What you write here will appear on your portfolio and potential employers can see it. Please write it in a way that is appropriate for that audience.
Please delete this text before submitting. You should include a description, in paragraph form, of what the activity was. Who sponsored it, what was your role, what did you learn, etc
At the conclusion of MIS 3535, Professor Martin offered her class the chance to further their learning through LinkedIn training in essential project management skills. The first being the Learning Design Thinking activity. In this learning set, Turi McKinley goes over different approaches towards problem solving and establishing connections with individuals for everyday success for project management. The course begins by going over design thinking and what can facilitate and destroy ideas. By being open and seeing ideas through, it can create an abstract spaces for individuals to express their ideas. Turi McKinley specifically pushes the notion that inviting unusual perspectives and allowing opportunities to grow is essential towards not only design thinking, but creating a space where individuals can flourish. She then goes on to the idea of creative collaboration. While creating a space where individuals can freely think and express themselves is important, making sure the project maintains a user centered design needs to be at the forefront of design thinking. This then leads us into hypothesis generation, journey mapping, synthesis, and concepting. Overall, this course taught me a lot about leading a project. Important items such as; design thinking being a cultural mindset, not a process, and that the best companies know not only the people using their products, but the team members creating it as well.
While it may not be conducive towards design thinking, I am looking forward to implementing some of these strategies into my everyday life, starting with my position as president on the Temple Wrestling team. We may not be putting out a tangible product for consumers but we can always brainstorm better processes for our club to run on.
The second course I enrolled in was Microsoft 2016 Essential Training. While the first course “Learning Design Thinking” was based primarily on soft skills, Microsoft Essential Training was based on developing core technical skills in Microsoft Office. I enjoyed both courses, however I felt that this training would be more applicable towards my career moving forward. Sometimes I struggle with planning out the necessary steps towards developing a project, and then further executing the plan, and this course took me through each individual step of project creation from a technical standpoint.
The program began by first setting up each task that must be completed, along with the time constraints of that leg of the project, as well as sub-tasks that needed to be completed in order to completely finish the overarching task. Then, we moved into linking those tasks, and creating variables for the resources that must be used in order to complete said task. Overall, the course was 6 hours in length, so summarizing the full extent of what I learned would be a bit challenging. The course was incredibly in depth, and while I’m sure I may forget a few useful tips here and there, I have no doubt that I will be able to use this course as a reference point in future classes or work projects to make sure that I stay on time and on budget.
Being in the Fox School of Business, I am well versed in Microsoft Excel, as I have used it for the better half of four years at this point. With that being said, almost this entire course was foreign to me after the first hour or so. It is actually fascinating what somebody who knows excel inside and out can do, and I have added it to the list of skills I would like to master by the time I enter the workforce.
Overall, I am glad I participated in this pro point opportunity, as it was a nice mix of soft and hard skills, and it gave me something to work for this winter while I am off of school. I will be on the lookout for more LinkedIn learnings centered around Excel technical development, and I am looking forward to expanding on this knowledge.
My certifications are attached below
