Kreis 1 Thea Kreis BUSX301-Thacker August 3, 2013 Professional Development Report On the Right Track, Improvement Needed I hope

to become a market researcher, and although I have strong written communication and oral presentation skills, they need to be improved before I can be effective in the work place. To learn more about the field of market research, I interviewed Dr. Veronica Thomas, an assistant professor in the marketing department at Towson University with a background in corporate market research at Nielsen. Dr. Thomas affirmed what I have learned in this Cornerstone class; that in todays business world, excellent written communication and oral presentation skills are essential to success. While I had hoped to focus more on writing in my career, this does not seem realistic. Both of these skills must be honed for me to be a successful market researcher. Using the MODS model for guidance, my writing is strong in terms of message and style, but could be improved in terms of organization and design. To improve my presentation skills, I will continue to practice, attempt to vary my tone as I speak, and demonstrate more open body language. I will solicit feedback, as I did with my resume and cover letter, throughout my career so I can learn how to improve. While Challenging, Corporate Market Research the Right Career Decision I did not have a detailed preconception of market research, the field I would like to enter, but my interview gave me more information about the field, which has led me to believe that market research could indeed be the right career for me. My discussion with Dr. Thomas was particularly beneficial because she provided insight into two potential marketing careers, corporate market research and academic market research. I did not know a great deal about careers in market research, either corporate or academic, before my interview with her. However, she did confirm my understanding that corporate market research is a competitive field, whereas there is more flexibility in teaching and conducting academic market research. As she mentioned, in private market research, workers have less control and less of a work/life balance than those in academics. Dr. Thomas stated that as an academic researcher, she is able to choose the type of research she would like to conduct and with whom she would like to work. My interview with Dr. Thomas suggested that writing and oral presentations are quite important in both corporate and academic research. While she stated that leadership is essential in working for a private marketing research company, she placed less emphasis on the importance of leadership in academic settings because more work can be completed individually. When Dr. Thomas does work with groups to write papers, she is able to select who is in her group. I did expect that writing and oral presentations would be vital when working in market research, as Dr. Thomas suggested. She placed more emphasis on the importance of writing skills, because as an academic, she does not have to give formal presentations to her peers more than a few times a year. Our interview also confirmed what I learned in this Cornerstone course, in terms of the importance of being able to write and present well to succeed in the business world. While I did

Kreis 2 already understand that strong writing and presenting skills would be necessary for a successful career in market research, and for business careers in general, I am a little more hesitant to enter this field. I have hoped to focus on writing in my career rather than giving oral presentations, but since I do not intend to be an academic, it appears that I will not be able to emphasize one over the other. I will have to continue to improve my presentation skills so I feel more comfortable speaking in front of groups, and can be successful in the workforce. I do truly enjoy the principles behind marketing research, and believe that being able to work in this field will be worth having to conduct presentations more often than I would have liked. Experience as a Group Leader in School Beneficial for Career Dr. Thomas said that when she worked for a corporate marketing research firm, teamwork was essential, as was being a strong leader. She said that unfortunately, researching for private companies is a very male-dominated field. Therefore, while working in teams is important for corporate marketing research, it can be difficult, and even unpleasant. On the other hand, as a marketing professor and academic researcher, there is more flexibility in determining how to manage group work and teams. This makes leadership less of an issue. Thanks to this group project, I understand potential difficulties groups may have, including personality clashes, scheduling conflicts, disagreements regarding how to approach assignments, and different perspectives on the importance of doing well. I know that repeated communication about each group members role is necessary, as is feedback about completed tasks. I also know that I must be willing to take ownership of the project and encourage other members to do so as well. My understanding of, and experience with, these issues have helped me develop stronger leadership and people skills. I have learned how to speak up and be persistent to accomplish group objectives. In turn, these skills will help me collaborate with others and facilitate teamwork. In school, I am involved in group projects, such as the one from this Cornerstone course, on a regular basis. The projects most often include a written paper and an oral presentation. My team members and I must devise a plan to complete our assignment thoroughly and on time. I am also involved in group work in my internship at the College of Business and Economics here at Towson University. I partner with four other interns to complete tasks assigned to us by our supervisor. For example, we develop and deliver presentations to incoming transfer students and create handouts that serve as guides to resources for students. I work well with this group because we have similar personality types, value doing well, and have strong work ethics. The projects in this course consisted of written reports and oral presentations. My team had to develop our core message and work together to produce a written report and oral presentation that addressed all aspects of the assignment. We had to conduct research, identify what would be important to our audience, and develop an oral presentation with slides. Each group member needed to be assigned a role and motivated to complete their sections thoroughly and within the deadline. In the marketing field, these types of projects will also be important and the skills required will likely be the same. According to Dr. Thomas, writing press releases and reports on data collected are common, as are oral presentations to superiors and for product launches. I believe that a good team member is a hard worker, has creative ideas, listens attentively, asks questions, works well with others, tries to compromise with group members, understands the

