At the end of the quarter, you’ll post to Blackboard an approximately 500-word, single-spaced written report outlining the concepts from the course which you’ve found most meaningful and describing ho

XiuQi Yao

Professor Habich

Mgmt 350

March 19, 2017

self-reflection

I am an international student from China. In China, students simply to study in the school without any internship of part-time work until they graduate. As a result, after the graduation, the students experience the first time of joining the society and taking a job. As an international student, I haven’t developed communication skills and I did not even know how important they are before I took the MGMT350 class. I am now really grateful for the opportunity to take this class and I appreciate it very much.

The first thing I learned from the class is how to write a resume and a cover letter. Before the class, I thought resume and cover letter is the same thing which is similar to an article needed for introducing oneself to recruiters. I did not realize how important the resume and cover letter are and the extent to which they might define the success or failure of job searching process. I realized that the resume and cover letter are one’s first step towards the future life. During the class, I have realized that writing a resume or cover letter is not similar to writing an article. In this process, it is crucial to choose the most suitable style for your resume. One can choose a form of functional or chronological resumes and organize it either as a direct or indirect report. Then it is necessary to create clear points and think over headlines for each part. I think that a thorough resume should demonstrate applicant’s competence and be logical, which would help it to capture recruiters eye-sight. As a result of the class, now I know how to structure a cover letter and a resume and which information to include in them. Thus, I would be able to create a professional and attractive resume as well as to write a cover letter that would draw the attention of potential employers and help me to move forward in my career.

The second thing I learned from the class is how to accomplish work in a team. While being a part of a group, we can collect more ideas from the group members, so the work efficiency would be increased. Such understanding implies that establishing a successful group first requires setting a common goal that can attract people with the same interest and then defining an intercommunication channel. For instance, I chose a case study about Whole Foods Market on blackboard and I met with the team members who were also interested in this case study. Thus, we have created a discourse community focused on the case of Whole Foods Market. We communicated, shared our ideas, were looking for useful information to combine it with our own ideas to complete the case study successfully. This appeared to be an effective way to write an assignment since one gains more knowledge and has more ideas to think about.

The last but not least finding was that one needs to develop communication skills, including writing as well as speaking. At the beginning of the class, I used to give the professor a paper with numerous grammar and word usage mistakes. Under professor’s guidance, I was very lucky to get a chance to improve my writing skills with the help of the writing center. During the class, I realized that communication is not only about knowing what one wants to express. It is more important to express the ideas clearly and create a message that the receiver would understand. This task is even more complicated in the case of oral speaking. I acknowledge that speaking is very hard for an international student, especially public speaking. But since I am now studying in America, I need more exercise, and this is what I also received in the class. After a presentation in the class, I understand that it is highly important to speak. Speaking often tends to help to improve oral English as well as to boost confidence and provide more courage. This happens if one’s speech is accepted, for which I am grateful to my classmates and professor, encouraging me to challenge myself.

In overall, it is necessary to admit that taking this class appeared a challenging experience for me. Before the class, I did not understand the importance of communication, which also implies not knowing the principles of communication within a group. In this situation, the class helped me to learn important things and to make attempts to apply the gained knowledge on practice. I have learned about writing a successful resume and cover letter, which might help me in my career. Similarly, I gained a chance to practice my writing and speaking, which is an important experience for me as for an international student. Finally, the class showed me the value of working in a group and the essential role of communication throughout the whole process. The gained experience has provided me with the new knowledge that I would be able to apply in the future, so I am very grateful for the class and the opportunity to participate in it.