All posts by cmoore39

Personal and Professional Identity

Self-Brand and the Workplace

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From my past work experience, self-presentation is vital for success. I have been on hiring panels and if an interviewee came in to the interview with poor self-presentation (flip-flops, wrinkled clothes, odor, or overall sluggish, ect) their qualifications did not matter. They were also immediately removed from consideration. We are no different than a product on a shelf at the local supermarket. Though the off-brand detergent may clean better, be more environmentally safe, and have crazy superpowers, it is less likely to move because the initial appeal from the visual brand presented. By this I mean, though you may be more qualified for a position, you are likely to be overlooked if your “brand” does not present a competitive element. This can be achieved by putting effort in  self-presentation.

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I feel pressure to conform to this idea because, as I stated before, in order to compete with others you much express you brand as the superior brand. This means presenting yourself as the most professional in respect to the job you are trying to attain. This is not to say that every employment opportunity requires the same type of brand. For example, when I worked for Johnson and Johnson the self-presentation was much different that at CNN, where my sister worked. We must adjust our self-branding to compliment the intended brand of our employer. Sometime a company may have several brands working together. For example, my sister currently works for Adult Swim. Her department, Adult Swim Sales, requires a different brand than, say, the Adult Swim Creative Dept. 

I think that a connection between self-presentation and quality of work does not exist in truth; however, because standards are so strict in the work place, the two are falsely connected. The idea that how you present yourself and your quality of work are connected is ridiculous Unfortunately, the standards in place require the quality and brand to compliment each other in most cases.

 

Blog Project Prompts, tl;dr, Uncategorized

When to Cut It Down

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I cannot count the times I have heard a fellow student, friend, co-work, or stranger on the street say, “This is too long!” when responding to content in a brochure, article, newspaper, etc, and decided the information is not important enough to read. In fact, I am ashamed to say, I have said this many times myself. Even while being guilty of this, I do take the position that it is the readers responsibility to engage and examine longer works; however, I do not see this as a legitimate reality. By this I mean it is not a reality for readers not only take responsibility, but also act upon that responsibility. The attention span of the overall public–being extremely short– seems to overrule the readers responsibility and forces the creator to chose to fight against the reality or succumb to it.

Creators now have to decided whether to have their composition viewed by concentrating the content and shorting the readable information, or “fighting the good fight” and publishing a longer work. It seems that the choice would be based off of the necessity the information and demographic of the intended audience. If the
information is vital to the public good or knowledge, the creator will have to take the attention span into consideration. For example, it would be virtually useless to publish a multiple page document, wordy brochure, or text heavy website for disseminating information about Ebola to the public. Though the information is seen as important and desired, it would not be absorb by the reader due to the lack of concentrated information. In this case, a simplified and direct format would be best for the dissemination, perhaps bullet points, short video, or images based information.

I have discovered a download from Google Chrome that will summarize long articles down to a few sentences automatically. I believe this reflects on the current generation. We are not only in need of fast delivery of information, we need the information condensed to such a degree so to absorb only the basic facts and move on to the next. Is the a positive characteristic or negative? Are we efficient and “hyper-productive, ” or are we missing a elements of information?  Does this have an affect on social skills and personal relationships?

Copywriter, Project and Role Selection, Researcher

Blog #5 Statement of Interest

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Researcher / Copywriter

For the purpose of this project I would like to be considered for the role of Researcher. I believe that I am strongly suited for the role because of my research and organizational skills. I have filled the role of project manager many times for past projects and have been successful in that role; however, I would like to try a different path with different goals, challenges, and responsibilities.

 

My second interest is copywriter. I am currently enrolled in the editing class here at GSU. This would give me the opportunity to exercise both my writing and editing skills.

I am available  through email and phone. I am prompt with responses to questions and concerns.

Audiences and Literacy

Improving Workplace Literacy

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When considering literacy in the workplace we must consider the demands and expectations of the workplace in question. For example, a general manufacturing workplace would not require the same level of literacy as, say, a corporate environment. It is evident that multimodal literacy is becoming necessary for all aspects of the workplace; single textual literacy is being phased out. For the purpose of this blog, I would like to explore the literacy requirements and potential changes need for general manufacturing. This includes non-college graduates, middle to lower class populations, and labor based employees.

For the past three years, I have worked at a Johnson & Johnson plant working with manufacturing specifications and employee training in the absorbable suture departments. The specifications (Specs) were technical in content, extremely lengthy, very reading intensive, and required a strong textual literacy. Other than the spec, digital based documents also were used. Employees were expected to have the literacy necessary to operate the digital documents and extract the information necessary to complete a manufacturing task effectively. After the manual task was complete, the employee was to enter data into a computer. The interface for the program was not exactly complicated to someone with a functional digital literacy; however, to the group of employee that did not have such skills, the task was almost impossible.

 

Though I completely agree with Glynda Hull’s assessment of the educational improvements of the youth, I find it a much more difficult endeavor to increase the nontraditional and necessary literacy of the current workforce. Hull explains the movement of education that focuses on the necessity of multimodal literacy; however, the current workforce, according to NAAL, is subpar when it comes to functional literacy. I find workplace literacy, in today’s world, to be a multimodal literacy.

The only way to improve the production and literacy of employees is to educate. Though that sounds simple, the actual process may prove to be difficult. The National Workforce Literacy Project, a project based in Australia, focuses on the improvement of workplace literacy through studies and application. The measures recommended and put into play by the NWLP consisted of condensed courses offered in-house and outside the workplace, workshops, and required literacy training as a condition of employment during the preliminary hiring process.

