I must say that this class has certainly been an experience. Until now, all of the summer classes I had taken were online. I feel like I get to know people better in these intensive classes instead of the typical 45 minute MWF.
Prior to this class, I had never made a resume or cover letter. So, in terms of a challenging assignment, essay four was it. It is interesting to think about how much work somebody puts into a resume and how quickly HR (or whoever reads it) glances at it and files it or shreds it. The meticulous planning and design must be perfect in order to impress and land an interview. Your resume has to be better, cleaner, and more impressive than the next person's. Writing skills are extremely important--and a good cover letter can show employers that you can speak eloquently.
The workshops I believe were extremely successful. My Writing II class utilized this style too, with similar results. The essays came out better and students learned more from the instant feedback. It's also good to get a draft back with some revisions sketched on it from the person you are sitting next to as opposed to the teacher. I thought it worked well then and it worked similarly now. I believe that all writing classes should use this structure.
I will actually miss this class. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10:45 to 1:15, I will have a little void in my heart. Well, probably a little later since I enjoy sleeping in (as you can see from the time). I enjoyed myself much more than I thought I would and I met a few people that I hope I will keep in contact with. Since there are about seven aviation majors at the school, I'm sure I'll keep seeing the same people over and over again. I'll at least know their names now, and that's important.
I also must mention my amazing new ability to criticize every mailing, notice, and flyer I come across. While going through my mail, I now notice things like font, color, alignment, proximity, et al. These fools obviously didn't take English 201. I will not make the same mistakes as them.
Thanks for the memories,
Seth
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Gainful employment
After looking at job search engines for a while and coming up short, I decided to go directly to companies' websites to find careers. I went to a few sites for some companies I liked, but did not really find anything interesting. The number of jobs in aviation management is very, very low. I basically know that I will not work in the airline industry. I decided to set my sites on something with a bit more job security and a little more practicality.
Air BP is looking for an Aviation Marketing Manager near its headquarters in Wayne, NJ. I believe this job would be a good fit for me. It would be a good use of the skills and education that I have acquired at this university. Unfortunately, the position for CEO was unavailable when I checked for it.
This job would give me valuable experience in the aviation industry. Also, the job security at oil companies is incredible. The industry is constantly expanding.
Even better, my father used to work for BP. He has plenty of connections in that building from visiting it hundreds of times over the 15 years he worked there. One of the vice presidents of operations was on a first-name basis with him.
I'm also pretty familiar with the company personally. Many times they'd allow my father to drag me along to business meetings (some on cruise ships) for free. Of course, I never had to actually go to the meeting part. My backpack is from BP. I have a flash drive that says Air BP on it. The calendar in my room with planes on it is from BP. Every time I go kayaking, I remember it was bought by BP. The pen I use is a BP pen. All of my golf balls say BP on them. BP bought us five go-karts as promotional devices. My mouse pad is a BP mouse pad. My old laptop was purchased by BP. I can't tell you how many hundreds of hats, shirts, and collectibles we have that say BP. I really could go on.
Overall, it's a pretty good fit.
For full info: Click here
Air BP is looking for an Aviation Marketing Manager near its headquarters in Wayne, NJ. I believe this job would be a good fit for me. It would be a good use of the skills and education that I have acquired at this university. Unfortunately, the position for CEO was unavailable when I checked for it.
This job would give me valuable experience in the aviation industry. Also, the job security at oil companies is incredible. The industry is constantly expanding.
Even better, my father used to work for BP. He has plenty of connections in that building from visiting it hundreds of times over the 15 years he worked there. One of the vice presidents of operations was on a first-name basis with him.
I'm also pretty familiar with the company personally. Many times they'd allow my father to drag me along to business meetings (some on cruise ships) for free. Of course, I never had to actually go to the meeting part. My backpack is from BP. I have a flash drive that says Air BP on it. The calendar in my room with planes on it is from BP. Every time I go kayaking, I remember it was bought by BP. The pen I use is a BP pen. All of my golf balls say BP on them. BP bought us five go-karts as promotional devices. My mouse pad is a BP mouse pad. My old laptop was purchased by BP. I can't tell you how many hundreds of hats, shirts, and collectibles we have that say BP. I really could go on.
