MGMT 453 - Gage Ekstrom's Blog

By: Gage Ekstrom

Training is defined as a, “process whereby people acquire abilities to perform jobs” (Week 6 – Outline – Training and Development). I have been in many trainings throughout my life, with some being much more effective than others.

The best training that I was ever a part of was at my internship over the summer when I had to learn how to use two key software in the construction industry, HeavyBid and HeavyJob. Both of these are super dense programs with numerous tools that you can use, but I was able to navigate through them and use them effectively based on a day long training that I was able to partake in. This training did a very good job of establishing the necessary objectives behind the the training course which are:

a. What the employee is expected to do
b. Quality or level of acceptable performance
c. Replicate working conditions
d. Ensure transfer of training

(Week 6 – Outline – Training and Development)

Throughout the day I learned what all I would need to use the software for, how the work should be inputted and displayed, offered real world scenarios that I was able to practice with, and then given the opportunity to demonstrate my knowledge of the software to the instructor. It was a small and intimate training which also really helped me feel free to ask questions and further connect with the material.

On the other hand, a poor training that I have been a part of was at my very first internship freshman year when I had to sit through videos describing how to use Microsoft Project. The videos were long and dull, and provided me with no opportunity to ask for help. It did not replicate the working conditions well, and these videos had no way to ensure that I properly learned the material.

While I understand how to use the software now, it has come from repeated use and outside people directing me on how to use it, not from those videos.

Information gathered from: Oregon State University’s MGMT 453 – Mike Cieri, 2025

An analysis of my job interview experiences including their effectiveness and impact.

By: Gage Ekström

Hello! I am happy that you found your way to my blog.

I have been in many job interviews, and a fun fact is that I actually placed First in the state of Oregon for the Job Interview competition in the Future Business Leaders of America club I was a part of in High School.

Throughout all of the interviews I have been in, and I have had good ones and bad ones, the single thing that impacted the effectiveness of the interview was the interviewer themself and how comfortable they made me feel. At the end of the day, it was the recruiter that gave me a insight into the company, and helped me see what the type of people I would be working with would be like.

Just like we saw in our lectures from class this week, it is important to select recruiters who are, “warm, personable, and knowledgeable about the job and organization.” In the best interviews I have been a part of it was apparent the recruiter loved the company and the worked that they performed.

Information gathered from: Oregon State University’s MGMT 453 – Mike Cieri, 2025

I think if I could go back and tell the companies that I had poor interviews with how they should improve their interviews, I would tell them to be sure that they are selecting the right people or teams of people to conduct the interviews. If you want your company to seem reliable and like one that will look out for and respect its employees, then you need to introduce prospective workers to those that inhibit those ideals the most.

I also think that the interviews that had me interview with individuals from all different levels in the company helped me see all the different types of work that could be performed there, as well as all the different kinds of people.

Analyzing challenges behind developing and maintaining job descriptions in the current day and age.

By: Gage Ekström

Hello all! I hope you are having a great week and if you are a college student that midterms are treating you well.

In today’s day and age, the experience of finding a job can be tedious and aggravating. This is also not alleviated due to the fact that the descriptions in job postings can be convoluted and complicated. However, in my experience there are common themes between the job postings that have been the most clear and straightforward, and which I have been most interested in.

The biggest thing that I could recommend to employers seeking new staff is to make the KSAO’s in a job description as clear as possible. As seen in this week’s lecture: W4 Lecture 1 – Job Analysis, KSAO stands for the following:

• Knowledge
• Skill
• Ability
• Other Characteristics

Information gathered from: Oregon State University’s MGMT 453 – Mike Cieri, 2025

If a company can define these as clearly as possible in their job description, it will better connect them with the most qualified candidates and people who are most interested in the job. This makes the job search experience better for not just the job seeker but the company posting it as well.

For example, I applied to a job at Portland General Electric, and they clearly laid out the required knowledge an employee would need to be successful in each of their postings, as well as the necessary skills and abilities needed. This made it much easier to know which jobs I should even apply to based on my skill level, and then made it much easier to talk about my strengths in those subjects.

While there are many other ways that companies can improve the way they develop their job descriptions, it is also important that they are updated constantly as well. As senior HR generalist, Jill Bidwell, says; ““Ideally, what is put in the job description can create a job posting and performance goals. It walks into a development plan for training you need. From a rewards perspective, it helps us benchmark other jobs,” (Tyler). As Jill puts it, job descriptions are not just good for hiring employees, but ensuring that they are supported and trained to the best of their ability as well.

Sources Cited:

Tyler, Kathryn. “Job Worth Doing: Update Descriptions.” Welcome to SHRM, 21 Dec. 2023, www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/hr-magazine/job-worth-update-descriptions.

Hello Everyone! 

My name is Gage Ekström, and I am happy that you were able to find your way to my blog. I am a fourth year in Construction Engineering Management, and I aspire to find a career as a project manager for a construction company in the near future. But with that, I hope that you are able to enjoy this blog!

This week in class we were asked to look at 3-4 companies from the “2020 Fortune Best Companies to Work For,” and discuss how they practice HR, as well as what type of manager we would like to be one day and what we think some of the most challenging aspects of being a manager are. 

The first company I looked into was a financial services firm called Baird. It has offices across the globe but is based out of Milwaukee, WI. Many employees who worked there said that Baird did an amazing job of developing a positive culture at their company, as well as ensuring that they put people first and prioritizing family time and mental health. This does sound like an amazing place to work, because I know how important family is to me, and work-life balance is something I am very conscious of. I know that it can be really challenging as a manager to promote a healthy work-life balance and to tell your employees to put their family’s first when you have a bottom line to keep up and profits reign as king. But I would like to be a manager who supports his subordinates, and makes them feel respected. For if your employees are mentally healthy, they are much more likely to perform high quality work. 

We can also see how having a team who is happy to be at work can pay off in effectiveness in Chapter 1 of Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman’s book, “First Break All the Rules.” In this chapter we see a manager under the name “Michael” who describes the best team he ever had. The amazing thing is that the only true common denominator between the four employees he mentions is that they all had a positive attitude at work and were happy while they were there (Buckingham & Coffman, 13-14). I thought of this chapter as I read what the employees were saying for why they enjoyed working at Baird, and it sounds like having a positive work atmosphere where employees are happy with the work they are doing is key to having an effective team. I hope that I can foster this type of team on the constructions sites that I will manage in the future. 

While Baird was the company that mostly stood out to me, I saw this same pattern across many of the different companies that I looked into, with some prominent examples being Pinnacle Financial Partners, Plante Moran, Rocket Companies, and many more. 

At the end of the day, it seems like many effective companies are that way because they put their people and their culture first, and then see profits follow. 

Works Cited: 

Buckingham, Marcus, and Curt Coffman. First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. Gallup, 2016.