This picture of me demonstrates my mastery in Nonverbal Communication. This picture was taken before attending a career fair at Georgia Tech. Because of the business nature of the event, my attire complies with the business dress code required for career fairs and job interviews. The black suit is considered a power color, which denotes confidence and elegance. I am also wearing black shoes that matches with my suit and a blue shirt which in my opinion stands out from the rest of the white color shirt people usually wear. I am also very well groomed and hair is well maintained to give a clean expression when interviewing and talking with others.
This article by Sam H. Dekay focuses on a study done by a Fortune-100 Company to evaluate the importance of document design on emails. The author presents some statistical facts about how much email is used in a corporate environment. He also writes about the opinion of researchers and academics on the email as a communication tool and how they describe it as a “merely homogeneous mixture of black type embedded in a white background” and how email communications is at present “exiled to a design wasteland”. The article’s expected result is to dispute these comments and to prove how email is a robust communication tool in the workplace and it deserves study by rhetoricians and document designers. The study used email messages sent twice a month and delivered to approximately 23,000 employees concerning the most effective strategies for computer security. Two different styles were used to deliver these messages: the first style used lots of color, fonts and clip in order to avoid the resemblance to a memorandum-style email. The second design avoided the clip arts and presented the content as black letters in a white background. The second design was considered more effective based on the recipient's’ responses which increased 10 times from the first design to the second. These responses are mainly attributed to the unacceptable elements of the corporate environment conventions in the first design such as colors and clip arts and the addition of To: and Subject: field in the second design to avoid confusion and increase confidence in the readers. As a conclusion the author makes a call for document designers and rhetoricians to analyze emails as a form of communication that incorporates design features to get the results needed
This mock video interview shows my Oral Communication skills. During this interview, I maintained an engaging tone with the interviewer and always tried to look at the camera while I talk. This is very important because it demonstrate confidence on my answer to the interviewer’s questions. During this interview I also paid a lot of attention to my interviewer’s body and facial expressions such as head movement and body posture. This is very important to get feedback on my answers and be able to change the tone of my voice or the speed I am talking. I also maintained a straight posture and wore a light color shirt to overcome the poor lighting and the quality of the video.
This video interview has been very useful for me. I noticed some things I do while I am answering questions on camera. The first thing I noticed during the interview is that I tend to look up while I am thinking and answering a question. This could give the interviewer the impression that I do not know how to answer the question or that I am not confident with what I am saying. I also noticed that I move my legs a lot, which on the camera looks like my whole body is moving, and this could be uncomfortable for the interviewer. I did try to go on camera again and found out that if I hold an object, I stop moving because I apply pressure to the object instead. On the contrary, I noticed that when I am in interviewing in camera or in person, I tend to speak a lot slower than I do in person, which is a good thing because the interviewer can understand my ideas better. I also noticed from the interview that having a yellow background and a light shirt is not the best combination. The color of the shirt, the light background and the not so ideal illumination in the room makes my face blurry and causes the interviewer not to see my eyes which in my opinion is essential to see how confident is the interviewee. I chose my 45 seconds from 2 different questions. I think these are the best moments because I am looking at the camera while I talk. Also, is really hard to see from the video but while I am answering the questions I can see that the interviewer is very interested in my answers. This assignment has helped me a lot understand the mistakes I make when I am interviewing. I also think that it will make me a better presenter for future presentations or videoconferences.
