Camp allocation Presentation
My team leader gave me the opportunity to present infront of the Controller BAs.
At school I prepared presentations by writing what I want to say on a piece of paper and then reciting it a lot of times until I can remember every single line.
The problem is the presentation becomes monotoned or doesn't sound sincer; I forget what to say in mid sentence or key points are missed.
With the experience from co-op, I realize that's not the way for presentations. This time, I decided to just talked about what I know and believe in.
This is not lack of preparation. I think of it this way, instead of spending maybe 2 hours to prepare and recite I am now always prepared. I am pulling resources from 2 month worth of work (the project started in Feb)
It went well, I received great feedback. Feedback like you really understand your stuff; Confident; Easy to follow; Conversational style. I was delighted.
What got me thinking of this new approach? I was at a few investing presentation outside of work. The presenters were all very great. Then I had a chance to hear a presentation from the business owner himself. I found that his presentation was not as flattering as his employees; at the same time, Bratt Wilson was doing a speech at UofL, a friend of mine was there and he reflected the same thing.
These help me to come to a conclusion. Great presentations I heard are from people who's job is presenting. They spend lots of time preparing then presented the same presentation lots of time. Play with sentences and studied audience reactions.
However, great business people are just above average presenters, they don't prepare for their presentation. They bring who they are and their values and beliefs into the presentation. It's an extension of their every day life.
That's whom I want to be.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Mar 2010
Excel
In my job I use Excel a lot.
Before this job I had never used Excel.
I took a class at university and that's about it.
Now, I use pivot tables to sum up report data I run.
I use vlookup to match data from a master list.
Formating to make all the sheets unified.
I feel I gained a very useful skill for the long run.
However I am no where near a expert.
That's fine, my biggest asset is to use the internet.
I am very good at searching on google using keywords.
As long as I know exactly what I want to achieve, the internet helps me to find someone in the similar situation with a solution.
In my job I use Excel a lot.
Before this job I had never used Excel.
I took a class at university and that's about it.
Now, I use pivot tables to sum up report data I run.
I use vlookup to match data from a master list.
Formating to make all the sheets unified.
I feel I gained a very useful skill for the long run.
However I am no where near a expert.
That's fine, my biggest asset is to use the internet.
I am very good at searching on google using keywords.
As long as I know exactly what I want to achieve, the internet helps me to find someone in the similar situation with a solution.
Feb 2010
Professional Corporate Reporting
This sums up my role at Syncrude.
Sometimes I have to formate spreadsheets/PowerPoints, photocopy reports, sort paperworks. Sometimes I want to complain.
But now I realized something different. I see the big picture.
Like I said this is professional corporate reporting (my words). What we business analyst do, is to gather monthly operating data from our systems and area leaders; analyse and summarize into something meaningful about the company; then present it to the leaders.
My part is to make sure our owners see top quality packages, when presenting the operations to them.
It's not very value added work. But on the other hand I see it this way, I see the reports that is presented to the owners; I get to see the performance of our company; I think about where our company is at and how to improve.
So I drop the complains and take full advantage of the learning opportunity that was given to me.
This sums up my role at Syncrude.
Sometimes I have to formate spreadsheets/PowerPoints, photocopy reports, sort paperworks. Sometimes I want to complain.
But now I realized something different. I see the big picture.
Like I said this is professional corporate reporting (my words). What we business analyst do, is to gather monthly operating data from our systems and area leaders; analyse and summarize into something meaningful about the company; then present it to the leaders.
My part is to make sure our owners see top quality packages, when presenting the operations to them.
It's not very value added work. But on the other hand I see it this way, I see the reports that is presented to the owners; I get to see the performance of our company; I think about where our company is at and how to improve.
So I drop the complains and take full advantage of the learning opportunity that was given to me.
Jan 2010
Possible Accruals
I picked this assignment up since last month. It's done on the first day of every month.
This is proper accounting work.
Like the name suggests, it's a journal entry of accruals for month end book closing.
It's a easy job but also a very creditable one. Because it's an important part of our cost accounting for the company.
And I handle the accruals for the entire company.
The skills I learn from this assignment are: high level summary; communicating with BAs; pushing for deadlines.
I picked this assignment up since last month. It's done on the first day of every month.
This is proper accounting work.
Like the name suggests, it's a journal entry of accruals for month end book closing.
It's a easy job but also a very creditable one. Because it's an important part of our cost accounting for the company.
And I handle the accruals for the entire company.
The skills I learn from this assignment are: high level summary; communicating with BAs; pushing for deadlines.
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