Effective communication allows me to convey messages, such as negotiating with the private & public sectors for sponsorships. I need to present how we can reciprocate our sponsors. Any errors in this will result in renegotiation, reduction or withdrawal of sponsorships.Communication allows me to lead my team of marketers effectively. We need to know what we can offer to external organisations, whether publicity or networking opportunities. I've had the privilege to work with the most hardworking and dedicated people, such as in TalentQuest 2010 and RunNUS 2010.
Other than that, effective communication plays an important role in interviews and presentations. I've just attended an interview for NOC Bio Valley last Thursday, I was asked: You are a helicopter pilot, and you'll be saving people from a sinking yacht. Rank the people that you plan to save; father, best friend, a pregnant prostitute, army general, surgeon, undergraduate, sportswoman, & 4 other people, plus reasons for the ranking. I chose to save the pregnant prostitute first. The interviewer asked why I prioritised the prostitute over my father, I replied the prostitute is pregnant. The interview went on for over an hour. I believed that the interviewers were looking at communication skills over my CAP.
During one of my trips I organised for the Subang Jaya Buddhist Association (SJBA) back in Malaysia, I befriended a manager working at an American bank. He advised, "Grades will get you the job interview, it's the communication skills that will get you the job." His reason was people who join CCAs gain soft skills that wouldn't be taught in lectures.
Effective communication is just one of the many important skills that I seek to continuously learn, as it has helped me to form new friendships, negotiate with external parties, as well as face interviews in university.
$W?h0w$
During one of my trips I organised for the Subang Jaya Buddhist Association (SJBA) back in Malaysia, I befriended a manager working at an American bank. He advised, "Grades will get you the job interview, it's the communication skills that will get you the job." His reason was people who join CCAs gain soft skills that wouldn't be taught in lectures.
Effective communication is just one of the many important skills that I seek to continuously learn, as it has helped me to form new friendships, negotiate with external parties, as well as face interviews in university.
$W?h0w$
Hi there!
ReplyDeleteFound your post a pretty interesting read (:
Your impressive CCA record has certainly placed you in numerous situations where communicating effectively (with several different parties) was essential.
I agree 100% that the soft skills of being able to communicate well give one an edge over others, particularly in the working world.
It was particularly intriguing that you ranked the pregnant prostitute as #1 on your 'to-save' list. Particularly as prostitutes do have social stigma attached to them. However, they are people all the same, and have just as much of a right to live as you and I. It shows that you aren't one who discriminates or judges superficially though, which is really cool.
Hi Wyhow,
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned a very interesting point about CAP and communication skills. Which one is more important? One year ago, I thought it was the former. Now I have changed my mind. It is indeed true that the grades will only get one into the interview. During a sharing session conducted by Prof. Tan, Dean of Office of Student Affairs, he showed us how employers rank the qualities they are looking for. Communication skills is the Number One. And guess what, CAP is ranked lowest.
How strange? We work so hard to pull the CAP, but it is not really counted.
It is really the time to adjust our priortities!
Yuen May - Thanks for your comment! Just to add on, an occupation is not a reliable way to judge someone's life value. This is because the prostitute might change jobs in the future to raise her child, perhaps as a clerk or administrative officer. In another scenario, the prostitute might continue doing what she does and dumps her child.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion is, someone's occupation does not tell everything about someone's personality, or make someone more "valuable" than another.
Xi Xi - Thanks for your feedback! It's a bit ironic tough, that students work so hard to improve one of the least desired qualities by employers. Unfortunately, most students might feel the need to improve their CAP due to peer pressure.
ReplyDeleteThanks, WhyHow, for this interesting post.
ReplyDeleteYou certainly apply the issue of the value of effective comm skills to your own situation, on multiple levels. What I seem to miss in the opening paragraph though is context. It would have been helpful if you had explained exactly which CCAs you are referring to. It would also be useful to elaborate on your role in each and the nature of the projects with which you are involved. You communicate about project directors and marketing directors and the like as if your readers already know.
This omission in itself shows the values of effective writing skills and how what we assume the reader knows may not be the case.
You elaborate on the Bio valley contest as well which I find interesting. However, I feel like you don't give me the punch line as far as the debate. Was there a resolution?
Finally, you also report on a comment from a trekking trip participant that resonates well in this discussion. Yes indeed!
I appreciate your effort!
Your post is quite persuasive and it is very easy to read. I think you have got more than enough chances to communicate with different levels people and your CCAs and application to Bio-valley draw my intention most. I think you may consider do a minor or double major in business since you are so interested in marketing and I am curious about that why you want to go to bio-valley?
ReplyDeleteHey Wyhow, some interesting experiences you have there especially the NOC interview.Though your choice of pregnant prostitute is surprising somewhat, what's even more fascinating is how you could go on to justify it for over an hour. That in itself reflects on your communicating prowess I suppose. an elaboration of what went on in that hour would have surely added more spice like for instance on which parts did ya'll not agree. In any case I'm sure he must have been impressed and all the best with that!
