Author Archives: yh139224

In our simulated conference call, four characters were the same people we selected in our business meeting. The scenario was based on the conference held by International Society for Heart Research in San Diego that we talked about in the previous meeting. The main problem was that after taking part in the conference, the company found out that the doctors or the medical professions from the Midwest didn’t know the new product at all. And the four people were discussing a solution that was supposed to be effective in fixing the problem.

In order to make the characteristic of the roll looks more like the one described in the case, again, we added a conflict between Burns and Wescott: Wescott said his department was planning to do some advertisement in a magazine in Midwest. However, Burns immediately strongly rejected Wescott’s suggestion because he thought that doing the advertisement was the responsibility in his department.

When we practiced, we proposed that Peterson asked Wescott about the suggestion first, and then turned to Burns. But when we were doing the tape record, Peterson suddenly changed his mind and asked Burns first. This change made me (Wescott) to be upset at the moment. If it was a face-to-face meeting, maybe I could had given a hint or tried to interrupted. However, since it’s a call meeting, I felt that it was much harder to interrupt someone else.

Here I want to talk about my own experience in the real life. I had an interview several days ago. The interviewer asked a lot of questions about the technical knowledge. Since it was a phone interview, I couldn’t see the interviewer’s face or expression, so it’s very hard to judge whether she was satisfied with my answer only based on her tone.

From the video, I found myself not being very natural. My teammates seem quite relax, just like they were making a phone call in their own office. Compared to them, I am obviously more nervous and upset. I kept on looking at the people sitting in front of me and also I took a deep breath for several times. I have to say that all these behaviors look awkward in a conference call.

In my opinion, the room set-up this time was not as good as last time we did in the business meeting. Since it was a conference call, we shouldn’t have seen each other’s face, not even the backs. Thus, it is better to sit back to back.

Our group got a good prepare for the simulated business meeting, and we did it quite well. We selected four characters as follows: Erik Peterson, Biometra General Manager; Stephanie Hanes, clinical training; Trevor Burns, Marketing Supervisor; James Wescott, Sales Representative. The main topic in our meeting is that Biometra Company is planning to participate a conference held by International Society for Heart Research in San Diego. Due to the tight budget, the four people are discussing about how many persons should be sent to the conference in each department. Although the scenario is simply, the objective is very clear. I think it is not difficult for the audiences to catch the main idea of our topic in the meeting.

According to the case, the relationship between Burns and Wescott are rather strained. In order to make the simulated meeting looks like a real meeting happened in Biometra Company, we added a conflict between two persons: Wescott rejected Burn’s idea about sending the marketing department employees to take part in the conference. In addition, to make our meeting more diversity, we set a private conversation between Erik Peterson and James Wescott after Burns and Hanes left the meeting.

At the end of the meeting, we made a preliminary decision about how many employees would be sent to the conference. And Peterson asked everyone to submit a detailed report after the meeting. From the beginning to the end, the meeting was integrity. Just like the comment from our classmate, the simulated business meeting of our group was acted as a real meeting.

 If talk about the room set-up, I would like to say two points. Firstly, although we didn’t introduce ourselves at the beginning of the meeting, we put a name card on the table. This is also very easy for the audiences to realize who we are. Another point is that since Burns and Wescott have a conflict during the meeting, we on purpose seat them face-to-face.

In communication strategy group presentation, our group talked about the message strategy. In the first part of our presentation, the presenter introduced a brief idea about what was the message strategy. Otherwise, he emphasized three important points in how to use message strategy: Harness the power of beginnings and endings; overcome the retention; organize your message. In this part, I think our presentation closely related to the concept of message strategy, which is our main topic.

In the second part of our presentation, we talked about three reasons why Mr. Peterson got fired. In this part, I don’t think we did a good job to relate the message strategy and the Mr. Peterson case. Honestly speaking, throughout the case, I didn’t get any hint about what kind of mistakes Mr. Peterson made in message communication strategy.

We did quite a good job in content transitions between speakers. Each one of us used one or two sentences to summarize our own presentation. And then we introduced our teammate, the next speaker, to the audience. Finally, we provide a general idea about the content about the next part of the presentation. We did the transition work in a concisely, clearly way.

Finally, I want to talk about my job in the presentation. There are some grammatical errors on my slide. The sentences in the slide were not parallel as well. Otherwise, there are couples of weakness in my presentation. Firstly of all, from the video, it seems that I am a little bit nervous. Actually due to my low level English, I was quite nervous at the moment. This is the reason that I didn’t talk very smoothly and explain the idea clearly. In addition, I kept on moving back and forth. The movement was random, repetitive and purposeless. I believe this is not an effective body language when doing the presentation.

