We part ONLY to meet AGAIN

They say no one is where he is by chance or accident. This was foremost on my mind as I was reflecting back on how I landed up with this module. ES2007S sure wasn't my first choice for my 6th module that I was intent on taking up. I applied for 2 other modules in which I was painfully outbidded for in the earlier rounds of CORS. 5 it shall be, I reassured myself. Cue then, the mass mail informing us about Professional Communication. Like a moth to a flame, I was instantly attracted to the module description and frantically emailed Brad and Ms Regina, facilitator of CELC about the possiblility of signing up for it. I got a positive approval on the Friday of Week 1. An uncharacteristic leap of faith at the eleventh hour it may have been, but here I stand at the finish line with only 1 regret. I could have got the module for 1 point had I just browsed through my mails earlier :P

In my first post, I highlighted my desire to be an effective communicator with friends, family and in a professional setting as the key reasons for taking up this module. After 13 weeks, I stand by this main idea and can safely say that I've come a long way. The communicator in me is definitely far from the finished article and leaves much to be desired, but the most crucial experience is the exposure to the learning curve. And it has been steep at times. Prime example being that of writing resumes, application letters and handling job interviews.

I have scourged for plenty of tips and tricks to ace the above mentioned from a wide variety of sources be it a guidebook, online material and even friends' sample letters and resumes. All of them though paled in comparison to what ES2007S had to offer. I take immense satisfaction from being more knowledgeable about the do's and dont's regarding these topics. Whether it was the peer teaching session or Brad's straightforward, detailed and at times brutal treatment of the content, there were plenty of takeaway points. All of which hold me in good stead for a successful application for an internship programme during the next 3 month vacation period.

A nagging inner compulsion also means that I have to render a glowing tribute to the sometimes underplayed life skills that we have picked up over the course of this module. The lesson on emotional intelligence was especially useful. Know yourself, choose yourself, give yourself is something I'll take with me for the rest of my life. Developing interpersonal and intercultural communication skills through the various life activities were also memorable. More so considering that our class had a wide range of students from different cultural backgrounds with whom we had to interact with frequently.


Oral and verbal communication was heavily emphasised throughout the 13 weeks and we had plenty of opportunities to put to practise the skills learnt. This for me was one of the key attractions of the entire module considering my immense admiration for great speakers combined with an overly ambitious ideal to emulate them. Tasked with 3 kinds of presentations( impromptu, peer teaching and oral presentation for proposal), this was my time to shine. Naturally I evolved as a better presenter with each passing experience, which basically could be attributed to the rise in confidence as we progressed. With each presentation, I seemed to gather more composure and satisfaction from being thrust into the spotlight, rather than being overawed by the expectations of the audience. Say whay you mean and mean what you say was something I adhered closely to in my presentations.


I would finally wish to take this opportunity to express gratitude to all who have been involved in this journey and have in 1 way or another made a difference to this course being all the more enjoyable. Yanling, Xiaoshi and Guo Chen during peer teaching, Alicia, Alvin and Xixi during the proposal for being wonderful teammates; Yanling again for being a wonderful blog buddy, and all other classmates who gave me useful input on my blog posts. Brad too for being a lecturer who taught and inspired many amongst us and did it so with a touch of humour. Everyone's contributions to the everlasting memories of ES2007S are much appreciated and will be cherished fondly in many years to come. 

In the spirit of communicating, I'd just like to leave one and all with a final question to ponder about.
Why does it only take a minute to say hello but forever to say goodbye?

Till we meet again....

Appreciation for Alibaba

Without sounding overly melodramatic, I’d just like to dedicate this post to my fellow team members of Alibaba; Alicia, Alvin and Xixi. The entire series of events leading up to our proposal and presentation has just been a whirlwind experience. Albeit one that I’ll have many fond memories of in years to come. The interview with Ms Tio, the many weekends and recess week burnt away, Alvin’s ingrown nail and eccentric actions, Alicia’s obsession with Macs and Xixi’s birthday rehearsal – the list goes on. This has been definitely one of the better project experiences I’ve had in my university life to date.     

