My Experience in Communicating

Internship Career Fair

            On March 14^th, I attended Michigan State University's Summer Internship Fair and was very apprehensive about the environment since this was my first time attending a career fair. This year it was held in Breslin where there were at least 50 booths of prospecting companies. In order to come off very professional, I wore dress pants, a suit jacket, and had my hair neatly combed into a half updo. My primary goal was to meet potential employers and gain experience conversing with professionals. My secondary goal was to be offered an interview for one of their internship positions. The professionals at the booths had the same reciprocal goals which was to hire interns or summer employees. So I decided to use my volunteer and professional cards at the job fair. Combining these with high likeability, high formality, and medium power, I felt like I would be an exceptional prospect to being an intern. While I conversed with these potential employers, I anticipated them to play boss cards, yet some of them played fellow student cards or friend cards. This was quite confusing since I did not feel comfortable talking with them how I do my friends so at times I felt like there was some disconnect. For those who chose to use the boss and friend card, I believe they were trying to see the type of person I was and if we could work together in a comfortable environment. Yet, I believe they tried to initiate this too soon and caused confusion. On my part, I was trying to convey that I was a well-rounded employee and someone they needed to have as an intern. I was very successful because my resume showed my diverse background in animal fields which intrigued many of the employers.

Canadian Border

            This spring break I traveled outside of the country to Canada. This being my first time out of the country I was very nervous about what I was going to encounter, but excited at the same time. As we were coming back to the border to cross over to the United States, I sat in the back seat nervous that we wouldn’t be let in. There were dozens of cars ahead of us and we waited in line for what seemed like 40 minutes. Finally it was our turn, so we pulled up to the toll booth. There stood a tall brutish looking police officer with a stern voice. Immediately, I was nervous but I had no reason to be nor did I want to show it. In order to be inconspicuous I demonstrated very low power, medium liking, and medium formality. Since my primary goal of our conversation was to cross the border without a hitch, I determined these would be the best card styles to have. Using a low power would help him think we were not threatening and had nothing to hide as did medium formality. His goal was to identify people who could possibly pose a threat and so he used card styles that were high in power, low in friendliness, and medium in formality. With the card styles, I decided to play a tourist card and “a goodie too shoes” card. His reciprocal cards was a law enforcer or police officer. These were the perfect cards that I could have chosen because if I had chosen to play other cards, we most likely would have been stopped for being suspicious. For example, if I had played a criminal card and decided to drive right through the toll booth, we would have been surely apprehended and arrested. Similarly if I had changed my styles in any way such as increase my power, our talk card game would be intensified in a bad way. I chose to use these cards to appear less suspicious so I could pass through the border quickly. Both of our talk cards helped us obtain our goals. I was able to drive through and he could focus his attention on someone who was really threatening.

Vanity (Clothing store)

            On March 16^th, I was in dire need of an army green jacket for my Saint Patrick Day activities. So, I decided to go to the mall where I searched six different stores all coming up short. Finally, I walk into a store called vanity where there were giant sale signs in the windows. As I searched the store I realized there was not much to choose from since they were going out of business, yet just as I scanned the room I immediately saw the perfect jacket. As I tried on the jacket to see how it fit, the sales clerk began talking with me about how to adjust the jacket and that it was on sale. My primary goal was to buy a green jacket for a cheap price, however, in this situation, I did not have a secondary goal. The sales clerk had a primary goal of selling me this jacket since it was the last in stock. The entire time I was use high likeability, low power, and low formality. This led to us conversing about other things such as the store closing and us exchanging greetings. I was playing a fashionista, friend, and customer card, while she was playing a friend, consultant, and clerk card. All of these cards reciprocated each other and aided in both of our goals being met. By choosing to use all of these cards, we both made the transaction less stressful and more enjoying. Using a friend card was right on both of our parts because it made us more trusting of what the other said, similarly to her using the consultant card. I realized that she had my best interest in mind which made me want to buy the jacket even more. Out of all of the talk games that I have played, this had to have been the most successful because we both received what we wanted and left the conversation feeling fulfilled.