The Final Blog Post

The most important thing to be successful in this class, and every other class, is to come to class every day. When you skip class, you miss important assignments and daily grades. To do well on the daily grades make sure to do the reading, especially early on in the semester. With the client project, it helps immensely to have a good leader. You want someone who isn't shy and delegates tasks well. The project is easy as long as you meet with your group and don't just do emails. Also make sure everyone is doing their assignments. We were lucky to have a cool project to work on. When it comes to the technology we use in this class, as long as you go to class you will know what to do. You will learn how to use everything during class. Making a blog and writing posts on it is very simple, and so is making portfolios. Never skip any blog posts. The two quizzes are easy, but you still need to study for them. Just make sure to have fun in this class. It is one of the most enjoyable classes you will take at Clemson.

Client Project Reflection

I have learned a lot from doing this project. This is the first time in a class that I have ever done something like this where we work with an outside organization to do a project. I love how we are doing something that feels actually worthwhile. When this class is over I will still be able to go onto the Clemson water ski team website and say that I helped create it. The best thing about this project is working with others. It gets boring having to do projects alone in classes. As I said earlier I also love how we're doing something that actually means something. The project isn't something that will just go away when the semester ends. I also like how this project has given me the opportunity to meet four new people. If it weren't for this project, then I would not even know my group members names. Our biggest challenge is has probably been having everyone at meetings or in class at the same time. Luckily everyone has done their parts and not left the rest of the group hanging. Something that I have learned that helps a lot in group projects is to be organized. My group has done a very good job at this. It's also good not to be too lenient on members that are slacking. Sometimes being a little hard, but not to hard on someone, helps motivate them. I need this type of motivation occasionally. Staying positive is also key when doing a group project. All of these things help make up a great team.

Dual Coding

Even before knowing that this picture was Nike ad, I could tell that it had something to do with sports. This ad is sort of plain, so I think the most important aspect of it is what the words are saying. It's trying to pump you up, and make you feel like you are on their team. The font is also really important. The "practice like champions" font is perfect. If it were another font then it might not be as effective. Since there aren't really any images in this ad, they had to choose the right font because it is the imagens. Nike obviously carefully picked out the colors (or lack of). The dull colors help set the mood. The red really sticks out since the only other colors are black and white. One thing in this ad that I am still uncertain of is what is that thing where the we believe is. This ad reminds me of a like a high school football team from the 1970's. It just seems very old school. It doesn't really advertise a product, though, so I'm not exactly sure what they want you to buy from it.

Miscommunicated Information

I don't really recall any times where information was miscommunicated at any of my jobs. This is probably because I've only had a few jobs and usually I was working alone. I've played a lot of sports in my day, but there is only one time that stands out where information was miscommunicated. It was when I played football my junior year of high school. It was fourth down and like 3 yards to go. The coach told a player on our team to punt the football, but he thought the coach signaled a fake punt pass play. There was only one minute left in the half. We ended up not getting the first down, so it was a turnover on downs. It was high school football, so the aftermath wasn't anything major, but the coach was still furious. The other team was able to get a touchdown before the half ran out. Had we punted the ball, they probably would not have scored a touchdown.

I think there was a miscommunication because the player on our team did not know the signals very well. This shows how important it is to be prepared for whatever it is your doing in jobs or sports. Your actions can effect everyone. It could have easily been prevented if he studied our playbooks better.

Mock Interview Reflection

I'm glad that my interview was not postponed. It's one of those things you just want to get out of the way. Going into the interview I was not nervous at all. I wasn't even sure what to expect. If the mock interview were with someone I had never met before, then I probably would have been a little nervous. Since it was you I felt fine going in. Also knowing that you had lost your voice gave me more confidence, since I figured we wouldn't be doing as many questions or something. It was a good thing I looked at the interview specs document right before I left my house, or I would have gone to the classroom for it.

There were a few questions that threw me. The one that I mostly remember was "What moment in your life were you most proud?" I couldn't even think of anything to answer for that one. I've been trying to think of a good answer for it, and now 3 days later I still have no idea what to say for it. Another question I wasn't sure about was the one you asked at the end, "Is there anything you would like to ask us?" At least I attempted to give an answer for that one, though it was pretty bad. A lot of the questions were difficult for me to answer because I really don't know much of anything about finance, and that's my major.

If I were to do the interview again, there isn't much I would change. The major thing I would have done is found a more specific job that I could learn about and given that to you. Had I known that when we printed a job description out that we would be interviewing for it, I probably would have put more thought into had. Knowing me I was zoning out during class when we talked about it.

This has been a valuable experience for me. I have learned some popular questions that I need to be able to answer when I am doing a real interview for a job. I also learned that I need to be better at answering tricky questions. I'm sure when I do go for an interview that I will remember this mock interview.

Class Presentations

There were some really interesting presentations this week. They were are very entertaining. The first one that I am going to talk about is Cammy Culver's. Probably everyone is talking about hers because it was so unique. I think it is really cool how she has so many animals in her apartment. Obviously the thing that sticks out the most in her presentation were the squirrels. I didn't even know that you could buy squirrels. I think I heard you say that you were bit by a squirrel when you were younger, which is funny because my mom was also bit by one when she was a little kid. Anyways, the presentation itself was very interesting. I enjoyed learning about where she worked and what she has done for animals.

