Applicant's Personalities

I read the article and I was a little surprised by what I learned. While I can understand that you want to find people that work well together, I happened to agree with Miguel Sousa Lobo of Duke University who states that by holding these rigorous interviews and finding people that "like" each other they are really closing the door on diversity because people normally like people who are close in personality to themselves. Now I would hate to be the guy at work that no one really wants to go out with after work, but that really should not be the concern of the employer. If I am qualified and can work efficiently with others then I expect to be at the top of the list of possible interviewees to be hired. A lot of times though it really depends on the job, for example, the job that was talked about in the article about working on the ship makes perfect sense. You don't want people together for weeks at a time if they can't stand to work with one another but for an office job it shouldn't be as big of an issue. I would suggest that if you're going to make the interviews tougher they should test the interviewee in different situations and not just test how they work with other people.

Dual Coding

Okay when I read this week's blog topic I immediately thought of this one commercial that I have just recently started to see, a commercial for Buckley's Cough Mixture. They have a number of commercials out that feature the same scenario. The have someone blind folded with two cups in front of them doing a taste test. Each cup has a label. One is labeled Buckley's and the other is labeled something like: bathroom puddle, spring break hot tub water, or work out perspiration. After the taste test the person says that the contents of the two cups taste the same and that they must be made by the same company. The screen cuts to a graphic with a picture of the Buckley's medicine bottle and two check boxes that are checked off that say "It tastes awful." "It works."

Now while I am pretty sure that I won't be running to the store to get this item the next time I have a bad cough, these commercials sure did stick out in my mind after the FIRST time I saw one of them. Those commercials often stick out in my mind because of the disgusting things they have their testers drinking along with their product. When I think of Buckley's I don't necessarily think of a good cough medicine right away but instead an image of those taste testers pops into my mind.

That is an example how Buckley's has appealed to my sense of taste and sight to allow me to make a connection in my mind to their name, although it may be a somewhat negative connection it is none the less a connection.

We talked about in class about how Hardees' commercials are geared toward men in that they always show big, greasy, thick, filling, cheeseburgers and say that if it wasn't for Hardees, some
men would starve. Now I agree that the target audience is definitely men but I disagree with the message interpretation that Angie gave. I found it interesting that when she saw it, she believed that the Hardees commercial was saying that men couldn't cook so that is why they go to Hardees. When I saw the commercial I thought that it is saying that men go to Hardees because all the other burger places don't ever give enough food and it if it wasn't for Hardees we would starve. I also found it interesting that Angie didn't even mention the women in the Hardees' commercials, because that is one of the main points that stick out in my head. I actually can't think of any Hardees commercials that come to my mind that don't have some woman in skimpy clothes or she is doing something seductive while eating a Hardees' burger or doing something before the burger shows up on the screen,

Anyway I thought that the dual coding that Hardees used was interesting in that it made a much stronger connection to its name in my head than it did in Angie's just because of what they decided to show visually and even what was audibly heard was interpreted differently because of gender. And as a little side note, every time I see those big nasty burgers on screen my mouth just absolutely begins to water even though I hardly ever eat at Hardees.

Group Work

Most people do not want to disappoint other people. When it comes to group work I find that most individuals will put their group work ahead of their individual work if only to keep the rest of the team happy. The degree of accountability is what I think makes a group very efficient. In my group we all got along very well and had a good time while working on our assignment. When we all got together we all did a lot of laughing; it made working on the project a lot more enjoyable. One thing I would change about how our group did business is our level of out of class communication. If we had a meeting or something we would usually send out information about it by email but there were times where we wouldn't always get those emails in time and a little bit of confusion would happen. For the second phase I would suggest that we all exchange numbers and communicate by phone. All in all I would say that I am in a great group that gets along very well and produces great results and I'm sure phase two of the project will reflect that.

I wrote for the team blog this week

Interview Reflection

Walking into the Angie’s office for an interview, I have to confess, I was very nervous. That interview was probably the closest thing I have had to a professional interview where I felt like I was being assessed for my career job. That kind of feeling was new for me and it helped me to imagine what my answers and reactions would be in an actual interview. For the most part I was very proud of the way that I was answering questions. I don’t believe that I do so well when I’m having to answer questions quickly on my feet but after the interview I felt like I was well prepared and that I did a decent job answering those questions. There was an instance where I was stumped when I was asked if I had any questions for her about the company, luckily for me I hadn’t actually turned in a company but none the less I still wouldn’t have thought to prepare for that question. Another thing that I really need to watch when I’m speaking to someone who is interviewing me is my word usage. I didn’t even realize that throughout the interview I was using slang. While I’m sure I didn’t sound uneducated when I was speaking, it was still unprofessional and something that I will work on. Other than that I felt that this interview gave me a lot of confidence for when I prepare for the real thing. For the most part I believe that the interview went rather well and it is an experience that I will definitely remember and draw from.

Presentations

Okay well the first presentation that I really remember is the one by James Cranford. He did the presentation on choosing a plasma TV or an LCD TV. I found it interesting because I have always been into home entertainment systems and I am constantly trying to improve mine. The presentation was especially nice since I am looking into buying a new TV here in the near future. I loved how on his hand out he had the pros and cons to each type of TV, something that will be very useful when it comes time to make a final decision on the television that fits me best.

The other presentation that I really liked, although I can't remember the name of the student who did it, was the presentation on the restaurants in the Clemson area. With me turning 21 this month I found the presentation to be very helpful to me and informative enough for me to print out his hand out and tape it to my wall so I know the weekly specials to the restaurants around here.

All in all I thought all the presentations were good but these two were the ones that stuck out in my mind and will be referenced in the very near future.

Clemson Football

Okay I told myself that I wasn’t going to talk about Clemson football when I found out that we had a free write but my how that changed in the after math of the Virginia Tech game.

All of us guys in the apartment took it pretty hard when we lost to Georgia Tech. There were so many mistakes in that game but most of them we could chalk up to the team just having a bad day. We were all convinced that after losing to a team like Georgia Tech, who is of obvious lesser talent, we would bounce back the next week at home and be able to take on a struggling Virginia Tech offense. The truth is that we did handle the Virginia Tech offense very well I thought our defense did an amazing job, but it was yet again out special teams that was the reason behind our debacle. This is now the second year in a row where our special teams, a team that plays a limited role on the field, has been so bad that it actually costs us wins. Even so, nothing has been done to find a coach that can get the job done. Bowden last year took control of the special teams and still couldn’t get the job done and yet we are in the middle of a new season and Bowden still thinks he can do it himself or that the offense will score so many points that it won’t matter what the special teams does.

What makes me angrier than anything is that we have so much talent on this team and players that work their tails off but from my point of view it has been the coaching decisions that have been so costly. From placing way too much confidence in the running game to just plain horrible play calling. Although I can’t pretend to know everything that the coaches know and why they make some of the decisions that they do, I do know that what is happening with the special teams for the second year in a row is just plain stupidity. One returned kick/punt for a touchdown is enough for maybe five games, but three in one game like in our game Saturday is inexcusable.

There are so many issues that need to be addressed but of course we play crap teams for the next couple of weeks and we will win with ease and Bowden will be able to say that the problems have been addressed. Then we get to Boston College and South Carolina where our skills are actually tested and we will see more of the same domination that we have witnessed for the past two weeks. All I can say is that this offseason, unless we get an amazing recruiting class, will be a long one for Coach Bowden.