Next week all the co-ops will get together in Trumbull one last time and present what we've been doing and how it's benefited Unilever. We have ten minutes to present and three minutes for Q&A. No big deal, right? Oh, did I mention our audience? Instead of the original plan of having co-ops and a few managers in the room listening to us, we will now be presenting to a room full of directors and vice presidents, no other co-ops allowed. It definitely pumps up one's nerves, but it's also more exciting this way! Don't get me wrong, I am quite nervous for this presentation, but it's now much more of a big deal, makes a little co-op feel special, haha. So here are a few tips to prepare for the big presentation:
- Start early! You should try to give yourself at least three weeks to prepare, at one week for designing and the rest of your time to practice.
- Yes, practice. You need to practice, practice, practice. If you ever find yourself lacking motivation to practice, remind yourself that this presentation is huge, you do not want to appear unprepared.
- Start like you're living in the Roaring Twenties! Well, I don't mean rebel against conventional modest fashion, but rather, forget the computer. Turn off the screen of life and take out a pad of paper and pen. Write down key ideas, headlines, and even a mock-up of what you're going to say. Often when creating presentations we get so wound up focusing on design elements, like what slide background to use, we forget the important stuff like the content.
- It's all about you. It's not about what fancy animation you have on your slides, so keep it simple when it comes to design. You want your audience focusing on you, your words, and your message. Your slides are there for a supporting pictures or for emphasizing a few words now and then.
- Practice, practice, practice. Practice in front of a camera so you know exactly how others see you. You're your biggest critic so be nice, but be honest. Once you're comfortable, and definitely a week before game day, practice in front of others and request their feedback.
- Know your audience and when you're going to present. Keep it interesting by using demos or multi-media.
- On the day of the presentation, relax. It's ok to be nervous, it shows that you care, but just take a breath and talk at a normal pace. If you get off track, take a deep breath, collect your thoughts, and move on. Try to think of it as fun, remember that you love giving presentations and showing yourself off to upper management!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Pre-Wrap Up
As the semester comes to an end at State, everyone's busy with finals and I myself have a few things to do for EGR 393, my experiential education class. Although my co-op ends in June, I will do a little pre-wrap up now for those involved with EGR 393.
I initially entered my co-op with the notion that I would be doing risk assessments, a method of evaluating the possible risks of hazards that are generated in a location, from a task, or from a machine. I ended up completing my tasked list of risk assessments within about 3 weeks, my manager expected it to take 6 months. So now what? I did a bunch of training available through Unilever, I learned a lot more about supply chain and about the business practices of Unilever - this is a great benefit from working for a large company. I also was able to dip into my creativity and design two employee motivational programs while I was here. The first was based of the Olympics, with themed events like a poster contest and a race for safe ideas, it went on during the Olympics to remind workers to think safe as they saw The Games on TV that night. The second, which is still going on, is a challenge to report more near misses - events which could have resulted in injury - and change those situations quickly so it won't happen again. For the next month I will continue to do risk assessments on new products and I will continue to advocate the Near Miss Challenge. My main hurdle right now is to prepare for our final presentation on June 3rd, 10 minutes alone in a room with directors and VP's explaining what we've done for the past six months and how Unilever benefited. I'm nervous already, but I'm starting to prepare now, by June 3rd I will be ready.
I have had such a wonderful experience working for Unilever, it is an opportunity I would recommend to anyone. I was very pleased to find a career choice I can see myself doing and have some initial practice with it in a real working environment. I have mentioned before that although I definitely am set on a chemical engineering degree, I want it more for the background and less for the actual engineering of chemicals. Safety allows me to do just that, it's a field where technical background is required, but it really has nothing to do with chemical engineering. I am so thankful Unilever chose me for this program and introduced me to safety, I now plan on taking some OSHA classes before graduation to further my career in safety.
I initially entered my co-op with the notion that I would be doing risk assessments, a method of evaluating the possible risks of hazards that are generated in a location, from a task, or from a machine. I ended up completing my tasked list of risk assessments within about 3 weeks, my manager expected it to take 6 months. So now what? I did a bunch of training available through Unilever, I learned a lot more about supply chain and about the business practices of Unilever - this is a great benefit from working for a large company. I also was able to dip into my creativity and design two employee motivational programs while I was here. The first was based of the Olympics, with themed events like a poster contest and a race for safe ideas, it went on during the Olympics to remind workers to think safe as they saw The Games on TV that night. The second, which is still going on, is a challenge to report more near misses - events which could have resulted in injury - and change those situations quickly so it won't happen again. For the next month I will continue to do risk assessments on new products and I will continue to advocate the Near Miss Challenge. My main hurdle right now is to prepare for our final presentation on June 3rd, 10 minutes alone in a room with directors and VP's explaining what we've done for the past six months and how Unilever benefited. I'm nervous already, but I'm starting to prepare now, by June 3rd I will be ready.
I have had such a wonderful experience working for Unilever, it is an opportunity I would recommend to anyone. I was very pleased to find a career choice I can see myself doing and have some initial practice with it in a real working environment. I have mentioned before that although I definitely am set on a chemical engineering degree, I want it more for the background and less for the actual engineering of chemicals. Safety allows me to do just that, it's a field where technical background is required, but it really has nothing to do with chemical engineering. I am so thankful Unilever chose me for this program and introduced me to safety, I now plan on taking some OSHA classes before graduation to further my career in safety.
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