Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Guest Post: Sunny Huang

Sunny is a student in Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking class. Here she writes about virtual communication.

A couple of months ago, before I came to the U.S. to start my master’s program, I paid a visit to the 2010 World Expo which is being held in Shanghai, China. Admittedly, the grand Expo gathering of more than 190 countries along with many organizations, enterprises brings great opportunities for communication in economy, commerce and culture. But in spite of the excitements of “around the world in one day”, I still reserve doubts as to whether such an Expo still holds the same importance in communications as its early emergence in the 19th century. In an era dominated by instant information exchanges via all kinds of high technologies, people rely more and more on virtual communication than the real-world counterparts. Undoubtedly, there are necessities and amazing advantages to virtual communication. On the other hand, there are also potential barriers in virtual communication that are worth our close inspection.

The burgeoning telecommunications technologies in the past decades have made virtual communication possible, and step-by-step made it indispensable to our daily lives. As we’ve been so used to the high efficiency in transferring information between thousands of miles within seconds, it’s impossible to turn back to the snail ways of sending mails or telegraphs. Embracing virtual communication is not only because of the tremendous convenience brought by high technologies, but more importantly because of the critical role of high efficiency in today’s dynamic environment. It’s the real-time virtual communication via modern technologies that has “flattened” the whole world, so that more regions and enterprises can step onto the broader stage for stronger influences and larger profits. For example, by utilizing the advantages of virtual communication in cutting down cost in money and time, industries like IT gain even greater success, e.g. in products development collaborated by geographically distributed teams, or call centers that provide customer support 24/7.

Nevertheless, people keep coping with the new problems which have emerged from virtual communication along with its advantages. While e-mail and teleconferences have replaced face-to-face interactions, obstacles for better understanding still exist. Here I’d like to take my personal experiences as an example. I once worked in several software development projects that involved globally distributed design centers. Naturally, most of the communication consisted of e-mails, phone calls and teleconferences. Although the core concept in collaborative development is to optimize the resource allocations and utilizations, sometimes the negative experiences like endless e-mail discussions, and inefficient teleconferences made people suspect whether the way of working was improved or deteriorated by virtual communication. I believe for virtual communication in the international companies, although the spatial distances have been shortened, there are still mental distances because of culture differences, conflicts and/or concerns from different standpoints of different organizations. The communication styles differ between west and east originally, and while communicating in the virtual ways, the culture differences seem to be exaggerated. For example in writing e-mails, the western, professional way is to state the point clearly in the beginning, while the Chinese is to start with more greetings or background introduction, intending to avoid any feelings of aggressiveness. Besides such cultural differences, the collaborative teams came from organizations with different standpoints after all. There were conflicts and problems similar to those existing in the real-world communication. In such a sense, we should still stick to the fundamental rules in efficient communication, and at the same time adapt to specific situations in the virtual world, so that the advantages of virtual communication can be utilized to their greatest extent.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Guest Post: Taylor Geisse

Taylor is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world presentations.

You certainly don’t want your presentations to end up like this one here right? The presenter is talking about something audience has no interest in whatsoever and the presenter himself also doesn’t seem to care! All in all, a big mess!

In today’s world, there are presentations given every single day for various reasons. A businessman giving a presentation to his colleagues / clients or an individual giving a presentation at a conference are just two of the many presentations that go on every single day. Yet, no matter what the context, the flow is always the same: to logically present a topic, inform your audience of said topic, and leave your audience with something to do or think about. When done appropriately, most presentations should follow this very flow with only the final end goal varying to match the purpose of the presentation.

In any given company, there is a presentation going on at almost every hour of the workday. Although the topics may vary from financial & budget overview to a status update to a sales pitch from a consulting firm, the end goal is always the same: push business forward. Not all work presentations achieve this goal, but the general idea of presentations in a business sense is to identify where productivity or profits are falling short and to take action to improve the business. As work is work, these next steps are often assigned tasks as opposed to thought-provoking ones.

Many of the most interesting and thought provoking presentations occur at conferences such as TED. At conferences like these, individuals present topics that they are passionate about to an audience that is there for the expressed interest of hearing what their peers have to say. Identical to other types of presentations, even business presentations, the presenters must first introduce their topic and some background on it. Where it gets very interesting, however, is when they start provoking thoughts on topics that may have never crossed your mind. This is the precise goal of presenters at conferences, which is to get you thinking about something you may have never considered before, thus expanding your mind.

However, many presentations suffer from poor preparation, poor attention to detail, and/or poor presenting skills. This is quite apparent in the corporate world where presentations are often thrown together at the eleventh hour. Thoughts are disjointed, slides and other details are disconnected, and the presenter is often noticeably unprepared. Businessmen, however, are not the only ones who succumb to these faults of presenting. Conference presenters, such as the clip of individuals at TED shown to us the other day, can find themselves succumbing to these pitfalls that can simply ruin a presentation on even the most interesting topic in the world.

Presentations happen every day, whether we are a part of them or not. It is well understood that a presentation should leave an individual with an action or a thought. However, if a presentation were to succumb to a noticeable pitfall, it becomes hard to comprehend the action one is suppose to undertake and it may even be difficult to discern what the intention of the presentation is.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Guest Post: Rahul Pandey

Rahul is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world presentations.

We all want to look smart and presentable when we address an audience right? It’s not so difficult, though it needs bit of preparation and practice. Let’s have a look at some simple things you can do to do a little better in your presentations:
From the very early ages, we humans have been always fond of stories; tales that entertain and amaze us, take us to new worlds and fascinate us to no end. Starting from mythical storytellers relating tales of mystery and wonder to a group of glossy-eyed spectators around a fire under the open skies to the very technologically advanced techniques of storytelling we have in today’s modern world such as audio books, one of the biggest, and probably the only thing, that has always captivated the audience is the ability of the storyteller to capture the attention of the audience and keep them engaged.

So, this is from where we will start. The very essence of doing business in the real world - selling a product, making a pitch, presenting a proposal or even just displaying your last vacation pictures to your friends and neighbors - involves presentations. We may not realize it, but every interaction we have with people is a presentation in itself. People are constantly presenting. Selling their ideas, their philosophies, their business and essentially themselves to you.

Despite having come so far ahead in technology, the thing that enticed audiences all those hundreds of years ago is the same thing that entices audiences today - and that forms the key to giving spectacular real world presentations. That key is great storytelling.

Everyone is busy. The world moves at a very fast pace. So, it is important to know that the only question your audience has, even before you begin your presentation, is “Why am I here?” and this becomes the very first thing that must be addressed in the presentation. With the basic introductions out of the way and the agenda of the presentation specifically detailed, we can dive right into the details.

Presentations require preparation. How well you prepare reflects directly in the presentation. This means clarify your objectives, list out key points, what you will say, what you will do and what is more important is what you want the audience to do. The outcome of the presentation has to be some sort of action. Persuade the audience that there is something in this for them. All logistics must also be taken care of well in advance. This includes confirming attendance, setting up meeting room, testing equipment, handouts, whiteboard, etc.

Presentations need to be produced. The presentation itself must be simple, clean and visual. Back up all your claims with sources and supporting facts. People love bullet points and visual data - graphs, charts and pictures. Incorporate them optimally. If you can include personal experience, do so. There is nothing like being able to make a personal connection in your presentation and in turn with your audience! End the presentation with a listing of key points, conclusion, next steps and action items. Review the presentation a couple of times until you are completely satisfied with it. Conduct a mock run, time yourself. Make sure you are not exceeding the time limit for the presentation.

Finally, presentations need to be presented! The day of the presentation, relax mentally and prepare yourself for unforeseen situations such as late starts and equipment malfunction. Make sure you are able to accommodate and modify your presentation in any such circumstance. If you know your presentation, this will be a breeze! Speak from your heart; speak passionately. Address everyone in the audience for brief intervals to have two-to-five second conversations with them.

In presentations, things do go wrong. Sometimes things do not go as scheduled, sometimes you forget a key data point. The point is things do go wrong. The key is not to panic. The audience does not notice the small gaffes we, as presenters, think of as “end-of-the-world” scenarios!

I had the unique opportunity to present an entire orchestrated ceremony to an audience of more than 300 people. Right there, up on the stage and under the spot light, I went through the points flawlessly and was feeling pretty good about myself until I slipped up and forgot to address one important section completely. The “end-of-the-world” feeling did begin engulfing me but I kept cool and addressed it at the next appropriate chance. I was pretty anxious after the ceremony over the fact that an audience of 300 or more of my peers would be now acutely aware of my mistake. As it turns out, no one even realized there was an error. My point is, small mistakes never matter to the audience and even if they do, they are forgiving. The important point is to keep your presence of mind and keep the show going!

