Month: February 2025

At the beginning of this term, I was prepared to begin as a paid teaching assistant for the Strength of Materials course I took my sophomore year of college. This position is with a professor that I have already worked with times before and have enjoyed working for her. The course is also an online course which allows me a lot of freedom in my working hours. The online teaching assistant role is something I have done before and it pairs really well with being a full-time student. However, I got a call week one of the term from the Project Manager I worked with the summer before. He called asking if I would be interested in coming on part-time during the school year because they could really use my help AND he’d even try to get a pay increase from an already high wage! Despite the obvious fact that continuing my internship part-time provides a much better related learning experience for me compared to the teaching assistant position, but the hourly rate played a large part in it too. I made the decision to resign from my teaching assistant job, which was hard to leave the professor without help, but I couldn’t turn down the experience and an increase of over $10 per hour than what I would have been making. Not only does a position with this large of an increased wage better support me in being significantly more financially stable, but it motivates me to be more effective and have higher quality in my work. A higher wage increases my confidence in myself and makes me feel like my time is more valuable (because it is). This results in producing a higher quality of work. Knowing how much the company is willing to pay me, makes me want to take on greater challenges, grow my knowledge, and perform well for the company. With the higher wage and quality of work, I am much more motivated to go to my internship at 7 am than to do remote grading from my bed…

Lifeguards, they are the first responder to an aquatic rescue. Their duties include enforcing pool rules, scanning the water, making water rescues, and saving lives. Training is essential to a lifeguard.

After growing up a competitive swimmer my whole life, it only made sense that my first job was going to be a Lifeguard. I wanted to be prepared to start my job the day I turned 16, so at 15 years old I signed up for a local lifeguard training class. This class was 3 days classroom and hands-on training to prepare us to pass a series of tests. Each day we would begin in the classroom and discuss the different type of rescue techniques. We would see examples on a presentation and discuss which technique is used when. Then, we would suit up and jump in the pool to practice these techniques ourselves. After some time practicing, our instructor would present us with a real life scenario. Someone would be in the water as the distressed swimmer and we would have to use the skills we just learned to properly make the rescue. We would take turns in the scenarios being the active lifeguard, and the second responding lifeguard. This series of training techniques was very beneficial towards my understanding. By first communicating the relevance, making the content meaningful, and then allowing time to practice in a group setting I was able to perfect my skills and gain confidence within a short period of time. Watching others complete their skills, working in a group to complete a rescue, and receiving feedback allowed me to pass all my skill tests.

The training during my time as a lifeguard didn’t stop there. We had monthly trainings that gave us the time to practice our skills, communication, and team work. These monthly trainings were very crucial for the success of our lifeguard team. Not only did we ensure our first aid and rescue skills were top notch, but we grew as a team. The trainings took away the obligations of our day to day responsibilities and allowed the team to open up and get to know each other better.

As discussed in class lectures, what was most effective during my lifeguard training was meaningful content followed up my group hands-on experience.

What makes an effective interview?

In the fall of 2023 I attended my first career fair of my college time. After completing my first year of BACC Core and math classes, I came back to school in the fall and listened to the advice of my professors. Despite my lack of construction knowledge, I set forth to the School of Civil and Construction Engineering Career Fair. Full of employment opportunities, I took my chance at talking to some construction firms that interested me to discuss internships and by chance, I left the career fair with 2 interviews set up for the next day. Oh no what am I going to wear!? When the next day rolls around, I arrive at the alumni center to meet with my two back to back interviews. The first of two was Perlo Construction, a medium sized construction firm in Tualatin, Oregon. The two interviewers were women, something that immediately made me feel welcome. The two women on the other side of the table chatted with me about my goals, my time in school, my extracurricular activities, and even my hobbies. We were talking about all things I’ve exceled in and not my lack of construction knowledge. I left the interview feeling like Perlo got a great sense of who I am as a person, my strengths, and the qualities I bring that would help me exceed in this role. The second interview, a nationwide large construction firm, Skanska. The two guys on the other side of the table from me look at my resume longer than in my eyes. They study it instead of me. Their questions remain in the box and don’t veer off of focusing on the lack of my construction knowledge. I leave the interview unsatisfied and unlikely to accept a job offer from them if it were to be offered.

In the terms of this interview for a entry level internship position, Skanska used a more reliability approach keeping all interviews with candidates under similar conditions. Perlo on the other hand used more of a validity approach to the interview by understanding my personal skills and qualities rather than my experience. Ultimately, this approach was very effective to me and I accepted a job offer with Perlo Construction that week.

Job Analysis and Job Descriptions

What is Job Analysis?

The analysis of the work and the employee characteristics needed to perform the work successfully.

What is Job Description?

Defining the identification (Title, department, positions to report to, ect.), summary, task statements, and working conditions of the job.

Why do these matter?

Job analysis allows companies to design or redesign jobs based on the results of their research. From what they learn regarding the needs of the company, they can develop job descriptions to fill roles appropriately. A clear and accurate job description is necessary for both the employer and employee, ensuring that both parties feel like they are a good fit for the role.

In my personal experience with job descriptions, from working part-time jobs throughout high school and college, job descriptions allowed me to ‘Shop’ for the right job for me. If the job descriptions stated something that I knew I wasn’t experienced in, or something I wouldn’t find satisfaction in doing, I would know this isn’t a good choice for me. Opposingly, if a job description is well spelled out and includes areas I could be successful in, then I would be drawn to that role. This is crucial for employers to effectively fill the roles in their company.

Challenges and Risk

With that said, jobs are constantly fluctuating and adapting, companies are challenged with staying up to date with their data analysis to appropriately make changes to their companies roles as they see best fit. When a role changes while being filled, its the companies responsibility to redevelop the job description and communicate with the employee so they understand the new expectations. Without clear communication of these job descriptions, tasks could get missed or end up in the wrong hands. There is also a risk of an increase in employee grievances with unclear job expectations such as if one employee began to gain a large load of responsibilities without compensation and vise versa, if an employee lost job responsibilities and felt lost in their role.

Developing these changes within the company isn’t an easy task. It can take some convincing of the company to understand why the change is necessary towards the success of the company, but strong job analysis can make it clear. Job analysis can be determined by interviews, questionnaires, observations, and diaries to understand where change is needed. This world is always changing and if companies don’t adapt and change their roles to maximize their efficiency they will fall behind their competitors. This is a large but important role of upper management that greatly affects the overall success of the company