Today was my last day of working on the MBA Alumni Contacts Project. It consisted of filling out each individual’s graduation date and editing the project. Dr. Tiell had sent me some Tiffin University records a couple of weeks back so I had the information supplied already. While I was searching for the graduation dates, I noticed that some individuals were missing from the records. I immediately emailed Dr. Tiell of the fact. She mentioned that they are most likely listed in another concentration, such as sport medicine. This was the sport management database. But it was the same degree. This made sense since I was seeing a lot of different concentrations whenever they listed their education on LinkedIn. To make sure I had all of the grad dates, I rechecked each of the dates and made sure that I wasn’t missing anyone. I also made some changes to the format of the project. I stretched out the columns to make the information fit, underlined the headers, etc. Dr. Tiell joked when I sent her the project that she called it the MBA SM Alumni Baker Project. That made me laugh.
Overall, I really enjoyed working with Dr. Tiell at Tiffin University. She was an excellent mentor who always gave me advice when I needed it. She is a very decorated person with many accomplishments over the years. It motivates me to be successful like her. Working with her on special projects has been an experience I won’t forget. I now have more confidence that I can tackle any project in the future. Yesterday, I also had the chance to get her feedback and suggestions about my short and long term goals. She talked about applying for a management position at one of the nearby Birch Run sport stores. She mentioned that I should approach management and build a relationship with them. Try to get as much information as possible and inquire about diversity initiatives for employing individuals with disabilities. I should also be in contact with the Great Lakes Loons and set up an informational meeting with them. Set up as many informational meetings as I can to various potential organizations I’d like to work with. Consider any experience I can gain whether they are paid/unpaid internships, part-time work, game day work, etc. Experience and communication are key.
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Today, I worked on the final years of the alumni contacts project, 2016 and 2017. I did stumble across the same problem as I did the previous day. One person had completely different information listed in LinkedIn than I had originally listed. I had them listed as not having a sport job and mentioning their alternative job. When I looked at their profile a second time for updates, nowhere was that alternative job to be found. Not in their past experiences and not in their volunteer activities. Instead, their current job was in sports. I had to delete the alternative job and put in the sports one. The fact made me scratch my head even harder. I mean I had other information correct as in the city they reside, so I was on the right profile. Maybe they thought they had the job and listed it, and then deleted it when they didn’t? Or maybe I was just dreaming? (probably not) Whatever happened, I now have the correct information and it is up to date. Rechecking these LinkedIn profiles was a good idea, rather than just copying and pasting, and transferring, everything. Other than that, I didn’t experience any other problems today. Another person, in 2017, got a new job as a Venture Advisor at Lorain County Community College, so that was the only new job update I made. The only things I have yet to do are to list graduation dates and edit the project.
Today consisted of more work on the alumni contacts project. I worked on the years 2014 and 2015. Like before, I revisited each alumnus’ LinkedIn profile page to make sure that I had everything. During today’s work, I apparently missed a volunteer slot. I made the correction in my original list and added that to my new database. Either I missed it completely or they had recently added the fact. I also had data listed that was completely different from the information listed in their LinkedIn profile. I was so confused, scratching my head, about where I had gotten that info from. So I quickly made the corrections and inserted the right info in the databases. Those were the two problems that I encountered today. Everybody makes mistakes but when you are on the job, you must strive to do your best. Everyone counts on it. I still have 2016 and 2017 to do as well as list everyone’s graduation dates, and then I am all finished with the project.
Today, I finished up the second test for Dr. Tiell. I worked on chapters 13-16 after previously working on chapters 9-12. These chapters were about power and politics, organizational structure, organizational culture, and change. I would say that power and politics was my favorite topic. I enjoyed the parts about influence tactics and responses to influence attempts. If your employee(s) are slacking or struggling, these tactics and responses will come in handy. Their responses can sometimes lead to firing them. These are handy tools for every manager. Also, I enjoyed the part about politics and political behavior. It all depends on how the company runs where politics play a role. For people that have opposing views, the chapter gave some ways in which political behavior can be reduced. As a manager, you want to eliminate as much political behavior as you can because it can negatively affect the organization. I did run into one problem today. When I got to chapter 15, I quickly realized that there wasn’t very much information. My goal for that chapter was to create six questions. So I decided to count how many questions I could create and it was three. That meant I had three remaining questions to split with the other chapters. I decided to add them all to chapter 13 since there was some important information that I hadn’t originally included. Before I did this, I checked with Dr. Tiell to get her approval. Again, I used Google whenever I had trouble coming up with random choices to questions.
