experience at workplace essay

My First Work Experience and Knowledge I Gained Essay

When I was a child, my dream was to find the work connected with managing people and resources. The vision persisted until it became time for pursuing a college degree, where I opted for a business course in Human Resource Management (HRM). I intended to be in a position to lead people at the workplace. After graduating from school, luckily, I got an internship program with one of the renowned retail companies called Costco Retailers.

The first working experience was memorable because I finally managed to become independent and earn my first money. When I started working in the corporation, I changed my mentality to adapt to the new system. This paper will discuss the experience during my first job recruitment, skills, and knowledge gathered during this period. During the first working experience, recruits should apply the theoretical knowledge in practice to avoid difficulties in time-management, issue solving, and communication with clients and colleagues.

The time-management appeared to be a fundamental problem that I have faced during my experience. It was a requirement that all the staff report one hour before the opening of the stores. This was necessary to facilitate daily planning and arrangement of the work routine to enhance the efficiency of the operations. It was difficult for me to manage time properly and organize the activities of other people. I had to participate in various events and often failed to perform my duties correctly. There even was a period of time when I was at significant risk of being fired. I had to learn how to be time-conscious to overcome the pressure. I solved this problem thanks to applying some time-management techniques.

Besides the time factor, another issue was working under pressure. During the first few months, I was stationed at the customer care desk to attend to the clients’ queries. At this position, several problems emerged that required immediate attention from the top managers within the department. It was challenging to handle some inquiries because of the large number of customers and the nature of their needs. The intensity to meet their expectation was overwhelming, and it involved many commands from the senior staff.

Another problem that required theoretical knowledge from me was cultural diversity. Shoppers consist of people from different races, gender, culture, and profession. Communicating with customers was a nightmare, especially for those whose cultures tend to diverge at some point. Sometimes you might offend people from different cultures without noticing it. Nonetheless, thanks to their interactive nature and understanding, some clients helped me learn how to communicate appropriately.

Generally, working with customers entails fluctuating motions since they come in different moods with various expectations to be fulfilled. Meeting people from different backgrounds increased my exposure and understanding of individuals behave in relation to their culture. The race-tolerance strategies learned during my education helped me to adjust my communicational style.

I thought handling customers was the main challenge of this position, but there was another significant problem. Being a novice, young, and unfamiliar with the company’s system was another terrifying encounter. At the customer care desk, we had co-workers who had been in the institution for an extended period. These workers used to take advantage of the recruits by assigning complex tasks and overworking them. I became a victim and felt exploited since I could do twice what the other workers were doing. From one point of view, such pressure was rational, aiming to increase my working skills. From the other point, I had moral difficulties coping with a considerable amount of work while experienced colleagues did not offer me any help.

It is also essential to mention which new skills I have gained during my working experience which contribute to my professional development. Thanks to this organization, I gained valuable knowledge and skills helpful for developing in this work industry. First, I gained an understanding of how to communicate with customers and colleagues. Before joining the Costco team, I thought managing people was easy to perform and did not require any special knowledge. Thanks to this working experience, I have learned that communication and management is a whole science that requires profound knowledge and well-developed communicational skills. Therefore, I realized that it is critical to apply the behavioral analysis approach to maintain effective communication.

Moreover, the company made me develop and improve my intrapersonal skills. Working with people having different ages and cultures requires self-understanding (Horak & Matoskova, 2018). To be able to relate effectively with other staff members and even customers, I had to learn how to communicate and listen. Communication is essential in advancing the relationship amongst the business affiliates. The on-the-job experience made it easier to comprehend and apply the skills. Here I also successfully applied the gained during my education knowledge.

Surprisingly, technological knowledge was vital during my working experience. Furthermore, being at the customer care desk exposed me to using the computer system to record, search, monitor, and even communicate with the administration. I developed deep insight into technology, and my computer knowledge increased. Through the period, I could use the system to perform critical tasks like monitoring the level of inventory, tracking customers’ purchasing records, and updating new valuable information for clients. In addition, I was able to analyze the trend of buyers, which was helpful for the administration for updating the stocks.

Another critical skill that I acquired during the period was the ability to solve problems. At the customer care desk, clients came with various issues ranging from sales of defective products to poor service delivery. I have analyzed different literature on the topic of problem-solving. Multiple techniques help the manager build good relationships with the customer and colleagues (Funke et al., 2018). One of them is the culturally-tolerant attitude towards the participants of communication. I developed a profound knowledge of managing different circumstances to generate a proper solution by handling such issues. Seeing and learning how the colleagues were regulating similar situations at work was vital and prompted self-confidence. To make a decision, self-reliance is essential as it allows one to find their own answers to the problem.

Generally, obtaining a job after completing coursework in college is beneficial because you can gain valuable experience. On the job, learning makes the whole perspective different as it comes with arrays of experiences both encouraging and demoralizing. Sometimes changing and adapting to a new routine is difficult for the new employees. Furthermore, interacting with various people at the workplace advance understanding and worldview of individuals.

