#6 Final Reflection

Three months ago, when I was looking for modules to bid for, the first and foremost thought on my mind was how would I be able to find a job. So naturally I was looking for a module which would help prepare me for graduation soon, something which is severely lacking in nus.

Professional Communications, I'm happy to report, does this and so much more. Firstly, I'm sure that everyone will agree with me that the module really boosted our presentation skills, even for those that did relatively worse for their last presentation, yours truly included. But let me reflect on why this is so. Everyone had to present a total of three times, and this really proved the old adage "Practice makes perfect". The small class size also made it easier to present and boosted confidence, because everyone knew each other towards the end. Because I have already reflected on oral presentation in my previous blog post, I shall not go too much in depth into it here J

To be honest I have never done any proper business proposal writing nor pitching and selling it afterwards. Then again, maybe the authorities who set the core modules curriculum didn’t deem it essential for engineers to learn how to write a proper proposal. Leave that to the business people, they must have thought. But in the first month of my internship, my supervisor was horrified to learn that I was severely unequipped with such skills (which she thought students should already know). See, there’s this gap in today’s society: there are certain skills that employers expect school to teach their students in university, but school expect students to somehow miraculously master it themselves, but students find great difficulty in obtaining the proper resources and personnel to prepare themselves sufficiently for. But luckily for the privileged few, Professional Communications help to bridge this gap.

 At the end of this course, I am proud to say that I have learnt many valuable things, and most of them from unlikely teachers: my own peers. Through their presentations, I have gained much insight: from discovering myself; the A to Z of job interviews; how to write a business letter / survey / application letter etc; to being a good listener and how cultural differences may lead to ineffective communication, etc. But most of all, the most valuable and significant things I have learnt are not what was meant to be taught: it’s the value of friendship. ES2007S was one module that I have always looked forward to, because it’s enjoyable (a far cry from you-know-what modules) and interesting, and I’m sure many of you reading this will agree too J

So anyway, I’d like to say thanks to all my classmates who took this course with me, especially my group mates: Ka Yan and Edwin, for having the infinite patience to explain things to me, tolerating my stubbornness and still being so sweet; to Andy and Juan for tolerating my busy schedule and never once complaining – you guys are great! It was really a pleasure to be your groupmate; to all my other classmates and readers: for enduring my rants and listening while I was giving voice to my opinions (something that I was afraid to do until now); and lastly to Radhika, for being so considerate, patient and wonderful! You’re a wonderful facilitator and role model. It was particularly enjoyable to listen to your stories and I’m sure everyone agrees too.

Till then! J