What should I throw at Hui Juen?

Let me introduce you to my friend, Hui Juen. She is a smart, nice and athletic handsome korean boy girl who talked me into taking ES2007S classes every Monday and Thursday at 8 AM. Thus, I would wake up early on those days and while preparing to go to school, tell myself I should throw things at her for talking me into taking an early class. But once I'm in school and get to see my classmates, I would change my mind and decide to greet Hui Juen with a huge smile and a bright "good morning!".

Why did I change my mind, you may ask. My class is awesome, that's why! I would like to thank my tutor, Ms. Lim, and my wonderful classmates for making ES2007S lessons enjoyable. Monday and Thursday mornings began in a fun-filled manner because of all of you (: 

I learnt a lot about communicating effectively and doing presentations from this module. When I first started off, my presentations skills were not that good. My body language wouldn’t be appropriate and I did not speak well-enough to be understood by the audience. But I can see this has changed a lot (for the better, of course!) after ES2007S lessons. As seen from my infrastructure project presentation, I speak more clearly and am conscious of the way I stand and present myself.

I also picked up job-related skills such as writing application letters and resumes. And I got to brush up on my interview skills. I have never attended an interview before so the mock-interview session we had in class was a real eye-opening experience. Now I know how I can improve!

ES2007S also gave me a chance to work with people I have not worked with before. Thank you Charmian, Franson, Yi Fei, Jing Yuan and Hui Juen for the pleasant working experience! I have learnt a lot about teamwork from all of you. 

Thank you, everyone, for making this an awesome semester (:

After typing this entry, I think I should throw Hui Juen a huge hug and thank her for introducing this module to me (:

Finally!

If you're an ES2007S student from NUS, you would know what I'm referring to. If you're not, then let me give you a brief introduction. I have just finished a presentation for my ES2007S Professional Communication module and am glad it went well. And relieved.

Although I am glad it's over, I will miss working with my group members - Yi Fei, Jing Yuan and Hui Juen. All the Sunday morning meetings and the Wednesday night meeting, though tiring, were enjoyable and productive. Everyone always came prepared for meetings and was focused on matters we had to discuss. And there were the jokes and laughs. Thank you for the good times (:

I was quite nervous before the presentation started. Unlike the peer-teaching presentation, this one was more formal. Also, the content of this presentation was largely based on primary research and self-conceived solutions. So I was worried about the question and answer (Q&A) section. Although my team members and I had prepared for it, I was afraid I would answer in a silly manner. Thinking back, I could have done better in the Q&A session. I was still quite nervous when I was answering questions. So I ended up stumbling over my words and sometimes repeated myself although it was not necessary to do so. I think I should practice answering questions more before presentations next time. Perhaps I could get my group members to ask me questions and then I could practice answering them.

There were times when I thought I was speaking too loudly. Sometimes, I was not sure whether Ms. Lim and my classmates sitting nearer the back of the classroom could hear me. So I tried speaking a little louder. But when I did so, I wondered whether I came across as someone speaking too loudly (and forcefully) in order to sound convincing. Again, I should practice more for this. I don't think I spent enough time for this during my preparation stage. Well, now I know!

Overall, I think my team put up a pretty good presentation. We were focused on our content, mindful of our body language and how we spoke, and were basically on our best presentation behaviour. Our slides and transition between presenters were pretty  fluid. And we were dressed smartly (: We also arrived early to setup our presentation slides and finalise our standing positions. I must thank Vanessa, Rina and Shiyun for helping us to check whether the words on our slides could be read easily. It was nice of you (:

In conclusion, I have learnt a lot more about presenting from this experience. I was also able to identify areas for improvement, which will definitely come in handy for future presentations.

There! I have said what I think. Your turn. (:

Inter-Cultural Conflict

I would like to begin this post with a quick experiment. Imagine you have just visited your friend in Australia and are now on your way to the airport for the flight back home. Your Australian friend kindly offers to give you a lift there. Would you decline the offer - perhaps to save him/her the trouble? Or would you accept it?

If you had declined the offer, you just might have offended your friend without even realising it. Here’s a recount of how I came to know about this particular aspect of the Australian culture:

When I was visiting my brother in Sydney last year, I got to meet his landlord’s family. We got along very well and the trip was a pleasant one. On the day of my flight back to Singapore, my brother and I had just finished dragging my bag out into the hallway in preparation to leave for the airport when the landlord dropped by. He offered to give me a lift to the airport. However, I felt it to be troublesome for him and quoted this as a reason while politely declining the offer. He made the offer again, but this time, my brother accepted it for me before I could decline.