The exposure also makes people gain the necessary knowledge and skills that are essential for further carrier development. Joining the proper organization could impact the level of experience individual gains. If people are ready to develop their knowledge and skills, asking questions, elaborate new ideas, then the chances of attaining new skills at work are high. It is also vital to implement the theoretical concept learned through education in practice. Thus, applying theoretical concepts and constant development contributed to forming a positive working experience.

Funke, J., Fischer, A., & Holt, D. V. (2018). Competencies for complexity: Problem solving in the twenty-first century. In Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills (pp. 41-53). Springer, Cham. Web.

Horak, M., & Matoskova, J. (2018). Comparison of training programmes and activities for cluster managers in Europe with respect to their focus on skills development. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge , 6 (1). Web.

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Essays About Work: 7 Examples and 8 Prompts

If you want to write well-researched essays about work, check out our guide of helpful essay examples and writing prompts for this topic.

Whether employed or self-employed, we all need to work to earn a living. Work could provide a source of purpose for some but also stress for many. The causes of stress could be an unmanageable workload, low pay, slow career development, an incompetent boss, and companies that do not care about your well-being.  Essays about work  can help us understand how to achieve a work/life balance for long-term happiness.

Work can still be a happy place to develop essential skills such as leadership and teamwork. If we adopt the right mindset, we can focus on situations we can improve and avoid stressing ourselves over situations we have no control over. We should also be free to speak up against workplace issues and abuses to defend our labor rights. Check out our  essay writing topics  for more.

5 Examples of Essays About Work

1.  when the future of work means always looking for your next job by bruce horovitz, 2. ‘quiet quitting’ isn’t the solution for burnout by rebecca vidra, 3. the science of why we burn out and don’t have to by joe robinson , 4. how to manage your career in a vuca world by murali murthy, 5. the challenges of regulating the labor market in developing countries by gordon betcherman, 6. creating the best workplace on earth by rob goffee and gareth jones, 7. employees seek personal value and purpose at work. be prepared to deliver by jordan turner, 8 writing prompts on essays about work, 1. a dream work environment, 2. how is school preparing you for work, 3. the importance of teamwork at work, 4. a guide to find work for new graduates, 5. finding happiness at work, 6. motivating people at work, 7. advantages and disadvantages of working from home, 8. critical qualities you need to thrive at work.

“For a host of reasons—some for a higher salary, others for improved benefits, and many in search of better company culture—America’s workforce is constantly looking for its next gig.”

A perennial search for a job that fulfills your sense of purpose has been an emerging trend in the work landscape in recent years. Yet, as human resource managers scramble to minimize employee turnover, some still believe there will still be workers who can exit a company through a happy retirement. You might also be interested in these  essays about unemployment .

“…[L]et’s creatively collaborate on ways to re-establish our own sense of value in our institutions while saying yes only to invitations that nourish us instead of sucking up more of our energy.”

Quiet quitting signals more profound issues underlying work, such as burnout or the bosses themselves. It is undesirable in any workplace, but to have it in school, among faculty members, spells doom as the future of the next generation is put at stake. In this essay, a teacher learns how to keep from burnout and rebuild a sense of community that drew her into the job in the first place.

“We don’t think about managing the demands that are pushing our buttons, we just keep reacting to them on autopilot on a route I call the burnout treadmill. Just keep going until the paramedics arrive.”

Studies have shown the detrimental health effects of stress on our mind, emotions and body. Yet we still willingly take on the treadmill to stress, forgetting our boundaries and wellness. It is time to normalize seeking help from our superiors to resolve burnout and refuse overtime and heavy workloads.

“As we start to emerge from the pandemic, today’s workplace demands a different kind of VUCA career growth. One that’s Versatile, Uplifting, Choice-filled and Active.”

The only thing constant in work is change. However, recent decades have witnessed greater work volatility where tech-oriented people and creative minds flourish the most. The essay provides tips for applying at work daily to survive and even thrive in the VUCA world. You might also be interested in these  essays about motivation .

“Ultimately, the biggest challenge in regulating labor markets in developing countries is what to do about the hundreds of millions of workers (or even more) who are beyond the reach of formal labor market rules and social protections.”

The challenge in regulating work is balancing the interest of employees to have dignified work conditions and for employers to operate at the most reasonable cost. But in developing countries, the difficulties loom larger, with issues going beyond equal pay to universal social protection coverage and monitoring employers’ compliance.

“Suppose you want to design the best company on earth to work for. What would it be like? For three years, we’ve been investigating this question by asking hundreds of executives in surveys and in seminars all over the world to describe their ideal organization.”

If you’ve ever wondered what would make the best workplace, you’re not alone. In this essay, Jones looks at how employers can create a better workplace for employees by using surveys and interviews. The writer found that individuality and a sense of support are key to creating positive workplace environments where employees are comfortable.

“Bottom line: People seek purpose in their lives — and that includes work. The more an employer limits those things that create this sense of purpose, the less likely employees will stay at their positions.”

