Beyond Professional Communications...

It was the last lesson of the semester, yet it was the most impactful one.

“How are we communicating with our loved ones?” This question was asked by Ms. Lim as she brought the module to a close.

Somehow, when she asked that question, I was overwhelmed by it. This was because earlier on, when she mentioned a quote from my blog post, I was reminded of an objective that I wanted to achieve from this module- to be able to communicate better to improved relationships. Thus when the parting question was asked, I started to reflect on my communication with my loved ones.

Sad to say, I do not think I have achieved this particular goal. It is not because I did not learn anything from this module. Rather, in the midst of all the busyness of work and presentations, I have not actively put what I had learnt into my daily life.

So many times, I assume that my loved ones understand what I am trying to communicate. If they do not, I would instant complain “why don’t you understand” without thinking whether I put in effort to communicate properly. When interacting with strangers or friends, I would be the actively listener and good communicator but when communicating with loved one, I would slack off and take things for granted.

But this will change. I am really glad that Ms. Lim reminded me of my priorities and loves of my life and gave the challenge to rise up and apply what I have learnt beyond the context of “professional communication” but into our daily lives as well.

It may be the end of a module. But for me, it is definitely a beginning of actively putting what I have learnt into practice.

Concentration, concentration, presentation is a game of concentration

Eye contact, checked. Gestures, checked. Clarify and good pace of speech, checked. Ability to remain composed in the midst of distractions, not checked.

Distractions were something that I was not prepared for. Having practiced in front of the mirror and my parents, I did not have any interruptions to worry about. Therefore distractions caught me off guard and affected my train of thoughts.

During my presentation, at my second point, there were two loud beeps coming from the direction of my classmates. The beeps reminded me of Ms. Lim’s instructions to give a signal at the 18th and 20th minute. With that idea, my thoughts became divided between the presentation and whether we went overtime. As the saying goes “A divided house cannot stand”, my divided thoughts gave me a hard time in presenting as I fumbled quite a bit. After a while, I managed to regain my composure by reassuring myself that since all the practices were done within 20 minutes and this round was no different. However, by then I was almost three quarters through my part.

Could I have done something during my preparation to advert away this disaster? Since the problems lies with my concentration, I need to train myself to concentrate and not be affected by distractions. A possible training method would be learning to concentrate in class and not allowing myself to daydream or let my thought wander about.

Putting aside the fumbling due to a distracted mind, I feel that I did reasonably well as I consciously ensure that my non-verbal cues are sufficiently present. In terms of PowerPoint slides creation, I have improved a lot from the peer-teaching. This time round, my slides were simple, concise and do not have unnecessary pictures. The black background was also particularly useful as I did not have to worry about being in the light of the projector.

All in all, even though I did not meet my expectation in terms of a calm, composed and professional delivery, I did identify a weakness that I never knew about before. Hence it was a good learning experience.

Intercultural Communication

I had the opportunity to go to Cebu City, Philippines, during my holidays last year. It was my first time to the Philippines and I was there with a group of friends to help out at an orphanage. It was there at the orphanage where the intercultural misunderstanding occurred.

I was looking for an item down at the storeroom when one of the kids appeared. As I could not find the item I was looking for, I asked the kid if he knew where the item was but he did not reply. I tried asking him again, speaking at a slower pace. However there was still no verbal reply, only the raising of his eyebrow. Getting frustrated, I spoke very slowly, loudly and annunciate every single syllabus clearly, ending my question with “Yes or No?”, accompanying it with a vigorous nodding and shaking of head. Finally, he nodded and I asked him to help me take it out, of which he did.

After the incident, I managed to find out that it was me and not him who misunderstood. In their culture, the raising of eyebrows meant “yes” and this action is practice much more than nodding to agree. So, all the while, the kid was signaling to me that he knew where the item was.