Overall, it's a pretty good fit.
For full info: Click here
Sunday, June 12, 2011
How to kill your PowerPoint
PowerPoint is a great tool that can be used to enhance a presentation. It can complement a presentation. Unfortunately, I believe that many PowerPoints are ineffective at what they attempt to do--convey information.
By far, I feel that the one thing that can absolutely ruin an entire presentation is to have the PowerPoint be boring. Microsoft made thousands of templates, dozens of transitions and animations, and millions of graphics--they should be used. Nothing puts me to bed faster than that 30-minute black text/white background PowerPoint that my classmates used to make in 8th grade.
Spelling and grammar mistakes certainly make your PowerPoint more interesting, but probably not in the way you want. At least seeing mistakes is amusing. Overall, it does little to help your professionalism and authority on the subject.
Did you just use a heinous looking purple and red themed PowerPoint template with all information in hearts? I normally do not take down notes from PowerPoints with hearts in them. It's important to realize that colors do matter and the concept of complementary colors has been around for hundreds of years. It is best to not disturb it.
When you have fit an entire encyclopedia page onto your screen, it's time to cut and start a new slide. Usually I'm in the back of the room--maybe about 30 feet away--and you used 6 point font. I can't read that.
When I see some of my friends (and I love them) use a word like "ubiquitous" or "subservience," I just know that you copied it. If you didn't copy it, you got way too friendly with the Thesaurus. After I realize this, I just internally laugh for the remainder of the presentation. Of course, I'm usually sitting next to a bunch of people who are noticing the same thing.
This is just a few ways of how not to create a PowerPoint presentation. I don't think there is enough room on the Internet to go over all of them.
By far, I feel that the one thing that can absolutely ruin an entire presentation is to have the PowerPoint be boring. Microsoft made thousands of templates, dozens of transitions and animations, and millions of graphics--they should be used. Nothing puts me to bed faster than that 30-minute black text/white background PowerPoint that my classmates used to make in 8th grade.
Spelling and grammar mistakes certainly make your PowerPoint more interesting, but probably not in the way you want. At least seeing mistakes is amusing. Overall, it does little to help your professionalism and authority on the subject.
Did you just use a heinous looking purple and red themed PowerPoint template with all information in hearts? I normally do not take down notes from PowerPoints with hearts in them. It's important to realize that colors do matter and the concept of complementary colors has been around for hundreds of years. It is best to not disturb it.
When you have fit an entire encyclopedia page onto your screen, it's time to cut and start a new slide. Usually I'm in the back of the room--maybe about 30 feet away--and you used 6 point font. I can't read that.
When I see some of my friends (and I love them) use a word like "ubiquitous" or "subservience," I just know that you copied it. If you didn't copy it, you got way too friendly with the Thesaurus. After I realize this, I just internally laugh for the remainder of the presentation. Of course, I'm usually sitting next to a bunch of people who are noticing the same thing.
This is just a few ways of how not to create a PowerPoint presentation. I don't think there is enough room on the Internet to go over all of them.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Bridgewater Flyer
I have decided to use Facebook (a manifestation of Web 2.0) to gather information and sources for my flyer being prepared for the college. I believe that this is the best course of action for the assignment.
Facebook allows people to express their opinions easily and with everyone. I can ask hundreds of people simultaneously by asking a question on Facebook or posting a status. I plan on asking people to share their favorite part of Bridgewater (academically and socially/externally) with me for analysis.
Furthermore, I believe that asking this on Facebook will be more successful because it is more comfortable for the "interviewees" to be expressing their opinions in their own homes as opposed to sitting down in a room for a stuffy interview. I can also reach more people quickly through Facebook and the logistics of using the Internet is favorable to the planning that would accompany the arrangement of several interviews.
