are you doing) to prepare for your oral presentation. What kind of research was required? Did you practice? How much? Where?"

The majority of my oral presentation preparation was the making of my Power Point presentation.  I did have to do a little research to make sure I get my facts straight.  But most of my research was finding decent images for the presentation.  The hardest images to find was an example of an animatic.  Most examples were in a youtube video and I was trying to not use youtube.

I did not really practice.  I had ideas of what I was going to say and I wrote some of them down on the notes.  That was about the extent of the preparation that I did.

Blog Topic # 9

“Briefly, describe what you like AND dislike about team projects (either at school or at work).”

 There isn't much I like about group projects.  Whether it be because of you are at the mercy of other members or because you have multiple deadlines so that your teammates know that you are working.  Work team projects are not that bad because you get to work on the project on work time dedicated to the project.

It is school team projects are the issue.  Like I wrote in a previous blog post, the problem lies with the fact that group projects have no leader and no consequences for failing to do any assigned tasks.  At best poor grades are the consequence for not doing a good job but that is not a great deterrent.  It comes down to a prisoner's dilemma where everyone, who has other responsibilities and time issues, wants the other members to do the majority of the work.  Everyone is trying to play everyone else and searching for the one hard worker.

I hate group projects.

Blog Topic #8

“How do you feel about writing (any kind of writing; for school, work, or fun)?? Do you enjoy writing? Do you dislike writing? Does writing come easy? Is it difficult? What kind of writing do you usually do? Are you good at it?”

How do I feel about writing?  I would like to write, I really would.  But my grandiose ideas are generally to grand for my talents.  I know that practice makes perfect but it is hard not to get discouraged when the story isn't coming out as imagined.

What I would like to do is write a comic or an ongoing web comic.  The main hold up, besides time, is that I cannot come up with a story that I like or if I do I have difficulty figuring out the details.  Again, I know I should start small and what not but it is really hard to think small and take those small steps.

Blog Post #7

“Briefly share your feelings and/or attitudes about public speaking (fears, successes, failures, challenges, etc.) Use examples.”

Unlike most people, I am not too afraid of speaking in public as long as I know the topic.  My fear comes into play generally only for stuff like school assignments where I am forced to speak on a subject that I have relatively no knowledge or interest.  Not saying that this is a big issue, just that it can be uncomfortable.

If I have to give a speech, I would prefer it be on a topic of my choosing.  Then the only I problem I face is the length of the speech.  One time in a previous educational setting, I gave a 15 minutes speech on the animation director/innovator Ralph Bakshi in a presentation that was supposed to be 10 minutes.  No one in the audience complained at all, however I was graded accordingly.

Blog Topic #6

Blog Topic #6
“Describe a situation or project where you succeeded. What made it successful? (How was your success measured?) What did you bring to the project? What did you learn?”

I am incredibly bad at answering vague interview questions!  I have successfully worked on many projects or situations, however none immediately jump to mind.  School projects, despite my best efforts to the contrary, are always mediocre at best for two reasons:  No one really has any definitive power to organize the project and everyone is trying to get the project done with the best possible grade with as little effort as possible.  The students, understandably, have other homework, things to do, paying jobs, et cetera that take priority over a project that is a fraction of a grade.

Noting that, in group projects, I always do my best to try to communicate and facilitate communications.  I do not entirely take complete charge of the project but I do my best to encourage work deadlines so that the whole can be rounded together and not put together piecemeal.

I think the best project that I ever worked on was a video project.  I think it was successful because most of the members involved were passionate about making the project and wanted to participate.  We volunteered our spare time to film. 

Blog Topic #5

Blog Topic #5:
“If you were to apply for a job in your career field today, what is one trait that would set you apart from other job applicants? Explain.”

Well for one I already have a job in my field.  I probably won't be applying for a new one anytime soon!

I guess the thing that would make me stand out the most from other applicants, assuming that they are students, is my experience.  I already have my securities licenses which is a huge plus for anyone who wants to hire someone.  You can be the best possible fit for the job and the company, but if you cannot pass the securities exam, you cannot work in the industry.  And you cannot take the exam until you are sponsored by a broker/dealer.  It is a very strange system!

It is so strange that I get calls all the time from head hunters that pretty much all they know about me is that I am securities licensed.  They throw out jobs that they are trying to fill that I don't even think I qualify for like "We are opening an office in your area and we are looking for someone to manage it."  If I didn't have a pretty solid deal, I might be curious to give it a go and apply!

