Final reflections

Ending my entire 4 years of university life with ES2007S was interesting. I think it was apt that we were reviewing the entire coursework, going through  a checklist of what we have covered in this module. I think I have covered EVERY aspect in my entire university life.

Of course, as discussed yesterday, this course covered alot of ground. It has aided me in the development of many soft skills. Even in engineering, what I take away will not be the heavy technical details but soft skills like learning to think on my feet, logical thinking and analysis, etc. I believe these soft skills will help me along in my future career. Though I cannot say I am an expert in all my soft skills, but my experience in NUS have helped to form the foundations. I can continue to develop and hone them with experience.

To be honest, one of the reasons I chose this module was because it has no exams. The other intention was to learn how to write a proper resume, cover letter for the primary purpose of scoring myself an interview with the company of choice, since I would be graduating. It was very practical knowledge that I felt I needed to know. I came here to learn but I ended up doing the second peer teaching lesson which was on resume, cover letters and personal statement. What an irony! But I truly appreciated all the feedback that we gave each other. It helped me improve by comparing myself with the standards of the rest.

I've always thought that blogging was something you'll do when you have too much time on your hands. Well, that's exactly what I did during my long holidays after junior college. But I realised that I like blogging and seeing responses and comments was indeed encouraging. Still, I might not be able to sustain it after this module. The use of facebook was also effective because our generation probably surf facebook more than we check our e-mails.

What I found interesting about ES2007S is the myriad of people I have come across. It would have been better if we had students from other faculties join us to give different perspective. Still, the mix we had was interesting enough.

My only qualm was that we could not choose our own research project team. I would have preferred to work with people I was more comfortable with. Forcing me to step out of my comfort zone, I know, was a necessary evil. But this necessary evil might have cost me my grades which is something I'm not too pleased about. I understand that grades are not everything but it will affect my class of honours.

Reflection on my presentation

Finishing this presentation lifts a heavy burden off my shoulders. I have always had stage fright. I know most people might find it strange because I perform on stage all the time, whether singing or dancing. However, when it comes to public speaking, i get all jittery and nervous. I worry that i would not be able to work the stage, engage the audience, remember what I need to say, speak professionally.

When I rehearse, I sound perfectly confident and sure of my content. But when it comes to the real thing, I stumble and rely heavily on the notes that I have prepared. For this presentation, when Brad told us no notes or cue cards should be used, I was devastated. Even though this was my pet topic, I still felt the stress. This was very obvious during the mock interview when the environment that i was in did not help either - two presentations going on simultaneously in the same room greatly distracted me.

During that week, I had two presentations - one Engineering Professionalism presentation as well as this Professional Communications presentation. I felt very much at ease presenting engineering facts and hence I was more confident. Perhaps it was also because in Engineering Professionalism, I know I am not judged by the way I speak and present myself but rather the purpose was solely to allow the audience to understand the concepts of my project. Furthermore, I was allowed to refer to my mini notes and cue cards from time to time. I think that really helped to calm my nerves because I know that I have a backup. Professional Communications, on the other hand, was intended to scrutinise the way I speak, my non-verbal gestures that I might not even be aware of, and trying to convince an audience who was trying to nit-pick. I felt self-conscious and that worsened the situation.

Despite my struggles and laments, I felt that my actual presentation was much better than the mock presentation. Also, I am glad that my idea of having a mini disturbance during the presentation, to illustrate my point of how dancers disturb the peace of others when they use public spaces, was well-received. Although it was not absolutely ideal, I felt that it was the best presentation that I could have given.