Mock Interview Reflection

So, this week's big assignment was a mock interview that was one-on-one with our instructor, Ms. Rogers. As a senior who is about to be in the job market, preparation for this assignment was minimal because I already have my resume complete and proofed, I have cover letters galore, and I've been doing interviews in my sleep lately. The biggest benefit to me of doing this mock interview is having the confidence of another interview under my belt. Ms. Rogers did point out one piece of information I brought up during the questioning that should be on my resume, but otherwise she said I did an excellent job. The only part of the process I have left to complete is the thank you, or follow up, letter, but, again, that's a practiced art for me :)

Post-Presentation report

Well, my presentation went well. I ended up talking about competition fourwheeling. I think I covered all the basics. Of course, there was tons more info that I could have given, but it was only a 5-minute presentation. My classmates seemed to enjoy it -- especially the video of Chris Durham that I opened up with. They asked a bunch of questions when the PowerPoint part of the pres. was over with. It makes you feel good to see that other people find something that you're into to be interesting. Even if they could care less about the minute details and would never actually go to an event, they still asked questions and there were emotional responses to what I had to say. Plus, I think its funny to see people's eyes get big when they see what we can create a vehicle to overcome. The only real problem with my presentation was that I couldn't pay attention in any of my classes the rest of the day; my mind was on 4wheelin'.

progress

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." - Henry Ford.

So, our group is progressing. We haven't had many deadlines yet so there hasn't been a ton of work to get done. But we're now presented with a few days of no class in trade that we will meet with our groups and get some work done on the project. I think this is going to be a good thing because it will not only force us to meet together and do work, but it will also allow me to work on the project without feeling like I'm wasting time that I should be putting into studying for my tests this week and next. Clarification: It's not that this project is not important to me; It's that the deadlines for this project come after my tests on the timeline.

My only problem with the project as of right now is that we haven't gotten to talk to our clients yet. It's entirely possible that we could completely design and mostly build our version of the Web site by the time the client does come to meet us. And then imagine the frustration when we find out that what we've planned and built doesn't at all match up with what they want. Man..... I hope that doesn't happen. I know that their schedules are busy and we don't want to backload the semester, but in an ideal circumstance I would rather not do a single minute of work without first finding out what the client wants, i.e., our objective.

So, we'll just truck along with it this week and get done all that we can. The good news is that I feel like success is inevitable...

Just in from SC DNR: Topic Hunting Season opens Feb. 11

for this week we're supposed to discuss what topics we may choose for an upcoming presentation for the class which must include a PowerPoint presentation. so my first thought was to do my presentation on how to do a PowerPoint presentation, but then I had visions of sitting in my childhood barber's chair staring at the mirror in front of me which reflected the mirror behind me which reflected the reflection of the mirror in front of me which reflected the reflection of the reflection of the reflection of the mirror behind me which... which made me have to sit down.
So after I recovered from the haziness of the eternal loop I began to consider other topics. We're supposed to choose something we're knowledgeable about because the point is the presentation, not research. I'd say the things I'm most knowledgeable about are fly fishing, jeeps, the bible, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and deer hunting. A requirement of the assignment is that we must be able to talk about the topic for at least 5 minutes. So that doesn't help me narrow down my topics.
After some thought I decided that the Bible wasn't the best topic because its much too easy for someone to misunderstand an informative speech on a religious topic as preaching. And then flyfishing was out because its really boring to talk about unless I can actually do some flycasting and a 9 foot rod in a room with 12 foot ceilings doesn't really work. Everyone knows how to make a PBJ so my speech on that would simply be 5 minutes of me drooling -- and its a long time from 11am to lunch time.
Some people find deer hunting offensive so I think I'll focus down on Jeeps. I may talk through the workings of the internal combustion engine. I think it'd be a good topic because its systematic (it has a precise flow of operations), there should be plenty of good visual diagrams available online for the PowerPoint slides, and I can easily take 5 minutes to explain it. I'm sure most of the guys will be interested and most of the girls will just go to sleep -- including the professor, who will hopefully wakeup just in time to give me an 'A.'

Day late and a dollar short...

So, this may officially be the busiest week of my life. At least until next week gets here. Between tests, homeworks, resume, lectures, travel plans, career fair, and the much-anticipated return of LOST I have no time. zero.

Class seems to be going pretty well. My group gets along well, and I think we have good ideas. At this point I think its simply time for us to sit down together outside of class and get some solid work done. Just not during the next three days (see above paragraph). My plan of action is to get my more pressing work done during the first of the week and I'll try to do some research on the Sunshine House and local homeless organizations at the end of the week or this weekend. For now I'm going to go study project management process groups... shalom