When you hit the job market, can you communicate?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Are poor communication skills holding you back?

New graduates from universities and colleges these days are often short changed by their institutions if they don't insist on good clear communications in assignments.  When I was teaching, I was often appalled by the number of innumerate and illiterate people who showed up in first year classes, and did whatever I could to help cure this problem.  Generally it is a failure of the public system that people can actually graduate from secondary schools with poor writing and arithmetic skills.  The college where I taught had some bonehead English and Math courses that must be passed by the end of the first semester or the student was required to sit out a year and do remedial work before they could be readmitted.  Getting selected for these courses was often the first time anyone had told these students that clear communications and being able to do arithmetic without a machine were important.  Tsk. tsk.

I taught computer science subjects, but when there were essays involved I always marked the English assiduously.  I couldn't bring myself to fail a good student on his writing but I sure let them know if their ability to communicate was lacking.  In the long run, I hope I was able to get them on the right path.

The absolutely worst thing is spelling.  Look and say doesn't work for a non-phonetic language like English.  Words are often not spelled the way they sound.  So spelling is one of those things that you have to learn by rote memory in many cases.  For example, what about ghoti?  That's gh as in cough, o as in women, and ti as in attention.  This example is courtesy of a long article by George Bernard Shaw, and shows an alternate spelling for, of course, fish.  Naturally, only 'fish' is acceptable.

When I was working in a hiring position and reading resumes and CVs, spelling mistakes caused the application to be filed in the round bucket beside my desk.  Bad sentences or non-sentences got the same treatment.  If you can't be clear and correct on your personal sales documents, how can I expect you to get something right on behalf of my company?

People who can't make change (basic arithmetic) are also one of my pet peeves.  The techniques of producing the correct change for any amount tendered was something that I learned somewhere in grade school (I - 8).  I don't remember which grade.  It is so simple these days because the register tells the clerk what the change is, but what if the power is off?  What if, for example, the sales amount is $10.20 and the customer hands the clerk a twenty dollar bill and a quarter?  This is usually enough to confound the clerk.  You can't blame the customer for wanting a $10 bill back in his change instead of a lot of coins, remembering that in this country we have no paper under $5. and no pennies.  Without that quarter, the change would have been $9.80:  that's a five dollar bill, two twonies, three quarters, and a nickel.  With the quarter, the customer gets a ten dollar bill and a nickel.  *sigh*

[AkemiAzula 280]

Well now when I was at school before dropping out after third grade (my mother 'homeschooled' me but I learnt most of what I know from books tv etc) my best subject was English and my worst Maths.

Having said that even at ten years or so I coukd go to the shop and know how much change I would receive (decimal currency makes this stupidly simple but perhaps had I been born back in 240 pence to a pound times...)

But anyway my English skills certainly helped in my getting anywhere. I successully completed my business studies half a semester ahead of the rest of the class.

However here I am doing night shift filling supermarket shelves for a couple of quid above minimum wage with as much chance for a 'career future' as a snake has of finding a pair of shoes to fit him.

At my job the only vocabulary you need is profanities, 'pallet', 'shelf' and 'box'. Though often a profanity would be accepted instead of the last three words.

Grunting, coughing and other less civil sounds also are employed for the purpose of communication, as well as our middle finger.

Suffice it to say that my skills and intelligence are wasted. But that is what you get when a citizen of the UK with predominantly British ancestry has less chance of getting anywhere in life than a refugee. Perhaps I should pretend to be Syrian...

I could do pretty much anyone at work's job better than them. Heck the only thing I suck at is social interaction and 'customer knows best' crap, hence why they gave me a night job. The last customer who asked me anything wanted to know where the cereal was. Here's an idea, why not walk round your local supermarket and get to know where each aisle is, or look at the helpful large print signs... 

I don't think spelling should be so rigid. Back in Pepy's day words were often spelt in a number of ways, and I would certainly not object to being able to spell more logically and phonetically.

I larf at thay hoo thynk utherwyse.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Dinna fash yersel'.  'Tis not worth an eructation in a hurricane.