I’m extremely thankful to having you people as my group members. We were serious and focused on producing a quality proposal. At the same time we took it down a notch with a jovial and light hearted approach whenever possible. The hard work seems to have paid off and in any case what ultimately matters is that we gave it our all. All the best with your exam preparations!! Cheers 

Looking back, I wish...

Preparation

Preparation wise, I felt the team focused far more on the written proposal than the presentation itself which really did not justify the greater mark allocation to the latter component. Before we knew it, the countdown had begun to D-Day which was in a week. That was as far as negatives went. Having realised we had to shift through the gears and fast, we got down to serious work.

Mental preparation was key. Personally, I was motivated firstly by the Ken Robinson video that was showed during class on October 25th. Watching and subsequently analysing his presentation certainly got me pumped up and inspired. The night before our presentation was also decisive when Alicia messaged us saying that we had done well for the proposal. That certainly eased the pressure and did wonders for my confidence level. It seemed straight forward enough. We had the content. All we had to do was to back it up with our delivery.

In between, the rehearsals helped a great deal as we were able to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each other’s presentation and correct them. For my part, I was advised by my team members to shorten my speech and also to refrain from descriptive language. They wanted me to adopt a simpler and ‘matter of fact’ approach to presenting my part, which would have a greater effect on the audience within such a limited time. It was undoubtedly positive advice and I adjusted my speech accordingly.

Delivery

For this oral presentation, I was solely focused on improving my peer teaching experience. Basis for comparison may have been limited in that peer teaching was much more informal, had a larger scope for humour, a longer time limit and was also aimed at just imparting information related to a subject matter. The proposal in short had to be professional at the same time persuasive enough, a challenge in itself.

From peer teaching, some potential areas for improvement included a tendency to look at the slides too often, being too serious and speaking too fast at times. I took these suggestions on board and made a conscious attempt to correct them. Reviewing the video, I realise that I did not refer back to the slides much which in turn enabled me to connect better with the audience by maintaining more meaningful eye contact (I hope!). I still did speak too fast on occasions, which was due to an intention to finish what I had planned to say. This remains a sore thumb and I guess the only way out is to cut down on content. Expressions wise, though I tried to project a more cheerful image especially when narrating the story of Warren Buffet, I felt that I was a tad too grim looking. (need a little feedback here :))

Audio-Visuals

We went along the idea of Prezi as opposed to the conventional approach of powerpoint slides which were too predictable and not interactive. With Prezi, we could basically add a 3 dimensional mode to our presentations with transitions and also there was more room for capturing the attention of the audience since it was more customised. Its analogous to PC (Powerpoint) vs Mac(Prezi) jk!

2 videos were incorporated into our presentation to better highlight the situation. This definitely worked a treat; in particular Alicia’s masterpiece on several newspaper headlines and our survey results. It was more impactful than us plainly saying that there was a problem which called for rectifying.

We also left no stone unturned with regards to the audio aspect. I was deeply disappointed that the audio system present in class did not work to our favour during my peer teaching session when I tried to replay the interview videos. Determined not to encounter a repeat situation, Alvin came up with a brilliant idea to bring our own speakers to the class. The speakers functioned as expected without any glitches so the team was naturally pleased with that.

However one drawback was the poor video quality of the projector which led to our slides repeatedly changing yellow in colour. This was a distraction even to me whilst I wasn’t presenting. Fortunately though, none of our speakers were put off by that and carried on with their speeches as per normal.

In all, the oral presentation was just another learning curve of ES2007S, from which I’ll take many positives out and continually try to eradicate the flaws.

After all...

"There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave."
-- Dale Carnegie  

Peer Teaching Feedback

Hi friends,

Thanks again for your kind attention and active participation during my team's (Guo Chen, myself, Xiaoshi & Yanling) presentation on Preparing for and Performing at Interviews. We hope you enjoyed it and are able to take something useful out of it. Please feel free to drop your comments here on our strengths, weaknesses and possible areas of improvement.