If we do the presentation again, I would like to make another approach to relate our topic and the case. In addition, we should practice more, especially I myself, to make our presentation more fluently and adjust the gesture more naturally. Last but not the least, we should spend more time on designing the slides or at least choose one of the PowerPoint’s built-in design templates.  I believe colorful slides would let the audiences be more interested in our presentation.

After I reviewing my 30 seconds pitch, I have to say I didn’t do it very well. The pitch video was recorded without preparation. Honestly speaking, I was very nervous at the moment and there were totally no ideas in my mind. Suppose the five points is the full score, I would grade myself as one point or two points.

Since the volume in the video record is really low, I can’t hear very clearly what I was saying. But I remember my content definitely didn’t meet the 4 C’s requirement: conciseness, clarity, coherency and cogency. For example, after I introducing my major Quantitative Methods and Modeling, I said that the name of the major is really long. I think I can say this in a free talking or in a conversation with friends. However, it is obviously not appropriate in a 30 seconds pitch. In addition, the content in the pitch did not hundred percent aim to the goal. The audiences may feel lost about what I really want to express. Otherwise, I believe there are many grammatical errors and pronunciation problems in the pitch.

Referring to the nonverbal communication, I didn’t do a good job, either. First of all, I didn’t stand in a relaxed, professional manner. I crossed my hands from the beginning to the end. Crossing the hands is a not my natural style when I were speaking to one person instead of to a group of audiences. Simply speaking, I didn’t be myself at the moment. This is an evidence shows that I was really nervous. Otherwise, my facial expression also looks not natural as well. Although my facial expression was not totally stony or deadpan, it didn’t keep relaxed. And I didn’t vary my expression according to the subject and the occasion. Compared to these three elements of body language, I think I did eye contact better. I started by looking at the friendly faces (Of course, all of our classmates’ faces are friendly faces) and then connect with other people throughout. I tried my best to avoid staring at someone or looking continually at the floor.

30 seconds pitch is just like a short and brief self- introduction. It’s quite important either in a job interview or under some other situations. This tape record is a good practice to remind me that I should get the 30 seconds self- introduction prepared at any time. If I can do it again, I will focus more on my content and try to make it closely related to the goal. Practice again and again in front of the friends or families, and check whether they have got the brief idea about what I want to express. If not, that means there are still some problems in the content. I believe if the content is good, no grammatical errors involved, it will help me to be much more confident, relax and nature in performing other nonverbal communication skills.

My name is Yingyi He. I am currently majoring in quantitative methods and modeling at Baruch College. Simply speaking, the major combines the statistics with the computer modeling. My career goal is to be a data analyst in a big company’s marketing department; or be a professional quantitative analyst in financial field, such as investment bank, insurance company, etc. I had a solid foundation in engineering, and combined with the knowledge gained as a QMM major, I am confident to say that I will be able to do quite well in this field. However, except the professional knowledge, I believe that the technique of business communication is also very important. As a senior quantitative analyst, skills in written communication, business meeting, presentation, and conference call are definitely necessary in daily work. Otherwise, a senior analyst should also be good at explaining the analysis report to the clients, who has no professional knowledge in the statistical field, by using the plain English.
Honestly, I have a good command of communication skills in my native language. When I worked in a company’s marketing department in China, I accumulated a lot of face-to-fact communication experience with customers and clients. And I was very confident to show my ideas in the meeting and to speak in the public. However, after I came to the U.S, it is totally a different story. Since I have only been in U.S. for one year and a half, I have to say that both of my written and oral English are in a relatively low level. Sometimes I still have difficulties in listening, and for most of the time, it is hard to express my opinion hundred percent accurately, which really makes me feel nervous and frustrating. As a result, I become more and more unwilling to do the group discussion and presentation.
In order to fulfill my career goal, I have to improve the communication skills as soon as possible. First of all, I should develop effective listening skills. Listen to the other person’s words and engage in communication on what the other people is speaking about. Secondly, I should read as many articles as I can, which may help me to accumulate more vocabularies and phrases. Third, be courage to say what I think and say it loudly. Even if the pronunciation is not correct enough or the word chosen is not perfectly accurate, just be confident to express my opinion in the public. And be confident in knowing that I can make worthwhile contributions to group works.