In this essay, Turner looks at how employees seek value in the workplace. This essay dives into how, as humans, we all need a purpose. If we can find purpose in our work, our overall happiness increases. So, a value and purpose-driven job role can create a positive and fruitful work environment for both workers and employers.

In this essay, talk about how you envision yourself as a professional in the future. You can be as creative as to describe your workplace, your position, and your colleagues’ perception of you. Next, explain why this is the line of work you dream of and what you can contribute to society through this work. Finally, add what learning programs you’ve signed up for to prepare your skills for your dream job. For more, check out our list of simple essays topics for intermediate writers .

For your essay, look deeply into how your school prepares the young generation to be competitive in the future workforce. If you want to go the extra mile, you can interview students who have graduated from your school and are now professionals. Ask them about the programs or practices in your school that they believe have helped mold them better at their current jobs.

In a workplace where colleagues compete against each other, leaders could find it challenging to cultivate a sense of cooperation and teamwork. So, find out what creative activities companies can undertake to encourage teamwork across teams and divisions. For example, regular team-building activities help strengthen professional bonds while assisting workers to recharge their minds.

Finding a job after receiving your undergraduate diploma can be full of stress, pressure, and hard work. Write an essay that handholds graduate students in drafting their resumes and preparing for an interview. You may also recommend the top job market platforms that match them with their dream work. You may also ask recruitment experts for tips on how graduates can make a positive impression in job interviews.

Creating a fun and happy workplace may seem impossible. But there has been a flurry of efforts in the corporate world to keep workers happy. Why? To make them more productive. So, for your essay, gather research on what practices companies and policy-makers should adopt to help workers find meaning in their jobs. For example, how often should salary increases occur? You may also focus on what drives people to quit jobs that raise money. If it’s not the financial package that makes them satisfied, what does? Discuss these questions with your readers for a compelling essay.

Motivation could scale up workers’ productivity, efficiency, and ambition for higher positions and a longer tenure in your company. Knowing which method of motivation best suits your employees requires direct managers to know their people and find their potential source of intrinsic motivation. For example, managers should be able to tell whether employees are having difficulties with their tasks to the point of discouragement or find the task too easy to boredom.

A handful of managers have been worried about working from home for fears of lowering productivity and discouraging collaborative work. Meanwhile, those who embrace work-from-home arrangements are beginning to see the greater value and benefits of giving employees greater flexibility on when and where to work. So first, draw up the pros and cons of working from home. You can also interview professionals working or currently working at home. Finally, provide a conclusion on whether working from home can harm work output or boost it.

Identifying critical skills at work could depend on the work applied. However, there are inherent values and behavioral competencies that recruiters demand highly from employees. List the top five qualities a professional should possess to contribute significantly to the workplace. For example, being proactive is a valuable skill because workers have the initiative to produce without waiting for the boss to prod them.

If you need help with grammar, our guide to  grammar and syntax  is a good start to learning more. We also recommend taking the time to  improve the readability score  of your essays before publishing or submitting them.

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Writing a memorable Professional Experience Essay

W hile your MBA application resume will provide a summary of your education, jobs, and community leadership, you will likely have an opportunity to expand on your career in your MBA essays.

However, an essay about your work experience is not merely a list of roles and responsibilities. A Professional Experience Essay is a narrative essay that should bring the accomplishments summarized on your resume to life.

An effective Professional Experience Essay will give the Admissions Committee a sense of the career decisions you’ve made, your most significant achievements in each chapter of your career, and the skills and knowledge you’ve acquired on your career journey. This “walk through your resume” in essay form is your opportunity to provide admissions officers with evidence that you’ve made exceptional career progress and that you have clear potential for future advancement.

This article provides you with the insights and tools you need to build a powerful Professional Experience Essay.

First, we’ll talk about why some MBA application forms ask you to write about your career history, and we’ll share the characteristics of a great answer to this type of essay question.

Second, we’ll provide you with a set of building blocks for crafting a unique and robust essay that summarizes your career history.

Finally, we analyze a sample Professional Experience Essay to illustrate the principles we have taught you throughout this article.

How to Score Top Marks on Professional Experience Essays

You can think of this essay as an executive summary of your career thus far. You are providing the readers in the MBA admissions office with a holistic overview of your work experience, the skills and knowledge you’ve acquired, and how you’ve progressed in your career thus far. So what is the Admissions Committee looking for in an effective Professional Experience Essay?

To score top marks with your essay, you’ll need to provide evidence of distinguished academic and career performance in the top 10% of your peer group and demonstrate your potential for future advancement.

A well-designed essay recounting your professional history accomplishes multiple aims in a minimal amount of space. Your career story must be coherent, concise, and cohesive – it’s not unusual to have to discuss your professional history in 200 words or less as part of a multi-part essay question. If you have a limited number of words to work with, what should you focus on and what should you leave out?