Kreis 3 importance of completing the task as well as possible, has good communication skills, is respectful and punctual. My experiences with groups throughout high school and college have led me to value these traits in a group member. In my interview with Dr. Thomas, she commented that, in her eyes, a good team member pulls their own weight and has strengths where you have weaknesses. She said that it is beneficial when group members traits complement each other to produce a well-rounded result. The feedback from my group members indicates that they believe a good leader coordinates team members well and motivates them to accomplish their goals and put forth their best effort. An effective leader listens to group members and attempts to compromise as much as possible to ensure that all members have their ideas heard. A good leader is able to help devise and implement a plan effectively and efficiently. Dr. Thomas commented that a good leader should be able to motivate others and assign work appropriately so every team member has a role. She also stated that organization is an important skill for leaders. Writing Essential for Market Research, Requires Some Skill Development Marketing research requires sharp written communication skills. Dr. Thomas utilized her writing skills in her corporate career, and uses them today in her academic work. She stated that she had to write press releases and reports on data that were important for her firm. She commented that when she was a consultant, she would become the person her clients would associate with the firm, and so, her emails had to be carefully written to reflect well on the company. As an academic researcher, Dr. Thomas papers must be well written, contain good grammar, and be attentive to detail. Proofreading is an essential part of writing papers, she maintained. My interview with Dr. Thomas revealed that as either a corporate or academic market researcher, I would use many different types of written communication in my work. She said that reports on data, press releases, emails, memos, correspondence with her boss and clients, and research papers are all consistently part of her job. My writing assignments in this Cornerstone class have taught me a lot about the importance of written communication and considering the readers needs when creating a document. I have learned that, in business, the bottom line must always be clear and stated at the beginning so that readers can skim through the document and still understand its key points. Information should be written from most important to least important to ensure that the parts with the greatest impact will not be overlooked due to a readers failure to finish reading the document. The paper should not include any information that is not important to the reader. I have also learned the significance of document structure. Message style headings, spacing, the use of tables and figures, and deductive structure are all key to writing a strong business piece that provides readers with the information they want to know so they will not have to put forth a lot of effort to find it. These insights will help me be more concise in my writing and make my style more appropriate for the business world. According to Dr. Thomas, as a corporate market researcher, she spent about 30% of the day writing results, reports, what happened in the field, and synopses. If I were to be in that career, I should expect to spend a similar percentage of the workday writing or developing a document. As

Kreis 4 a professor and academic writer, Dr. Thomas amount of writing varies, based on whether classes are in session, how many papers she is working on, and how many group members she has etc. I believe that about 50%-60% of the time in this course was devoted to learning how to structure documents and improve writing skills. Therefore, in comparison, I would be writing spending less time on writing as a market researcher. I also think that this course has provided insight and taught me skills that will further improve my efficiency in writing, and so I would not expect to spend more than 30% of my workdays writing. Dr. Thomas expressed overall agreement with the MODS (Message, Organization, Design, Style) model of writing. She said that the message of a document is the most important part. However, she said that style, rather than organization and design was next important, and that organization and design were about equally important. To her, style is very important. Spelling, she said, is something people easily notice, and can be distracting when reading a paper. She also commented that word choice is significant because it impacts how you come across, and can unwittingly affect the reader. Feedback from my work in this class has helped me realize that I am strong in my development of a documents message and style, but could improve on how I organize and design my work. In addition, while I am stronger in my message and style, I could improve my messages by being more complete and developing them more thoroughly. For example, as mentioned in the feedback on my Business Communication Evaluation, I could improve my headings to reflect the whole story of each section and order my information from most important to least important. I also could improve my message by ensuring that my purpose, bottom line, and summary are clearly given in the introduction of my work. In my cover letter, I needed to include a purpose and bottom line in my introduction. I should have discussed my skill set directly after I mentioned that I possess the skills required for the job, rather than after a separate paragraph, and converted my bulleted list into writing with heading levels. To become a better writer, I should focus on my readers needs and questions, improve the organization and usability of my documents, and more expressly state my purpose, bottom line, and next action. First, I should consider the topic of the document and determine what questions readers might have. Then, I should use these questions as a guide to writing the content of my document and organizing the information. To improve the usability of my writing, I must determine my most important point and place it at the beginning of my document, and then organize subsequent information from most important to least important. I should also focus on being more specific when making my points and expressly state them so the reader can easily determine what is important. As a check, I should later review my documents and try to determine the question that each section is addressing, and see if I can discern the most important facts by just reading the beginning of the work.