After the landlord left, my brother explained to me that, in Australia, people might be offended if we declined such offers. This was because part of their culture is in helping out their friends and family in ways like these. Declining their offers would appear as if we were not accepting their friendship and kindness. This was new to me as, in Singapore, we decline such offers simply because we do not want to inconvenience our friends and family. It has been hardwired into us. However, the same gesture is interpreted in a different way in Australia, thereby showing a difference between the two cultures.

I was lucky my brother was there to smooth things over before I risked offending the landlord.

Cover Letter

Cover Letter

Writer's name and contact details

Recipient's Address

1st September 2010, Wednesday

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in to apply for the Civil Engineering position in the 2011 Transportation Engineering team that was advertised on the AECOM job portal. As such, I have attached my resume and academic transcript to the e-mail accompanying this cover letter, for your reference. I am highly interested in the area of transportation, as I find it to be a highly dynamic and engaging field, and hence highly compatible with my approach to engineering projects.

Having recently completed a highly-sought-after internship at AECOM Singapore Private Limited (Singapore Concourse) Transportation Department, I have obtained a deep working knowledge as to the functions of the department, as well as AECOM policies. During the course of this internship, I found underground transportation networks, such as underground rail networks, to be my primary area of interest. Being the type of person who passionately pursues her interests, being given the opportunity to work in this field would see me actively engaging the project and spurred to see it to successful completion.

Having played competitive floorball during my junior college and university life, the strong spirit of teamwork I have developed has translated into better team dynamics. I strongly believe this will allow me to work effectively and professionally with the transportation team, thereby boosting productivity and ensuring smooth working relationships. During these past few years, I have taken the initiative to develop my interpersonal and people-management skills, honed in my capacity as the deputy sports director of the NUS engineering club during the organisation of university-level sporting events. I believe this will aid me in my future career path, where well-oiled workplace relationships and management of personnel will contribute to a pleasant working environment, and hence boost productivity for the company.

In addition, I am capable of producing quality work even when working independently, as has been recognised in my university assignments. I take the initiative to learn new things and continually improve myself, as I believe that doing so will allow me to contribute more effectively to my team. This was reflected during my internship at AECOM Singapore Private Limited (Singapore Concourse) where I learnt how to use the software PLAXIS (2D) on my own accord so that I could assist in more project tasks and request for more responsibilities. I am highly task-oriented and complete all work to the best of my ability. I maintain high levels of work-ethic principles, including giving importance to punctuality in attendance and meeting deadlines.

I am confident that working at AECOM will be mutually beneficial as I have full confidence in my abilities to positively contribute to the success of future projects, while in turn being nurtured into an even more capable and professional engineer by the AECOM working environment. I would really appreciate the chance to further show you how my work ethics and skills make me highly well-suited for this position. I can be contacted at any time via phone and email. Thank you very much for giving due time and consideration to my application. I have attached my resume and academic transcript for your perusal and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully,
_________________

Job Advertisement
(key points in bold)

Requisition/Vacancy No. 50560BR
Position Title: Graduate Civil Engineer - Transport
Job Category INTERNSHIP / VACATION STUDENT / GRADUATE / SPONSORSHIP
Capability: Transportation
Office Region Australia
Office Location AU - Adelaide, SA
Job Description
Do you have a Civil Engineering Degree and want to work for a leading global design firm?
AECOM now has an opportunity for a Civil Engineer to join our Transport Engineering team in 2011
It’s a big challenge. If that challenge excites you, step this way…

At AECOM, our people are united by a common purpose: to enhance and sustain the world’s built, natural and social environments. In practice, that means planning, designing and managing projects including the parks, communities and places that connect us, the industries that support us and the major infrastructure that moves us. In fact, all the facilities that countries need to sustain economic and social growth. It also means protecting the natural environment and leaving proud legacies for tomorrow.

AECOM is a global company with local presence. We thrive on finding smarter solutions to some of the world’s most challenging projects across buildings, design, environment, water, mining, planning, energy and transportation. AECOM is 45,000 people in over 100 countries. In Australia and New Zealand we are 3,600 people in 20 offices.