I will aggregate all of the information I have to determine certain patterns and preferences for certain aspects of college life at Bridgewater. Of course, I will have the final say as to what is included in the promotional flyer. I also make all decisions regarding formatting and placement within the flyer.
I considered using surveys or questionnaires to gather information, but this seems to be impractical. It would require detailed writing and standardized answers that would offer little in the way of interest for prospective students. It would be using statistics and math instead of real-world testimony. That would be great if space or time allowed, but I do not believe this flyer is the place for research of that type. In addition, I do not believe I would have the sample size adequate to derive any conclusions from the data if we assume the standard 10% to 20% response rate holds true.
As demonstrated, I believe I have found the best way to conduct this assignment given the time and logistical constraints.
Facebook allows people to express their opinions easily and with everyone. I can ask hundreds of people simultaneously by asking a question on Facebook or posting a status. I plan on asking people to share their favorite part of Bridgewater (academically and socially/externally) with me for analysis.
Furthermore, I believe that asking this on Facebook will be more successful because it is more comfortable for the "interviewees" to be expressing their opinions in their own homes as opposed to sitting down in a room for a stuffy interview. I can also reach more people quickly through Facebook and the logistics of using the Internet is favorable to the planning that would accompany the arrangement of several interviews.
I will aggregate all of the information I have to determine certain patterns and preferences for certain aspects of college life at Bridgewater. Of course, I will have the final say as to what is included in the promotional flyer. I also make all decisions regarding formatting and placement within the flyer.
I considered using surveys or questionnaires to gather information, but this seems to be impractical. It would require detailed writing and standardized answers that would offer little in the way of interest for prospective students. It would be using statistics and math instead of real-world testimony. That would be great if space or time allowed, but I do not believe this flyer is the place for research of that type. In addition, I do not believe I would have the sample size adequate to derive any conclusions from the data if we assume the standard 10% to 20% response rate holds true.
As demonstrated, I believe I have found the best way to conduct this assignment given the time and logistical constraints.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Design
Of all topics discussed in the last week, I would say the one I found most interesting was the detailed section on design beginning with page 253. I never really thought about how many design elements there are and how to use them correctly. I knew the basics and not much else. We also talked about proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast extensively in class.
Obviously, most of the objects presented about design seem true. Proximity is used to group related items together. Alignment presents relationships among the items. Repetition develops patterns. Contrast separates items. In fact, the definition of contrast is described as, "The state of being strikingly different from something else, typically something in juxtaposition or close association." Clearly just an understanding of the word is all that a person would need to know in order to derive what contrast is in a technical document.
However, something so basic can still be carried out incorrectly; leading to some horrifically formatted documents that are painful to read. I often get mailings which are typed in all capital letters, which is clearly not efficient and takes longer to read. I also receive mailings that start off at 10-point font then quickly drop off to 4-point font when describing fees. Combined with the use of asterisks and footnotes, these are nearly impossible to read.
Overall, the argument was constructed quite logically. I really don't know how someone can disagree with what contrast does or how proximity groups things together. The book also had examples of just about everything to convey its points. It was very effective for what it was attempting to do.
Obviously, most of the objects presented about design seem true. Proximity is used to group related items together. Alignment presents relationships among the items. Repetition develops patterns. Contrast separates items. In fact, the definition of contrast is described as, "The state of being strikingly different from something else, typically something in juxtaposition or close association." Clearly just an understanding of the word is all that a person would need to know in order to derive what contrast is in a technical document.
However, something so basic can still be carried out incorrectly; leading to some horrifically formatted documents that are painful to read. I often get mailings which are typed in all capital letters, which is clearly not efficient and takes longer to read. I also receive mailings that start off at 10-point font then quickly drop off to 4-point font when describing fees. Combined with the use of asterisks and footnotes, these are nearly impossible to read.
Overall, the argument was constructed quite logically. I really don't know how someone can disagree with what contrast does or how proximity groups things together. The book also had examples of just about everything to convey its points. It was very effective for what it was attempting to do.
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