There are many benefits that one could reap by preparing for an interview

When applying for a new position, many factors come in to play. Price does a good job explaining the “dos and don’ts” to give insight into various areas of an interview that readers may not have thought of (Price, 2014, Fall). Out of the ten ideas proposed, one that would be most challenging to me is practice. I feel confident about how I hold myself and think to be pretty knowledgable, so I tend to go into interviews as myself. I do not focus on the questions that will be thrown my way, and I do not get too stressed out about trying to portray some positive image. Overall I know I have organizational worth and can bring a lot to the table if hired.

It would be essential for me to improve this area because organizations are pretty much going off of first impressions. Since they cannot physically see what positives I bring, they only have my word and appearance to go by. By not preparing, I am not utilizing effective business communication. I am solely relying on my already developed skills to portray some image to the interviewer. In the future, I will try to practice more so I can answer adequately to make a good impression. Just because I am confident with my skill set does not mean others would see my situation the same. I learned a while back from an old master sergeant whose name I forgot is, “separation is in the preparation.” At the time, we were talking about awards and standing out against your peers, but as time passed, I realized that this ideology could be applied to every aspect of life. If you truly want to separate yourself from everybody you are up against, then you must prepare more than everybody for what you are up against.

There are many benefits that one could reap by preparing for an interview. Jager, dos Santos, de Oliveira & Dias (2018) state, “the selection process seeks to map knowledge, skills, attitudes, personality characteristics and other factors of the candidate’s personal, professional and academic life, which are linked to the possibilities of adapting to the organization and to the future position to be filled (p. 582). By meeting all expectations of an interviewer, you may seem fully qualified for a position at the first meet. However, preparing may portray that you exceeded the interviewer’s expectations, which potentially can make you a top prospect for the position. Additionally, going into an interview feeling prepared puts lets stress on the brain so one can focus on whatever it is they practiced. That is why it is important to remember, “separation is in the preparation.”

References

Jager, M. E., dos Santos, A. S., de Oliveira, C. T., & Dias, A. C. G. (2018). Workshops about Curriculum Preparation and Behavior in Interviews. Brazilian Journal of Management / Revista de Administração Da UFSM, 11(3), 581–594. Retrieved from
https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.5902/1983465914318

Price, E. (2014, Fall). BUSINESS ETIQUETTE THROUGHOUT THE ORGANIZATION. Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology, 29, 15-16. Retrieved from https://search- proquest-com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/docview/1680233184?accountid=32521

reply 2:

There are many factors that play a viable role in business ethics. Learning how to utilize them all can be the result of a person getting a job or making a sell of their product or services. As a leader in an organization, I can say that business etiquette displays the character in a person when one can display it sincere. One of the top ten do’s and don’ts that is most challenging for me has been remembering the name. “When meeting new people, it is important to remember his or her name” (Price, 2014, Fall). Whenever I would meet someone in a business perspective, I at times could not remember their name within the same day. This can make for a difficult approach if I had to approach someone and ask them their name again. It could also make those feel as if I was not listening when they first give me their name or that I really wasn’t paying attention to them talking.

It was important for me to improve this etiquette based on the amount of new people and colleagues that I interact with daily. One thing that I did to improve my name remembering was to associate it with something. I would choose another person that I know well, an actor, a figure or a staple and even place a label on that person to give me some form of sign of what their name was. This has really helped me with name remembering when it comes to a corporate etiquette setting. For example; I met a colleague at our global lean fair and his name was Pete. As I knew I would be meeting many new people, I associated his name with one of my goats named Petey. Not that I was associating Pete as a goat but for just name recognition and correlation.

Also, I could look at the person and know them by face but could not remember their name even after meeting them several times. “The ability to remember faces and names involves several cognitive processes, including the successful initial visual processing and attending to information, encoding, storage, and retrieval” (Mitchell, Shirk, McLaren, Dodd, Ezzati, Ally, 2016, p.408). These methods correlate names with items or figures which can be beneficial with the name recognition. Being able to make the eye contact and address a person by their name displays a personal contact between you and that person. When you address a person of business by their name, it also portrays you as a great listener and have the mindset to store information and solid remembrance skills.

Reference

Mitchell, M., Shirk, S., McLaren, D., Dodd, J., Ezzati, A., Ally, B., … Ally, B. A. (2016). Recognition of faces and names: multimodal physiological correlates of memory and executive function. Brain Imaging & Behavior, 10(2), 408–423. https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.1007/s11682-015-9420-6

reply 3:

Week 2, Discussion Post 1

The article by Price does well to explain what prospective job seekers should and shouldn’t do from a business etiquette point of view. In the article, Price defines business etiquette as “the behavior that is expected by employees in a business environment” (Price, 2014). While some items on his list come naturally to some, while some items require the end user to fine tune in order to master these skills.