To solve that riddle, we recommend that before trying to draft this essay, you should first define your career goals . Clarity about where you want to go in your career will help you select which elements of your past work experience to showcase in this essay.

That is because a successful Professional Experience Essay will connect the dots between your professional history and your career aspirations. You want your essay to present evidence that you are well-prepared for the post-MBA job you plan to pursue. Demonstrate to the admissions committee you have momentum in the direction of your ultimate career goals.

Of course, you also want to highlight the work experiences and qualities that business schools value , such as leadership, teamwork, and creativity.

Additionally, you want to give the reader a sense that your value to your employers has grown over time. Your overarching goal is to convince the Admissions Committee that you are well-prepared for an MBA and that you have interesting experiences and lessons to contribute to an MBA community.

Finally, let’s not forget that admissions officers will be assessing your “employability” and how well your career story might play with future recruiters.

How can you accomplish all of those goals in a compact and engaging essay? Follow the steps in the next section to construct an effective Professional Experience Essay. To illustrate our guidance, we’ll show you how “Adam,” a private equity analyst applying for an MBA, constructed the content building blocks for his Professional Experience Essay.

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Telling the Story of Your Career

Like a book, your career story should be organized into chapters. Typically a chapter will begin with your decision to take a new job, proceed to the most significant challenges and achievements in that role, and end with a brief recounting of your learning and growth. The bridge to the next chapter summarizes the reasons you decided to take the next step in your career journey.

Your first step in crafting your Professional Experience Essay is to identify the “chapters” of your career.

1. Identify and Outline the Chapters of Your Career Story

Building Block Question: What are the major milestones in your career so far?

Start by asking yourself, “What are the major milestones in my career so far?”. Answering this question will help you to decide how to divide your career into phases. Changing companies is an obvious chapter break, but a step forward inside the same company, such as a promotion, a major increase in responsibility, or a high-profile project, might also mark a new phase in your career. Keep in mind that you won’t have time to detail each stage of your career in an essay – even if a chapter of your career lasted two or three years, you’ll need to summarize the most crucial information in that chapter in a few sentences.

Example: Our fictional applicant, Adam, has two significant chapters to highlight in his Professional Experience Essay.

Chapter 1 was graduating from college and accepting a 2-year analyst position at Deutsche Bank.

In Chapter 2, he took a job as an analyst at a Private Equity shop called Astrix Partners, where he worked for 18 months.

For the rest of this example, we’ll focus only on Chapter 2 of Adam’s Career Story, although Adam would need to write both chapters for his essay.

Once the chapters of your career are clear to you, you should outline each chapter’s contents. Each chapter in your career story should have a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning of one chapter (and possibly the end of the last) is usually denoted by your decision to take or leave a role. This leads us to the next step in building your Professional Experience Essay: explaining the professional decisions you have made in your career.

2. Explain the Reason(s) for Your Career Decision

Building Block Question: Why did you take the job or accept the new assignment?

For outlining purposes, each chapter begins with your career decision: “Why did you leave your old job and take the new one?” Admissions Officers can see what jobs you have had by reviewing your resume. In your Professional Experience Essay, you will explain why you decided to take the job or volunteer for a big assignment.

Ideally, each new chapter in your career was initiated by you and signified a step forward in your career action plan. Even if the career change was unplanned and outside of your control, that’s okay. For example, if you were laid off, focus on the positives instead of hiding the reality of what happened – it’s a chance to show resilience and that you can land on your feet after a setback.

Example: Adam plans to explain that he decided to leave Deutsche Bank and join Astrix because the move fit in with his long-term career plan to become a private equity investor.

3. Discuss Significant Challenges and Accomplishments

Building Block Question: What was the most significant challenge you faced? What did you achieve that you are most proud of?

The next building blocks are the significant challenges and accomplishments during this chapter of your career. Admissions officers enjoy hearing about the difficulties you overcame in this chapter in your career and about some standout moments where you made a real impact on your organization.

Identify the most significant challenge you faced and ask yourself, “What did I achieve that I am most proud of?”. In your outline, jot down quick examples of any standout moments and exceptional achievements at each juncture of your career.

Example: In terms of significant achievements, Adam plans to highlight sourcing a private equity deal, which is quite rare for a young PE analyst.

4. Share Major Areas of Growth

Building Block Question: How did you grow, and what did you learn in this phase of your career? How did you progress?

The fourth building block is your personal and professional growth. You might share knowledge acquired, lessons learned, or skills developed. Often, the most important and interesting things from an Admissions Officer’s point of view are what you’ve learned about yourself in your career so far: a new talent discovered, the emergence of new career interests, or clarity on an existing one.

Your objective is to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experiences from each chapter of your career that will contribute to your future success. By doing so, you ensure that your Professional Experience Essay will provide convincing evidence that you have already made significant progress on your future career path.

Example: Adam’s growth is relatively straightforward. He advanced beyond the transactional activities he performed as an investment banker and is now developing the strategic point of view required of a private equity investor.

