Sunday, November 18, 2007

Can You Play Well With Others?

I read an article called "Employers Study Applicants' Personalities." This article was about employers hiring employees based on personality rather than skill. First the article talks about having a group of people interviewing rather than one interviewer. This allows the group of people with whom the candidate will be working with to have input on their new co-worker. Next, the article says that you do not want the image of your company to be a "jerk" because a lot of jerks work for your company. This stresses the importance of personality when hiring employees. The article goes on to talk about one company that gives a 10 hour interview. This gives the company an opportunity to genuinely get to know the candidate. A different company went on to say that before they hire an employee, they test the candidate to see how he or she will handle the stress and pressures of the job by putting them in the field for four days. This ensures that the new employee will enjoy their job before actually hiring them.

I think this type of interviewing is very important. I think personality needs to be balanced with technical skills. One point addressed in the article was that although a group of people may get along personality wise, their work may be compromised due to not hiring based on skill. However, if a group of people do not get along with each other, the work will also be compromised. I think that it is very important to get along with the people you work with. It is important for a person to enjoy going to their job and performing quality work.

If I worked for a large business I would want to be hired based on this type of interviewing and I would want to have an input on my potential co-workers as well. I feel that I would do well in this type of interviewing because I love to talk to people and I feel like I get along with others well because I am a positive fun person who also has technical skills to offer.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Dual Coding Theory

Dual Coding is a method used in which words are used with visuals. Linking words and visuals together will more likely cause the brain to move a concept from temporary memory to long term memory. Dual coding is used by advertisers as a marketing tool so that customers will be more likely to remember their product by linking it with something else. An example, of dual coding is a Verizon commercial. A Verizon commercial is talking about how their company has the largest network, and how everyone in Verizon is networked together because calls within the network are free. In all their commercials, however, there is always this massive group of people (representing the network) following the Verizon user around. This is dual coding because it shows you a massive group of people (representing their huge but close network) while talking about it at the same time in the commercial. I think dual coding is very effective and persuasive. I know this because as I sat down to do this blog, I had not watched any TV for the purpose of looking for dual coding. I simply sat down and started to think about commercial when the Verizon commercial and "network" idea just came to my mind. Therefore, the idea of the "network" and the massive group of people that Verizon offers to link you with has moved from short term memory to long term. Isn't it ironic because I do not even belong to the Verizon network but instead its' competitor, Alltel. I have thought many times about switching to Verizon, and when I think about it, in my head, I see the large group of people (possibly in there hard hats) following around the Verizon user. This is why I am confident Verizon's dual coding marketing scheme is effective.