In the end, your goal becomes to give the audience something they can enjoy and be a part of, something they can get involved in and associate themselves with. In the end, you are becoming that ancient mythological storyteller relating mystical tales to a fascinated audience. Does it matter that the fire is replaced with a plush office table and swivel chairs and the open skies are replaced with a well-lit, air-conditioned conference room? Probably not!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Guest Post: Kiran Karbhajan

Kiran is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world presentations.

“PRESENTATION.” A big word right? Brings all those business meetings and serious discussions in front of our eyes, doesn’t it? But it’s amusing how we keep making “presentations” to others all.the.time, without even realizing it. Everything is a presentation. How, you ask? Remember when you made your first ever friends? You presented yourself – yes, your introduction. That was your first ever presentation. Similarly, most conversations you have with different people are nothing but presentations. Presentations that talk about you and the point you are trying to convey to the recipients.

Picture this.

You certainly don’t want your presentations to end up like this one here right? The presenter is talking about something audience has no interest in whatsoever and the presenter himself also doesn’t seem to care! All in all, a big mess!

We all want to look smart and presentable when we address an audience right? It’s not so difficult, though it needs bit of preparation and practice. Let’s have a look at some simple things you can do to do a little better in your presentations:

Preparation:

1. Be sure about your topic and try to generate interest in it (if you already don’t have any!)
2. Preparation is the key. Most failed presentations are the result of inadequate preparation before coming out in front of the audience. Take your time, prepare notes, concise them as much as possible and ensure you have only the excerpt points on your slides.
3. Know who’s your audience? Know their backgrounds and their needs. What are they looking for from this presentation? A good presenter knows his audience and delivers exactly what they need to know.
4. Keep your slide pack easy to read. Include just headers to give the audience only an idea about the topic. Intrigue the audience: that’ll generate some curiosity resulting in more attention. Don’t give too much information otherwise they will lose interest in what you are talking about.
5. Rehearsal is important. If possible, video record yourself giving a presentation to your mirror. Watching recorded clips can tell you more than anything else. How do you look and sound when you deliver a presentation? You’ll be surprised how much you learn about yourself this way.

Delivery:
1. Get comfortable with the logistics. Understand how to use microphones, how to use projectors and so forth so that these things don’t hamper the flow of your presentation.
2. PowerPoint slides are NOT the presentation. If that were the case, you wouldn’t be needed on the stage. The audience can just happily read the slides right? Remember YOU are the presentation – frankly, the audience pays more attention to HOW you present the topic than what you are really talking about.
3. KNOW your topic. Further, you might know what you are talking about, but more importantly does your audience know what you are talking about? – You need to ensure you tell them about your topic in simple language, maybe with the help of pictures and discrete text points.
4. Do not lose focus. It’s easy to lose track of the main idea of the presentation. Make sure you always stay close to conveying the central idea.
5. Watch your tone. Audiences love voice modulation. Monotonous speeches are almost guaranteed to put your audience to sleep. Ensure you have variation in your tone to appeal to the audience’s emotions. Use pauses to emphasize so that the audience anticipates something important coming up. When you take a short pause, the audience also realizes “OK! Something important is coming up!”
6. Make sure you support your claims with facts and, if possible, personal experiences. Nothing appeals more than a personal story.
7. Be entertaining. People can easily relate to you if the things you are saying are lighter to absorb, funny at times. They make the presentation easy to follow.
8. Don’t try to convey too much information. You know your topic. You are an expert at your topic. Others are not. They need time to learn what they need to know. No jargon. The point is to ensure people take a note of your idea not get overwhelmed by it.
9. Make some eye contact to numerous individuals to give them a feeling that you are presenting to them “individually.” This makes people reciprocate.
10. Try to involve the audience by asking questions in between, telling a joke, asking them to comment on any relevant fact.
11. Conclude well: Let the audience know that you are wrapping up. This part is the most important since it will decide if your presentation was a success or not. Remember it’s not easy to get others to pay attention to you, let alone them remembering the “point” you made in some presentation! However, if you are able to convey the concluding point clearly, there’s more chance people will remember that you presented a “point” in the first place.

And most importantly, Make sure you are relaxed! This goes a long way in helping you and the audience and sets the stage for the presentation to flow. All in all, if you could follow these things, you’ll most likely end up delivering an effective presentation. Hope this helps!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Guest Post: Kunal Chopra

Kunal is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world presentations.

Whoo!!! Just as I am writing this blog, I’ve come fresh from delivering a mock presentation which was actually not mock in any sense. But before I talk about it, I remember those times when I used to admire those people putting on business suits and delivering presentations during my undergraduate days. I used to get totally enthralled listening to those presentations. If I can think of applying a blink test to a presentation, I would notice the style with which the presentation is being delivered. But if I talk about the first impression, it is not just a blink test which will give a so called flick. I believe the fluency with which the speaker delivers a presentation is another aspect which cannot be ignored. In a gist of what I said above, it’s the style and fluency of the presentation delivery that gives a “Lasting Impression”.

How do I go about drafting a real-world presentation? The answer to this question is very subjective. How big shall the presentation be? Which videos shall I embed in the deck? Which visuals and where do I place them in the respective slides? How do I make slides which are not cluttered but objectively list all the bullet points for the respective agenda items? How can I make my agenda very specific? Do not you think that drafting a presentation requires significant investment in brainstorming and logical thinking? It’s like you are trying to make two ends meet. Every presentation text book will list down the steps to make a presentation and how to go about delivering it. I always think that those steps are very relevant and important but I think a little differently while preparing a presentation. I think that it’s of utmost importance to making your presentation “CRISPY”. It’s even more important to deliver a presentation which is very interactive and descriptive. Sense of humor should be a part of every interval. You do not want the audience’s mind to meander after a span of 30 minutes in the presentation. Would not it be an ideal presentation which will keep your audience in anticipation of more excitement or useful information every other moment? Of course, it depends a lot on the topic. But I somehow believe that you can always prepare your deck/slides and alter the way of delivering the presentation keeping in mind the kind/type of audience attending the presentation.

As I said, I started writing this blog after giving a mock presentation. It was not mock in any sense since it accounts for around half of the total grade in a course called Professional Speaking. I am attending this course in my graduate program. I can talk at length on what I have learned from the presentation lecture but if you want me to talk about the most significant take away from the lecture then I will not be able to emphasize enough the importance of content-related videos, animations and visuals. The second important take-away is the presence of your title and name in the footer of the presentation. I observed that if these takeaways made our class so charged up than it should be applicable to a range of audiences during real-world presentations.

I have delivered various technical presentations over the course of my five-year career in the domain of Information Security and Risk Management. I can tell you that the presentations I have delivered have been very intense. Security is an area which has to be taken very seriously and as such it requires strong commitment and backup from the management. These kinds of presentations are mostly delivered at the CXO level. I remember giving a presentation to Singapore International Airlines (SIA) in their office at Singapore. It was a big day for me as it was the first presentation that I was delivering to such a senior level audience. I always believe that if you are not nervous, there is a very high probability of sailing through a presentation without any hiccups. But nervousness is the major factor which makes a newbie go haywire.

I have liked delivering presentations and would want to give many more presentations as I move ahead in my career. Prof. Chris Labash's academic teachings and notes taken and provided by Abby would go a long way in drafting and delivering real world presentations on several topics and sectors.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Guest Post: Nikita Patel

Nakita is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. This is her second guest post on the blog. Here she writes about real-world presentations.

The point of making a presentation is to communicate ideas and concepts to other people. Presentations are a fact of life in business. While most people loathe presentations, I will try to give you few tips about how to make them likable and get your audience to enjoy them.

Let’s start with PowerPoint slides. Strong visual images should be added to the presentation so that the audience is able to relate to the analogy between what you present and what is given in the slides. The slides should be able to communicate effectively with no loose writing in the analogy. When you understand how presenting works, you discover that all these things only look wrong if they are repeated and things should not be repeated in your presentation. To avoid this create a road map for yourself by making an agenda. Also, one should be careful not to overload each slide with too much content. Too much content in the slides will cause the audience to start reading ahead and not listen to the presenter. The presentation is the means, not the end in itself.

Before the presentation one should practice saying the lines in the presentation. While presenting in front of the audience, key points should be kept handy in the form of bullet points on a piece of paper. The bottom line is that the audience should be convinced that the presenter knows what he/she is talking about. One always wants their audience to pay attention to their presentation; the keys are to know the audience, engage with them, and handle questions they throw. If the audience is not paying attention then the presenter is obviously not being very stimulating. Presentations should always have a message and key take away since a strong message is conveyed by words, vocal force, and demeanor.

The most important presentation skill that needs to be addressed is how one feels about oneself when one is presenting. It’s all about image and confidence. I remember one incident when I was presenting in front of a group of my peers and was talking about an idea I have had. It was when someone interrupted me with a question about an important aspect I had not thought about. I had lost my train of thought and I was struggling to gain my composure. Such things do happen in real world presentations and one has to be spontaneous and on the feet to answer such unexpected queries with confidence.

