The Construct

Details. Details. Details. Can’t emphasize this enough. A few of my acquaintances who have just recently graduated are wondering why getting a job suddenly became so tough compared to how graduates from last year had it. Well, for one, the global economy is really shot. Most multinationals (the biggest employers in the country) have frozen their hiring leaving a lot more people to compete with a few positions across industries.

However, one X factors to getting jobs is how an applicant presents himself or herself. Here’s a reality that you really have to consider. You might be good and quite competent, however, the odds are that there are other good people around, probably just as good or even better than you. Don’t let your school, degree, or honors be a guarantee that you’re the fastest gun in the west and that you have to be paid top dollar.

With the financial crisis sending even the best people in other industries back to the job market, companies can hire people who have three times the knowledge and experience at the say pay grade. At the end of the day, the it’s the person who can make compromises and position himself or herself as of the most and best value to the company who will get the job.

(more…)

Just finished reading The Bro Code by “Barney Stinson” and what a fun read that was. Too bad, most of the provisions doesn’t really apply to my current lifestyle since, as far as predicaments go, I’m more of a Marshall (sans the law thing and the height) than a Ted or Barney.

But as far as the for-the-Bros articles are concerned, I think I’m a pretty good Bro. Some lapses here and there, but I do meet most of the conditions in general. I’m a pretty supportive, Bro. Too bad I think I’ll be a useless wingman.

Oh and here’s an amusing one:

It is unacceptable for two Bros to share a hotel bed without first exhausting all couch, cot, and pillows-on-floor combinations. If it’s unavoidable, they shall prevent any incidental spoonage by arm wrestling* to determine who sleeps under the covers. Once decided each Bro shall don as many lower layers as possible before silently fist bumping the other good night.

Hehehe… Reminds me of something from a little over a year ago. The image of two bros spooning will forever haunt me.

Rant alert. You’ve been warned.

Sorry, friends who think that Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is the movie event of the year. Or if you’ve watched it and are raving about how mad the whole movie was. I can’t say I share your sentiments. I do understand why you’re all raving about it. I really do.

Watched the movie with the Dearest earlier today and as the day draws to an end, I think that it was nothing but a cost write-off amounting to Php 270 and two and a half hours of my precious time. Even the appearance of a scantily-clad Megan Fox spooning a big bike wasn’t enough to redeem the movie for me.

*Possible spoiler alert!*

(more…)

I’ve been continuously writing about my frustrations with the state of English language scholarship here in our country. I’ve already raised the lack of profitability of English Studies as a field of study. At times, I’ve also touched on the lack of collaboration amongst scholars.

I was talking to my mentor about the difficulties I was having with my research. Apparently, fellow graduate students were also struggling with their theses. Quite ironic, since when it comes to our own students, we’re quite sharp in critiquing their studies.

There are a number of local English language teaching and research groups. However, these groups do foster a sense of exclusivity that students are oftentimes left uninterested with the prospect of joining these groups. In fact, I only became aware of the existence of such groups years after graduating.

Hence, I created this website that would cater to all English language and literature scholars here in the Philippines – The English Studies Forum.

(more…)

As far as organizational communication goes, this is one question that many a communicator should always take into account. Place oneself into the target audience’s shoes and ask, “What’s in it for me?”

Whenever I teach business communication, the part on which I give most emphasis always is communication planning and audience analysis. The problem with some writing manuals is that they prescribe the “best” formats and step-by-step processes failing to take into account the various communicative contexts.

For example, many writing manuals would prescribe the up-front format – a brief and concise format that begins with the summary of the message. While this does work effectively in most business organizations, I have observed that some more traditional organizations would prefer a more academic format – the one with the typical intro-body-conclusion structure. It’s always a choice on what format would probably better suit specific contexts.

Everyone in the organization has his or her own politics to consider. The simple existence of management and subordinates and yes-men and rebels in organizations are a testament to that. It often hard to identify these from an outsider’s perspective. However, for internal communication, one can have a fairly easy time through continuous observation.

(more…)