Career Presentation

We received a really practical talk this week from a guest speaker from SAP. She is a former employee of a recruitment agency and she currently works in SAP as a recruitment advisor. She provided us with helpful tip and guidelines on how to approach an interview for SAP and similar companies.

For me the most advantageous part of the talk was when we were shown what she considered to be an excellent CV. There are so many different CV layouts out there so it was good to see what is expected of us as technical writers when creating an effective CV.

It is quite difficult to present yourself and give the potential employer a sense of how you might add to the company in just one page. She advised us to convey as much information as possible through the CV in a concise and enlightening manner.

The practicality of this talk was great, particularly in an extremely competitive job market and it should hopefully give us the upper hand in job interview.

Interview

I’m actively seeking an interviewee for the TW5212 module at the moment. It has proven to be quite the task so far. My strategy to begin with was to target e-learning, technical writing and graphic design companies through e-mail addresses found online. This did not provide me with much feedback so I decided to go down the old calling route, from which I received a few positive response but nothing concrete. Linkedin proved to be an invaluable tool for me in seeking out an interviewee. I have made contact with several experienced technical writers in the Limerick area, two of whom I am waiting to hear back from about possible interviews. The fact that I can see on each Linkedin profile previous work experience and employers leaves me in no doubt that this interview will be extremely beneficial in gaining “insider information” on my possible future career.

                                                                                                                                  

Dreamweaver – Some Difficulties I experienced

Having just submitted the web design and development project, I think it’s important to note that this project is possibly the most underestimated one I have encountered so far. By underestimated, I mean I think I misjudged first of all, how long it would take to get to grips with Dreamweaver, and also the technical difficulties I experienced along the way.

Dreamweaver

Having used Dreamweaver prior to this project, I knew that there was quite a lot involved in creating an informative and visually appealing website. After opening up the Dreamweaver application I realised I was again completely in at the deep end and would have to basically “relearn” all the different processes involved in creating a website. This threw me a little bit as I hadn’t planned to spend two days just playing around with it and getting to grips with it once again.

Technical Issues

Once I had finally familiarised myself with Dreamweaver (again!), I didn’t really take into account the fact that I might experience some technical difficulties along the way.  I created my template page, created my html files and my final task was to link them up. At this stage I thought I was nearing the end, but of course an issue arose with my spry menu when I attempted to link each page. I eventually worked it out and managed to submit the project on time.

From my experience I found that Dreamweaver was quite tempermental and at times restrictive in the creation of the website layout, particularly when using templates.

Guest Presentations

The guest lectures that have been given so far this semester have been beneficial in terms of the practicalities of job seeking. We received a talk from a member of staff from the Information Development department of SAP, which was informative and helpful in coming to terms with what jobs we as a class may have in the future. The presentation made us aware of the intricacies involved in a career in information development and technical writing. I felt as though the presentation invaluable as we were lucky enough to see how what we are learning every day is actually put into practice. Information gained during the presentation will also be helpful in an interview situation as we were made aware of exactly what the job description is and what it entails.

Similarly, guest lecturer Marie Flannery’s presentation was extremely beneficial in that it highlighted the importance of being passionate about and enjoying your chosen career path.   

Group Proposal

We submitted our group proposal for the EHP today. Between us we came up with some really innovative ideas for the site. The only issue now is actually making our ideas a reality. Myself and Sherona are content developers, Avril is graphic designer, Michael is the technical expert and Shane is the editor.

Michael introduced us to a website creation tool called Joomla which I think will be a great asset in terms of the site creation. Having run into quite a few problems with Dreamweaver during our previous web design project I wasn’t relishing the thought of having to deal with it again. Given that I’m a content developer though, I will be concentrating on information development as opposed to the ins and outs of Joomla this time around. 

Podcast

I think podcasting is a really interesting and innovative way of communicating information and am looking forward to recording mine for the assignment. The only issue I have at the moment is what subject to focus on for the duration of the podcast. I intend to choose a subject that I’m interested in and have a depth of knowledge about but am unsure what topic would be most appropriate. I’m thinking of doing it on this course and describing exactly what it entails for the benefit of prospective students. I’m not sure if this is a good idea and am still mulling it over. Alternatively I will probably focus on a hobby of mine.

Cyber Distractions

I have found online distractions to be the single most prevalent factor in deterring me from completing coursework this semester. Assignments that could have been completed weeks in advance are put on the back-burner as I have frequently given into the temptation of Facebook, Twitter, Sky News, online newspapers etc, basically anything that will prevent me from being in any way productive. I can now honestly say that I believe in the concept of web addiction. I don’t believe I am a fully fledged member of the club yet as I do tend to simply shut myself of from such distractions if there is a deadline looming, or if needs be. However I do retain a considerable amount of regret at the amount of time I have wasted on online pursuits.

My intentions going forward with regard to time spent frivolously online, are that I hope to regulate my online habits and create a balance between educational and social forums. At times I think it might be best to completely cut myself off from these online distractions (much like a drug or alcohol addict might go “cold turkey”). I’m not sure I’m ready to take that step yet though....

The following is a link to an article which deals with the effect online distractions have on student productivity. Given that we complete the majority of our assignments while connected to the internet it is important to make a conscious decision to avoid these distractions.

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1409814

Working individually vs collaborative efforts

During the process of completing my individual proposal critiquing and making recommendations for the UL Practicum website, I found it quite difficult to assess what the weaker components of the site were and how they could be improved. For such a project I think collaboration is key given that creativity is such an important factor in web design. For this reason I am glad that the rest of the project is collaborative. The importance of having the opportunity to bounce ideas off a team mate cannot be underestimated as an idea or concept evolves. I definitely missed this when I completed the individual proposal and look forward to the opportunity to create a usable and interactive website for the EHP. 

Conclusion to Virtual Team Assignment

Presentations of our collaborative reports went quite well I think. Our American team member Tyler presented on behalf of the group. The video conferencing suite worked very well as we could hear and see all presentations perfectly.

Editing the report before submission proved to be quite a painstaking process. We worked well together as a group however and all tasks were completed well in the end. Discussion forums proved invaluable once again as ideas for the introduction and conclusion were posted here. Email provided us with the opportunity to exchange reports. This report took up quite a lot of our time for the past few weeks so I think we are all glad it's finished and we have more time now to spend on other projects.