 

The NWLP’s research yielded preferred methods to increase literary in the workplace. The results, if implemented, would require the talents of a technical communicator. The top methods consisted of in-house literacy and numeric development, document redesign, and adjustment of expectations. Document redesign is especially interesting to technical communicators. The multimodal documents that are being used by employees may need adjusting to create an easier and more accessible flow of information. I am wary of adjusting the expectations due to the idea that illiteracy should be worked around as opposed to remedied.

 

 

 

 

 

Hull, Glenda, Ed. (1997). Changing Workers: Critical Perspectives on Language, Literacy, and Skills. Albany, NY: SUNY Press

“National Workforce Literacy Project.” A I Group. Australian Industry Group, 1 Jan. 2010. Web. 19 Sept. 2014. <http://www.aigroup.com.au/portal/binary/com.epicentric.contentmanagement.servlet.ContentDeliveryServlet/LIVE_CONTENT/Publications/Reports/2010/8783_Workforce_Literacy_Project_Report.pdf>.

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2007). The Condition of Education 2007 (NCES 2007–064), Indicator 18

Beyond the Resume

Beyond the Resume

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In the modern age, traditional methods of communication are being pushed out of the mainstream. The traditional resume is slowly become obsolete in many areas of employment. This is not to say that the traditional resume is not appreciated and functional in some ares of employment that are still attempting to hold true to the dated method.

It seems to be, that within some companies and agencies the type of resume that is seen as acceptable and appropriate depends on the specific job that is being applied for.  For example, at Turner Broadcasting, a applicant seeking a creative position in, say, Cartoon Network, would probably want to take a more alternative and creative design route when preparing a resume.  This are

Resume

examples to consider for such a position. If the applicant’s intention leans toward a creative position, a traditional resume will not express an understanding and ability to work in such an environment.

With that being said, I recently spoke to a manager at Encompass Digital Media regarding general hiring and resume expectations. It is expected that the applicant present the information in the most appealing way possible (creative and alternative if appropriate); however, a more traditional approach (be that paper or online resumes) should be presented in order to show flexibility but also professionalism.  It is considered that an online version of a more traditional resume and professional based online present means the applicant is both suitable for consideration and technologically updated. For this particular employment, it is important to be able to interweave both traditional and alternative methods of resume building.

 

When considering my own resume, I lean more toward a profession online present that follows a more traditional approach to the format. My employment interested follows more closely with employers that would be searching for clear-cut professionalize and less creative alternatives. I do concede to the idea that online versions are more effective and visible. The most impressive resume that I would consider for my own purposes would be the VisualCV. It allows for multimodal communications. This would allow me to have greater control and guidance of the communications with the potential employer. The VisualCV still presents a professional overview of the information, but also allows for sound, charts, and clips to be added. This would make the resume stand out and communicate a great deal more information than the traditional paper based document.

 

http://fixcv.com/how-to-build-an-effective-online-presence-part-1-your-resume-2478.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/insanely-creative-resumes-2011-6#same-for-this-one-12

http://www.businessinsider.com/insanely-creative-resumes-2011-6#joe-kelso-says-his-resume-never-failed-1

http://mashable.com/2010/10/05/digital-resumes/

Blog Project Prompts, Blogging and Social Media in the Workplace

Blog Post #1: Great Publicity or Foul

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Corporate blogging offers  exceptional and cost efficient advertisement.  Corporations have discovered that through the use of blogging they can not only become more familiar with the consumers but also create “two-way communication with their stakeholders (Strother 243).” This use of social media allows the corporations to appear caring, humane, and trusting.

However, though there is a great deal of evidence leading to the conclusion that bogging has become a godsend to battle the harsh, detached, and often destructive beast that is Corporate America, the blog does pose a threat to business. Michelle Evans, Journal of Legal Studies Education, inquires in to the risks associated with corporate blogging and the potential for legal issues and overall monetary loss. She states concern that corporate instituted regulations on blogging may deter damaging use of social media by employees, but could be ineffective.  (Evans 25).  I ask the question: does the benefits of blogging outweigh the potential havoc?

It is apparent the corporate leaders are torn with the question. IBM created “Blog Central” as a internal base for employee morale boosting (Strother 244). For the purpose of internal use, I find the risk of corporate harm to be minimal. However, the use of social media for external communication offers a wide variety of risk and benefits. The benefits being advertisement and publicity, study of public opinion, and a simple way for potential customers to find helpful information (Strother 244). The benefits, at this point, seem to outweigh the risks significantly.

Though the benefits are clear and attractive through the perspective of money generating, the risks hold a great deal of threat to the corporation. Corporate secrets, movements, and developments can, and have been, prematurely offered to the public through the anonymous forum of social media– namely bogging. Apple suffered a great deal when a blogger outed the release of the Asteroid (Strother 246). Such corporate leaks can cause damage to the corporation. Stock can decrease, flux in public opinion, false information can be introduced.

Granted, not much can be done for non-employee blogging; however, it seems that a great deal of negative results from bogging have originated with employees or non-employees posting to the corporate blog. One could make the argument that regulations and guidelines should be created and enforced in relation to blogging. Both Strother and Evans offer a sample of regulation or guidelines. However, it is evident that the court system overwhelmingly rules in favor of freedom of speech over corporate interest in the matter of social media and corporate collaboration.

From the readings and evidence, I have difficulty conceding to the idea that corporate blogging offers more benefits and risks. Perhaps with functioning and legally enforceable regulation, the benefits would outweigh the risk. I pose this question: Can any regulation be realistically implemented that would serve to protect the interest of the corporation while not infringing on the constitutional rights of the people (consumer and employee) ?

 

 

 

 

Evans, Michelle. Journal of Legal Studies Education. Mar2012, Vol. 29 Issue 1, p1-25. 25ps

Strother, Judith A., Zohra Fazal, and Melinda Millsap. (2009). Legal and ethical issues of the corporate blogosphere. IEEE Transactions On Professional Communication, 52(3), 243-253