As the term is coming to an end, there is no better time to reflect upon the past three months in COMM 465. The class has been one of the most interesting I’ve taken to date, with many real life examples and cases that have made theories and content relatable to ‘real life’. Having done a few marketing internships, I only wish I had taken the course sooner! Of all the important lessons learnt however, one very valuable lesson learnt was learning how to work effectively in a team in the course of completing three group assignments.
First of all, I couldn’t have asked for a better group to work with. Everyone was equally invested in the assignments and had a strong desire to do well in the class. Everyone was in attendance at all group meetings, and was always eager to contribute and discuss ideas. Not many people can say that they thoroughly enjoyed working with their teams, but I can!
Looking back, I just wish there was more time to explore everyone’s ideas. But just as in the real world, where projects are often constrained by time, we did not always have the time to sit through and discuss each individual’s ideas in depth to make sure we met the deadlines. This also sometimes involved going with ideas that were less time consuming instead of more creative options that required more time. This is especially the case for the video, where Alex had the idea to include some form of animation in our video which would no doubt give us points for creativity, and overall, make our video more interesting. But unfortunately, as none of us has much expertise in animation, creating something like that would be far too time consuming.
Though working on Assignments 1 and 2 were a little shaky at first as we struggled a little with getting organized, we were experts at this by Assignment 3, systematically coming up with a script to filming to editing of the video. And that is also another key lesson learnt: be organized! Having all of one’s ideas sorted out from the beginning saves a lot of time and hassle going back and forth to make sure the entire project flows and is line with the guidelines.
So overall, I would say the WestJet team did a great job working together and I took away many things from this experience, including learning to communicate effectively with others, being organized… and five amazing friends!
(Looking at this photo, I’ve also learnt that I should really work on looking better in photos.. it’s probably time to update my LinkedIn profile… : /)
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