A better outcome was possible had I kept my cool during the presentation. I also feel that it is important to smile at the audience during the presentation which will help you slow down a little bit and relax.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Guest Post: Carlos Barcelo

Carlos is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. This is his second guest post. Here he writes about virtual communication.

Virtual communication is already changing our daily lives and maybe we haven’t noticed it. We use it every time we use Skype, MSN or email. It is also present in the workplace with teleconferencing and other electronic tools that help people to communicate instantly with others wherever they are.

In fact, many companies are implementing virtual communication to replace real life events. A report by Market Research Media from May 2010 showed that the market of virtual conference and the trade show market will grow to $18.6bn over the next five years from almost nothing today.

The reason for this promising future increase in the market is due to the many advantages of virtual communication and in how it increases productivity and reduces costs to companies of all sizes. Some of the main benefits of virtual communication are:

o Eliminates travel times.
o Reduces the cost of meetings and conferences.
o Allows many people to communicate at the same time from different parts of the world
o Reduces the cost of training sessions with virtual training

However, many people believe that virtual communication cannot replace real life communication and in some cases that is true. For instance, when it comes to meetings, a real meeting brings more interaction among the participants. When you are present you have the chance to see more gestures and non-verbal communication among the participants. Also, people are most focused in what is going on in the meetings when they are actually in a room, since they can’t do anything else but participate. In virtual conferences people still want to review their email or a presentation while in the conference, or they might be interrupted by someone stepping in their offices.

In my personal experience, I had many phone and sometimes video conferences when I worked in Citigroup back in Chile. I had to talk to people from different parts of the world and interact with them on a daily basis. It was very interesting to see how natural it was for everyone and even for me after a few months in the company. I felt that the people I used to talk were present somehow in the office. But I have to say that when people would travel to Chile from other countries to have real life meetings, it was a better experience of communication and meetings were more productive. After those encounters, I would feel more connected to them and that improved communication with them afterward.

Virtual communication is a great way of saving cost and time without the need of traveling and it really increases the productivity of the companies, but people still need to meet with each other. Technology may help, but I don’t think it will ever be as good as real life interaction.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Guest Post: Nitin Grewal

Nitin is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. This is his second guest post. Here he writes about virtual communication.

Today I had my exit interview, the outcome of resignation from the company. I am happy to be out of professional world and be a student again. In the interview I was asked about my team members. I was speechless for a while, searching for an answer. I did not know a single person of my team personally. I was working on-site and those members were just a voice over the telephone or a folder name in my mailbox. The culprit was virtual communication.
So what is virtual communication? Let’s try to answer that. Theoretically speaking, it is a method of transferring information to a distant location. Virtual communication is possible due to extensive improvement of technology. Now I attend a lecture and even earn a degree without going through the hassles of waking up early in the morning. The development of virtual communication tools has flattened the world, bringing people close to each other.

There are different aspects of communicating virtually – internet telephones, instant messaging, and video conferencing. Virtual communication has its own advantages. Now we do not have to drive to the office at 5am to attend a meeting with a team in different time zone. This mode naturally saves time, effort, and is also cost effective. We can share information via email to a person halfway round the world in a matter of minutes. Through virtual communication we are able to share desktops and files, which are much needed in today’s competitive world to work collaboratively. Today, keeping up with your family is possible merely by means of a few clicks. Besides education and the business world, the medical field is using these tools for training and knowledge transfer. Virtual communication helps us in communicating across time and distance. It increases the potential for hiring highly-skilled experts.

Every coin has two sides, and so does virtual communication. Some experts have reservations about virtual communication. In the effectiveness of presenting of an idea, verbal clues amount to only 7%, while the rest is attained through visual clues. In some of the tools of virtual communication this crucial effect of the visual clue is missing. Research indicates that as proximity among team members decreases, the level of teamwork decreases. In the virtual world there is no bonding and trust present in the team, which directly affects the team work. There is limitation of instant feedback and interruption; hence there is a high risk of the information being misunderstood. Also, virtual communication requires high setup and maintenance costs.

Extensive research is being conducted to overcome the shortcomings of virtual communication and Hologram reporting, in which the image of a person is transferred to another place, is being considered as an alternative. This technology might provide us a combination of virtual and real communication. But being in the initial stage, we have to wait for actual results. For today’s business world, I would recommend a mixed approach of face-to-face plus virtual communication. In the beginning, face-to-face meetings are imperative to build up a team environment, and then one can proceed to virtual communication and use the technology to cut down on stress and traveling.

Bibliography
http://www.leadingvirtually.com/?p=53

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Guest Post: Tarjani Oza

This is Tarjani's second guest post on the blog. Here she writes about real-world meetings.

“..Those who live in the world of human reality know that it is held together by face-to-face meetings!”, says Anthony Jay, the author of the Harvard Business Review on “How to run a meeting”. A strong statement in itself, but true nonetheless. Meetings are a very important element of the social fabric of the human society. The effect of communication between live persons talking face to face is much deeper and personal than memos, emails or teleconferenced meetings. This is the reason that if a person works in an isolated setting, the need for human contact makes him “meet” with people outside work socially or recreationally.
The meetings in the corporate world, however, are not always seen in this positive light. Often they are deemed to be unnecessarily and unproductive. Professor Labash gave us an interesting statistic in class last week: that a corporate professional spends about 5 years of his/her entire life in meetings - 5 years! That is a lot. No wonder I have seen many a technical person cringe at the sound of the word 'meeting'. But imagine an office culture devoid of meetings. Communication would be chaotic and probably inconsistent.

The key here, I think, is not to get rid of meetings, but to make them effective and efficient. The idea should be to synthesize the thoughts of different people in order to increase the collective value of the team. To ensure this, the first step should be to find out if the meeting is needed at all. The information that can be delivered by offline methods, if delivered by a meeting, causes a feeling of wastage of time and loss of productivity. The next step to ensure that a meeting works is to have a definite purpose and agenda for the meeting. Agenda is the central element of any meeting as it is the road map that determines its course. Unfortunately many meetings fail to add productive value because they lose focus on the agenda at hand.

The role of the meeting coordinator here comes to light. The meeting coordinator is the person who leads the meeting and steers its direction until completion. He is not the one with the entire responsibility of the discussion, but it is his job to drive back to course if the team is drifting during a meeting. A good meeting coordinator ensures that the time and agenda of a meeting are respected by each team member including the coordinator himself. It is also his job to ensure equal participation. We should understand that meetings are a way to collaborate, to share and discuss ideas and to generate new ways of solving problems. If the invitees are wisely chosen, then each person has a unique perspective to the issue at hand and is expected to add unique value to the discussion. Thus the coordinator should ensure that everyone gets to state their opinions without thrusting his own opinion too early in the meeting.

Professor Labash summarized the 5 P’s of a great meeting:
1. Purpose – A clearly defined purpose for which a particular set of people have gathered. This and only this should be the central focus of the meeting.
2. People – The people invited should add value and expertise and provide new perspectives to existing issues.
3. Preparation – Each member should be adequately prepared for the success of a meeting. A meeting where work is done during the meeting wastes time for a lot of people.
4. Participation – Participation is of greatest importance because if one or two people do all the talking, then valuable opinions from other skilled members are lost and the results obtained are not deep and effective.
5. Point – If the team stays on agenda and the coordinator drives the meeting successfully, then it should result in action. As Professor Labash said, “A meeting without action is not a meeting, but a conversation.” The goal of every meeting should be to produce some action, some decisions that help progress the team from where they were before the meeting.

If a good coordinator leads a focused, prepared and disciplined team, then the meeting can be very productive. Anthony Jay calls this concept “social mind,” where the collective mental acumen of a bunch of skilled people is greater than the sum of each one taken individually.

I have had some good meetings and bad meetings in my career of four years in the IT industry, in which most of them were teleconferences or over-the-phone meetings. But the effectiveness of person-to-person meetings is much stronger in my experience and leads to far better results in the real world.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Guest Post: Rocky Kurien

Rocky is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

In today’s collaborative business environment meetings are of the utmost importance. However it is a fact that the vast majority of professionals have no clue as to how to hold an effective meeting. In fact every one has his/her own experience of having been part of ineffective meetings. This is due to the fact that very few know the nuances of effective meetings. We go into one thinking of it as a discussion and seldom realize the loss of time and money which occurs due to this. Elaborated below are few of the points which need to be kept in mind for every meeting.

1. Don’t Meet: It might sound like a contradiction but most real meetings happen when there is no actual purpose and none of the attendants know why they are there. Meetings involve multiple people and if they are not effective, they waste everyone’s time. The first thing to be kept in mind before calling for a meeting is whether one is actually needed. Any meeting which can be replaced by an email or a notice put up on the board needs to be avoided. Meetings are essential only when an exchange of ideas is required.