After you’ve generated content for all of your career story chapters, take a step back and create a Lead for your story. A Lead is the story’s central message, the executive summary that communicates what your Professional Experience Story is about. If you had to sum up your career in a sentence or two, how would you do it? Some people call the central message of the career story your “elevator speech” – imagine that you had to convey the essence of your career story to an admissions officer during a short elevator ride.

Example: The lead for Adam’s career story is that he’s progressed from a green analyst to experienced private equity professional.

Below you will find an excerpt from the essay that resulted when Adam assembled his content building blocks.

Professional Experience Essay Sample

I was a quantitative economics major at Michigan. Although my education provided me with an excellent analytical foundation, I barely knew an income statement from a balance sheet the day I graduated from college.

(CAREER DECISION) I pursued a position in Deutsche Bank’s leveraged finance group, which provided an excellent foundation for a career in finance.

(CAREER GROWTH) Those two years with Deutsche Bank are where I learned the language of finance and the mechanics of investment banking.

(ACHIEVEMENT) Even amidst lay-offs in other areas of the firm, I was fortunate to be the only one in my start group offered a 3rd-year analyst job

(CAREER DECISION) The 3rd-year offer was tempting. I loved the firm and my team, but I also had an attractive offer with Astrix Partners, a private equity firm with $2.0 billion in assets. I have a real passion for investing. Since junior high, I’ve been trading stocks, and I started my subscription to the Wall Street Journal on my 13th birthday. What’s wild is that I’m now working on the kinds of deals that I used to read about in the Journal.

(ACHIEVEMENT) I really enjoy working on Astrix deals because we have unbelievable access to information and expertise — I talk to industry experts and read phenomenal research reports. I’ve found that I’m good at asking and answering questions like, “What do we have to believe about this company’s position in the marketplace before we would be willing to invest?”

(ACHIEVEMENT) Six months ago, through a family friend, I even helped us source a deal with an optical drive manufacturer in Boston and presented the idea to our investment committee… (example continues)

Final Thoughts

There’s nothing particularly exotic about Adam’s career journey. He has followed a more or less typical path from tier-one investment banking into a private equity shop. Nevertheless, by carefully outlining his professional history, he created a robust Professional Experience Essay for his MBA application.

Although his career path is relatively traditional, he’s managed to connect the dots between his professional experiences and the capabilities he’ll need in the future. By doing so, he’s able to represent his “employability” in the private-equity field post-MBA. Adam’s Professional Experience Story is compelling precisely because it will provide admissions officers with evidence that he’s made significant progress towards his future career goals.

If your Professional Experience Essay indicates professional growth and charts your progress toward your future career goals, then you will instill admissions officers with confidence that you have the skills, knowledge, and relationships necessary to succeed in your career post-MBA.

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Essay on My Work Experience

Students are often asked to write an essay on My Work Experience in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on My Work Experience

Starting my job.

My first job was at a small bookstore. I was excited and nervous. My main tasks were to arrange the books, help customers, and keep the store tidy. I learned about different types of books and authors.

Working With Others

In my job, I had to work with other employees. We shared tasks and helped each other. We also had to deal with different types of customers. Some were nice, and others were not. It taught me patience and teamwork.

Learning New Skills

My work experience helped me learn new skills. I learned how to handle money, how to talk to customers, and how to manage my time. These skills are not only useful at work but also in my daily life.

Overcoming Challenges

At work, I faced many challenges. Sometimes, the store would get very busy, and it was hard to keep up. But I learned to stay calm and focus on my tasks. This helped me to overcome difficulties.

Value of Work

My work experience taught me the value of hard work. I realized that every job is important, no matter how small it seems. It also made me appreciate the effort that people put into their work.

250 Words Essay on My Work Experience

My work journey started when I was just out of college. I got a job as a junior programmer in a small software company. I was very excited and a little scared. But I was ready to learn new things.

Learning New Things

In the beginning, I had to learn a lot. I had to understand how to solve problems using code. I also had to learn how to work with a team. This was a new experience for me. But I was eager to learn and improve.

Challenges in Work

Work was not always easy. There were times when I had to work late to meet deadlines. There were also problems that seemed too hard to solve. But I did not give up. I kept trying and learned from my mistakes.

Growth in My Job

As time went on, I became better at my job. I was able to solve problems faster and work well with my team. I even got a promotion! I was happy to see that my hard work was paying off.

Lessons from Work

Working has taught me many things. I learned that hard work and patience can help you achieve your goals. I also learned that it’s important to keep learning and improving.

In short, my work experience has been a journey of learning and growth. It has been challenging at times, but also rewarding. I am grateful for the lessons I have learned and the skills I have gained.

500 Words Essay on My Work Experience

Starting my career.

My work journey started as a junior assistant in a local library. I was still in high school then. This was my first job and I was very excited. My main task was to arrange books and help visitors find what they were looking for. I also had to keep the library clean and tidy. My time at the library taught me the importance of being organized and helpful to others.

