Author: Isaiah Coste

Overall, I believe I have learned a lot in this class. Some things I found very interesting included the discrimination section, taking personality and other types of tests as well as how recruiters plan to gain candidates and how they pick and choose who would be best for the company and how they keep them around. However I believe my favorite part of this class was reviewing job descriptions and how they impact whether or not people will apply for the job to how they relate to the actual job. I thought the discussion board where we were to find a job ad that was bad and then critique was fun as well. Something I did not realize is just how much the job title means to people. After learning about that, it made a lot more sense to why this would be something people cared about. I can understand why Dwight from the Office really wanted the title “Assistant Regional Manager” instead of “Assistant to the Regional Manager.” Both are very different things and in real life, that would be something that people do truly care about. I think it is interesting that the title of a position can affect whether people apply for a job, just a simple change can mean night and day for the amount of people that apply for a particular job.

Anyways, I have learned a lot in this class, and has been one of the more interesting classes I have taken at OSU. Thank you Professor Hardy for a great term.

Self Reflection:

Things I am good at:

I believe things I consider myself good at include time management, organization and communication. I think communication is one of the most important aspects of work and life in general so I try to do my best in this area as well as staying focused and keeping organized.

Things I value:

I believe the things I value most in life are friends and family as well as the things that make you happy. For me thats hobbies such as hiking, playing basketball and being around people I care about. There is much more to life than just work, but culture and those you are around are very important to me as well.

How did I get here:

I think the way I was raised and the people I chose to be around brought me to where I am right now. It also took a lot of hard work and dedication to be where I am as well. But for the most part, I am very fortunate to grow up in the household I did as well as the people I grew up around, so I am very thankful for that.

Where am I going:

I think I am on the right path of starting a job, and in the future having a family. I hope to continue to be around those I care about most and create a good life for my kids one day. I hope to be passionate about what I’m doing and at peace with my life and well being.

I think a hiring manager would be quite impressed with my results. My extraversion levels were quite high, showing that I love to be around people and doing new things. I think they would lead them to believe that I am a great person to be around and have around. My agreeableness and cooperation I think were the highest categories I scored with. I think this would show the hiring manager that I get along well with people and I’m willing to put my issues aside to help others or negotiate with others so that both sides win. My conscientiousness traits were on the high side as well. My highest trait was being organized, which I would highly agree with. I am a very organized persons and believe hiring managers would want someone who is organized as well as someone who is disciplined and strive to be better. The two categories I was lower on include neuroticism and openness to experience. I see the openness to experience as my weaknesses. I don’t branch out to much and usually kind of like things the way they are, however I feel like a hiring manager would see this as a downside as it shows I don’t like change and I’m not the best at getting out of my comfort zone. I was pretty low on all the neuroticism traits. This would show an employer that I don’t let thing bother me too much and can stay on track and be successful under pressure.

Overall I feel like form this an employer would see that I get along well with people, I’m very organized and disciplined as well as someone who stays calm and collective. One thing I need to work on and would be seen as a weakness is that I am not great at getting out of my comfort zone.

If I were a business owner and had to choose between someone who is very averagely consistent compared to someone who has the potential to be one of the best but seems unmotivated and unwilling, for me personally I think I would choose the averagely consistent. By averagely consistent I mean they are an average worker but instead of slacking all the time they are trying their best and giving great consistency. I feel like having someone who slacks off a lot and does not want to be the best they can be is someone who will rub off on other employees and make the others around them slack off as well. Instead I would want the person who works hard every day also known as the typical performance type that we learned in the lectures.

The type of job I would like Avery for from the scenario is a job that is high stakes, fast paced and a job that has very important decisions to make. Avery in the scenario has very high potential and has the ability to take care of these situations, so I would rather have someone that when the time comes, they are able to get it done.

I would say a job that I would want Jamie for is a job that is in groups and has lower stakes. I feel like for Jamie, I would want the work ethic there especially when handling smaller jobs that need to get done as they would be the type of person I want others to be around but not the type of person I want making big timely decisions.

I believe my brand to be someone who is respectable, diligent, hard working, and easy to get along with. I think the first impression of me comes off as kind and respectful and I think one of my strong suits is working with others or working with teams. I think this is something I excel at and is going to benefit in the future. I am very good at getting along with others, listening to their opinions, making sure my opinion gets heard and to be able to come together to complete a common goal. One of my weaknesses is that I tend to sometimes not be the greatest communicator in terms of making sure my teams knows what I’m working on or letting others know if I’m going to be late, and overall getting back to people in a timely matter. I’m also somewhat of a procrastinator and tend to do things last minute, but I have started working on this throughout college and feel like I have began to be more proactive over the past four years. Something that has set me apart are the experiences Ive gained over my life. I’ve delt with a lot of different things, from working for the family business since I was 9, to beating cancer this past year. I feel like both these experiences have given me a better mindset, whether that be different business views, or more empathy and compassion for others.