2. Agenda: Every meeting needs to have an agenda. All participants need to be aware of the objectives of the meeting. It would be useful to send the agenda out to the participants and get their feedback so that any missed points can be added. Make sure the final agenda is circulated to everyone so that the necessary preparation is done. The agenda is the roadmap to your meeting and needs to include the exact order and priority of the items which need to be discussed as well as the time allotted to each. The leader, as well as the participants of the meeting, needs to strongly keep by this agenda to make the meeting a success.

3. Preparation: Whether you are hosting a meeting or attending one , preparation is extremely important. Meetings are meant to be crisp and short. Everyone cannot be kept waiting if a particular participant needs to catch up. Also maximum and useful contribution can be made only if participants come prepared.

4. People: For a successful meeting only the people who are absolutely responsible should be present- no more and no less. This is a very important point and needs to be kept in mind before deciding on participants. Calling someone who is not related will not only waste his time but will also create unnecessary distractions in the meeting. Similarly, if someone who is required is not present, the meeting may not proceed.

5. Action-Last but not least, every meeting should result in some action. Action points or conclusions need to be drawn and people given responsibilities on what needs to be done. A meeting which does not result in action is a conversation not a meeting.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Guest Post: Narasimhan Nagarajan

This is Narasimhan's second guest post on the blog. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

“To be a good leader in the meeting, one needs to be a servant” – Guide to Effective Communication, 1976.

Meetings have become very vital in today’s businesses to collaborate, convey, and brainstorm for ideas, thoughts, opinions, etc.

The toughest part of a meeting seems to be getting ideas or inputs from the participants. Why is this so? It is because few feel that the leader is overpowering and no one listens to their views, or because the leader has not created viable channels for the views to be put forth and so on.

A good leader of the meeting should break down the initial barriers and create an active and positive environment for the meeting to be successful. The leader should recognize the stumbling blocks in the meeting and create objectives which are accurate and definite. Lack of accurate objectives might create unclear ideas about the meeting and might result in deviating from the stated objective.

As the leader of the meeting has the power, it should be used properly to mange conflicts and criticisms, and to motivate the group to think out of the box and come up with new ideas.

Of course the leader has the final say, but it’s important to create an environment where everyone feels free to contribute. The leader should manage the meeting in such a way that the ideas are free flowing and focused by asking for ideas, questions, clarifications, and affirmations. The leader should also be a good listener and should handle creative conflicts in a suitable way.

In a nutshell, all meetings should have an objective, a proper agenda, and the right people to participate, provide, and exchange ideas and some constructive action after the meeting, in terms of delegation of work or future steps. The guidelines for effective meetings are : 1) Prepare for the meeting 2) Prepare to attend the meeting 3) Setup the meeting place 4) Assign a note taker 5) Start the meeting 6) Conduct the meeting 7) Keep the meeting focused and moving 8) Close the meeting with follow up action items.

One such good meeting experience at my work place was to discuss the future applications strategy for a new business initiative. The leader of the meeting was the head of the strategy group who was full of enthusiasm and energy to drive the group, and encouraged the group to come out with more ideas. He was a great listener, managed the creative dissonance with great dexterity and also managed the hierarchy and cultural issues. The ideas from the juniors were also acknowledged and appreciated.

As the meeting comes to an end, the leader of any meeting should delegate duties and inform the group what the next steps will be. This also creates a sense of belonging to the group, and if that is achieved the meeting is successful and the leader is a great leader and as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Everyone can be great because everyone can serve.”

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Guest Post: Ranjani Kumar

Ranjani is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here she writes about real-world meetings.

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-11-23/

Scott Adams, in this very classic representation of office humor, depicts what can go wrong with a real-time office meeting. The primary reason why office meetings are usually considered to be a waste of time and unproductive is because they are poorly planned. With a little bit of preparation even a small meeting that lasts for just a few minutes can turn out to be the most effective way to establish clear communication within a team.

Here are a few guidelines for planning and executing an effective meeting:

1) Agenda: Any meeting should have a purpose. If it’s an emergency meeting or even if it’s just a routine weekly meeting to update the progress status of individual members; an agenda needs to be prepared. Many a times the agenda is prepared by the team supervisor and contains a brief on the points that need to be discussed during the meeting. It should ideally be a text document of not more than a page consisting of points logically grouped together. Responsibilities can be assigned to people in the agenda. E.g., Project Manager Bob may designate the responsibility of preparing minutes of the meeting/writing notes to the team secretary Amber.

2) Sending out the invites : A list of people required to be a part of the meeting needs to be made and invites (along with the meeting agenda) need to be sent accordingly. It wouldn’t make sense for Project Manager Bob to exclude Chris the technical developer for a meeting meant to discuss deployment plans for the company's latest software product!

3) Deciding the time and venue: The best time to hold a weekly status meeting would be on Tuesday morning. Mondays are usually hectic for all. Avoid having meetings post-lunch or Friday evenings. The venue should ideally be centrally located to all the team members.

4) Modifying the agenda: The agenda should incorporate changes as suggested by the members attending the meeting. Making changes to the original agenda is essential to include points that may be considered important for the project and its individuals. Getting feedback is essential to ensure an active involvement from all at the meeting.

5) At the meeting :

a) Arrive a couple of minutes in advance before the meeting starts. Everybody's time is important and its best to start the meeting on time.

b) Taking notes and carrying calendars will help members take notes and mark important dates as relevant to the project.

c) A leader needs to steer the discussion forward. A forum can be a melting pot of numerous ideas, some conflicting and such a discussion can lead to nowhere in the absence of a moderator or a person with authority to take things forward.

d) Points need to be stated with clarity and need to be relevant to what is being discussed. Most of the meetings that I have attended have not been productive as many participants got carried away and started to bring up issues which were not in sync with what was stated on the agenda.

e) Respect other people's opinions. Stating your opinions aggressively will not help in reaching a consensus and goes against the very reason for holding a meeting in the first place.

f) Set clear goals, specify deadlines and ensure that responsibilities are chalked out clearly to every individual.

g) The leader should ensure that the participants stick to their time; bad meetings can go on forever.

h) If a meeting has been stretched on for beyond the stipulated time, it makes more sense to defer the discussion to another time.

g) An effective meeting should meet its objective within the given time span.

With a little preparation your meeting can be a hit. A meeting is a success when people come out of it feeling like they have accomplished something!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Guest Post: Nitin Grewal

Nitin is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

http://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?catref=jsin182

Meetings- even today this word makes me to run for cover. My former manager loved having meetings. Numerous hours were taken away from my daily schedule of day-dreaming ritual. To make it worse, the meeting was followed by minutes of meeting and another meeting. In my small world of Narnia and Transformers, I believed you can either work or do meetings; there is no concept of union of work and meetings. In today’s world, meeting is an important part responsible for delivery of the right product and yet, according to a survey reported in Industry Week, two thousand managers claimed that about one-third of the time they spend in meetings is wasted. According to a UK study, 5.7 years of our careers are spent in meetings.

Meetings are supposed to be the most effective method of communication, bringing every participant on same page and minimizing the error due to misunderstanding of requirement and results. People meet to share ideas and problems, discuss and distribute responsibilities. The face-to-face interaction helps them bond and create commitment, end product being “Action”. But do all meetings survive these criteria? A quote by John Kenneth Galbraith, “Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything,” gave a push to my mind to analyze it. Today there are numerous channels for real-time communications. Video conferences and teleconference at least save the commute time. So is it better to get into virtual-world meetings?

So what separates a successful meeting from the ineffective one? Let me try and jolt down what I learned from my experiences and the last class lecture. First and foremost, we should ask ourselves, “Does the meeting really need to occur?” If it’s a status or review meeting, I would say think again. If it’s necessary, prepare it well. Set out the agenda, the list of must-attend “unfortunate” colleagues stating the meeting roles clearly and desirable outcomes of the meeting. Setting up the time and place best suitable for all the attendees would be the next hurdle. Inform all the attendees with the agenda, time and place of meeting. Roger Burns, a 30-year veteran of high-level meetings describes it like this, "Often times the first 20 or 30 minutes of our meetings would be spent with people flipping through the documents I had sent them over a week ago. They had not prepared and had no idea what questions I was going to talk in the next few minutes." So in order to save time, provide each participant the required information before hand. If you are acting as the chair of meeting, arrive early and be prepared to start the meeting on time, always value your own time and also that of others. Laying out the objective and setting the meeting’s tone is one of the leader’s key responsibilities. Stick to the agenda and invoke participation and discussion. I believe that’s what we are here for. At the end of the meeting, summarize all the points and come up with a decision and end the meeting on time. “No result” meetings are a pure waste of the company’s money.

