![\"K-R\"](\"http:\/\/www.thomsonspace.com\/files\/kevin-r.png\")
1. When did you graduate, and what did you study at UFV?<\/span><\/p>\nI graduated with a Bachelor\u2019s degree from UFV in 2009.\u00a0 While at UFV, I concentrated on Communications courses, but also took Business, Information Technology, and History courses.\u00a0 In 2011 I completed a Master\u2019s degree in Educational Technology at the University of Calgary.<\/p>\n
2. What is your current role, and what are the main forms of communication required of you?<\/span><\/p>\n Currently I am instructing at UFV, and I am also working as a Systems Implementation\/Training Consultant in the global trade and logistics industry.\u00a0 The main forms of communication required from me (in the corporate world) are communicating project tasks and duties to assigned resources, communicating project deadlines to customers, and keeping customers up-to-date on deliverable and deadline progress.\u00a0 Usually the information is provided via email or some sort of scheduled automatic reporting system that updates customers through email or FTP file sharing.<\/p>\n 3. Why did you decide to complete a minor in Communications?<\/span><\/p>\n I started my educational career in General Business Studies, as I wanted to find a program that I could get excited about. UFV does not yet have a Communications major, so I could only minor in Communications.\u00a0 I felt (and still feel) that communication in business is one of the biggest issues in North America, and may be the field that, if \u201ctightened up,\u201d would increase productivity \u2013 and profits \u2013 for corporations in general.\u00a0 The tools I learned at university were highly applicable to business situations, and I attribute most of my success to how I took the skills I learned in CMNS and implemented them in the corporate world.<\/p>\n 4. Can you describe a highlight from the courses you took in CMNS?<\/span><\/p>\n Two words: the instructors<\/em>.\u00a0 Taking Communications at UFV was definitely a turning point in my career.\u00a0 The first couple of courses in Communications were \u201ceye-opening\u201d; the instructors kept us motivated and created an enjoyable and open learning environment where we were exposed to valuable skills that are necessary in the workplace, and it continued until I completed my undergraduate degree.\u00a0 I always looked forward to my Communications night classes at UFV, and never felt as if I was \u201cgoing to work\u201d while attending UFV CMNS classes.\u00a0 I could see the direct correlation between success and skills learned in the CMNS program.<\/p>\n I left UFV with confidence and the skills to succeed, and that\u2019s thanks to the instructor team, and when I\u2019m teaching courses at UFV, I look for ways to generally improve student\u2019s careers the way that instructors in the Communications department improved mine.\u00a0 The instructors were extremely approachable. I remember being at a crossroads in my career, and asking David Thomson for advice and direction after class one evening.\u00a0 His excellent advice steered me in the right direction, and this one example will always remind me that even a small extra effort by an instructor can make a big difference to a student.<\/p>\n When it comes to how I instruct classes, I try my best to create a productive and enjoyable team atmosphere comparable to the one that Linda Pardy creates in her classes at UFV.\u00a0 Linda Pardy is the most genuine person I\u2019ve met. She tells you how it is, and teaches the course material the way that Communications needs to be taught, objectively and outside-of-the-box.\u00a0 Linda is the reason why I decided to become an instructor at UFV. She will never give up on a student, and she will make the extra effort to fight for the underdog.\u00a0 If I were a professional boxer, I would want a person like Linda to hold the towel in my corner, give advice and direction on how to adjust during the fight, and cheer me on despite the punches that are inevitably going to land on my face.<\/p>\n Last but not least, Madeleine Hardin was a great teacher to experience at UFV (although I unfortunately only was able to have one face-to-face class with her at the end of my program).\u00a0 Madeleine is a great person, directly responsible for raising over 10 million dollars for great causes; she not only knows how to \u201ctalk the talk,\u201d she \u201cwalks the walk\u201d and shows by example how to advocate successfully.\u00a0 Advocacy was a skill that I didn\u2019t expect to be important in my life and career before I got into the CMNS program at UFV, but I\u2019m very glad that I learned about it.<\/p>\n I worked with many other great instructors in other Communications courses who had a great influence on me, and I think that shows the depth of instructional talent and teamwork in the department.<\/p>\n 5. With the wisdom of hindsight and experience, what communication-related advice would you offer current UFV students as they prepare for graduation and\/or employment?<\/span><\/p>\n Always ASK for what you want \u2013 always \u2013 and be sure to get the response in writing.\u00a0 Never be afraid to fight for what you deserve.\u00a0 Take advantage of what you are given, or what is possibly within your reach, and then reach further!<\/p>\n For example, almost all of my post-secondary costs were covered by corporate tuition reimbursement programs.\u00a0 There are hundreds of employees entitled to the \u201cfree money\u201d offered by such programs, yet only a handful actually make the effort to use them.\u00a0 This means either the benefit of post-secondary education is not being communicated properly to employees, or the obvious skills obtained through post-secondary education are not being sought-after by managers in government, business and industry.\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t have a tuition reimbursement program, ask your employer to pay for your tuition anyway!<\/p>\n Be the loud employee, the one with the confidence to ask for what you deserve \u2013 and if you lack that confidence, do what I did and take Communications courses at UFV!<\/p>\n 6. Is there an aspect of communication you would like to see added or covered in greater depth at UFV?<\/span><\/p>\n I would like to see more attention paid to the updated\/advanced Web 2.0+ aspect of communication.\u00a0 The idea of how<\/em> to communicate has changed. Thanks to the Internet it\u2019s possible to post your material online and people will seek you out. It\u2019s a huge grey-area in communication right now; we need to study the strategies that work and discard the ones that don\u2019t.<\/p>\n 7. What is the one communications-related skill you feel is most valuable to you in the workplace?<\/span><\/p>\n Keep it short and sweet.\u00a0 Understand this psychological truth: people tend to zone out after a couple of sentences.\u00a0 Be direct with the other party, and don\u2019t over explain\/describe.<\/p>\n Two other communication skills that I\u2019ve found valuable are: 1) follow up after an initial message if you don\u2019t hear back, and 2) document everything.\u00a0 In short, don\u2019t take \u201cno\u201d for an answer, and when you finally get a yes, be sure to get it on the record.<\/p>\n Many thanks, Kevin, for taking the time to respond to our questions. We\u2019re happy to see you\u2019ve found success, and still happier to see your career path has brought you back to us as a colleague!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why study communications? 1. When did you graduate, and what did you study at UFV? I graduated with a Bachelor\u2019s degree from UFV in 2009.\u00a0 While at UFV, I concentrated on Communications courses, but also took Business, Information Technology, and History courses.\u00a0 In 2011 I completed a Master\u2019s degree in Educational Technology at the University … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/cmns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/cmns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/cmns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/cmns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/cmns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/cmns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/cmns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions\/446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/cmns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/cmns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/cmns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}