Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Week 7 - Day 2

Another exam today. Chapters 6 through 10 of the Human Resources textbook. I didnt do very well in this exam. This exam is worth 20% of the final grade.

The reason I did not do as well as I would have liked was because I spent most of yesterday and today running around getting documentation from a government dept in order to get a grant that comes with the student loan. Today it was all done and fixed up and hopefully the grant will be processed quickly.

I couldnt do much study on the weekend because I spent both days at the Buskerfest.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Week 6 Day 4

The HR Manager, from the publishing company I was wanting to speak to for my report, has had to back out. Because its summer her vacations are interfering with our attempts to get together. She had a vacation last week and has another one next week. Which means she has a lot of meetings to catch up on after both vacations. So my interview is a no-go. But I'm not worried.

Fortunately I started making notes and getting organised for the essay as well. My essay topic is The difficulties and problems that Female CEO's and Women in Management need to overcome to do their jobs properly. My first thought was Carly Fiorina. So right now I am reading her biography.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Week 6 Day 2

Well I was told I made 94% in the Career Management Class, so that's good.

BUT I had a test today on Human Resources. Unfortunately, I procrastinated too long (reading too much I think), and did not do much study. The test is worth 15% towards the final grade. If I get anything below 85% on my final grade for this class, then I'll know I flunked the first test.

On the plus side, I have been in touch with an HR manager at a local book publisher in town. I know I mentioned that I wanted to interview an HR manager because the report was shorter. Well I will still want to do that, but since I cannot get an interview until the first week of September (she is very busy) - that will only give me 5 days to write the report before I have to hand it in.

So I am also writing a longer essay on the difficulties and problems that Female CEO's and Women in Management need to overcome to do their jobs properly. I am using Carly Fiorina as my example. A woman who reached the top as CEO and Chairwoman of Hewlett Packard Inc. Five years later she was unceremoniously dumped (fired) by an all male executive and board.

I am currently reading Carly's biography, Tough Choices, which I picked up from the library today.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Week 6 Day 1

Gosh, Is it 6 weeks already?

DH (dear husband) was ill last week so I spent all my spare time getting drugs and medicines for him, as well as doing the shopping since he was unable to do so. On top of that I also have to look after our 6 year old son and keep up with the cooking, the dishes and the laundry. Thankfully DH is now recovering so I can concentrate on Human Resources. We have a test tomorrow and I still need to re-read the first 5 chapters of the HR textbook.

And of course I was following the Olympics as well. Mostly trying to watch the Gymnastics, but the CBC tends to be biased and only showed the Chinese and the Americans, plus the one Canadian gymnast who completed in the All Around final. She ended up 16th.

I was also wanting to see my favourite German Gymnast perform, and so far I have not seen her in action at all. Oksana Chusovitina is actually from Uzbekistan, but switched to Germany after her son became ill with Leukemia in 2001. He was treated with chemotherapy and is now a very healthy 9 year old.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Week 5 Day 1

Today I started a five week unit on Human Resources Management. There are only 5 students in this class, so that's good. I'm not sure how much we will be able to do or really learn in this course, because S, the teacher, is having a lot of back pain and is unable to get any surgery appointment date earlier than Sept 12th. We are supposed to read the text book, chapter by chapter, and then discuss in class. If she's not up to teaching, we may just read the chapter and do the questions.

We also have a case study to do. A choice of doing research or doing an interview. Normally I would choose the research study in a second, but this time I am leaning towards doing the interview. For this, I need to interview a senior HR person in a company and get their view on qualifications and skills, processes of hiring, canadian law and so on. And then write a report and compare what they said with what the book says.

The other case study assignment we can do is to choose a topic (from a list of topics) to research and then write the report. Tbis report must be 8 to 10 pages. The interview assignment needs to be only 4 to 5 pages.

Yes this will mean less typing for me but thats not why I chose it. I really want to know what the real situation is out there in the world of Human Resources. That's why I chose the interview.

So first I have to create a list of good questions to ask. And then I need to arrange an interview.

So far from what I have read, I think I will enjoy this class very much. In fact I plan to enjoy all the classes - HR, Business Ethics, Business Law and Marketing.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Week 4 Day 3

I finally received my grades for the Computer class. I got 100% in the Word and Excel section, and 95% in the Powerpoint and Outlook section. This is a great start to the year.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Week 4 - Day 2

This week is Career Management week during which time we will learn about how to do effective job searching, how to make better resumes, how to write cover letters and apply for jobs, and how to deal with job interviews. This is a course required by the provincial government. All students are required to do it. Fortunately it's only 4 days. This class was supposed to have 22 students, but the first day had only 14.

Monday was a holiday, so Tuesday was Day 1 and today is Day 2. Today we will learn about resumes. I cant wait to change my resume around and add all the new courses I will be doing for this diploma.

There is a woman in this class named Sylvia, who is also doing the Honours Business Administration course, but she is 8 months ahead of me. Right now she is doing the Advanced Accounting (as well as the career management course again because she missed it the first time around).

After Accounting Sylvia will do ACCPCC and Access (Database) and a few other things and then she will graduate in November. This Administration course does not have any internship. A number of the other specialist courses at Trios do have required internships (or co-ops as they are called here).

Anyway, Sylvia was telling me that the HR, Marketing, Business Law and Canadian Business Practice classes were all excellent and relatively easy. But then she did do HR for over 20 years as a career. I have not done any HR and only a small amount of Marketing.

Interestingly enough, S the teacher is from Iran and she is a General Accountant. She is currently working towards her CPA certification. S teaches all the Quickbooks, Bookkeeping, ACCPCC and Accounting classes in the mornings as well as the HR, Marketing, Business Law and Canadian Business Practice in the afternoons.

Sylvia went to say that she found Bookkeeping, Quickbooks and Accounting Fundamentals much harder. So many details and processes to learn. I hope I will have a slight advantage. I did do some bookkeeping in high school (we're talking 30 years ago here). I remember learning bookkeeping to the trial balance stage. After I left School, I spent one year in a job where I did all the costing and had to account for every single penny. And lastly my father was an accountant. He is now retired. So I already have some experience and exposure. Hopefully I won't find it too hard.