Hello class,
After the initial unit, we had a longer and more challenge Unit 2 with various assignments, which as I was fully convinced had plenty of practical implications. What I enjoyed during the unit, is the combination of various tasks: peer-reviewing, formal report planning and the most entertaining, creating/refining a LinkedIn profile.
LinkedIn profile
Having LinkedIn for more than a year, I never consider it as a potential tool for occupational opportunities and professional networking. LinkedIn was more as one of the social networks, which could steal priceless time. However, after reading the best LinkedIn practices from people in the course and refining the profile based on self LinkedIn best practices research have changed my view on this media. Especially effective was summarizing all recommendations from different people in class in one general picture how to use LinkedIn. Now I consider the LinkedIn profile is not just a social media, it is a resume of a current employee and each section of it characterizes different aspects of your personality for potential employers. Therefore, in creating a personal profile the most important was to include just crucial and precise information related to work/volunteer experience and keep LinkedIn profile as official as it is possible. I believe that the precept from this lesson helps to promote myself in the job market.
Formal report
One of the pivotal assignments of the whole course is preparing a formal report. Brainstorming for the topic of the report was the most challenging part. All further steps and final success depends on it, so I had some difficulties in deciding on the subject of the research. As firstly I choose a very broad subject for the report, without Dr. Paterson`s advice it would be troublesome to prosper in it. Eventually, I selected the topic intriguing for me and as I am expecting for classmates. Creating a report outline and report progress formed a clear scheme for effective use of time and efforts performing the report. I am looking forward to getting the results of the survey and interview, as it is thrilling how the university administration and graduate students consider the impact of mental wellness on academic performance and career success. One precaution that I have is the possibility to engage enough graduate students in the survey, as everyone is engrossed with own projects and it is almost the exam period. I hope my expectations would be true and I succeed in preparing a pensive report with sufficient primary sources.
Peer-reviewing
As the peer review is ongoing assignments through the whole course, I try to do my best to prosper in it. However, overusing personal pronouns in my writing is one of the most annoying things that I try to eradicate from the writing language. Moreover, a general deficiency of professional communication in English makes the course more demanding, as I must pay a great attention to grammar. But a key point in the peer review for me is staying in the frame of rational judgment while review the colleagues` work. It is become even more strenuous, as at the same time a reviewing process considers thoughtful feedback for your team writing member.
Overall, I enjoyed unit two and all task that I performed during it. I am looking forward to reading my writing team reports as their topics in entertainment and real estate spheres are new for me and I would be happy to expand knowledge in these fields.
Thank you for reading my reflections,
Taras Shyp.