Appreciate you guys taking the time off in giving your insights. I've also attached Xixi's and Nanhai's interview videos which unfortunately couldn't be viewed in class. Enjoy!

Mark of Manhood

The fine line that demarcates boy from man – at which point in life did I actually cross over without looking back? Was it the moment when I changed from shorts to trousers during early schooling days or my virgin facial shave? Could it have been the celebration of turning legal by purchasing liquor or the immense satisfaction at my immunity to viewer discretion regulations? Maybe the wait is on till my first official pay check or the keys to my own house? Endless theories which are bound to strike a familiar chord with most. Or so I thought.

Recently, I chanced upon a rather unsettling documentary about the bullet ant ritual. Bullet ants, also known as ‘paraponera’, originate from the dense jungles of South America and are not your average everyday ants. Their sting is alleged to be similar to a bullet wound and is rated number one by many official pain indexes. A tribe called Satere-Mawe in Brazil captures and drugs these ants before placing them stinger first into gloves. The young men of the tribe must then don these gloves and endure the pain for 10 minutes. Not once but 20 times and without screaming. This traditionally momentous event marks the rite of passage to manhood.

Upon viewing, I was swept over by a plethora of emotions; spellbinding intrigue initially transformed into aversion and disgust towards the ritual procedures before an overwhelming sense of pity mixed with admiration for the young men prevailed. I was astounded at the primitive nature of declaring manhood. In Singapore, National Service (NS) is generally regarded by local culture as the making of a man. However any agony felt in Tekong must surely pale in comparison to that experienced in Amazon by the young guns of the Satere-Mawe. It set me thinking though. Judging one’s maturity indisputably has to go far beyond a physical test of character and endurance. Economic maturity to hold an adult job and handle money, ethical maturity to make responsible decisions and emotional maturity to understand and relate to others are other determinants as well.

There’s also the issue of discrimination leveled at the few boys who are deemed not ‘man’ enough to undertake this ritual. Outcasted from the society at such a tender age, they grow older, losing their self respect and dignity in the process. In extreme cases, death from brutal pain results which leaves one to ponder - is it really worth for the parents’ ordeal in raising the kid for years to be reduced to such a cataclysmic loss by a mere ritual?     

Gazing from a cross cultural lens, the tribe would most likely be amazed at the non-existence of such traditions and a comparatively seamless transition to adulthood in our modern society. They might argue we are far from ‘real’ men and the extravagant, brash lives of many teens nowadays do seem to support their case. ‘No pain, no gain’ , they say which makes one reflect if as indeed we take for granted the many luxuries afforded to us.

As such, I dream of visiting this tribe in a not too distant future. Inter-cultural experiences are best encountered firsthand and I’ll reserve any further judgment till after. After all, the ensuing wave of uncontrollable tears from the bullet ants’ bites may just be that fine line I was  desperately seeking for. 

P.S. I've attached the video for a more complete picture and a better visual experience. Viewer discretion is advised :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGIZ-zUvotM 

Application Letter for attachment at IME - Draft 1

Internship Advertisement (online)

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Attachment Opportunities in IME

As part of our constant efforts to develop R&D talents for Singapore's electronics industry, we have been actively offering student attachment programmes to tertiary students. IME works closely with the local universities, polytechnics, junior colleges and secondary schools for student attachment opportunities. We support various types of student attachment programmes such as industrial attachments, vacation internship programmes, and final year project attachments.

For enquiries, please email us at uni-collaboration@ime.a-star.edu.sg.

Student who are in secondary schools or junior colleges, please refer to Youth Science Programme (YSP).

Other students who are interested to participate in our student attachments, please email, fax or send your resume, together with supporting documents (e.g. educational certificates and transcripts)

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Vinod Kumar
Block XXX, Rocky Road, #67-89
Singapore 111213
H/P : 91234567
E-mail : YYY@gmail.com

August 31, 2010

HR Department
Institute of Microelectronics
11 Science Park Road, Singapore Science Park II
Singapore 117685

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in to express my interest for an attachment stint in the Institute of Microelectronics. I came to know about the internship position through a senior who has had prior working experience in your company and his positive feedback compelled me to apply immediately.