From this incident, I learnt that besides learning as much facts about a culture as possible, one should always be patient when talking to someone of a different culture, especially if a language barrier may exist. Being patient aids the process of effective intercultural communication as it encourages both sides to keep attempting to understand message till it is correctly decoded. Getting frustrated will not help the situation and might even work against it as both sides get angry and tired of trying to understand each other.

So remember, when you are in a foreign land, do be patient and you will find it much easier to communicate.

Job advertisement

Position Title	Process Senior Engineer/Engineer- Etch/Clean Tech/Diffusion/Implant/Thin Film/CMP/Litho/Metrology
Location	Singapore
Date Posted	Monday, August 16, 2010
Application Deadline	Wednesday, September 15, 2010

• Monitor process performance indices on qualified processes and establish good controls to maintain process performance
• Oversee and ensure that all critical nodes for quality indices are met
• Improve on qualified processes using quality improvement tools
• Troubleshoot out-of-control situations and decide on the lot disposition in an out-of-spec situation
• Troubleshoot process issues, establish Control Action System, specifications for procedures to be followed and work with other departments to create new recipes
• Improve qualified process using SPC and other statistical tools
• Work with both internal and external customers to improve yield and quality
• Ensure productivity improvement through process changes, document, as well as implement process capability and work with equipment Engineers to maximize productivity of the equipment
• Start up new equipment processes which involves process characterization and development
• Organize and oversee training for Associate Engineer to upgrade their technical skills

Requirements

• Master / Degree in Electrical / Electronics / Microelectronics / Chemical Engineering or Degree in Physics/Chemistry
• At least 5 years of Litho / Etch / PVD / CVD Implant / Diffusion Process experience is preferred
• Good interpersonal skill
• Good team player
• Good analytical skill

Application letter

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore

Tan Jonathan

Blk 123
Serangoon Rd 123
S661234

Application Letter for Process Engineer Position

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am currently a fresh NUS graduate with a Bachelor Degree in Applied Chemistry with Honours. I am writing this letter in hope of having an opportunity to work in the prestigious GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore as a process engineer, having seen the company’s advertisement in the Straits Times Recruit.

The company’s desire for innovation and product excellence is an encouraging factor for me to apply for this position as I am a firm believer too. This belief that such abilities can be nurtured through having a variety of academic and working experience led me to do internships with TÜV SÜD PSB and a pharmaceutical company.

During my internships, aside from my usual duties to oversee certain processes, there were opportunities to work with resident engineers to discuss about innovation and pilot projects. We studied 10-year-old systems to look possibilities to save cost or replace parts to increase efficiency and software improvements to increase productivity.

Even as a choice of undergraduate course, I took the path less travelled as an applied chemist as it gave me the opportunity to go beyond pure theoretical chemistry into different areas such as materials and even engineering.

Learning and growing from all these experiences, gives me an edge over other applicants who never attempt to step out of their comfort zones. Thus I believe I can be a greater blessing to the GLOBALFOUNDRIES through innovating and breaking of new boundaries.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES is a company which has an extensive network and a global footing. It is a leading foundry technology leader with a long heritage of manufacturing excellence. Its commitment to the area of innovation can be seen through its willingness to spend USD$1 Billion for R&D. Hence with a similar goal in mind, it will be an easy task for me to integrate into the working culture and work to benefit the company.

A letter and resume can say only so much about my motivation and qualification. Hence, I will be eagerly waiting and available to answer any queries. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank You for your consideration.

Yours Faithfully,

Tan Jonathan

If only I knew.....

To be honest, when I read the details of the instructions for this week’s blog post, I got quite worried. We were required to describe a conflict, its context, the main problem, possible causes etc. The chief reason for my worry was this: if I knew what the problem was, the situation would not have escalated into a conflict where relationships turn sour. Hence I thought I should try to write up a hypothetical situation where all these details will be very clear for everyone to read and perhaps score for being concise and descriptive.