ReplyDeleteHi Wyhow,
ReplyDeleteWhat a interesting read on your impressive CCA records.
I got to agree with you that the soft skills that you gain in CCAs are invaluable and would not be taught in classes. Its ironic that often what we do out in the working world have little of what we learn in school. This will raise the question of our priorities in school.
However, I feel that no matter which faculty we are from, or which modules we take, there is a element of skills that we can learned. For example in computing modules, you learn how to be analytical in analyzing algorithms. For arts modules, you learn to see things in different perspective and support your views on it. For maths, it teaches us how to be comfortable dealing with large complicated numbers.
Hence, despite learning the soft skills, CAPs are really important as well not just because it will look nice to employers but it is also a prove of the skills that you will have that is reflected in your degree.
Brad - Hi Brad! Thanks for the comments. During the last academic year, I was involved with Sports Club, Science Club, and NUSSU sub-committees, specifically BoulderActive and CLimbNUS (Climbing Club), TalentQuest (Science Club), RunNUS (Sports Club), Freshman Inauguration Ceremony and SAVE (NUSSU).
ReplyDeleteHi Wyhow,
ReplyDeleteI read your post as well as all of the comments. It is quite interesting to know that we all have someone like you, so experienced in real life situations of effective communication. You seem to focus a lot on your career life which is very acknowledgeable. Like you mentioned, it is very important to have a command over language so that you can present your talent and skills in this very competitive world. Your judgement of saving the prostitute first must have gone through debates as I have also gone through it before, so I know. But it was good after you replied to May and gave your comments on how you personally reason your answer.
We all shall learn from you and do guide us. :). cheers!!!
Hi Wyhow,
ReplyDeleteFrom your post, I can really see that you are a CCA person .Maybe I can use a metaphor here"major in CCA, minor in CAP", haha, I am just joking.
No matter what we prioritize, CAP or CCA, the most important thing is actually to know what you really want in life. Each person should identify his own goal in life first. Some people may want to be an entrepreneur and he is most satisfied by making his own business. Thus, for him, soft skills are the most important things. Some people may find the beauty of Math and want to be a scientist in the future. Then for him, CAP is the most important thing. So how to prioritize is really an individual decision.
Nonetheless, we should have a balance of the two and not to go to extremes. If one person is very strong in academia but don't know how to interact with people around them, it is not good enough. On the other hand, if one person has excellent soft skills but has no technical skills, he is also not a good candidate.
So just keep a balance!
Hi Lulu, I have been told that I should be doing business, but I may have found out about my interest a bit too late, so I'll have to commit to Mathematics for now.
ReplyDeleteBio-Valley is not only related to medical products, as there're also also many types of start-ups there. For example, there're companies related to brand advertising, marketing etc. One of the reasons people often link Bio-Valley wth medical products is because of the name. Same goes for Silicon Valley. There're also plenty of other companies other than those related to IT.
Hi Vinod, thanks for the comments! I do hope I get selected too:)
ReplyDeleteHi Xing Quan, CAP is also vital, but CCAs come hand in hand with CAP. Studies should never be neglected.
ReplyDeleteMy lecturer for MA2219 (this semester) mentioned that, "Everything you will be learning in this module won't be of use in the working world, unless you plan to do research or post-grad." So what I'll be learning will be forgotten in a few years.
I do like taking modules from FASS, one of them was SSA2211. One of the questions was "Why Singapore was considered strategic? Was it because of human factors or global forces?" I enjoyed writing that essay as I learned to think very deeply about the arguments that I make.
Hi Alvin, all the experience I've gained, was learnt the hard way, unfortunately. I do have the tendency to focus more on CCAs rather than studies, which is what I'm trying to fix this semester.
ReplyDeleteHi Nanhai, truth is, I still don't know what I really want in life, I'm just doing what I like for now, and hope for the best in the future:)
ReplyDelete(Most of the time, my plans for the future will be forced to change due to prevailing circumstances. I wasn't planning to go for any student exchange programmes in NUS, but instead run for elections for one of the faculty clubs on campus, then hopefully run for NUSSU elections the following year. That way, I would never have to take 5 cores a semester and risk my CAP going down. Now I'm attending interviews for a one-year internship in the US, which will force me to take 5 cores a semester, since I can't map any of my math modules there.)
Hi Wyhow, my apologies for not posting a comment earlier. I finally found some time to really post a proper comment.
ReplyDeleteThe importance of communication to you is quite more of a requirement for your job/position. It is great to know that you place communications as one of the top priorities, otherwise nothing can be done.
Nevertheless, I agree with Nanhai that we must strike a balance. Even though we may not have a dream to pursue to what we want in life, interpersonal communication is important. As long as it involve with someone other than yourself, you will definitely need it. Hope you will find what you want to do, and may you succeed!