I agree that meetings are necessary evils, but let’s make them short and effective. Sometimes meetings are going to be a waste of time, but sometimes they are productive as well. It’s up to us how we conduct or attend the meetings.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Guest Post: Rahul Pandey

Rahul is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about getting the job you want.

I would like to work for Apple some day.

The relative ease with which I was able to jot down the above statement continues to amaze me but what amazes me further is that almost everyone I talk to or ask the question “Where would you like to be working?” has an articulate and well-reasoned answer. So, why do so few of us ever get to be where we want to be? Why does our ‘dream job’ end up remaining our ‘dream job?’ I believe it doesn’t have to be that way. I believe with concentrated effort and the right mix of skill sets, one can really end up where he or she wants to be - just like I am sure I will, one day, be working for Apple.

It begins with knowing what you want to do and what you are capable of. Then comes knowing the market, understanding what kind of playing field you are competing against and which specific companies are out there doing the kind of work you would like to be doing. This involves many different aspects of social networking including building and maintaining acquaintances in your current workplace, school or society, networking effectively with people from the domain you are interested in and staying in touch with the most recent activities and advances in your field of interest. With the Internet and the social networking revolution as it is today, all these are just a few keystrokes away. An increasingly large number of news aggregator sites (like reddit or digg, to name a few of the most popular ones) actually provide very concise and up-to-date collections of news and information from all realms of technology, politics, industry, and other walks of life. People get to participate in debates and discussion of high intellectual value. All these go a long way in making you well informed and broadens your perspective on everything, making you a well-rounded individual. This also helps in discovering your passion for a particular job and/or company.

Researching the company (or companies) comes next. The best way to convince an interviewer that you are going to be an asset to their organization is by touting your research on the company. It indicates you have done your homework and are serious about the job. Finding out facts about an organization in today’s digital age is really no work at all. Go one step further and try to get in touch with current employees of the organization. Interact with them about the company’s culture; ask if you can see yourself in their shoes and be happy with the picture. If the answer is yes, you can be sure you are on the right path! Also, infer the ‘story’ of the company. Every company has one. What is their current business model? What is their strategy? What are they planning for the short-term and long-term vision of the company’s future? Being well equipped with all this information is a very giant step towards that dream job.

Then comes the resume. There are really no hard and fast rules out there that you should adhere to when it comes to writing a resume. Of course, the standard limitations apply by default: Do not lie and avoid spelling or grammatical errors! Resumes should be strategic and pertain to the job you are interviewing for. Different people have different opinions on how big the resume should be, but the generally acceptable ideal length would be whatever is enough to put forward your achievements, strengths and your story to the interviewer in a brief but complete manner. Many say that your resume gets anywhere between 2 and 10 seconds of attention from an interviewer before it is thrown onto a pile of hundreds of other applicant resumes. While this is disputable, a strong resume is always one that is able to catch the attention of anyone who reads it almost immediately. Having said that, the resume is not the be-all and end-all of seeking a job...the actual job interview is probably the most important aspect of it all. It is, in a manner of speaking, the culmination of all your efforts to get your ‘dream job.’

So, here we are. All you’ve worked for, all the research, the information-gathering and the knowledge-sharing and the networking, all comes down to the interview tomorrow morning. What do you do now? You start with getting a good night’s sleep! On the day of the interview, you arrive early, you dress smart and you look fresh. You have to have interesting stories that are relevant to why the company must hire you. You have to convince the interviewer that you are a good fit for their corporate culture and that you will provide value to the organization and the team. Convince them that you know why you are here. Sell your asset points. Be interesting, and more importantly, be interested. Ask relevant questions. At the end of the interview, tackle sensitive questions, like compensation, gently. Ask what is to be expected next. Be courteous, provide a good closing, greet the interviewer(s) individually and take leave. After the interview, follow up with additional remarks about your asset points or points that you could elaborate better. Go over the interview in your head and ask yourself what would you have done differently or improved upon so that if it does come down to it, your next interview will go better! At the end of it all, we have to stay positive. After all, with a good interview you already have one foot in. All that matters is sealing the deal!

So, there it is - that is what I intend to do to get my dream job...eventually. In my tenure as a business analyst in my previous organization, I had the opportunity to receive hands-on training on how to interview candidates and I shadowed a fair share of interview situations with real-world examples and real interviewers. I also got to interview a good bunch of people looking to join my organization. It always used to surprise me that extremely talented people with rich and strong technical profiles would put no significant effort into their presentation or their research on the company. Many would not even have a proper answer as to why they want this job. And on the flip-side, there would be others who, while having a better than average profile, would show such enthusiasm and willingness to learn, to grow and a desire to be a part of a growing organization and to contribute to a common cause, that it would be the most natural decision to approve them for hire! I have been fortunate enough to have been able to learn so much from all the candidates sitting on the other side of the interview desk - and if it has taught me one thing it would be this - that it never comes down to just one thing for you to get that job; it is the sum of all the little things that you do...right from the point that you dream the dream of that job!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Guest Post: Kiran Karbhajan

Kiran is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about finding the right company for you and getting an interview call.

A few days back I came across an old Chinese proverb while browsing a quotes site, http://www.indianchild.com/quotations_on_happiness.htm, which goes something like..

If you want to be happy for an hour, have a beer … if you want to be happy for a day, go on a date

If you want to be happy for a week, take a vacation…if you want to be happy for a month, get married;

But if you want to be happy for life, LOVE your work!

Like most of you, it made me have a good laugh at first, but then I thought, "Hang on, that does make sense!" Indeed, our work is such a significant but not a “carefully planned” part of our lives. Most of us work for the premium years of our lives and well, our job description pretty much defines who we are to an extent. (Of course work life balance is important I know! But in this blog I would like to discuss work…) Interestingly you might have come across a lot of people around us who, maybe unknowingly, are somewhat casual while choosing the right career or the right place to work! That's what I have observed in my friend circle as well as professional circle . (This is just a personal experience and not meant to be interpreted in any other way.)

So I decided to do a little research on the web and collected some pointers on what you should have on your mind while looking for the right company to work for you. Because remember, it’s a place where you will spend most of your day time, make a lot of personal and professional contacts, earn a living and become a better person. So you sure want to know what you are doing while choosing a company right? Some of the points I could compile were –

  • Find the company best suited for you – This is first stage of any job hunt. There are a million companies out there but you want “the” right place for you which would benefit you in a lot of ways. So start with asking yourself a few questions like –

o What companies operate in your area of interest? – This information can be gathered over the internet easily. You can also register with a few job search engines like http://www.jobsearchusa.org.

o Which companies have job openings that match your skill set? – Visit the company website and look for sections named “jobs” or “careers,” e.g. Career opportunities in Deloitte are listed here - http://careers.deloitte.com/gateway.aspx. Usually companies will post all the job openings under these sections. Go through it and see if anything relevant comes up. Also spend some time on thinking if this is the job profile you really want and where it will take you in the near future.

o What is the overall organizational and salary structure? - This is very important. Your choice of a dream company may very well be based on this point. Make sure you understand at least on a higher level how the company (or the concerned department) operates. Find out the company’s plans for the future and if they are on the right track of growth. Understand the salary structure so that you have an idea of what kind of compensation is involved.

Great! Now that you have an idea about the company you want to work for, or at least you have short listed a few, the next step is to work towards approaching the company and get an interview call or a personal meeting with company personnel scheduled. Plan your efforts in some basic steps like -

  • Know the company - You've got to know the company you want to work for. Your must be well aware of history and the market position of the company. Good old ways of doing this are to visit the company website and also the reviews about company’s profile and performance in economic newspapers or journals. Interviewers want to know if you are really interested in the job offer and your knowledge about the company tells them that.
  • Find suitable contacts – Get in touch with people who can make a decision about the hiring process - say HR or hiring managers. Drop them an email with your resume or give them a call straight away explaining your case and how you are interested in having a personal meeting. Also drop your resume to the “contact us” email ids mentioned on company websites.
  • Employee referral – If there are any people you happen to know (or you can get in touch with somehow), get in touch with them right away. These guys can forward your resumes to the key people and give you a good idea about the selection process.
  • Attending social business events – Companies usually hold events where people can walk in and get interviewed or simply make contacts. Keep an eye on such events through newspapers, magazines and online media. You never know some contact may really click for you!
I personally followed an approach like this when I was doing my job search and I did manage to land a job with Infosys Technologies Ltd as a software engineer. And yes, there are a lot of ways to do your preparation for a job search. These are just some helping guidelines (hope you found them useful). You can also visit websites like http://www.greatplacetowork.com – these are great sources of information. I hope this article helped you at least chalk out an outline for your job search process – so the key points are: find out what you really want, which company can offer that, and what do you need to do to get a interview call from them.

All the best!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Guest Post: Sunny Huang

Sunny is a student in Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking class. Here she writes about oral communication.

As oral communication constructs most of our interactions with people around us, it seems quite easy to neglect the hidden patterns or rules behind it. However, after studying and reviewing the critical disciplines of oral communication, people would benefit from improved communication in their daily life.