Why is AECOM one of the best places to take your next step forward?
It could be our supportive and collaborative work environments? Or our dynamic teams led by some of the best minds in the business? Or maybe it’s more to do with our award winning projects across a range of industry sectors? There’s a world of opportunity and benefits when you work with AECOM. That’s why we’re more than just a place to work.
What’s on offer?
Our Adelaide office is looking for a final year Civil Engineering student to join the AECOM Transport Team. Working in the Transport team gives you the opportunity for board and diverse opportunities within a supportive environment. Projects we are currently working on are:

• Darlington Transport Study
• Northern Expressway

As a graduate with AECOM you will gain experience in the following areas:

• Traffic engineering
• Transport planning
• Highway design
• General civil design work
• Opportunities to work on major Transport projects

What you need to do?
You will need to submit a cover letter discussing your achievements, university experience and career ambitions, your resume and academic transcript.
We look forward to hearing from you!
The Adelaide Graduate Recruitment Team

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

This story involves two characters – Alpha and Beta. Alpha and Beta are classmates and good friends. One day, their class was given a month-long assignment that was to be done in pairs. Naturally, Alpha and Beta paired up for this task. They were excited about working together and doing well for the assignment.

As luck would have it, the sports season coincided with the duration of the assignment. Beta, who was part of the school’s Track & Field team, therefore had to attend regular and more intensive training sessions. As a result, she could not meet up with Alpha on many occasions to work on their assignment. And even if she could, they were only for brief moments. This frustrated Alpha as she felt that she was doing most of the work and Beta was not contributing much to the assignment. However, Alpha kept this to herself and did not share her thoughts with Beta.

Two weeks into the project, Alpha felt overburdened by the workload and decided to confront Beta about it. As Beta was exhausted from training the previous evening, she was in an unpleasant mood when Alpha confronted her. When Beta showed her irritation towards Alpha, the latter got angry and stomped off. They were not able to resolve the problem.

From this situation, one can see that the resolution of interpersonal conflicts depends largely on the people involved. In this case, Beta’s mood and the way she expressed herself (her irritation) did not help the situation at all. In fact, it worsened the situation by annoying Alpha, who was already unhappy with Beta. Alpha too did not make things easier as her body language (‘stomped off’) showed no sign of resolving the conflict.

The words and actions we use to communicate can either resolve or worsen interpersonal conflicts. But that is just my take.

How about you?

Why Effective Communication is Important to Me

You know you are communicating effectively when you do not receive that many "huh?"s, "what?"s and blank stares. Of course, it could also mean that the person is not listening to you. But let us be slightly positive here and assume it means you are communicating effectively.

"What is this 'effective communication'?" you may ask. Well, it refers to the delivery of ideas in a clear manner that ensures the listener gets the correct message. And why is this important? Here is my take on the issue.

Effective communication is important to me because it ensures my ideas are delivered clearly and correctly, makes interaction easier and even helps to create a good impression of the speaker. And I believe that you, the reader, would agree with me that these three reasons explain, rather clearly, why effective communication would be important to everyone.

Now let us move on to explore the three reasons mentioned above.

I feel it is important for a listener to understand the speaker’s ideas correctly. And what better way is there than for the speaker to communicate it clearly? I agree that the listener’s understanding is subject to other factors such as their own listening skills (e.g. were they distracted? Were they paying attention to the speaker?) as well as their surroundings (e.g. did their location/environment affect their understanding and judgment?). However, I believe effective communication has the ability to overcome these “problems” and help the speaker get his or her ideas across to the listener as clearly and correctly as possible.

When the speaker is able to deliver his or her message clearly and thereby allow the listener to understand it correctly, they (the speaker and listener) are able to communicate on the same frequency. And this makes interaction easier between the two of them, which then brings me to my second reason as to effective communication is important to me. I believe effective communication is essential to having a smooth conversation between people instead of a mere talking session where the parties involved do not understand what one another are saying. I mean, what is the use of having such a session if you do not understand one another? But I have to give credit to such sessions for they provide entertainment to listeners. The video below is a good example to prove this point.

Last, but not least, effective communication is important to me as it helps to create a good impression of the speaker. Interviews describe this point well. When an interviewee shows confidence in both his/her external appearance as well as answers while speaking clearly and coherently, he/she projects a good image of himself/herself to the interview panel, thereby creating a lasting positive impression. I believe all you readers out there who have either attended or conducted interviews would agree with me on this point.

One might argue that the reasons I have stated are applicable to communication as well. They do not. Communication does not ensure ideas are delivered clearly and correctly. It just means that the speaker has stated his or her case. It does not mean that the listener has understood it correctly. This then makes interaction difficult between the parties involved. And this might result in the listener getting a different or even wrong impression of the speaker. It is like a domino effect of sorts.

And this, dear reader, draws the line between communication and effective communication.