Working as a Tutor

After high school, I began tutoring younger students in their studies. I taught them subjects like English, Math, and Science. This job was more challenging than my library job. I had to prepare lesson plans, grade assignments, and help students understand difficult topics. This job taught me patience and the ability to explain things in a simple way. I also learned how to manage my time well.

Internship Experience

During my college years, I got an internship at a small company. I worked in the marketing department. My job was to help create advertising campaigns for the company’s products. I learned a lot about how businesses work during this time. I also learned how to work in a team and how to present my ideas clearly. This experience was very valuable for my future career.

Starting My Professional Career

After college, I started working as a project manager in a large company. This job was much more demanding than my previous jobs. I had to manage several projects at the same time, make sure they were completed on time, and within the budget. This job taught me how to lead a team, make important decisions, and solve problems quickly.

Learning from My Work Experience

Looking back at my work journey, I can see how each job has helped me grow as a person. I learned important skills like organization, patience, teamwork, and leadership. I also learned how to handle stress and meet deadlines. Each job was a stepping stone that prepared me for the next one.

My work experience has been a journey of learning and growth. Each job I’ve had, from being a library assistant to a project manager, has taught me valuable lessons. I’ve learned to be patient, organized, and a good team player. I’ve also learned how to lead a team and make important decisions. I’m grateful for all these experiences as they have shaped me into the person I am today.

Word Count: 500.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on My Religion Is Roman Catholic
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• Essay on My Relationship With God

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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Hospitality work experience: skills development and effective communication.

Introduction First-year students were given an opportunity to have work experience in the Front of House, Food and Beverage and Housekeeping departments during November and December. Therefore, I chose to take this opportunity to gain experience in all of following departments shown previously. I thought...

• Customer Service
• Hospitality
• Work Experience

Professional Development Through Self-Reflection and Goal Setting

Introduction Continuing professional development (CPD) is important because it ensures that individuals are competent in the profession. It is written in the NHS guidelines that trusts must invest in skills and development for their service professionals. Which is why it is important for me to...

• Self Reflection

Work Experience Insights: Self-Assessment for Personal Development

Importance of Self-Assessment in Work Experience Self-assessments are very useful and allows you to realize how much you have achieved and improved on especially when you do work experience. It allows you to see and to evaluate yourself and give you a better understanding of...

• Self Assessment

Work Experience Placement: Preparation for Work With Vulnerable Children

I will do my work experience placement in a nursery while working one-on-one with children with special needs. Patience is one of the abilities I will need during my stay at St. Baranabas Nursery. Patience is essential when working with children with special needs because...

• Personal Experience

Personal Reflection on Work Experience: Difficulties and Conclusions

Learning encompasses both the acquisition of information and the application of skills. My job was a part-time position in one of the world's most well-known fast-food restaurants, and it was an incredible value opportunity. It allowed me to explore and comprehend the work's beauty. The...

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Best topics on Work Experience

1. Hospitality Work Experience: Skills Development and Effective Communication

2. Professional Development Through Self-Reflection and Goal Setting

3. Work Experience Insights: Self-Assessment for Personal Development

4. Work Experience Placement: Preparation for Work With Vulnerable Children

5. Personal Reflection on Work Experience: Difficulties and Conclusions

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Employee experience in the workplace: Why it’s important

From day one to departure, how employees feel about your company can set them on a path to success.

Employee experience is all about how it feels to work at a company: from the day somebody finds out about the organization to the day they leave it behind, and every major milestone in between.

The employee experience includes the big-picture stuff, like career progression and whether an employee feels aligned with the company’s vision . It also involves more specific aspects of working for a company, such as job perks, their relationship with managers, and their access to technology and workspaces that meet their needs.

A flexible office solution such as WeWork All Access can help improve your employee experience by providing teams with access to hundreds of dedicated workspaces near where they live. For last-minute flexibility, WeWork On Demand lets you access workspaces and meeting rooms in hundreds of locations in cities all around the world, without the hassle or constraints of a monthly commitment.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how the employee experience is influenced by the physical spaces in which we work, and how it can impact everything from job satisfaction to employee retention. But first, let’s define what we mean when we talk about the employee experience.

What does employee experience mean?

“Employee experience” is an umbrella term describing the sum of all of the interactions an employee has with their organization. This can include everything from how they were recruited and trained, to how they’re managed and compensated, to how they end up leaving the company .

As more flexible and hybrid models of working become more commonplace, the way we think about the employee life cycle has evolved to reflect this new reality. To stand out from their competitors, organizations need to do more than simply meet the basic needs of their employees. They need to pay close attention to the employee experience outside, as well as inside, the workplace.

How to measure employee experience

There are many different ways to measure employee experience. One of the simplest and most commonly used methods is to carry out regular employee engagement surveys throughout their time with the company, such as during onboarding, after six months, and at the one-year mark.

Exit interviews are another way to measure employee experience. This voluntary type of survey can reveal a lot about what it’s really like to work for the organization and is often more candid than the feedback given while the respondent is still in the role.