Today, I began the second test for Dr. Tiell’s MGT 511 class in the Fall semester. She desires a 50 multiple choice question test, so I decided that I’d create two chapters of seven questions each and six chapters of six questions each. This test was to be over chapters 9-16. I decided to kick things off with seven questions for chapter 9 because the chapter was pretty long and it had a lot of important information. This chapter was my favorite out of the four chapters that I worked on today. It talked about communication which is a vital tool for managers to have. You have to understand your employees through the communication process. One of the things I found interesting were the types of organizational communication, such as upward, horizontal, diagonal, formal, etc. I remember talking about this in the former class I took but I somewhat forgot about it. It was good to refresh my memory on these topics. Other topics that were in the four chapters covered conflict and leadership. I consider myself an expert in these topics. After starting chapter 9 off with seven questions, I did the next three chapters with six questions. It’s sometimes tough to put a question together as I have to come up with other options. I normally just use Google and search for a good antonym for a word. For example, I used “appalling” as an antonym for the word “charisma”.
Today consisted of a few things. The first was that I was able to work on the alumni project. I added two more years to the database, 2012 and 2013. It involved a lot of copying and pasting, while also re-visiting their LinkedIn profiles for updates. I did notice a few changes. One guy retired as a police officer to focus on a job in sports. Another person also left one of their jobs. I made the changes to the database as a result. Dr. Tiell also wanted me to add the graduation dates of each alumnus. She sent me a record book from Tiffin that I had to keep confidential. There, I recorded each individual’s graduation date. Another thing that Dr. Tiell sent me was the power points for the second test. I will be putting together 50 multiple choice questions using those power points. I have a lot to keep me busy for the next week.
Today, I spent long hours working on a new project from something that I have been working on since the start of my mentorship. Dr. Tiell wants me to switch columns and rows in the alumni project to make it more organized. It probably sounds easy at first but the way I had the database set up made it complicated. I couldn’t use the transpose feature. Even if I used it once per data set of students (I have hundreds), it wouldn’t do it right. So instead, I have to use copy and paste. I was able to get the years 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 done today. I did stumble across a couple of updates on LinkedIn. While I was rechecking the place of residency for a few, I noticed that what I had noted in the original database changed. For example, I listed a students’ job at Boise State University since it said that was their present job. When I was rechecking it, I noticed that that job he left in 2014, and he now works at Oakland Unified School District. I assume that a month ago was the first time he’s been on LinkedIn in a while. Thank God I caught that. I plan to keep checking for updates throughout the project. I also found out that one of the former students had a name change since she got married. I emailed Dr. Tiell right away about the fact. She always has been editing the original list of mentorships.
Today, I finished up Dr. Tiell’s first test for MGT 511. Like I mentioned in my last journal, I had taken this course sometime last year so this was basically just a review for me. I learned some things that I forgot about such as “The Big Five” personality framework. The framework is important to me because it can help in determining the behaviors of individuals in organizations. The dimensions in the framework are Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness. If one scores closer to the left side of each dimension, it is more positive in the organization. The right side is less positive. Another thing that I enjoyed reviewing was emotional intelligence. All of the topics in MGT 511 are extremely critical to the effectiveness of a manager. An example of one of my test questions is: “Evaluating an employee’s work behaviors by measurement and comparison with previously established standards is referred to as what kind of performance management?” I gave them four choices with the correct answer being 360 degree feedback.
I spent today working on two projects. The first project was to email nine former and current students and try to get their feedback on their careers. Dr. Tiell supplied me with the questions and then I sent out the emails. An example of one of our questions asked about their experience covering World Cups and the Olympics during the mentorship. We also asked about classmates helping each other get their mentorships. These were things Dr. Tiell has knowledge about. So far, one former student has reached out and another said she would reach out after her mission trip overseas. In the emails, we also requested that they each send us a picture of themselves. We want to use their comments to help enhance the MBA Sport Management website. We will share the information with the office for marketing and public relations. Currently, Dr. Tiell is in the process of getting a “permission” form to send to each student prior to publishing anything.
I also started to work on creating a test for Dr. Tiell. She is teaching a seated class next semester and needs me to create two tests of 60 questions each. The class, Organizational Behavior, is familiar to me since I took the course last year. So it is basically a review for me. I was able to do the first four chapters today and still have another four to go. The first test is on chapters 1-8 and the second is on chapters 9-16. Today was a busy day as I finalized the alumni contacts project. Again, I saw some more students still with their mentorship organization. Each day I worked on this project, I learned something new. For example, the vast number of opportunities that are out there and how a mentorship/M.B.A. can play into your future. I also went through the project for spelling mistakes to make sure I had everything spelled correctly. I made sure I had all of the broken links reported to Dr. Tiell. The biggest problem of the day came when one of our alumni had messaged me. I had just connected with him on LinkedIn and sent him an invitation to join our TU alumni page. He did not initially receive the invites after twice sending him one. So he decided to just click on the group name and he found it then. For some reason, my invites are not sending out. People should get an email to join. I am going to message LinkedIn tomorrow and find out what is wrong. Currently, I have only 16 members out of somewhere close to 100 that I invited, and they have all connected with me. Overall, this was a fun project and I’m glad to be finished with it.
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