Apparently, Western offers a class to study for and then take a practice test.  This is a great deal because it proves to your possible employer that you are able to pass and therefore worth hiring.

Blog topic #4.

Topic:  Give an example of an effective (or ineffective) piece of business communication that I've encountered and described what made it work (or not).

Well on Friday I received an email, that I found today, that was delivering "bad news".  This news is not the end of the world stuff, and is pretty routine.  However it was pretty blunt and the solution is burdensome.  Ordinarily, this format would probably be fine, however when you receive multiple messages a week of similar irritants, it starts to grate me due to the lack of sympathy.

Recently, we switched back offices, which is a huge undertaking.  Originally, promises were made on the ease of this transition.  If their were mistakes on paperwork, they would be forgiven due to the amount of paperwork needed to transition. 

Then the truth began to be revealed.  "We can't do that!  You'll have to fix this!"  "We are not able to do this for you." "You'll need to get the client to resign this because there is no [blank]."

Again, ordinarily, the email would probably be proper, but in the greater scheme of all the business communications we have been getting, it comes off as rude and cold with no valid solution other than start over.

*I apologize for the vagueness of this blog.  This is a public forum and I do not need to broadcast my displeasure to the world.

FAIR Test

Which part of the F.A.I.R test is the most important?

The F.A.I.R. test stands for facts, access, impact, and respect. Clearly, they are all important for crafting a message. "Facts" are important because it gives the writer credibility and backs up her assertions. "Access" goes along with "Facts" in establishing credibility.  Without being clear of your motives and biases, the reader is going question your narrative.  And "Impact" is important to keep in mind because even an unbiased, logical message can be derailed if the message negatively impacts stakeholders.

The most important of the F.A.I.R. test, however in my opinion, is "Respect".  No one is going to pay attention to a message if the author is disrespectful.  No finer example of this is that of any comment section of the Internet.  It does absolutely does no one any good to insult your audience as you "debate" them. 

Five-year plan?! Sounds like Communist Russia!

Topic:  “Everybody should have a ‘Five Year Plan,’ right? What’s yours? Think ahead and describe what opportunities and challenges the next few years might hold for you.”

I haven't really thought of it as such, but I guess I do have a five-year plan.  It is hard sometimes to see future goals when you are grinding through the day-to-day.  First part of my plan is to finish at Western with a BBA in Personal Finance in the Spring of 2017.  I should at that time also take the Certified Financial Planner exam so I can start holding that designation.  Following that, I will take over a greater stake in the partnership between my father and I as my father slows down.  The next few years after than will be trying to expand our client base.

While I believe I have a pretty solid plan, there are some major obstacles that need to be overcome.  The first and most important being that I need to develop new clients to expand which has not been a focus for me as of yet.  I have been too busy putting in the time finishing my degree to really concentrate on developing the skills I need to succeed at that.

Another major challenge is more of a great unknown:  new regulation and how that will affect the industry.  The Department of Labor just announced some new rules that, even though they haven't been implemented, are causing huge changes in my industry.  Right now we are in the process of changing broker/dealers over this debacle.  And one thing I can say for certain is that I do not want to do that again in the next five years.

First Blog Post and Expectations for the Class!

Topic:  Describe what you hope to gain this semester from BCM 3700.

I really hate trying to answer questions about what I expect to gain from a class.  The problem is that generally what I expect is something that I already know about.  It is more or less the unexpected that I gain.  For instance, I currently write a lot of letters and memos for work weekly and I have pretty much know all of the particulars we have covered in those topics.  I am not discounting the class as old hat, however, because there is bound to be useful tidbits sprinkled throughout the classes.  For instance, choosing to address a woman as "Mrs." or "Ms." has always been a bit of a delicate choice for me.  It is good to know that there is a general rule to lean.

I do expect to be annoyed with the little details that change the way I currently do business.  A single space after a sentence is unnecessarily picky and, in my opinion, looks less professional than double spacing.  Additionally, my client base is likely to think that I am in error as they generally have spent their lives with the generally accepted "double space after period" convention.

What I really would like to gain, though it is somewhat incidental, is to start a routine by writing this blog.  What I have been trying to do come up with some routine so that I do something creative every week, be it drawing or whatever.  Unfortunately, routines are hard to establish and my time and energy are stretched pretty thin, so it has not been working out well.  So it might be completely unrelated but that is ultimately what I hope to gain from this class.