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Everyone’s posts have made me feel incredibly behind. I’ve been focusing so much on my poster that I haven’t given my portfolio much thought.
In previous classes, there’s been a specific format. The instructor had a apecific order or wanted you to organize it to showcase what you feel is your best work. It’s difficult for this class because there is absolutely no direction outside hard requirements. Most of my writing is done internally, for things that won’t be published, and it’s not necessarily polished. I’m having a difficult time deciding what to include.
Because I’m having such a hard time choosing, I’m not sure what kind of story I’d like to tell. There isn’t a specific “genre,” either. The organization I’m working with is literally starting from scratch and just winging everything. Although that might be an interesting spin…
Thanks to everyone for the helpful suggestions and terrible as it may seem, I’m glad we’re all facing similar problem.
Like Lea Ann, I really enjoy personality tests. It’s particularly difficult for me to translate my interests and skills into workplace language, though. I also have a hard time determining what jobs would be the best fit for my skill set; it seems as though I only truly enjoy obscure jobs (such as quitely editing articles and documents or setting up Doodle polls for group meetings). However, it seems as though the chapter in PTPC is a good jumping off point for learning how to ask the right questions.
As a few of us have mentioned, I think it’s very important to keep the rhetorical practices in mind. It is easy to just list your accomplishments and writing samples on portfolios, but they really are telling the story of yourself and even selling yourself. I think it might be helpful for myself and others to look into and study the resources available to us from these readings and each other. For example, from reading the other posts, I’ve learned about some blog sites I may not have encountered otherwise that may provide more of what I’m looking for in relation to posting and organizing my blog and making it user/potential employer friendly.
The theme this week appears to have been performance reviews, which threw me at first. We’re interns, so we won’t really be having performance reviews. Not in the sense that raises or promotions hang in the balance. But the more I read and the more I thought about it, I realized the readings could be quite helpful .
Yes, most of us aren’t at career jobs. We might have had reviews in the past, but likely they were a quick review to tell you that you needed to promote more of the company credit card to customers. In our current internships, we’ll be getting performance reviews in about a month. It may not seem important, but everyone can use these reviews as practice for performance reviews for later jobs.
At first, the Messmer reading seemed a little irrelevant. As I continued to read, though, I understood that these techniques may not be ones I personally use with people (until I am the CEO of Lantz Publishing, of course) it is helpful to be prepared for any type of review. Different employers will use different techniques, and you won’t know until it happens, but it could be incredibly helpful to know what to watch out for.
“Preparing for Your Performance Review” was the second most helpful reading, I think. It was helpful to see how I should respond to a variety of situations in the actual review. It also allowed me to consider how I should prepare for my review this semester and reviews in the future. I rarely feel like there’s someone there, holding your hand and telling you what exactly you need to do, so readings such as this one helps entry-level workers such as ourselves get a sense of what work life is like after college.
I’m feeling many of the same apprehensions as other members of the class about the amount of work I’m expected to do and how much I’m expected to know.
My absolute biggest fear is that I will disappoint my intern adviser. He places a lot of faith in me and my abilities and always speaks very highly of me to his colleagues, people I’ll be working with, too, and I’m afraid he thinks I’m more capable than I am. I know this is my own insecurity but I’m not sure how to get past it. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Otherwise, I really enjoyed reading Kendra Potts’s “My entry-level life.” I felt as though I could identify with her on a lot of points (from the pale skin to the desire to work in a small, quiet environment) and the fact someone else is working the job I’m likely to have and succeeding gives me hope that I can do the same as I enter into the work force. And with some luck and nepotism, I can rise through the ranks to my dream job.
