Keep Going, You've Got This

November 2nd, 2020

Over the past week in ISM, I contacted professionals through email and phone, learned about the different things that can make or break a speech, and recollected a past interview with a professional and wrote an interview assessment on it. In contacting these professionals, I was able to further develop my communication skills, as well as develop my self confidence. In watching a speech by Dalton Sherman, I learned that certain aspects, like using the right tonality, incorporating humor, and how to get your message across, without being too direct and straightforward about it. In conducting an interview assessment, I was able to analyze the things I did well and not so well in when interviewing with the professional, and took note of the things I need to do next time to be better prepared for future interviews with professionals.

As a result of what I’ve learned about the do’s and don'ts of speeches, one question that’s come to mind is how I can prepare for upcoming speeches and presentations I’ll be giving in ISM. I know that for this week, we’re giving our “Quik Trip” presentations, and I’m a bit nervous because this speech is supposed to be 4-5 minutes along, and incorporate a strong introduction, and even stronger conclusion. And I’m stressed because I’ve never had to talk for so long about anything, and I think I won’t be able to meet the time requirement, and that my content won’t be sufficient enough. I created an outline for the points I want to talk about, but it’s still nerve wracking. As a result of conducting the interview assessment, I got to analyze what I should and shouldn’t be doing, on a deeper level. So, from what I understood, I know my content well, and know the specifics of the career/field I want to go into. What I shouldn’t do is complain about how nervous or stressed I am, because it makes the overall feeling of the interview very negative, and can be seen as a turn off to the interviewer.

Some challenges that I’ve faced during the past week were contacting the professionals, as well as successfully preparing for my Quik Trip presentation. I contacted the professionals through email and LinkedIn, but I found that it was hard for me to get responses back and set up interviews. I think a big part of this was because I wasn’t consistently sending follow up emails, or constantly following up with the professionals via LinkedIn to make sure I was getting responses back from them. With that being said, this week I will work on contacting them not only via email and LinkedIn, but also through phone calls. In doing this, I think I will have a better chance in hearing back from them and scheduling interviews, since I’m utilizing all of the different platforms professionals use. Additionally, being consistent and sending follow-up emails, as well as leaving voicemails and voice messages will show the professionals that I genuinely care about their time and am interested in talking with them to learn more about my career and field of interest. In terms of preparing for my Quik Trip presentation, I was able to create my outline for what I want to discuss, but I’m still worried it won’t go the way I want it to. I practiced walking through the points, and I think I have the content down, but the time requirement scares me because I know I tend to speak faster when I’m nervous, especially when I’m presenting something. I’m just going to give my presentation with the mindset that I know what I’m doing, and that I’m more than capable of doing this.

In doing those things that I mentioned above, I was able to be successful in developing my outline for my Quik Trip speech, and was able to mentally prepare myself and create a plan for successfully contacting those professionals . By creating the outline for my presentation, I was a little less stressed about what I would have to say, because I had an outline to go off of to organize my information and talking points. By creating a plan and setting aside 30 mins each day to email, message, and call the professionals, I’m less stressed out about having to get everything done in a timely manner.

In the next week, I need to work on being confident when I talk to these professionals via email and phone, both so I can get a response and so that I can schedule meetings with them to begin expanding my knowledge of the field of accounting, as well as to start learning about what it’s like being a CPA on the daily. I also need to work on keeping my communication and presentation skills in check, so that I can successfully give my Quik Trip speech. By ensuring that my speaking skills are still good and working, I won’t have to worry (as much) about how I’ll sound when I’m talking, or what I have to say when giving my presentation. By keeping my presentation skills up to date, I can work on things like using hand gestures and the appropriate facial expressions, so that I can successfully deliver my presentation.

To conclude this, I would like to say that in working on my outline for my presentation, as well as setting aside time for contacting professionals, I just want to know if there’s a more efficient way to tackle my work in ISM. I don’t want to fall behind in conducting my research on my topic of interest, but I also want to be able to complete my weekly assignments in a timely, efficient manner (as I’ve been doing). I think I’ll explore different methods, and decide which one works best for me at the end.