First let’s try to define “communication.” What does it mean and why do people communicate? The word’s origin, “communis,” comes from Latin and means “to make common.” People communicate to transfer information from one to another, either to express opinions, share ideas, argue, or simply develop relationships. Among the types of communication, speaking, either face to face, on the telephone or via cyberspace, is certainly the most common and direct way we select when we try to convey information. By closely inspecting oral communication, we may be able to find the patterns behind it and some rules we could apply to achieve better communication.

To transfer information from one to another, there must be a sender and a receiver. In oral communication, these two parties are the speaker and the listener. This pattern looks simple enough. However, upon close inspection, we discover how many important factors that influence effective communication are related to the behaviors of the two sides.Communication can either be carried forward as a pleasant experience with intended results, or be ruined as a waste of time with a bunch of upset people. It’s all decided by the attitudes, styles, and actions of the two parties in communication: speaker and listener.

During my previous work in the software R&D of a telecom company, we held meetings and discussions almost every day in the development project. Since a development team contains all kinds of different people, many difficult conversations were caused by different communication styles. Some people insisted on strictly-followed process and concrete details. Whimsical members sought alternative solutions to a specific technical issues or negotiated for changes in a project plan or way of working. Also, some people acted like glue, caring about how the others were feeling and always trying to alleviate tense atmospheres. When some issue of dispute would pop up, e.g., shall we abandon a specific planned solution and replace it with a new one, which might be optimal but would bring changes and extra cost to the whole project? People just couldn’t reach an agreement. But it’s not because anyone wanted to destroy the project. On the contrary, people were so indulged in their own opinions, which they believed to be the best, and spoke out in their upheld styles. It made people hardly care about how the others think and react. So although a group of people appeared to be communicating with each other, actually there were just several separate solo speeches going on.

Thus we can see the importance of being a good speaker as well as a good listener in parallel. While expressing in an effective, persuasive style, adapted to how the audiences react, one should also actively pause and listen to others' opinions. It’s similar on occasions when we’re supposed to be listening. Give some feedback or raise questions to the speaker, so that the interaction will positively proceed. Keep in mind that with the absence of either speaker or listener, there wouldn’t be communication. Such smooth, active role-plays between speaker and listener will change our oral communication not only in its style, but also in the outcomes.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Guest Post: Narasimhan Nagarajan

Narasimhan is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world oral communication.

“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your brains won't get you anywhere. The ability to communicate is everything.” -- Lee Iacocca. --- I truly believe this.

Practically everyone communicates at work. We communicate to share ideas, persuade people, try to prove our point, etc. No matter which industry one is in, no matter the level of expertise one has over the job, without oral communication skills the person’s success is not guaranteed. Communication skills are very critical in every career, and not just for those ‘people-oriented’ careers. We communicate in some form or other every day, be it writing e-mail, telephone conversation, business presentation, or even tweeting. It’s actually interesting that a mere 140 letter communication tool has played some major roles in political uprisings and has also turned out to be a terrific marketing tool.

So why is it so valuable to have good communication skills?

A Job Outlook 2005 survey on the most desirable skill set which employers want rates communication skills on the top of the list. Additional research validates the importance of working in teams, leading, negotiating, resolving conflicts, and managing cultural diversity. This is why more than 90% of U.S. companies provide some form of communication skills training. As a matter of fact, the Big Four accounting firms spend nearly 80% of their work time communicating with others, individually and in groups.

Ronal Adler and Jeanne Elmhorst, in their book “Communicating at Work,” state that subscribers to the Harvard Business Review rated "the ability to communicate" the most important factor in making an executive "promotable," more important than ambition, education, and capacity for hard work. That’s surprising, but true. Research spanning several decades has consistently ranked communication skills as crucial for managers.

Now that we have substantiated the paramount importance of oral communication in successful coexistence with fellow Homo sapiens on earth, the following are generally accepted pointers to be successful:

1) Put forward your points in simple language and be very clear on the subject. Using jargon and being verbose just for the sake of it is not advisable.

2) Be sure that your facial and body language match the context of your talk. Exude confidence.

3) Be a good listener. Listen to understand what the other person has to say, and be empathetic to your audience. Listen to each other intelligently, understandingly, and skillfully.

4) Reinforce the speaker by nodding, having eye contact, and asking questions.

One 20-year study that followed the progress of Stanford University MBA students revealed that the most successful graduates (as measured by both career advancement and salary) shared personality traits that distinguish good communicators: a desire to persuade, an interest in talking and working with other people, and an outgoing, ascendant personality. As students, these achievers developed their communication skills by choosing courses such as business writing, persuasion, selling ideas, negotiation, and speaking.

The power of communication can be used either like Theodore Roosevelt to revolutionize a nation for good or by a demagogue for evil means. The key in both the cases is how convincingly the information is disseminated and persuaded.

Steve Jobs and Apple are a very good case study: Is there correlation between the success of Apple products and Steve Jobs speech/presentations during every major release of an Apple product? I feel that one of the most important factors for the success of Apple products is the amazing introduction to the products by Steve Jobs. It’s the charisma of Steve Jobs that has created a cult following for Apple products. The amazing introductions to the Mac, the iPod, and the iPhone actually set the momentum for Apple. Of course, Apple’s products are also equally good. Jobs’ presentations are always simple, engaging, intriguing, and marvelous to watch. He doesn’t just convey the message, he also inspires. Food for thought?

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Guest Post: Nikita Patel

Nikita is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here she writes about getting the job you want.

The first and most important step to finding your dream job is to write down what it really is. This can be discovered by defining what your talents, integrity, and passions are. Once you have the list of the companies that appeal to your desired potential, think about what you could do to achieve your dream job by selling yourself to a potential employer.

It's imperative that the next step in the process of finding your dream job is to glorify your resume, since we know that the resume’s function is to get you the interview and not the job. Put every line in your resume to the test. Every statement should indicate a benefit to hiring you over someone else. Once you have the right resume in place, cover the bases of aggressive job hunting by applying to different companies’ websites, corporate networking websites, and employment agencies. Consider sending resumes to multiple employers so that you get as many interviews as possible. Once you have sent out your resume, follow up on phone to make sure your resumes have been received.

Try to develop corporate relationships by contacting alumni of your university who are currently working for the company you are interested in, attending technical conferences, and attending networking events. The job seekers are looking for someone who fits into the company and is of value to the job. To fit their requirement, research the company, its culture, the person you are interviewing with, what they are looking for, and what they need to know about you to be impressed and want to work with you. Before the day of the interview you should get a good night’s sleep. Most interviewers state that they hire most of the candidates in their company based upon their instincts and that they can judge the interviewee within the first few seconds of meeting them. Keeping this in mind, on the day of the interview, you should be appropriately dressed and show up before the interviewer with confidence. Be prepared for small talk and be respectful to everyone. Tell the interviewers some of your professional stories as per the STAR form (S-Situation, T-Tasks, A- Action, R-Results) which will convey more information, beyond your resume, about you. Try to take a proactive approach during the interview. Ask the interviewer a lot of questions that will illuminate the information you need to know as to whether you will actually enjoy working in the company. Lead the interviewer to talk about compensation and once he does that, do not hesitate to ask for what you are worth. You can get approximate data about current salary statistics by visiting websites like salary.com. After the interview ask them when can you expect to hear back and if you are required to do any follow-up. Follow up with them accordingly, and that’s when you thank them and make up for any potential blunders you made during the interview.

Networking played a key role to getting my dream job. Though I already had a job in hand, since the job required me to stay away from my family, I wanted to move back to my home where my family stayed. This made me wonder if I would actually be able to get a good job in my home town. At the same time I met a project manager who was in my Business Unit through a common friend. It was then that I told him about my willingness to move to my hometown. Later the same day he asked me to send my resume to his friend who was a project manager in a reputable company in my hometown. And, voila! One week after I sent my resume, I interviewed with the same company and finally ended up getting the job I had wished for.

I realized that networking should be part of your daily work when you are in the midst of a job search. In fact, I have heard people say that networking starts long before the job search, and you probably don’t even realize that you are doing it.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Guest Post: Kunal Chopra

Kunal is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about getting the job you want.

It was 25th April, 2010. I got an email from HCL Technologies (one of the top 5 IT services companies in India) saying, “Hello Kunal, We are happy to announce that you have been selected by HCL Tech. for recruitment under the Graduate Engineer trainee program.” It was my maiden achievement and I was ecstatic beyond limits upon the realization that I have been offered a job through campus. As with most people, my first job was the stepping stone onto my professional ladder. Since then, I have traversed five years on the track of Information Technology and Advisory. If I am to be very outspoken, I never knew about the track I would want to get into. Also, I was never ambitious before I got placed through campus. It was after I entered the ocean of Information Technology that I realized exactly what a career is and what could really fascinate me. It needed a venture of travelling around various cities across the world and experiencing various projects and clients to understand what my further roles and positions could entail.