This being the penultimate year of my engineering (mechanical) bachelor degree in the National University of Singapore(NUS), I wish to put to practise the knowledge acquired thus far in a worksite setting. A keen interest in the mechatronics sector is further reason for me to pursue a spot in the various projects you have on offer such as those involving semiconductors and nano-electronics. I am however most inclined towards the Sensor and Actuator Microsystems(SAM) project on the evidence of better grades in the fundamental modules encompassing that area, for instance, feedback control systems. Being a highly hands-on project, the experience of labwork in linear circuits and frequency response has most certainly equipped me sufficiently in terms of familiarity with technical equipments.

Given an opportunity, I am confident I have the necessary skills to make a value-added contribution to the company. Self-motivation, hardworking ethic and knowledge of team dynamics have been inculcated through the meeting of crucial deadlines for assignments and labwork as well as the successful completion of various group projects. Academics aside, participating and winning in a robotics competition during pre-university days, being quartermaster of my college table-tennis team and involvement in voluntary work outside campus grounds have imparted many essential life skills. Some of which include resilience, inter-personal communication skills and leadership. In addition, I am also enthusiastic about many different sports, which have brought various degrees of success. In any case, a willingness to learn would hold me in good stead to face the potential obstacles that I am bound to come across in this attachment.

I would relish the opportunity to further discuss my qualifications and interest areas with you and also on how I could be of service to the company during this attachment. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Yours Sincerely,


Vinod Kumar (Mr)

(EDITED)

My Way or the Highway

Day 29 and hardly any headway was being made. Each passing second seemed an eternity when in truth a countdown like no other was imminent. 3 nuclear explosives armed in strategic city locations. 6 hours before an entire nation goes up in an ash cloud. With it, the bright hopes for the future extinguished; a legacy confined to the pages of a mere history book. 1 man behind it all, but who stood guilty right before them. 2 special task force agents, Sally and Harry, assigned to break him down. A Herculean feat considering that Omar wasn’t hiding behind a camcorder delivering jihad war cries. He had offered himself up to the CIA deliberately to unmask its inadequacies - his final act of defiance.

Sally had grown accustomed to this scene. Often she found herself asking who the real monster was, Harry or Omar? 28 days later, she concluded that the lines were too faint to distinguish. She detested Harry for his brutality, his failure to see through her vantage point and his arrogant and chauvinistic ways. Having been licensed by the higher authorities to stop at no costs, Harry seemed to revel in her helplessness to discharge him off his duties. From the plucking of every nail on the body to the electric treatment which had permanently damaged Omar’s nervous system, the dunking ,suffocating and the intricate ‘carvings’ on Omar’s body, Sally had witnessed inconceivable degrees of human torture. This latest development was potentially disturbing on an altogether different scale. The CIA had gotten hold of Omar’s wife and kids whom he had hidden away in an unsuspecting village. Now, Harry wanted them hauled into the interrogation chamber as well. Sally’s thoughts were racing wildly and it was impossible to keep calm. Not when there was sheer disdain for basic human rights. ‘How could he?’, she seethed. He was a family man too, married to an ex- POW and having adopted orphans recently. A schizophrenic was at play in large and this time Sally decided there had to be a means to an end. Just not by Harry.

For Harry it was routine. ‘Let us not cross each other’s paths’ never seemed to sit down well with the weak-hearted. The objectives of both agents were alike but methodologies poles apart. As far as Harry was concerned, he usually held the winning hand. Emotional warfare on a hardened terrorist just defied logic and was too time consuming. Sally’s patient ways, to him, displayed signs of weakness. It was a case of nation before self in employing torture tactics and duty had to prevail. Why can’t Sally and her kind just open their minds to the greater good? He certainly did not gain masochistic pleasures from abusing Omar as seen from the frequent toilet breaks to clear up nauseous sensations. Omar was proving to be a personal nemesis, a hard nut to crack and Harry had no intentions of letting up. Inducing pain to Omar’s family right before him, Harry had hoped, would force him to spill out the necessary information. ‘6 hours to go’ he muttered.

