If you think that effective communication skills are not important to a research engineer - a highly technical job – please think again. I came to realization only after doing a vocational internship at Data Storage Institute, a national research and development organization.
Although my work scope involved computer programming, trust me that I did not seclude myself from human interaction during the internship. (I am not a geek!) In fact, most of the idea generation and learning occurred during the various communication processes with my teammates and supervisors.
Firstly, the daily meetings provided a platform for my team to resolve any issues and technical problems with our chief supervisor. It was especially useful at the start when the research topic was completely obscure to us. Secondly, we had to do PowerPoint presentations fortnightly to update our supervisors on our progress and achievement. The presentation sessions served as an opportunity for us to obtain valuable feedback and suggestions from our supervisors. Thirdly, we frequently approached one another in the team for opinion and help when faced with any obstacle in work.
I may not become a research engineer in future, but still, the internship experience has highlighted to me the importance of effective communication skills at the workplace. It aids interaction with colleagues, and promotes the exchange of ideas, feelings and attitudes. As a result, mutual understanding can be forged in the team and productivity increased at work. This concept can also be extended to project works in school.
Therefore, the impetus for me now is to cultivate efficient communication skills so that I will be better equipped to face the challenges of work after graduation.
UCS1001 S21 Tri1 2024-25
3 weeks ago
Firstly, oh my! You posted this at 4.15am? =O
ReplyDeleteI like your language in this post: Simple and easy to understand! Your sentence structure is simple too. However, I have a suggestion. I was thinking perhaps your post could centre around a problem (from a story) which would then highlight why effective communication skills would be important.
All in all, good job! =)
Hello Xiang Min! First and foremost, I will like to second to Sarah’s comments regarding the sentence structure and how easy it is for me to understand your story. However, I beg to differ a little from Sarah’s view that you did not centralize on a story to emphasize on why effective communication skills would be important. Your experience at Data Storage Institute gave me a good idea of how applicable effective communication is in real life and working life. In addition, I believe that you may be able to touch and motivate the present working people to take up an effective communication course for the betterment of their career prospects and interpersonal relationship with their colleagues. That will be more prospects for B.B Sensei and more ‘commissions’ for you in one form or another.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Ivan
I see that the institution where you worked emphasizes good communication between workers: the daily meetings, the fortnightly presentations, and the effort shown by the workers who approach each other instead of doing everything individually. This can really reduce frictions at workplace and resolve any misunderstanding as soon as possible. And with constant feedback, you get to improve yourself and perform better. The effect would have been less had your supervisor decided to just give you a "report card" at the end of your internship.
ReplyDeleteHi Xiang Min,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the clearly illustrated example of how effective communication is being practices in a workplace. We often view these meetings and presentations as (troublesome) tasks and forget their value as a communication tool.
Perhaps you could give an example of how problems can arise in such a workplace. I think that would highlight the importance of practicing effective communication and not neglect the platform that is available.
Cheers,
Chee Siang
This is a well crafted post, Xiang Min, clear, concise, focused and instructive. It is also fluent, which comes as a relief for me as I sit at the end of reading 24 posts this afternoon/evening.
ReplyDeleteMuch appreciated!
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