I think as time passed and I networked with more and more people in the industry I started getting a sense of what my ideal job could be. I use to ask myself, “Am I a good technologist? Am I good at number crunching? Or do I need to explore the consulting arena? If consulting, shall it be management consulting or just technology consulting?” In time, I got an answer: consulting it is!! The search for the right company and position had begun. I started to research various companies for their service lines, their market presence, opportunities/positions available, what their balance sheet looked like, and most importantly how the work culture in the company was. Professional networking websites like Linkedin and Xing are great sources to know what kind of profiles/roles are tagged to the people in the market and what kind of positions are available. These websites are in addition to various job portals that help one get the desired references. Recently, what I thought of as the areas to be researched were totally substantiated by Prof. Chris Labash in his “Professional Speaking” course lecture.

An alumnus of the consulting division of IBM, I introspected and did research to come to the conclusion that I want to work for one of the Big 4 accounting firms in their consulting practices. The names that immediately come to my mind are Deloitte and E&Y. Just before where I am right now, at Carnegie Mellon University pursuing my Master’s in Information Systems Management, I decided to get into a blend of Analytics and Information Security consulting. So companies like Google, McAfee, and Symantec are also in the radar of my career aspirations.

Over approximately the last five years, I have recognized that there are three major aspects which are of utmost importance for getting an interview call: a concise and informative resume reflecting achievements and past experiences, presence of keywords within the resume, and thinking like an employer when applying or getting interviewed for a job. After getting a call the aspects which hold importance for a convert are describing your fit for the role and the organization, explaining your distinguishing qualities, and negotiating in an amicable manner. Another thing worth citing was a major quote by Prof. Labash: “You’ve got to be adaptable” if you are targeting consulting positions. He also cited that your stories and resume should optimally reflect at least three asset points worth highlighting. To learn from experiences one has to do a post mortem of recent interviews. You’ve got to believe in yourself and have a very high level of enthusiasm.

Of late I realize that I am into a rigorous graduate program, but I hope I get plenty of time to read over the books mentioned in the lectures by Prof. Labash.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Getting the job you want

Following are some thoughts by the May 2010 batch of students at CMU about “Getting the Job You Want”:
One of the turning points in a human life is associated with getting the right job to work. In order for finding out right place, a person has to answer some questions by himself. First, the most important issue that he/she has to answer by himself/herself is what he/she wants to achieve, what will make him/her so happy and provide enthusiasm. Second, he/she needs to figure out whether or not he/she fits features or characteristics of the job that he/she asks for. Following that, I think it is easier to find the company that presents the job he/she wants by doing a selective research. Some of the most applied ways to find the kind of company are compromised of company website search, recruiter firms, insider information in the company, internship and ads. To my professional past experience, if possible the most affected way to find your ideal job and related company is to intern in that company. In this way, you have an excellent opportunity to compare your wants with the company’s values and culture and to reach an opinion whether or not it meets your needs.

After figuring out right job in the right place, final step will be associated with how to get the related job interview. Since you need to tell them some solid reasons about why you are good for that job, you have to be well prepared before the interview. Actually, interview will be the place to decide whether they will hire you or not. You must get all related information about the company and the industry in which the company operates. If possible it can provide a close connection with the interviewer if you can find the person who will interview you and information about him. Although it depends on what kind of job you are looking for, you must pay heed to dress neatly and cleanly. It is better to get there 20 minutes earlier with a good sleep. You must bring a couple of copies of one page resume and the resume must demonstrate the solid issues that you succeeded, awards that you achieved other than general things. During interview, interviewee has to demonstrate his/her asset points which show why he/she is right for this job and it is better to tell a story behind every asset point since people love stories. You must be prepared for common questions arise in an interview and have quick and smart answers for those. Some common interview questions are compromised of; “tell me about your background”, “what interests you most about this position”,“ what you can do for us”, “what kind of persons are you, what do you like outside of work”, “what makes you different from others”. Finally, when you mention about your compensation, you have to give range and tell where that range come from.
Fatih Mustafa Cerit
95-718 Professional Speaking
Sources:
- Professor Chris Labash class notes, Professinal Speaking
- How to ace your first job interview, http://www.cracked.com
- http://www.job-hunt.org/findingjobs.shtml
- Ace a job interview, http://www.soyouwanna.com
- Personal experience

Trying to find a job you want is a good way to understand yourself and the job market. At the very beginning, you need to list out all your skills and determine which kinds of businesses and industries need them most. If you don’t know much about certain area, search for it or ask around. Then you will be able to focus on searching those job posts which are best for you and the employer that will benefit from having you and your skills. Besides the public job posts, another important way to get a job you want is through your network. Ask you friends, relatives, and acquaintances if they know any available position that they could recommend.
Once you locate an ideal job post, try to research the company first. Make sure you like the culture of the company and the nature of the job fits your personality and salary requirements. Then if possible, you even could go further to find out information of the team you may join. For example, some technical teams have their own blogs which is a good way to know more about the team.

Then customize a specific resume for the position if necessary. Then send out an email to the recruiter to show your fitness and enthusiasm of the job. If they find you first, don’t miss the chance to know more about the job if they call. An interview will be on the way if they think you are suitable.


Preparation for the interview is the most important step that could determine the final result. Print out your resume. Figure out several stories you are going to tell if the interviewer asks questions related to your experience. Be there early to relax yourself a little bit. Try to make the interview a conversation between you and the interviewer, ask questions during the conversation to show your interest and understanding of the job. Finally you have to give your expected salary range if they ask or just ask in reply what they typically pay someone with your experience and education in this position.
You may ask about the decision date of the job offer at the end of the interview. Some may come out in a few days and some could last for months. Be a little patient with the result. If possible, try to find a part time job during that long waiting period. I have such kind of experience while waiting for the offer of my last job. Although HR and the line manager had made the decision that I was a good candidate but the team was busy with the project on site and the Project Manager and Architect did not have time to arrange an interview. I insisted that this is the job I am looking for so I kept contact with the HR and after two months an interview with the team was scheduled and I finally joined the team.
Sheng Zhao

Getting the job you want: from how to find the kinds of companies you’d want to work for, to how to get the job interview.
Jobs and job interviews are analogous to choosing a life partner - One bad decision on either sideu and you could land up in a very bad situation. Choosing the kind of company you want to work for is pretty much driven by the sort of profile you aspire to get into. The kind of job that would push you to wake up every morning and hit the office with zest and fervour is what one aims for in his/her career.

Prior to appearing for a job interview- one must assess if one is a good fit to the company; to do this one must have a decent understanding of what the firm does and where there is scope for one to fit in. This mandates some sort of a reconnaisance mission on the part of the applicant, since not all the information is available readily (on the internet). The interview process starts way before the actual job interview itself- wherein the applicant will start off with an interview for information gathering- trying to gather as much about the company from an existing employee, or through their professional networks. Key research items include information about the company, basic history/background, details about the work culture and what is expected of an employee etc.


Once all the background work is done, the job applicant can start preparing on the required skill sets that need to be polished for the interview.

Everybody would agree if I were to say that meeting a pleasant person has always been a happy experience. Pleasant appearance and calm demeanor are imperative ingredients to the recipe that can get you a job on the D-day. Brace up for questions like “ What is the reason for working at this particular firm, what makes you distinct, what sort of a person are you” etc. A nicely tailored resume and appropriate attire also makes a good first impression.
Once into the interview- one needs to be relaxed (yes, even for stress interviews!), since a relaxed person has his/her mind open for new ideas and direct thoughts than a cluttered mind. Stories fascinate one and all, hence stories and analogies are the best mechanisms to prove your point. This should definitely pack a punch apart from making the great ‘story-teller’ leave an impression on the interviewer’s mind.

Back to a day before the interview- One needs adequate rest to relieve all the travel stress and de-clutter one’s mind. On the day of the interview, reaching early to the place of interview is the first motive that can guarantee a shot at the title – A few hours too early than a few too late!

Connecting with competitors or just officials/executives at the lounge is a great way to break the ice and make oneself feel at ease (man is a social animal!)
The interview may speed through even before one realizes that it’s over, but make it a point to follow up on the next steps, so that one is aware if he/she can expect a call anytime soon before shooting out pestering emails on the status of one’s job offer. Last and most important step would be to rewind the events during the interview to judge if there were some comments that could be made better the next time, a better way of answering the question/query and asking a right question etc. Re-assessing one’s performance in a previous job interview would always be a valuable step to success in the job interviews to come.
Thejas Sasidhara Varier
MISM 2011

Have you ever paid attention to how some people always get the job they love to do? Some people will say, well it is all about luck or they have it in them and others don’t, which is true to some extent but the good part is, it is something, which can be developed and inculcated in everyone. So, what exactly it is that makes some people stand out of the crowd? Let us explore it step by step.