One way I believe that I could present myself to companies and recruiters is through handshake and linked in. I would like to put all my different job expereinces I’ve had from tutoring to working for the family business and the challenges I have faced. I would probably leave out the cancer part, but once they get to know me a little more that may come up at one point or another with relevance. I would present myself fully in cover letter, making sure they know why I would be the best candidate for the position as well as what I have to offer and what new ideas I can bring in. I would also like my resume to stand out with the accomplishments I’ve gained, skills I’ve obtained, and experiences. I hope these things would be a great way for companies to notice me and get who I really am out on paper.

Unfortunately, I do not have an exact description of the job that I had applied for. The job that I had last applied for is the job that I still have now. The job I have now is a tutor position for the student athletes here on Oregon State campus as well as a study facilitator. When applying for the job, I was not too influenced by the description as I already had a few friends that had already been working there for a few years. Because of this I had already known what the job entailed and other details that were not in the job description. However, the job description had a few things I was a little confused about. Before applying for the job, I had read that it is a lot of communicating to student advisors and that I would have to keep a very far professional distance from the student athletes. This was worrisome as I was friends to a few of the student athletes. Thankfully, my bosses were very strict about who you tutor and who you facilitate, so the people I was already friends with would not be students that I work with. The description was very similar to what I was able to do and I dont think there was much differences within the job description compared to what I had to do. Overall it was a very good job description and a great experience.

When looking over the scenario of whether or not I would feel different if I found out a company I love has been discriminating against individuals from my ethnicity and other traits that I am associated with, a few things came to mind. First off yes, this would absolutely change how I view this company and how I feel about the company. However, if I found out that the company discriminated against people that were not things I associated myself with, it would still change the way I view any company. I feel as though it is important for every company to be able to have fair hiring and recruiting practices, no matter the ethnicity, religion, or color of skin. I feel like this most definitely would influence the way I support a certain company as I don’t want to be associated with an organization that discriminates in any form. I don’t believe in any form of discrimination so I don’t believe this is somewhere I would consider working or applying to. Everyone deserves to have an equal opportunity and by a company doing these sorts of things, my values don’t align with the company so I don’t think this is the type of place I would like to work or the type of people I would like to work with. No matter what you look like, no matter what your beliefs are, everyone who puts the work in and is qualified for a job should have the same, equal opportunity as the next person.

One thing I do know is just how important recruiting and hiring the right person is for a company. Like said in lecture, if a company were to hire the wrong person, this can lead to many high costs and lead to failures in very important aspects of the job. However, what it really comes down to is how much a company values their hiring practices, compared to other aspects such as product development and marketing. Some companies may believe that their product is the most important part of their company, and spending the money on marketing to get their name out their is more important and worth it instead of using the money on selecting the right candidates and making sure they hire the right people. In some ways, spending money on the marketing side of the business may increase sales and get a name out there, which in turn would add value and increase the amount of people willing to work there.

However, having said all of that, there are major benefits to allocating resources towards recruitment and selecting the right hires. One thing that comes to mind is avoiding the loss that could have been if a company hired the wrong person. This includes, money going into recruiting that hire, paid salary that did not add value to the company, as well as other incurred expenses that go into having the employee on board. Allocating resources to recruitment will help make sure you hire the person who is the right fit, and will add value to the company. You can’t have a great product without great people. Some weaknesses I can see within this is not having more resources to put into things like product development, however, if you have the right people you can get greater things done than with those that don’t fill well with the company.

My last experience with applying to a job was actually my sophomore year of college. I applied for the MECOP program in hopes to gain access to two, six month internships with different companies. I thought this was a great opportunity as you get to experience to different work places and figure out what fits you best. This process was pretty easy going, however it was long. I had to go through multiple applications and multiple interviews over the past two years which made me feel like this is going to be such a great opportunity. It felt real and authentic and made me feel more like this was a program that could really get my feet off the ground once I am done with college. Most of the people who interviewed were also one part of the MECOP program and have made careers from that so it made me feel like this is definitely worth my time. A few of the different experiences I went through included a first very serious interview to get accepted into the program. This one was a bit longer and I was for sure nervous but it was a great experience, especially since I was still pretty young and in my early years of college. Once I got accepted, we then had a meet and greet with each of the companies within our respective majors. This was great because we were able to get a feel for which companies we could potentially be working for as well as get to know what type of people work there. After this we then had one more interview just for them to get to know us a little better and based on this the companies can then choose their specific candidates. Ultimately I got placed with Genentech and will have a project management internship with them starting in June. Overall this experience has been very professional and very real. I feel as though I have two great opportunities that will very much help me in the future.