Another really interesting presentation was Kyle Carver's. I thought the topic choice was very creative. The whole why you need to eat meat thing was really funny. My sister would have argued with him so much if she were there, especially the meat helps prevent cancer thing. The pictures of the cows were really interesting. I have never seen anything like that one cow with the huge horns. They seriously must weigh their heads down.

The last presentation that I am going to talk about is Caroline Kennedy's. I liked learning about pole vaulting and how it is done, because I've only seen people do it a few times. She seemed very well prepared for her presentation. The video of the guy breaking his pole while jumping was really funny. I also liked how she had some audience interaction by asking us to guess things, like what the records were for the pole vaulters. There were also some cool, old school pictures of pole vaulters.

I learned a lot throughout all of the presentations, and I'm looking forward to Ben's presentation when we return to class.

Free Topic

I always have problems coming up with good ideas to do for things like this. Probably one of the most important current events going on is the Wall Street crisis, but I don't know too much about it, even though I should since I am a finance major. Since I can't really think of anything important to talk about, the current event that I am going to talk about is the beginning of the NFL football season. I'm not really much of a college football fan. For some reason NFL football interests me so much more.

My favorite team in the NFL is the New England Patriots. To this day I am still depressed about their loss in last years Super Bowl to the New York Giants. I hate the Giants, and it's unfortunate because they are 3-0 this season. The other week the Patriot's quarterback, Tom Brady, tore his ACL. This is huge news in the football work. Tom Brady is perhaps one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Him being gone is a huge loss for the Pats. Their new quarterback doesn't have much experience. He hasn't done too bad so far, so it will be interesting to see how they do this year. The other day they got crushed by the Miami Dolphins, who were by far the worst team last season, and were off to an 0-2 start this season.

On the subject of sports, now I'm going to move to the MLB. I also like professional baseball more than college baseball. My favorite team in the MLB is the Boston Red Sox. Big surprise. They have almost clinched a playoff spot, even though they have dealt with a lot of injuries this year. The Red Sox won it all last year, so it would be amazing if they could repeat. I love seeing the New York Yankees do terrible, not only because they are the Red Sox's biggest rivals, but because they spend ridiculous amounts of money on their players. Plus they are taking a lot of heat for building a new stadium. The locals are incredibly angry at the organization and city of New York for this.

P.S. My friend showed me this video on youtube the other day. I just had to link it for you since you love animals so much:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keE8I0uup1E

Cover Letter Response

There was a lot of information about cover letters on that web site. One thing I did not like about it was the negative tone that the writer had. He or she just seemed miserable. Other than that I pretty much agreed with all of the advice that this article offered. I thought it was amusing that the writer said that most cover letters aren't even read. This fact didn't really surprise me at all. Since we already learned that many resumes are electronic and never even read, I figured most cover letters aren't read. I learned that cover letters shouldn't be about me and that they should be more about the company. This makes sense since our resume shows off all of our qualifications and achievements. I'm not sure if I completely agree that sending out resumes is just sending out rejection letters. I understand that the most important part is moving through recruiting programs.
I liked how the advice compared writing our cover letters to selling a product. This makes sense since we are essentially selling ourselves and our abilities. I like how in the cover letter formula section they gave you examples of things to put in your letter. This is probably the most important section of the tutorial for me. Knowing what to put and what order to put everything in pretty much what the cover letter is all about. The example also helped a lot. It gave me ideas on how to word things.
A new thing that I learned in the tutorial was the postscript technique. It's a small thing that can really help improve your impression on whoever is reading your cover letter. Testimonials are also something new that I never learned about before. It's sort of like just taking quotes out of a letter of recommendation and putting them in your cover letter. I wish I had some testimonials to put in my cover letter for the mock interviews. Hopefully I will be able to incorporate some of this information in my cover letter.

Response to Articles

This first article that I read about is titled "Laid Off? So What?" I decided to read about this one because the title caught my attention. After reading the article it seemed perfect for this class, because some of these very things were in the book, yet there was new information to me.

I learned that you should always let people you are being interviewed by know that you have been laid off, and that it is also important to explain everything you did during the layoff. I guess maybe if they think you have accomplished things during your layoff that you are a productive and motivated person. This article definitely reminded me of the readings in the resumes in cover letters section since I just read about those last week. A valuable piece of information I learned from the article is to not mention your layoff in the cover letter, because you are trying to market yourself. I'm sure that if any employer reading your cover letter knew that you had just been laid off than they would immediately be biased against you. Instead the article says you should focus on what you did at that job in your resume. This is kind of reminiscent of the indirect method we spoke about in class (for business letters).

The article also spoke about networking and interviews, which was also in the readings. Libby Pannwitt, from the article, said that you should make it seem there are no bad guys when you are laid off. I can definitely see how that is important during the interview. They don't want someone who hates their employers. It explains how crucial face-to-face communication is. In my opinion it is almost more important than your actual resume when doing an interview. This article taught me some information that I need to retain for when I am older.