How to improve employee experience

Improving the employee experience should be a major priority for any business that wants to grow its operation, attract the best talent, and boost employee retention . 

An outstanding employee experience not only means happier teams in general, but it can also reduce absenteeism and turnover. It can improve the quality of the work being done, and increases the likelihood that an employee will recommend the organization to talented contacts within their professional network.

So how do you set about improving the employee experience? Every organization will do things differently, but here are some basic ideas to keep in mind:

• Make sure the onboarding process is smooth and informative
• Provide regular opportunities for feedback and development
• Offer competitive compensation and benefits
• Create a positive and supportive work environment
• Encourage a healthy work/life balance

The importance of a happy workplace environment

The key to providing a great employee experience is meeting the needs of your teams. One of the most fundamental needs of any employee is a physical place to work. Whether your organization has returned to the traditional office or has adopted a more flexible model of working, giving employees access to a dynamic workspace that’s responsive to their needs is vital to their overall experience.

That means understanding how and where your teams do their best work , figuring out which features of the space matter most to them, and then using the information you’ve gathered to design a new workplace environment that keeps employees safe, happy, and productive. 

WeWork’s offices are built with the future of hybrid working in mind. Whether you’re launching a remote team in a new city, or want a modern workspace that meets the evolving demands of your workforce, you’ll find beautiful offices to serve and enhance the employee experience.

How onboarding influences the employee experience

The onboarding process is usually an employee’s first interaction with an organization after they’ve been recruited, and first impressions really do matter. That’s why a well-structured introduction to the business—with training, socializing, and mentorship—can make all the difference to the overall employee experience.

A positive onboarding process fosters a sense of trust and belonging in new recruits, while a bad experience shortly after joining the company can tarnish the relationship between employee and employer, sometimes irreparably. A survey by The Wynhurst Group found that 4 percent of new hires will quit a job if their first day goes badly. The employee experience doesn’t get much worse than that.

The difference between employee experience and employee engagement

The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but employee experience and employee engagement have slightly different meanings. Employee experience is the broader of the two concepts, encompassing the entire spectrum of interactions an employee has with their organization, from recruitment to the moment they leave, and sometimes beyond. Rehiring employees who have left the company can also be considered part of the employee life cycle. 

Employee engagement is a more specific metric and is a measure of how those interactions make an employee feel at any given moment. A world-class employee experience that is designed around a comfortable workplace, a rewarding company culture , and a firm belief in the organization’s mission will almost always result in greater employee engagement. But employee engagement is just one dimension of the wider and more complex notion of employee experience.

Why is employee experience important?

Improving the employee experience is good for business. Teams that value their relationship with the company and who feel positively about their interactions with their managers, colleagues, and the physical workplace itself are more engaged, more productive, and happier.

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Organizations that take the lead in cultivating a better employee experience will find it easier to recruit the best talent and be better able to inspire and motivate the talent they already have. A positive employee experience can boost employee retention, unlock productivity, and create new advocates for the business.

But beyond these benefits, providing employees with a great experience should be one of the core principles of any decent company. Employers of all sizes should strive to lead teams that feel proud of the work they do, and who care deeply about the future of the organization they’re part of.

Steve Hogarty is a writer and journalist based in London. He is the travel editor of City AM newspaper and the deputy editor of City AM Magazine , where his work focuses on technology, travel, and entertainment.

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From watercooler chats to crisis communication, the way companies share information can make or break them

Millennials now make up most of the workforce, and it’s changing how we communicate at the office

What is workplace experience and why is it important?

The era of home offices and Zoom calls from your living room is nearing an end for many–at least full time. Now, hybrid work has folks returning to the workplace in bigger numbers than ever. Hybrid work means that today’s workplace leaders have a big job on their hands: to make the office a place employees want to be again. But how?

Encouraging employees back on-site will depend on the quality of workplace experience organizations can offer. In this post, we’ll cover:

What is workplace experience?

Why is workplace experience important, a workplace experience example.

• How to improve your workplace experience

Workplace experience is a holistic approach to creating an optimal environment for employees to do their work. It is made up of three core components:

• Space - the physical surroundings in which employees do their work
• Technology - the systems and tools employees use to do their jobs
• People - the relationships, policies, and cultural standards that impact how work is done

Workplace experience examines how all three elements–space, technology, and people–can work together to drive better business outcomes. This includes employee productivity and engagement, talent retention, and lower real estate costs. Workplace experience relies on cross-functional collaboration between Facilities, IT, and HR teams to be successful. It’s also fundamental to delivering a great employee experience .

Workplace experience is key to a successful work model (whether that’s hybrid or 100% on-site).  While your employees may not visit the office every day in a hybrid work model, the workplace should offer purpose , opportunity, and space for those who do. Let’s look at some of the benefits a great workplace experience can bring to your business.