The most important thing for falling in love with what you do is, knowing what you want to do. It is the foremost step among all other steps on the road to success. It is like deciding the direction to sail in and if you do not get this one right, no matter whatsoever effort you may put in you will never land up in the right place. Most of the time people are so distracted by the options available and the choices other people make that they really can’t hear their inner call. The solution is to be relaxed and to introspect what all one loves to do. This can be done by recalling the past experiences in life and also friends can help in identifying the good and bad qualities in a person as it is them who can see the real projection of one’s personality onto the world. This projection is what will appear to the interviewing firms. After all it is originality and uniqueness, which sells and make us stand out of the crowd.

Once the interests are defined the next important step is to find for the means to satisfy those interests i.e. to look for the right companies. It is like match-making where individual’s interests and firm’s interests are supposed to be aligned well. By the end of this step a tentative list of suitable firms will be ready and a more detailed research for the selected companies is required. This will help the individual in finalizing the companies one should apply to on basis of things like location of job, average remuneration for the interested job profile, work culture etc. The number and priority of these things is more of personal choice and will differ from individual to individual.

The direction and the destination are defined by now, so the next important thing is to sketch the path i.e. the journey. The first step in this journey is to prepare resume and cover letter. A well drafted cover letter and a nicely structured resume can maximize the chances of getting an interview call. The cover letter should be short and crisp and should generate enough interest in the mind of reviewer to have a look at the resume. The resume should be projection of the better self and should give essence of what all you have got as a package. It is like your representative who gets the first chance to meet the company personnel, so it matters a lot to have an impressive resume. It should be quantifiable as facts speak louder than words and wherever you need to tell a story follow STAR (Situation, Tasks, Approach, Result) method i.e. explain the situation along with tasks allotted to you and how you approached them to attain the desired results. It is important to customize the resume and cover letter for every single firm you are interested in i.e. selectively highlighting certain points as per the job profile and the company profile. Keeping these points in mind while preparing a cover letter and resume will definitely improve the chances of getting an interview call.

A sound resume might give you an interview call but its’ not the end of the story. It is an opportunity for the individual and the company to evaluate and reassess each other as against what they have perceived through documents and papers. A lot of people miss this golden opportunity because of little yet important things they miss on. The goal of the company is to hire smart people who are pleasant in their demeanor and add value to the company. The company makes investment on every single selected candidate in terms of personal training and time and it is a loss to the company if an employee leaves, so it tries to select the one’s, which will maximize the return. Thus, it is important to take the interviews seriously and to prepare for them. One should have detailed knowledge about the company’s profile and the important facts and figures such as competitive history, technology used by the company, stock prices etc. Once the basics are over it is time to take as many mock interviews as possible as it will boost up the confidence and will help you focus on your weak areas during an interview.


According to famous author Richard there are five questions and having a good answer to all of them can surely fetch a dream job. The questions are – (1) Why are you here i.e. why this company? ,( 2) what can you do for the company i.e. what skills do you have to help achieve company’s goals? , (3) What kind of person you are i.e. what are your qualities as a person? , (4) What makes you different i.e. why should the company hire you and not the others? , and (5) Are you affordable to the company? The resume and cover letter should be drafted in a manner that brief answers to first four questions are covered in them. The fifth question about remuneration will generally occur during interview and should be answered wisely after researching the market trends on salaries for equivalent job profiles. While appearing for the actual interview make it a habit to sleep well the last night, dress in proper attire and to reach the venue 20 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. It is a good idea, if possible, to have a visit to the venue one day prior to the D day. During the interview it is important to be relaxed and to be your normal self and to take the interview as an interaction, an opportunity to know each other better. It is a good idea to keep asking the questions in between pauses rather than keeping them till the end. Last but not the least, if you realize that you made a mistake during the interview, it is always a good idea to write a mail describing that and a thanks note, who knows such small gestures end up in getting you your dream job.

Personal Experience
On the final note I would like to add my personal experience to help you learn from my mistakes. I have got an opportunity to work for three firms in three years and to be interviewed by several more during this time. Interviews should always be taken as learning experiences and thus it is necessary to analyze every single interview .The biggest mistakes in interview that I committed was to be very perfect, which demanded a lot of time and in course it made me lose my chance .Actually there is no concept of an ideal candidate for any job its just your approach that makes you the best Fit. You must have seen people from Electrical engineering working as software Developers; it’s only because of their way to hit the problem. We have to keep in mind always that even world renowned Champion Sachin Tendulkar sometimes gets bowled out at zero that clearly reveals the Perfection is a process .Once should appear for the interview with zeal in heart and belief that I am ought to not to know everything in world but I surely know what I can learn and where I can reach. Stay true, methodical, and honest and you will see luck turning your side.

Get inspired by lines of Robert Frost “Woods are lovely dark and deep
But I've some promises to keep
Miles to Go before I Sleep…
Miles to Go before I Sleep
Submitted By: IRA TIWARI

“You are hired” aren’t those the golden words which we all long to hear whilst we are preparing for the interview? So what do we do? How do we start to reach our final destination?
Job hunt can be extremely taxing, a quote that will help us in being more organized is “Get wise and prioritize”. This is because when we start applying for jobs as a student it takes priority over many things such as projects, assignments, presentations etc. In this blog, I am going to discuss the three crucial steps in attaining one’s dream job; Aware, Execute and Deliver i.e. AED.

So, we will make a start with ‘Aware’, this is the quintessential step as we do all the background work here and determine what we are apt for. In a gist, this step involves making three lists. The first list consists of all the positions we are interested in from the pool of opportunities available to us. The second list consists of all the companies which we want to apply to; the last step is the most important, tedious and ongoing. It involves tailoring our resumes that suits the requirement for both the position and the company.
Now that we have our resume(s) in place and the list of companies; we are ready to start the execution stage and begin applying. Even though this stage sounds straight forward, it’s actually highly deceptive. It is probably the most time consuming stage that requires tremendous patience, because out of 100 companies you apply to, the percentage of companies that will get back to you with a positive reply is relatively low due to stiff competition.

After days or months of waiting one day finally you get an email or a call saying that you have been selected for an interview and our final stage comes into play now. We have the brand, we have the skills; it’s time to deliver. It is not Ok to take any interview casually, thus we need to be equipped to be able to handle any sort of question. The basics are to be aware about the position, research about the company and know your expectations.

On the D day, make sure to reach the interview location well in advance and besides that just sit back, relax and be yourself. Some important pointers to keep in mind are asking relevant questions when required, trying to be flexible, relating questions to real life examples and lastly thinking before answering. In the aftermath, on your way back home, try to analyze your interview and make points for future reference (which hopefully you won’t require).
I would like to end this blog by stating two important things: be prepared and be yourself.
Swati Singh

Getting the job you want
Imagine this very popular pair of shoes. Abundantly advertised, endorsed by many celebrities, everybody wants them! It’s simply everything anyone would ever want to walk on. Now imagine you buy a pair of those at very good price, which doesn’t mean you didn’t pay a considerable amount. You take them home and try them on. After a while you realize they don’t fit you well, but it’s ok you’ll get used to them with time or maybe they’ll adapt to your feet. After some days you simply can’t wear them, you have splinters on your feet and you keep stumbling into things when wearing them. You end up realizing that what seemed to be good for everybody is not necessary the best choice for you too.

You don’t want this to happen to you when you are looking for a job. What you want is to find the perfect job, but the perfect job for you! You might say that’s easy, the hard thing is getting that job. Well, on contrary of what happens with shoes, when you find a job that’s a good fit for you, but really a good fit, you will also be a good fit for that job and therefore you are in a very good position for getting that job.

But how do I do this? First start by figuring out what are your main assets. This should be easy; we do it all the time. Then think of what you expect from the place were you are going to work in; what kind of work place, what kind of culture do you like? What kind of schedule you’d like to have? At this point some places may appear into your mind, but still your range is too wide and you don’t have a sure shot.

Your next step will be to ask yourself what are your main drawbacks. This is harder because we don’t usually concentrate in our defects. The good thing is that now you can eliminate those companies or institutions that would demand from you things you cannot deliver. For example if you have trouble adapting to new work environments, you wouldn’t like to be a consultant that changes office every few months. And to complete this process you would like to identify which drawbacks a company might have, that other people care about but you don’t mind. Let’s say if a company needs to send people to China, and you don’t mind living there, you might be a very good candidate for that position.

When you manage to find a place where you fit, both in term of assets and weaknesses, then you can be sure that you will enjoy working there and that you will perform great there. What’s left ahead is accompany your resume with a good cover letter that explains all this and use every resource at hand to get those into the right hands. Then you’ll probably get that interview you need.
Jose Pedro Undurraga