Marcus Humber

Communication Skills

1. I would rate my communication skills proficient because I am able to successfully communicate

with others in different scenarios. In the back-to-back drawing activity, I instructed my partner
with clear directions on the image that they needed to draw, including size and direction. In
speed dating I was able to carry on the conversation based on the topic given for the entire time
given, by answering questions and following up with another question to keep the conversation
interesting. I demonstrated my ability to strike conversation with people I have never spoken to
before, as well as people I know well. In the bomb disarming activity, I was able to clearly
communicate the instructions shown on the manual to successfully disarm the bomb. Along
with reading out the instructions in a clear way, I also used descriptors to help make the
instructions clearer to the person disarming the bomb. I think that this evidence supports my
rating of proficient for my communication skills.

2. I can improve my communication skills by slowing down when I speak as I tend to speak fast and
sometimes mumble when speaking to others. This causes me to not form proper sentences as I
am kind of just saying random words at that point. That also ties in with not fully thinking about
how to efficiently bring my message across before saying it. An example of this is in speed
dating. Although I can answer and ask questions and keep the conversation going, sometimes
the process of doing so can become inefficient because of those factors and slow down the
conversation to take time for both sides to understand what is being said. I think that by
improving on these factors would bump my communication skills up to an extending and add
efficiency, professionalism and confidence in my communication skills.

3. I do feel confident to market myself in interviews because I am able to act professionally as well
as be myself when it comes to communicating with people outside of my friend group. I
demonstrated this in the back-to-back drawing, speed dating and bomb disarming activities
mainly because I was doing the activities with people who I do not normally talk to/have never
talked to before. I understood the purpose of each activity and based my communication off
completing the task at hand in an effective way. Another reason as to why I feel confident that I
could market myself in interviews is because I have already done so in a job interview. I was able
to sell myself by maintaining professionalism and speaking clearly and with purpose which was
especially hard because it was over the phone, so I had to ensure that the way I spoke was good
so that I would convince the employer to hire me.