The second artcile I read was "Four Questions to Ask a Potential Manager." Most of the articles had to do with interviews, so I decided to read this one because I've done a lot of reading on interviews in the book and my previous article. One thing this article wasn't clear about is when do you ask the manager these questions? Is it during the interview, or after you have already gotten the job?

The article basically says four questions to ask a manager, and based on the manager's responses what kind of person they are. I thought it was good to know because I generally either like my higher ups a lot, or I dislike them a lot. These questions can help me know before hand what I am getting myself into. I would kind of feel awkward just asking a manager these questions when I first meet him or her. I wish the article gave a bit of advice on how to bring them up. I agree when the article says that happiness can come down to your manager. I negative manager who yells a lot can bring everyone's attitudes down. I really hope when I get my first job in the real world that the manager is cool.

These articles weren't anything too new to me, but they went a little more in depth than what we have discussed in class. That taught me a few things that I'm sure will be valuable to me in the future.

My Future

To be honest I have not given my future too much thought. This post is my opportunity to think about what I would like to be doing in about 10 years. I'm the kind of guy that has not even thought about my next semester. I guess that I kind of live in the present, but I don't do stupid decisions that I know will negatively effect my future.

In 10 years I will be 30 years old. That's scary to think about. To start off I'll talk about how I want my personal life to be. Hopefully by then I will have met that special girl and have a girlfriend or possibly be married. I am still not sure yet if I want to have children at all, but I know for sure I do not want to have children at 30. Maybe I will just have a dog or cat. Hopefully I'm not living too far away from my family. Right now and most likely in the future my family will still be around the Greenville area. I really hate the heat down in South Carolina, so I wouldn't mind maybe living in a state like North Carolina or Virginia. I used to live up in Vermont, but the weather is a little too cold there live in.

As far as my career is concerned, I was thinking about being some sort of financial analyst. There are a lot of different kinds of financial analysts, but I'm not sure exactly what kind I want to be yet. All I know is that I do not want to be a workaholic and work nights and weekends. I'd be happy with an 8-5 job. Money is not really what makes me happy. I'm happy with just an average income. Truly I would love to get involved in investing or working in some sort of sports gym or tennis center, which leads me to the next aspect of my life.

I hope to still be in pretty good shape. Right now I'm fairly muscular from when I used to lift weights religiously. I hope to maybe be lifting once or twice a week when I'm older, so I look healthy. I also want to still be playing tennis once or twice a week. I'm a huge tennis fan and I love to watch and play the sport, and I don't ever want that to change.

Currently my family is all very tight nit. Pretty much everyone talks to each other a couple times a week. I hope that my family is still like this in the future. I'm sure my two married sisters will have children by then, so it will be fun to watch our family grow. I also pray to God that everyone in our family is still healthy. My parents will be over 60, so I hope that when I'm 30 I get to see them a lot and take care of them.

Venting about this almost makes me feel sad. Just knowing that everything will be so different frightens me. I don't like to think that these are the best years of my life. I try to stay positive. The future is inevitable, so the best time to prepare for it is now.

Web 2.0

I had to watch this video more than once to get the full grasp of it since it moves so quickly. I think that the part from the title "Us/ing us" means that we are using the internet to do so much in our lives, but most of us don't fully understand it. I'm sure that the little background information on HTML and XML lost a lot of people. I know a little bit about it, but not much. Web 2.0 is changing our lives drastically. When we get a job in the real world, we will be doing things way differently than people who did that job ten or fifteen years ago. It is important that we learn how to use the internet safely. My sister once had her credit card information stolen. She probably went on an unsecured web site. Web 2.0 is worse for people who are already in the work force. They have to relearn how to do everything electronically now. Our generation grew up with computers, so we have an advantage. I can do a lot of things with the internet, but my parents barely even know how to check their email. We can almost use this as an advantage when trying to get a job. I don't really agree with what it said we will have to "rethink everything." It's not like the internet just popped up overnight. I was confused why we would have to rethink things like 'love' and 'family'. I thought it was funny how the author went on wikipedia and just deleted everything on that page to try and prove a point.

Introduction to My Life

Hello, my name is Kenny D. I am currently a junior at Clemson University majoring in Financial Management. I'm not really even sure if I enjoy Finance since I am finally taking my first class in it this semester. I am a big fan of any sports teams from Boston, and I was severely disappointed when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl. Before attending Clemson I went to high school in Vermont. Sometimes I miss the weather up there when it scorching hot here, but I am so happy to not have to deal with 3 feet of snow down here.

I love hanging out with family and friends. I'm not really into just sitting around and talking. I like to try and be active. I enjoy playing sports such as tennis and football. Tennis is probably my favorite sport overall to watch and play. I'm hoping that Roger Federer can make a comeback next year and regain the world number 1 ranking. I also watch a lot of movies in my spare time. I firmly believe that a movie's top priority is to entertain, so I hate it when people give movies bad reviews if it isn't perfect. I am looking forward to this course and getting to vent my feelings on this blog weekly.