Extra Credit, Overall Similar Career Center, Interview and Instructor Feedback My Career Center visit and my interview feedback pointed out that I could improve my writing by being more specific and quantitative. In addition, they made comments about my organization of

Kreis 5 paragraphs, saying that if I restructured my documents, it could improve the ease of readability for my audience. My instructor has made similar comments about how to improve my writing, stating that I should be more specific and improve my documents organization. However, my instructor did make some comments about being more complete in terms of giving my message, whereas the feedback from my Career Center visit and interview did not include similar suggestions. Strong Oral Presentation Skills Vital in Marketing Oral presentations are vital in the business world, and particularly in marketing and market research. The purpose of marketing is to determine customer wants and needs, develop products that meet these wants and needs, and then convince consumers to purchase the products. Dr. Thomas explained that presentations are important in marketing both within a company and an academic setting. She said it is important to be able to present to your boss, especially in a way that conveys intelligence. She makes presentations at conferences several times a year to discuss her work and ideas. In the marketing world, presentations are a necessary part of the job. I believed that pitches would be the most important type of oral presentation in the marketing field. Dr. Thomas confirmed this, by saying that product launches are extremely important. She also mentioned that meetings with bosses and PowerPoint presentations are essential. I had not given these as much consideration as I had given to product launches. It appears that presentations are an even more integral part of marketing than I had expected. There are both similarities and key differences between the presentations given in this class and those given in the marketing field. A one-on-one interview, which we did early in the course, is often part of the job process, and is likely a part of obtaining many different kinds of marketing jobs. Similarly, a 90 second executive level briefing would probably be akin to giving a briefing to superiors, or even to delivering potential ideas for marketing campaigns. The five-minute executive level group presentation might also be similar to pitching an idea to bosses or investors. However, in terms of comparison, Dr. Thomas has had more experience giving presentations as an academic than as a corporate researcher. She has given presentations at global conferences, and for research grants. Other than both using PowerPoint, it is difficult to see how these types of presentations would compare to those we delivered in class. If I were to be an academic marketing researcher, I could be expected to give at least six presentations per year, outside of teaching classes. According to Dr. Thomas, it depends on how many conferences one attends and on the topic of research. Based on my interview, corporate researchers regularly give presentations to superiors and clients to share data and make pitches. Dr. Thomas said in the interview that a good presentation is delivered by someone who is confident, or at least appears to be, knows their material thoroughly, avoids saying umm or ahh and does not use notes. She commented that it is always a plus if the presenter is comfortable joking with the audience, has a catchy opener, displays confident body language and incorporates different tones when presenting. A bad presentation, on the other hand, is one in which the speaker is extremely nervous and scared, not prepared, has clearly not practiced, is

Kreis 6 monotone and is boring. This is very similar to what we learned about good and bad presentations in this course. Using these characteristics as criteria, I would evaluate my current presentation skills at about average or slightly above average. When I present, I make sure I know my material and practice many times beforehand. I have improved in terms of my nervousness before giving presentations and have learned how to improve my opening. I know that I still need to further develop my delivery by altering my tone and opening my body language so I seem more at ease with the audience and can then engage them more effectively. To hone these skills, I will deliver presentations on a regular basis so I have the opportunity to improve. In my internship at Towson University, I will have to make several presentations and be open to talking to groups of people. I will focus on varying my tone and attempting to make my voice sound more enthusiastic. I will also try to move around, use my hands, and use open, rather than closed body language. One easy way I can improve my body language is by not crossing my arms in front of me, and instead, hold my hands behind my back, or keep them at my sides. Extra Credit, Improving Interview Skills, But Still Need Work In my initial in-class interview, I was very nervous and displayed nervous tells such as dry mouth, and not using my hands when I spoke. I also provided rather short answers and did not expound on my comments with examples. My interview at the Career Center was more successful than my in-class interview. I did not have a dry mouth and I talked with my hands more than in my first interview. However, I still supplied fairly short answers and did not include examples to elaborate on my answers. Ways to improve my interview skills would be to focus on having comfortable, open body language, and giving more detailed answers to interview questions. I should prepare for interviews by considering key examples to include in my answers, as well as considering stories and questions that would encourage conversation. Extra Credit, Comments on Resume and Cover Letter Focused on Being Precise Dr. Thomas made comments on my resume and cover letter via track changes. I will email these documents. She mentioned that I should remove my SAT scores since employers will likely not be very interested in them, be more quantitative in my descriptions of my accomplishments, and include more examples that illustrate my skills. She said that my format was clean and easy to read, and I had organized the information in a logical manner.

Kreis 7 AppendixBusiness Cards Below are the business cards of Dr. Veronica Thomas, whom I interviewed, and Laura Smith, who reviewed my resume and cover letter.

Kreis 8 AppendixDr. Thomas Review of My Resume and Cover Letter I will email Dr. Thomas edits to my resume and cover letter because she used Track Changes to make revisions. AppendixLaura Smiths Review of My Resume and Cover Letter

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