Unit two was a very busy one, covering the creation of LinkedIn account and using it effectively and also creating a proposal and subsequent progress report for our Formal Report.
LinkedIn is a social media website, with the emphasis being placed on professional development and networking rather than social. I had waited far too long to take advantage of this powerful networking tool and therefore it was very beneficial for me to finally create a profile. Even more helpful was learning new and best practices for a professional and effective profile. Having the opportunity to view other people’s profiles and provide feedback allowed for me to take a more critical view of my own profile and see ways that I could improve my own while also helping others improve their own. The peer review of my LinkedIn profile allowed for me to get recommendations from a peer and to further improve my presence. At the end of this process I believe I was able to complete an effective and professional LinkedIn profile that will help me with future networking.
Developing a professional and interesting report concerning a particular issue at a specific company provided me with a challenge, but allowed for me to reflect on my work experience and allow me to apply theory I have gained from my degree. I was excited to focus on my most recent employer, PepsiCo, more specifically methods to increase sales. Now that I had the idea, I needed to develop a method for testing this hypothesis and to find evidence to support my theory. To further complicate issues this information, both the problem and the proposed solution needed to be effectively communicated in the proposal. The outline was helpful as it allowed for a full schedule to be created so that the report could be completed on schedule with the necessary work completed when they needed to be. This was also an opportunity to receive feedback on the questionnaire before having individuals respond to it.
The peer review process was very helpful, both in terms of the feedback that I was given and the perspective that can be gained by reviewing the work of others. When writing your own proposal you are very close to the subject matter and therefore it becomes difficult to determine the true clarity of the work because it is a subject that the writer is so familiar with. A review from a peer allowed for this clarity to be tested, to ensure that all those reading are able to understand the message that the report is trying to get across. My reviewer was able to provide me with suggestions that improved the technical aspects of the writing along with more content specific issues.
Attached below are a link to the peer review of my proposal and an updated proposal.