However after much deliberation, I felt that I should not conjure up a “perfect” conflict situation. Rather I should attempt to tell my situation as best as I can. After all, we are here to learn from real life situations rather than made-up, ideal conflicts which can be solved. Also, since this is a class where everyone is learning and sharing, it may be a good chance to hear the views of other people.

This is the story of my conflict with Ace told as best as I can:

Ace and I had been good friends since we were young. We lived in the same apartment block, studied in the same primary school and secondary school. We spend a lot of time together in each other’s company. I would say that you could consider us to be close childhood friends. Unfortunately, it was really to be only childhood friends.

Our relationship in primary school was very different when we went into secondary school. In primary school, we were in the same class and were close, even in lower secondary, though we were no longer in the same class, we still keep in contact and met up often. Things changed when we traded our school short pants for long pants. Due to commitments, we could rarely meet up to have a good time. We began to have our own separate close group of friends and eventually our meet ups came to a stop.

I thought we have simply moved on in life. However I was wrong. For some reason, our relationship became a little hostile (or at least that is what I feel). Walking past each other in school, Ace would ignore me or look away or seem “engaged” in an activity. Even though I try to say “Hi” on several occasions, it was returned with ignorance and seemingly displeasure. It came to a point where I decided to try to confront the issue by meeting him face-to-face to identify the problem. We met alone somewhere in school and I asked him if he was ignoring me and whether it was because of something I had done which offended him. The reply he gave was that we have moved on with our lives and there was nothing much to talk about. Since that incident, we never talked again.

That is my story.

Reading my story, I guess you would understand why I was quite worried about using this incident. How can one identify the problem, analyse it and state possible causes if one does not even understand the root cause of the conflict? Hence I would only attempt to suggest hypothetical causes and solutions to this situation.

A possible reason (and the only one that I can think of) is possible clash of interest. I believe that there is truth in him saying that we have moved on in life. We were no longer the same as when we were kids. Growing up as teenagers, our interests, beliefs and values might have change such that it clashes in a way that we cannot seem to co-exist. Maybe it is not the clash of individual interest but a clash of interest of the group of friends that we have. As I did mention, in upper secondary, we had our own group of close.  In terms of dynamics, the two groups were quite different. Firstly, the groups were from different classes. Secondly, my group was more of a “geeky” type while his group was the crazy “havoc” type. My group would enjoyed chilling out together at the movies, library or even over a cup of coffee while friends group prefer to go out to play computer games, have late night outings, stayovers etc. Hence for some reason  which I cannot fathom, there maybe clashes of interest as a group.

Looking at the situation, I am still clueless as to what had happened but one thing I am sure of is that for some reason, there was hurt and offense in Ace though I never got to find out what it was. I feel that the only possible solution might simply be that I would attempt to step out of my comfort zone to try to contact him again. Perhaps time has healed all possible wounds of offenses from the past such that somehow we can start all over again? Can time really heal any wounds of conflict? What do you think I should do?

Importance of effective communication to me...

No man is an island. Human beings were designed to be dependent on one another. We need the support and co-operation of people in order to survive in this treacherous world. And in this interdependent social network, effective communication is an integral part to survive.  

However, as much as survival is innate, it was not the main motivation for me to do this module. While it is true that acquiring skills such as resume writing, presenting and critiquing is beneficial, I feel that the most important reason to communicate effectively is to improve relationships at all levels, beyond that between a couple in love. Living in this materialistic world, relationships are one of the few things that I consider as timeless and priceless. Yet it is highly dependent on communication which is something we can consciously do. If we take the effort to communicate properly, relationships can improve.

However, in our modern high-tech society, effective communication is slowly being replaced with efficient communication. The speed and efficiency of the message being communicated becomes more important than how effectively the message was communicated and received. And because of this, many avoidable misunderstandings occur, resulting in unnecessary strains in relationships.

Since the condition of a relationship is highly dependent on our ability to communicate, I strongly feel that I should do my best to learn how to communicate effectively. After I have learnt and applied these skills in my life, I can confidently say that I have put in effort to create enjoyable relationships that I would treasure.