Right against Rationale is the underlying cause for conflict between the 2 agents. The diplomatic solution would be to strike a balance but what happens when time becomes a factor and extremities are pushed? In short, is there an amicable solution? If not, to whose way would YOU sway?
(EDITED)

If only you could decode what I’m trying to encode...

As Jeff Daly once said, ‘Two monologues do not make a dialogue’. This for me sums up effective communication in a nutshell – or rather the lack of it. I speak, you speak, but we fail in conversing with each other. Ineffective communication? Check.

Human beings are often associated with the rather unflattering term ‘social creatures’. Its accuracy though cannot be refuted simply because of an inner instinct within us to be engrossed in the world of people we encounter daily, and an assurance of sorts in knowing that similarly, we are also in the thoughts of people. Interacting with people hence should come as second nature to us. Silly then it would appear the existence of a communication module (jk!). The key here, I’d think, is how effectively we communicate with one another.

At this current stage in my life effective communication serves two purposes; namely to forge new friendships and maintain existing relationships as well as to lay the stepping stones for an eventually successful, rewarding career. Relationships wise I’d like to use this post to highlight family bonds, one that’s delicately poised. My parents are products of the hard-line, iron-fisted upbringing of the past and they practise conservatism in many aspects of life. This doesn’t necessarily imply a negative connotation as I credit much of my better qualities to the consequences of that. Needless to say though, there has been many an occasion where my brother and I have run into disputes over countless of issues with them. From the parents’ point of view, I guess they’d understand why some animals eat their young and from my side, well why the rest flee from home :P. In all parent – teen conversations, there comes a point when the young don’t know what age and experience is and the old simply forget what youth was. I’m positive that many amongst us would bear testament to this situation and the prime reason always boils down to a generation gap. How do we get past this communication barrier then? Because more importantly, parenting is woven into my future fabric and the last thing I’d want is to be scarred by those animal planet visions of consuming your own.

Communication skills are also a vital cog in the professional wheel, be it in the stressful setting of facing a panel of grim looking interviewers or a more informal one in writing up cover letters and resumes or even publicly addressing an expectant crowd. As far as public speakers go, history has thrown up its fair share of idols. Hitler, Martin Luther King, John F Kennedy are just some names that roll off the tongue. More recently, a new age speaker was thrust into America’s spotlight and emerged from it unscathed at the same time capturing the awe of the global audience – Barack Obama. Impressive was the way he used his speeches solely to battle against racial prejudice, his major obstacle. Dwindling poll numbers due to certain unpopular policies and the occasional ‘Special Olympics’ gaffe on the Leno show aside, give the man a mike and he’s bound to take you for a ride. How does he do it? Apart from getting first hand tips from Barack himself, here’s to hoping that Brad is the next better option :D

I was once able to convince a Caucasian lady into parting with her 100 dollars for a fundraising event aimed at reaching out to the unprivileged kids. What was very memorable about it (besides the amount) was the fact that I felt I was running into a wall repeatedly throughout the few minutes of persuading her to donate. Eventually whilst handing out the cash, she smiled and commented on how I had the gift of the gab. That same gab inexplicably transforms into a gap which seems a bridge too far when it comes to explaining to interviewers on why I am the best man for their job or scholarship. It’s not tantamount to a 100% failure rate but yes there is a tendency to remember more vividly the failed attempts. On reflection I ask myself why is it more difficult to sell myself to companies as opposed to convincing people to part with their money. My mom says I’m better off a salesman than an engineer. ES2007S please disprove that logic.

As I mentioned earlier, communication should come almost as a reflex action to mankind. Therein lies its vulnerability though. True to reflex motions, sometimes we respond inappropriately immediately, passing our own judgments without actively listening and taking due consideration of others’ feelings. After which we’re left wondering how to have better responded.

And so, I took up effective communications, in a bid to find answers to the many questions posed above and more. A path towards self-discovery? Check.