ABET (4): an ability to communicate effectively
Three types of documents that I expect to be preparing regularly in my professional workplace career are my resume, professional portfolio, and a project report. Oral presentations are critical in my future career. It is often easier to express a thought, strategy, plan, or an idea through words and a presentation, than a long lengthy document. Being able to communicate orally effectively can determine the success of a group.
Co-workers, clients, and superiors are three types of audiences that I will have to communicate with. I would communicate with my co-workers with friendly respect. They are not lower nor higher than me. In order to successfully work together, mutual respect and trust must be obtained. With clients, I need to have the dominant hand in order for the sale to fall in my favor. With clients one must also be respectful, honest, and helpful. With superiors, one must show the highest level of respect. Because they are of higher rank, you must prioritize their requests over clients and co-workers.
My appreciation of quality communication skills has increased during my engineering studies. A lot of my professors are highly intelligent people, however some of them are poor in quality communication skills. Some of the classes I have taken are intrinsically very difficult, however the professor teaching them have been extremely difficult to understand due to inability to teach. Now when I take classes with professors who can communicate effectively with students, I learn to appreciate it much more.
The document I have chosen is a power point presentation on locust swarms. After doing research on the topic for a semester, I put together a short power point presentation to teach not only my peers but also my Professor on what I learned. This presentation is similar to what I might be doing because I will have to explain what I am doing and what I learned. This semester long project has taught me how to design and perform presentations in front of a variety of audiences.