“Growing Leaders” by Tim Elmore is an article explaining how an internship is not just an internship, but a year-long interview. A very unique way to look at it that I would have never thought of. Beside making a good impression, there are other ways we can make our year-long interview a great one. The article goes into explaining how an internship is an important first step towards a place in the workforce. Students should have the opportunity to experience an internship because it is a more rewarding experience than most think. Elmore introduces that an internship should be a long-term interview. Instead of treating it like a job, we should be assessing ourselves on our performance. Are we putting our best foot forward? How are we showing motivation or devotion to this internship? What qualities am I missing or need to improve on? These are all essential questions to make sure we are making the best impression, just like a job interview. Additionally, these are things future employers are looking for rather than are you doing your job.
When assessing this compared to my mentorship, I did take away a few important aspects mentioned by Elmore. I want to make my mentorship opportunity an experience that sets me up further down the road in my profession career. With this being said, I want to make mistakes and learn from those so I can improve on them during my internship rather than in the real world. This will just give me more experience for the future. I want to continue improving and building my initiative to establish myself in the Aviation community. This will help me start networking with individuals so I can have contacts for possible future job positions. Since my mentorship is something I am passionate about, I will continue to show enthusiasm and bring a new spirit to my flight school. The most relevant topic covered by Elmore was his emphasis on responsibility. This, by far, speaks to my character. I always take responsibility for my actions and want to have the drive or motivation to pursue my passion. In conclusion, these aspect will help me have a good reputation as wells as contacts for my future in this career. Also, it will make a good impression on not only myself, but my flight school. This is an opportunity that I have earned and I will continue to take it seriously and treat it as an year-long interview. Tim Elmore's Blog: http://growingleaders.com/
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The work ethic test was a very interesting and eye-opening experience. While reviewing the basics of work ethics, I thought about how I am like or unlike the given examples. The test asked very short closed ended questions about certain topics such as dependability, cooperation, motivation, passion, courteous, hard-working and more. Each question I answered with honesty and evaluated myself based on the given answers choices. Some of the questions were aspects of work ethic that I never thought of. My answers varied from question to question. While answering the questions there were a few things I thought of that I need to improve on such as being resourceful or patient. On the other hand some questions were a perfect representation of me such as being responsible, likable, friendly, orderly, productive, and efficient just to name a few. Below are my test results: After taking the test I was relatively pleased with my results and how they compared to the example of males. I thought that my interpersonal and dependability scores were accurate representation of me. Although my initiative score was something I wasn't expecting. Now learning a little more about my work ethic I can take into consideration that I need to show a little more initiative, enthusiasm and ambition. These are things I am going to use the mentorship program to focus on. I believe this was a great learning tool for students to understand more about their work ethic and how they can improve on it.
Communication is an important element in the professional world. How you communicate to others can show a lot about your personality, people skills and experience. Communication is an aspect that work places look for in future candidates. Around our family, friends and employers we all communicate differently among those settings. First, when communicating with family members we often do that in a semi-formal way because we are all used to and know each person in our family very well while showing manners and respect to your parents or elders. My family is close to me so this semi-formal communication is allowed and we all do the same for one another. In my family we are all comfortable with speaking to each other in this way. We all use the proper tone of voice and listen to one another talk. Body language may change depending on the conversation subject. Also, usually, texting might be more casual and have slang. In contrast, if the setting is different such as at formal events we know proper communication. My parents have raised me to be very polite, respectful and professional person when speaking to people other than close friends or family.
Communicating with your friends is slightly different. It is in a mostly casual or sometimes even slang way. Again most people are comfortable speaking in a certain way with their friends. It is important to air on the side of precaution so you do not embarrass, hurt or offend your friends. Each person should be well aware of others and what maybe bothers, upsets, or offends them so you don't cross the line. Sometimes while talking with friend you might not listen to them or interrupt them or start another conversation. Additionally, we might grunt or change our body language or communicate via text in a casual way. It is still important to follow the basics of communication even in this scenario. It is key that you show respect to your friends and always be the best representation of yourself when communicating with them. Lastly, communicating with an employer or your mentor should be in a formal and professional way. You should always be polite and respectful to them as they are your employer. The essential forms of communication should be used. All verbal communication should be done professionally such as "Good morning Mrs. Blank" or "Yes sir" etc. You should always be listening to them while maintaining eye contact with a good posture. Don't swing your arms or look around, show respect to the person speaking. All emails, phone calls and text messages should be in a formal style using proper language and grammar. I do these thing when communicating with my mentor or any other person in the professional world. It is key that you follow the essential form of communication because it is the professional way to communicate and shows that you're good at sending information and receiving it as well. Without these important skills you might misrepresent yourself and show future employers that you are not a good communicator. Communication is an important aspect of the real work and it is crucial that we all have developed skills that can be used in the professional world. The article "Making the Most of Your Internship" was a great piece of information about beginning your internship. It went in-depth on the things you should do and don't to make your internship experience a great one. I thought this article provided a lot of pointers with explanations on how you will stand out among others in the mentorship program. A majority of the information applies directly to me. I am always striving to make the best impression and I appreciate this article because it gives tips for success in the professional world. Some of the tips it gave were things that I had previous knowledge of, however it gave a nice explanation on why. Some of the things I already knew were to be on time, dress appropriately, be professional, be responsible, and take initiative. These are all things that I work hard doing and it was nice they brought those tips up. The rest of the information was all new and things I never thought of. For example, "Building Your Portfolio" is a great recommendation for a future profession career. Having a collection of things that define you and what you have worked on give a future employer more consideration for a job place. As stated in the article these things could be "projects, papers, presentations, tasks, assignments, references" and more. Additionally, "Networking" is an important aspect in your profession career. Meeting other people gives you contacts and connections to a career path that you are interested in. Establishing a connection with new people can place you "to meet people at all levels of your organization and to learn about their experiences and career paths." This an important step towards the best internship and future. In conclusion, this article has provided me with a lot of new knowledge as well as some prior knowledge about the things to do and don't do during my internship. I think it a great piece of information that will help prepare students for their future in a professional career. |