Week of September 19

Communication

Communication between different groups of people that I come into contact with every day ranges from texting with my friends, to accepting scolding from my parents, or even listening to the teacher lecture during class. All of these scenarios are different. They way I communicate with my friends is often informal, being that they do not care that how I talk too much. But, as I communicate with my teachers, employers, or adults around me, I often make sure that I use a formal tone, and listen more than I talk. I also talk more around people I am comfortable with, like family and friends, but talk less around people, like employers and teachers, whom I feel less familiar around.

Much of this difference in communication style has to do with the different expectations that each group has for me. Where a friend has expectations such as being friendly, an employer has expectations that may include respectfulness and obedience.

When I am talking to my mentor, I try not to talk over them and interrupt them. I always try to enunciate my words to the best of my ability to make sure they can clearly understand what I am saying. As well as I can, I also make sure that I can find things that we relate on as people, and not just mentor and intern. This last act will make our relationship more personal, which is important to make sure that we can get along easily to hopefully make the most of these experiences.

Work Ethic

This assignment was a test to determine how good of a work ethic that I have compared to other individuals. This is important because a strong work ethic is critical for me to become employed and then stay employed.

The results from this test are very close to what I expected. I knew that I would be lower in interpersonal skills, than I would be in initiative. I understand that I need to improve these interpersonal skills by becoming more comfortable among other people, especially around possible employers, because employers absolutely do not want people working for them that have no idea how to effectively communicate with others. I need to remember that I have to be able to act naturally in an unnatural environment, which ties right back into the interpersonal skills that I need to develop.