As I have been part of the professional working world for about 15 years now, some of the items on this list are naturally easy for me, while some of them are intimidating and require me to make adjustments. Since I have been with my current employer for almost 6 years now, I have had the opportunity to post for positions within the organization and have been fortunate to laterally transfer from one department to another, and got promoted from a line level frontlines associate to a management position. I feel that I do a good job in preparing for a role and doing my research beforehand. I also feel I do a good job in regards to remembering the name of those interviewing me and shown respect by shaking the interviewers hand before and after and genuinely thanking them for their time and consideration.

One of the biggest areas of opportunity for me, that showed up on Price’s list is making the right impression. I feel that try to over achieve in this area and put too much thought into the process and this causes me to fall short. I also feel like I could do a better job with choosing the right words. What I mean by this is that I know in my mind what to say but turning my thoughts into words sometimes isn’t the easiest. Lastly, knowing my audience is an area of opportunity related to this field. Case in point, I presented in front of my management team recently and presented based on metrics. Several members of the management team who have a strong analytical mindset were able to follow along while others who need to be shown differently tended to lose focus of my presentation.

Source:

reply 4:

Every style of writing and speaking has a place and time that is appropriate to use it in. It’s only appropriate to use a first person voice when writing in a journal or reflective type writing. This is because you are reflecting on personal own experience. In most academic writing though, a third person writing voice is needed. 3 elements of an academic voice are avoiding the use of “I”, this is important because it allows the writer to remain unbiased. Referencing scholarly sources to enforce the statement being made, this is also important because its gives the writer a credible approach. Lastly, the writer should avoid using bullet points because this does not allow for conventional paragraph structure that conveys more information. The goal of research writing start with an idea or statement, or a stance on a certain topic. Working through the research to prove the stance or statement you started with. Although sometimes, it does not always work in that direction, sometimes the evidence leads you in the opposite direction. This process is call “following the evidence” and in some cases, the writer may flip to the other side completely.

reply 5:

The “Types of Writing” section of the Ashford Library is a valuable resource in determining how to tailor your writing to a specific type of communication, such as e-mail communication and executive summaries, to name a few. The page also illustrates when to write using a first person voice (example: “I am writing this Discussion Post) and when to write in third person voice (example: “Andrew Hoeter is writing this Discussion Post.)

The website also explains that first person writing does well in situations where you are writing professionally and that third person writing is necessary in situations where you are writing on an academic scale. Simply put, I would use first person point of view in my personal and professional conversations whereas I would use third person point of view when utilizing “academic voice” in an assignment such as a research paper or similar.

The website also goes into greater detail on what “academic voice” is and when it should be used. Using “academic voice” requires the user to avoid “I” statements and to develop and structure your paragraphs. Lastly, using academic voice requires the user to develop an introduction including a thesis statement which summates what the paper in question will be in regards to. The conclusion, as well, wraps up the paper and restates the thesis. These three items, in particular, are crucial in developing a quality paper that “grabs” the reader.

In closing, the goal of research writing is to gain a greater understanding in regards to a topic. A key piece of these assignments is to research a topic and understand what is credible and what is not. Using sources to support or refute the topic in question will provide credibility and provide support either for or against the argument in question. Completing research removes any subjectivity and personal opinion and solely focuses on the facts.

reply 6:

The Ashford Writing Center offers excellent resources that can assist students in becoming better writers. This tool can be used to help students identify when to use first person or third person point of view, the proper tone of communication in papers, and the goal of research writing.

The appropriate time to use first person is when you are doing professional writing, such as a journal/reflective essay, or a personal response discussion post. This is because in these papers you are the speaker and use “I” and “me”. When doing professional writing, a person may use personal opinions and narratives as evidence for the point you are trying to make. The appropriate times to use third person is when you are doing academic writing, such as a research paper. Academic writing includes using scholarly sources to support the paper and has an introduction and conclusion.

Academic Voice refers to the proper tone of communication. It is a formal way of writing and speaking, straightforward, being professional, and using words that are not complicated. The three elements of the “Academic Voice” are declarative statements, avoid casual language, and develop an authoritative register. The steps that I will take to incorporate these elements into my academic writing would be to avoid “I” statements in my writing. To prevent casual language, I would be more formal and avoid contradictions like “don’t” or “can’t”. As for developing an authoritative register, I will do more research and understand the material to better support my statements.

The goal of research writing is to gathering of information from different sources and present the facts associated with the research. It is essential to avoid personal opinions on a topic, as this is not factual information. It is vital to follow the evidence and use it to reach a conclusion because the evidence is the facts of what was discovered while doing the research. When you do the research and follow the evidence, you will come to the right conclusion.