Friday, August 21, 2009

Why is professional communication important to me?

Why is professional communication important to me?

Have you had any experience of going to a social party but staying alone and not actually knowing what to do? Have you ever wanted to get some information about the job position in the company that you are interested but never really know whom to look for? And have you ever struggled with your research proposal to be submitted to graduate school? Whether these things have happened to you or not, we should not neglect the importance of these issues here: being able to communicate with strangers in a party could gain you new knowledge or experience that yourself never had; being able to find out more about job position would let you know what things to expect and how to prepare the resume; the ability of good academic writing skills would get you the opportunity to pursue your academic goal.

The questions addressed above are crucial to me because these are the things that tight up my mind. Firstly, I have decided to enter into finance industry in the rest of my life. In business world, good social networking is one key to success. Building good relationship with capable people will contribute to successes of your own. Hence, in order to connect well with people, developing strong professional communication skills is a must. Secondly, since all of us are surrounded by tons of information, knowing where to find the most useful and relevant information is a key. So, it is imperative that I would need to know to whom and in which channel would my inquiries be best addressed. Thus, professional communication comes into play again. Finally, before my real job search, I may plan to go on to pursue my graduate studies in finance, and one determinant of obtaining the graduate scholarship is the proposal. Knowing how to write effectively is a critical factor. Building up strong communication skills would improve my presentation of thoughts and better interact literally with the professors.

In conclusion, developing professional communication helps me in three aspects: social networking, job search and application to graduate studies. It is a skill that is never out-dated and will help us achieve our goals in life.

9 comments:

  1. Just to add on, having effective communication skills will help you in job interviews too - which i guess you already knew.

    As for whether this skill will ever be out-dated, honestly, I am a bit hesitant to agree with you. But it would certainly be interesting to live in a world where this skill is not needed.

    Suppose all effective communication skills are not needed, which means we do not need to present ourselves professionally to anyone, no need for resumes, interviews, no need to speak or write in proper English or any other language.

    Sounds like a degeneration of mankind, which i don't foresee that happening in the next 50 years. So, yes i agree with you, that its a skill that wont be out-dated. :)

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  2. Haha. Thanks Ji Wei for being the first to comment. Your comment is interesting. But the reality is that people are born different. If we say something and everybody can immediately understand, or if we act in some way, then every others will know our intentions, this world would become "homogeneous" and in fact scary. I think the creation of mankind embraces variety thus differences between us make our ability to communicate important.

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  3. Hi Tian Tian,

    I agree with you that good networking is required in the business world but perhaps you've overlooked that it is also important to be able to communicate with people like your clients, subordinates etc and not just the capable people. More importantly, you have to understand your audience in order to communicate well. For eg you would not use technical finance terms when speaking to a client who has only basic knowledge about finance.

    I also agree that effective communication skills are required for job search and applications. The chance for getting an interview is often based on how well you write that cover letter/resume. Then the verbal and non-verbal communication skills come into the picture at the interview. Which is why we're all taking this module, hopefully to pick up some pointers. =)

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  4. Hey Tian Tian,

    I realise that your post focuses mainly on how effective communication is important for academic/working aspect.

    I agree and you probably know that effective communication is also important in our everyday life with our friends, family, classmates and practically everyone we meet.

    Also, I agree that this is a skill that would never be out-dated however it does not only help us achieve our goals in life, but also helps us get through life in general.

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  5. Dear Tian Tian,

    Thank you for this concise and generally clear post. You adopt a good focus and initiate that with a series of questions. You the address those, mainly by concentrating on your need for refining professional com skills.

    I think Catherine makes a good point suggesting that the non-professional skills are equally relevant, but it seems to me that you have simply chosen to look at a narrow band of skills, which is fine.

    You do a very fine job expressing yourself in English! Still, there are a few instances where your language use could be improved.

    1) being able to communicate with strangers in a party could gain you new knowledge or experience that yourself never had

    2) because these are the things that tight up my schedule.

    3) Building good relationship with capable people will attribute to successes of your own....

    While I really appreciate your effort, I think a bit of editing will make this a much better response. Let's work on it.

    One more thing: Please go to your settings and change the language of the blog to English, okay?

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  6. Hi Tian Tian!
    I really agree with you that building good relationship is so crucial for successful career achievements. Having the knowledge alone is definitely not sufficient. It is almost an unspoken rule that having good communication skills will put you in good stead for career opportunities or promotion. Of course, being able to socialise well with your fellow colleagues will help build better working relationships.

    Jing Ping

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  7. hi tian tian,

    Indeed i can see that effective communication is especially important for the direction you are heading to, that is, to break into the financial industry. Good interpersonal skills are really crucial to gain trusts and rapport when you make business dealings with people. In fact, employers from different industries are now focusing more on recruiting employees who have high emotional intelligence. This is due to the fact that studies have shown that a workforce with high EQ is more productive than the one which has a high IQ instead. Hence, cultivating your communication skills from where we are is very essential for the future in any industry that we are heading to.

    Zikai

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  8. Thank you for sharing great information to us.well ! Social network site is an online platform that focuses on facilitating the building of social networks among people who want to share interests, activities with each other. Azdes.co an online service that allows anyone to create and manage their social community with your friends and family.

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  9. nice ..... today this topic is assingment u provided concise material... it,s completly relevent according my topic now i can more interpretate

    ReplyDelete