Brad Karsh, of JobBound share tips for success with BYU-Hawaii students. Tips on everything from dress and grooming to resolving differences by developing better communication skills were energetically, effectively, and enthusiastically presented to a small group of BYU-Hawaii students, faculty, and staff at two JobBound workshops offered by Brad Karsh, through the office of campus Career Services, Tuesday, 23 January.
A video in which a new employee demonstrated how not to impress a boss was presented in three segments featuring: office communication, meeting etiquette, and business lunches. After each segment, Karsh invited students to comment on what they observed, and then elaborated on the importance of different aspects of office etiquette: dress and grooming, attitude, phone and e-mail messages, and general courtesy.
Later in the day, about twenty-four participants learned about communication styles, time management, work place discrimination, and setting goals. Karsh used hands-on activities to help the participants learn about reaching consensus as well as appreciating and interacting with different personality types—all important aspects of working in an office setting with a team. “Learning about communication styles, behaviors, compromising, negotiating, and business etiquette is important for all college students to learn before they enter the workforce,” said Brooke Douglas, a student worker in the Career Services office.
“I enjoyed the workshop a lot, “ reported Ha Le, Vice President of Service Learning. “Brad gave us a lot of tips about what we should do before starting a new job, or internship. Some of the things presented were commonsense things like dress code, how to perform your job and interact with your boss and co-workers, but we need to have someone remind us to take these things seriously.”
After participating in the afternoon workshop, Douglas said, “I think the most crucial information he taught us was that things you do in college which are wonderful, can get you fired in the workplace. College and work are different; students need to know this before they experience it on their own.”