Q Topic 2: Communication and Your Professional Goals By the end of this week, you must produce a draft of your resume tailored to the requirements listed in A Winning Proposal under Course Resources > Academic Portfolio Toolkit > Additional Academic Portfolio Project Resources. When you are done, your resume should reflect the content and format of this sample resume in our Course Resources. This discussion topic is designed to help you brainstorm how your career goals have been served by the classes you have taken in Communication Studies so that you have a foundation for developing your resume and and later the reflection essay for your portfolio. An in-depth knowledge of communication is a tremendous asset for individuals in every career; it is essential to careers that are more specifically related to the discipline of communication studies. Individuals in all careers benefit greatly from a comprehensive understanding of communication situations. With this understanding, for example, you have a greater appreciation of the challenges that individuals face in any professional situation, and you also have a solid repertoire of strategies to employ when you need to communicate with others at work. Knowledge about this discipline informs your own communication on all levels and in all contexts: interpersonal contexts with co-workers; persuasive contexts with supervisors or clients; group situations in which you have to collaborate to produce a group deliverable; public situations in which you have to speak to a large audience; situations that require written reports for specific audiences, etc. In this discussion, please use the federal government's Occupational Outlook Handbook and/or one of the professional organization websites listed under Content > Course Resources > Webliography here in our classroom to investigate a specific career that interests you. It could be the career field in which you are working now, or it could be a career field that you would like to enter once you’ve finished your degree. Or it could simply be a career field that you would like to know more about. In your Discussion posting, summarize what you have learned in this investigation: • Give a comprehensive description of the career field and the nature of the work that individuals in this field actually perform • Include information about educational requirements, entry-level work/qualifications and career advancement, and the projected employment needs in this field. • Include your own evaluation of this career field for an individual with a degree in communication studies by answering one or more of the following: Explain whether this would be a good career choice for an individual with your degree. What additional preparation might be necessary? What job-seeking strategies might an individual use? Potential career area choices include technical writer, journalist, speechwriter, meeting planner, public relations professional, human resources professional, marketing professional, corporate communication professional, etc. Please post your initial response to this discussion prompt by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday. Then, respond to the initial posts of at least two other students by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday. Continue your conversations through the end of the course week.