Huang 1

Jiarong Huang

Professor Carlisi

ESL 33B

12 April 2018

Something About My Career

Section 1: What Made Me Choose Business?

This was a leisurely weekend. I boiled some water to make tea and started to clean my

bedroom. Then a diary book which was at the corner of the drawer caught my eye. I opened and

read it. It took my mind to my young time. In my past, I had several dreams which I wanted to be

in the future. I wanted to be a doctor, a scientist, a teacher. As time went on, I found I have some

difficulties in some careers and took them away from my decisions of careers. For example, I

couldn't face the sadness in the doctor major and the scientific major needed a higher education

and knowledge. So I couldn't decide my major, but I narrowed to some choices of them.

Suddenly, the sound of boiling water took my mind to come back. I realized that I have

immigrated to Los Angeles for a long time and I had a decision about my major. In my leisure

time, I like read fantasy novels and some outdoor activities which I have never tried. In a word, I

want to combine my hobbies in my jobs. I thought I was challenged and I like some challenge at

work and don't like the repetitive work. I also like to imagine in free style and want to make

them true in my job area. I like to have challenges at works and put my fictitious ideas in the true

life to make the interesting works so I considered being a business man.

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Through my history of school time. I liked to watch the TV shows that the actors played

the part of a business in my free time. I saw that they dressed suit and worked in an office. And

then I thought that they were so cool when I was young. They also worked on some different

projects which were challenging but they could do well on them. They put their ideas in the

works and carried out the project. I thought that it was fun. Also, I liked and math and science

which I was worked better than other subjects when I was in the school. So I wanted to put my

interest in my major. After that, I moved to LA. The language and culture were different from

my native country. The culture and history which I had learned for a long time in my hometown

were not useful here. Also I didn't like to remember the information about history and other

subjects. At last, because of these hobbies and experiences, I decided to be a business man in the

future.

After I have a decision about the major, I usually imagine where I will work and what I

will do in the future when I am a business man. In the normal life, people usually said that

business field images a battleground. So we resemble the soldiers who need to have the

equipments to prepare the war. As a result, we need to have some skills to equip ourselves to

prepare for the jobs. In short, we need to know the discourse community of my career, business,

and master some skills to prepare for the jobs.

Section 2: Discourse Community of My Future Career

As we know, "a discourse community is a group of people involved in and

communicating about a particular topic, issue, or in a particular field" (Webcourses). The

discourse community of my major is about having the same values and working for the same

goals with people who I will work with and communicate with in my career. In order to have
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more information about discourse community, I had a interview with Dr. Carol D. Kellogg who

is a professor and teaches business in PCC.

First, I want to know more information about business and what skills I need to master to

prepare for the jobs. So I made the appointment with PCC professor Carol to have an interview

about business by email. Before the interview, I wrote down some questions which were relates

the project two assignment about the interview. On Monday, I went to the professor Carol's

office with other two classmates. We had the interview in the classroom which was next to the

professor's office. And then we started the interview. One of us asked the questions and others

wrote some notes. We spent about 15 minutes on the interview. At last we thanked professor and

left. After that I organized my notes and kept it to prepare for the essay.

After the interview, I could get some information about my major, business. One of the

most important is having the good communication skill which "85% employers think is

important for employees"(Hart Research). We need to have good pronunciation on English

because we need to explain ideas to the customers clearly. Professor Carol said that "our English

should be logical and make sense so that others can be easy to understand"(Pro. Kellogg). Then

because we are Chinese, we have the completely different language so we need to practice more

in order to pronounce correctly. For listening, professor Carol explained that "we need to be

more careful and patient to listen what the customer need and require"(Pro. Kellogg). We also

need to have some practices on writing that we should quickly write down some notes about the

requirement and meeting. Professor Carol states that "we need to summarize the information and

choose the important things about the talking to write down"( Pro. Kellogg). So we need to train

our communication skills.

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Another important skill is about suitable critical thinking skills which "81% employers

think is necessary"(Hart Research). We need to have the analysis skill. Professor said that "we

will analyze the project and the customers' requirement to according to them. Also we need to

analyze the data which will use in the project to make a better decision"( Pro. Kellogg). And then

we should master the problem-solving skill. Professor explained that "there will be almost some

problems in the jobs and need to have good skills to solve them"( Pro. Kellogg). So analysis and

problem-solving skills are important for business.

Not only should we adapt and deal with the culture differences, but there are also some

differences between the college and work environments. We need to be more polite and formal

to get along with co-workers. We need to be more cooperative so that we can get well along with

workers and have the effective work. We need to accept the different culture which the workers

have. Our home culture and U.S. are also different. We need to change our mind about the

culture. For example, in my home culture, when we want to shake hand, the younger should

stretch the hand first to show polite. In contract, we need to wait for the superior to stretch first in

U.S. Also, there are some words and gestures have the different meaning in different cultures. In

a word, we need to deal with the problems about the different cultures which others have in our

discourse community.

As for my discourse community about business, I need to work with the company's co-

workers, customers, boss, superiors, investors and so on when I am going to be business man.

We need to master some skills to get well along with them. First, we should understand the

customers' requirements and contract with them in a good way. Second, we should get well along

with my co-workers to have the more effective works to make the better projects. Third, we need

to have the good relationship with the boss and superiors so that we can work well together and
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struggle for a same goals and have some benefits for the company. So we need to train ourselves

in some area and master these skills.

Section 3: Reflection on My Future Career and Discourse Community

Knowing about that some skills are important and required for my career, business. I

need to have the good communication skill to work with customers and others in my jobs in

order to explain myself clearly and easily. I need to have good effects on speaking, listening,

writing and reading. I also need to master some critical thinking skills, such as analysis and

problem-solving. These skills are required for the jobs so that I can have the good process on the

works. Because I am a immigrant, I need to adapt and deal with the cultural differences which I

will meet during the job, for example, the differences between college and work environment,

the differences between my home culture and U.S. I should get well along with the partners.

Finally, something I need to keep and something I need to change and master. Some of

my hobbies, such as being challenged, keeping imagining in free style, patience, need to keep

and improve to be better. Some weakness need to train and practice. For example, I need to

practice pronunciation of English so that I can drop my accent; I should have more progress on

analysis in order to have good job in the future; I also train my problem-solving skill so that I can

solve the problems which I will have in my jobs. I should train myself on creativity because it is

important for business if I want to have higher achievements. So I need to reinforce my strength

and train my weakness so that I can prepare for the major which I want to be a business. For the

short-term goal, I need to improve my English skills first. At the same time, I should train and

master some required skills for business. Because I like have challenges at works and use my
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ideas in my works, my hobbies and experiences make me to decide to be a business man in the

future.
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Works Cited

Webcourses: https://webcourses.ucf.edu/courses/984277/pages/what-is-a-discourse-community

Hart Research Associates, “Falling Short? College Learning and Career Success,” Jan. 20, 2015,

p.4. http://tinyurl.com/nz6txph.

Carol D. Kellogg (2018 March 26). Personal interview