This module (ES2007S) is one of the most useful module I have taken in NUS thus far. These 12 weeks, despite being hectic and having to meet deadlines every now and then, the knowledge I acquired was indeed rewarding and memorable. I must admit that being a Science student in NUS, presentation and communication skills are rarely shared to us during the curriculum and we are often unaware of the skills that are required in professional communication. After attending these 12 weeks of lessons by Dr Radhika, I have learned so much in presenting myself in a concise and professional manner. One of the greatest takeaways from this module is having the opportunity for a mock job interview. For most of the interviews I have been to thus far, I did not manage to secure the positions without knowing the reason behind it. Thus, from the feedback and comments I received from my peers during the mock job interview, I have realised my weaknesses in my interview skills which are probably the reasons for my poor performance during interviews in the past. Hence, this mock job interview is very important for me to improve and prepare myself better for future job interviews. Another valuable takeaway is the importance of non-verbal communication. There are so many functions of non-verbal communication which I am unaware of previously. In many situations, non-verbal actions may contradict verbal words and through that, we can then realise the hidden message behind it. Non-verbal actions that complement verbal words are seen almost everywhere, even during presentations. I have learned how eye contact can actually make what you present much more convincing. I am glad that I learned so much about non-verbal gestures in this module. In addition, this module has taught me the skills needed to write a persuasive proposal, perform a good presentation, write a good application letter and resume with the use of the 7 Cs that we have learned during the guidance of Dr Radhika. These are skills that not only will help me in my course in NUS but also will definitely come in handy in the my future career where I get to work with people. Fostering a good intercultural communication such as researching on the different types of cultures and religions around different parts of the world, will definitely place you in a better light when communicating with people of a different culture. With that, I want to thank Dr Radhika for providing us with the knowledge about these professional communication skills throughout these 12 weeks, for guiding us through our proposal as well. I want to thank my classmates for making these 12 weeks such an enjoyable one and the interaction fostered within such a small class size is indeed fruitful, especially my peer teaching team mates (Ashikin and Nazyra) and my group proposal team mates (Kaylyn and Indah). It has been great working with all of you!
To be frank, doing on an unfamiliar topic and with only a short 4 weeks of time, was indeed a challenging but fulfilling one. Before starting on the proposal, we came up with a timeline schedule to facilitate the progress of our proposal. We started off with splitting the secondary research into various aspects, where each of us focus on researching on the prevailing stigma and discrimination against HIV in one aspect, which maximizes time and efficiency. We are very thankful that Mr. Avin Tan, senior executive of Action for AIDS (AFA), actually responded to our interview request. It was after the interview with him that further assured us that our proposal is on the right track. It was not easy to come out with solutions as what can be done was already done by AFA to alleviate the stigma and discrimination against HIV. It was right after the interview with Mr. Avin Tan that the three of us actually sat down in a cafe for a few hours to brainstorm on the possible solutions. I considered myself lucky to have Kaylyn and Indah in my team, who are very easy to get along with. Generally, we worked quite well together. Kaylyn and I prefer to get our work done as soon as possible while Indah is used to complete her part when nearing the deadlines. Kaylyn and I focus more on the content of our proposal while Indah helps more in the language and format. This differing working styles of ours did not stop us from achieving our final aim, but it serves as our individual strengths that complement each other. It would have increase the credibility and persuasiveness of our proposal if we had more time to interview more people to have a wider perspective of viewpoints on this topic. This would have made our proposal better. It would have been better if we have a clearer format of our proposal in mind earlier. When nearing the end of the proposal, we find that there are actually many things that we researched initially that is completely not needed in the final proposal. We could have use the time better to research on other more important areas. From this one-month experience, I have learned to not force people to follow your way of working but to have trust in your teammates and use your strengths to complement one another instead. I have learned to come up with a format plan and have a clear mind before embarking on the research. This will allow resources to be used more effectively and efficiently. I can definitely applied these skills and concepts learned to my future workplace when I worked with people of different working styles. On the whole, I am thankful for this opportunity to work with Kaylyn and Indah. It was indeed a fulfilling and rewarding experience! We have given our best and I am really proud of our final piece!
