Reflection

lection is looking at experiences you have encountered and drawing your own conclusions on what you learned from them and how it affects your strengths and weaknesses in your life.  It is important for us to be reflective in life and continue to grow and improve.  We can face a situation and instead of just moving on think about how we responded, what we could do differently the next time and what we can expect to draw from it for the future.  The more reflective we are in life the more we can improve our responses and think of ourselves instead of just always reacting.  Reflection is an excellent tool for growth.  Reflection is different from description because describing something only tells the story of what happened and reflection can be rethinking an experience with an emphasis on how it affected us and its impact on our self improvement.

I believe my portfolio is a tool for reflection.   It is an opportunity to show what concepts I have learned, the education I have received and where I see myself in the future.  I can describe my experiences and then reflect on what I learned, whether it was a strength and how I can improve or use it for my upcoming situations.

This week be sure to share your understanding of "reflection". How is it different from description, and share how you're planning to use reflection in developing your e-Portfolio content pages.

The interview process is considered the most crucial part of getting a job. It is all about how you present yourself and if you meet the companies needs. I recently had a interview for Physician Assistant schools and they ask the basic questions like Tell me about yourself?, Why did you choose this profession?, What do you have to offer this company/school? But it is the unexpected questions that stump us and those vary depending on what your interviewing for. Before I went to my interview I went to a mock interview. UCF offers free mock interviews and EVERYONE should take advantage of it. Before going to the mock interview I was advised to read this site, http://www.perfectinterview.com/ucf/, which teaches you how to prepare yourself to have the perfect interview. During my interview practice I was told to speak slowly and to elaborate more on my questions. The questions I found problematic was “what do you expect fro a supervisor”, and “What comes to mind when you consider what you disliked about your last job”? I found these one difficulty because no matter what you said it could be seen as a negative. Overall, the mock interview and this website really helped because I got into Physician Assistant School. Don’t forget the best way to have a good interview is to remain calm, breathe, and take a second to think before answering the question.

Go to the website > http://www.perfectinterview.com/ucf/

• Complete the short interview , what questions did you think you need more practice on? Did you find this website helpful? What are other tips you can give your peers on how to nail a interview? When do you think it is the right time to talk about salary?

This week we are discussing resumes and cover letters. It is important to display our interests, education, and experience in a way that highlights our interdisciplinary background. We can use our resume to display our multiple fields of study which have led to our IDS degree. Some students may find it beneficial to list relevant classes we have taken in our journey towards interdisciplinarity. The experience section of a resume is a great place to show our interdisciplinary knowledge. Through internships, jobs, and volunteer work, we can give an illustration of how we have put our interdisciplinarity to work and how we can continue to do so in the future.

Cover letters are also extremely important and a great place to highlight your interdisciplinary background. Your cover letter must be well-written and free from grammatical errors. It is the first thing your potential employer will read about you and can determine whether your resume is trashed or leads to an interview. It is important to change your cover letter each time and tailor it to the organization you are sending it to. You should not be sending the same, boring, general letter to every company. Also, your cover letter should not just repeat the same information presented in your resume. Use your cover letter to provide additional insight to potential employers. This is your first opportunity to shine – take advantage of that!

I found this website extremely helpful when I was trying to leave the restaurant industry and move into the social services field (and I recently landed a job!):

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2009/02/how-to-write-great-cover-letters-for.html

If you are unsure of how to even begin composing a cover letter, here is a good template to follow:

http://www.cvtips.com/cover-letter/cover-letter-template.html

What questions do you have about cover letters and resumes? How do you plan to use your resume to highlight your interdisciplinarity? Share at least 3 tips which you think are the most important things to remember when composing cover letters and your resume. Have you found a really great resource to turn to when looking for ideas? Please share it with the rest of us!

Please leave your replies as a comment to this post. Don’t forget to include your full name in your post so that you receive credit. When responding to other students, you may find it helpful to begin your response with, “@their name” so that it is easy to see who you are directing your question/comment to. Be sure to check back throughout the week to see if other students have posted questions or replies for you!