Improve employee experience

Workplace experience can be a great tool for improving employee experience. A January 2022 survey found that 63% of employees feel empowered when they have flexibility to choose when and where they work. That means empowering them with the right tools to choose how they work. For example, a workplace platform helps employees reserve a spot in the office and book hot desks and meeting rooms . When employees spend less time figuring out logistics, they have a better workplace experience and can focus on the work that matters.

Increase employee engagement and productivity

It’s important to build a workplace experience that will keep your employees engaged and empowered to do their best work.  According to Gallup’s meta-analysis , employee engagement is on the decline in 2022, with the least engaged coming from full-time, on-site workers. Hybrid and remote workers are more engaged, and engagement is higher for organizations that focus on culture. Engaged employees are also more likely to remain with their organization. Collaboration and connection play a big role in creating a great workplace experience. According to a recent study , the top factors that influence employees to visit the office are to get heads down work done (39%) and connection with other colleagues (37%).

Optimize your workspace and reduce real estate costs

Managing your workspace effectively will also help to improve your workplace experience. Thoughtful space management helps keep employees healthy and happy in the office. It’s important to remember that not everyone is comfortable with returning to work . In fact, 87% of employees still have concerns about their health and safety when it comes to returning to work . That means that optimizing space and having fewer people on-site at one time can not only require less square footage but also make people feel better about being there. A win-win.Optimizing your real estate could help you lower real estate costs by 12-20%. According to Accenture , businesses could reduce their office space footprint by up to 40% by evaluating their real estate based on future headcount, growth projections, and workforce models.

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Now that you know what workplace experience is and the value it can bring to your company, let’s look at an example of how to optimize it. For this, we’ll focus on meetings.Like we’ve mentioned, workplace experience is an approach made up of technology, space, and people. Having the right departments behind each component is crucial for its overall success. For meetings, workplace and facilities teams are responsible for the design and operation of conference rooms. IT provisions video conferencing software and the devices to operate it. HR establishes policies around culture and communication. Say you survey employees to understand their feelings about meetings at work. The results show that employees find meeting environments inflexible and painful to manage. There are a number of things you could do to improve this for your people. First, you should test adding a range of meeting spaces like open areas, phone booths, and sound-absorbing furniture. Second, you might implement a room scheduling system that helps employees easily find and book a room. You might also offer a way for teams to record meetings. This way, employees who aren’t able to attend live can watch them later.

Improving your workplace experience

Employees’ needs are constantly evolving and their workplace experience should evolve with it. According to our latest At Work survey , 61% of companies are making changes to the physical workplace to encourage people back on-site. That includes more collaboration spaces, social zones, meeting rooms, and desks in the office. All geared towards creating a better workplace experience. If you want to know more, check out our blog post 5 actions you can take to create a better workplace experience. To ensure you’re keeping on top of what will help produce the best environment for employees to work, you need to keep in communication with your people. For that, feedback is vital.

Getting feedback on your workplace experience

Creating ways for employees to share feedback on the workplace experience is important. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

• Provide more than one method for people to share feedback . Give people more than one option for sharing feedback so employees can use the method that’s most comfortable. Slack, surveys, and annual feedback sessions are a few methods you might consider.
• Give employees clear direction . State what kind of feedback is helpful. Ask for examples and tell employees when they should submit the feedback.
• Send out regular feedback nudges . Use your company’s communication channels to remind employees to share feedback regularly. It’s best to send out reminders in more than one channel to ensure you reach the most employees.
• Close that feedback loop . Don’t leave employees wondering what happened to the feedback they provided–this can be detrimental to employee trust. Follow up with them to let them know if you’ve incorporated their feedback. If you didn’t, be sure to follow up with why so they know their feedback was considered.

Learn more about how to collect real, unfiltered feedback from employees in this blog post .

A great workplace experience is good for employees and good for business. By taking a holistic approach, workplace leaders can bring teams together to create a seamless experience that crosses space, technology, and company culture.

‍ Pro tip: If you’re wondering how much office space you need , start with office space planning for helpful tips.

Tiffany is a content crafter and writer at Envoy, where she helps workplace leaders build a workplace their people love. Outside of work, her passions include spending time with her greyhound, advocating for the Oxford comma, and enjoying really great tea.

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Research Roundup: How Women Experience the Workplace Today

• Dagny Dukach

New studies on what happens when women reach the top, the barriers they still face, and the (sometimes hidden) stresses they deal with.

What will it take to make gender equity in the workplace a reality? It’s a complicated question, with no easy answers — but research from a wide array of academic disciplines aims to expand our understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities women face today. In this research roundup, we share highlights from several new and forthcoming studies that explore the many facets of gender at work.

In 2021, the gender gap in U.S. workforce participation hit an all-time low . But of course, substantial gender disparities persist in pay, leadership representation, access to resources, and many other key metrics. How can we make sense of all these different dimensions of gender equity in the workplace?

• Dagny Dukach is a former associate editor at Harvard Business Review.

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Guest Essay

The Nobel Winner Who Liked to Collaborate With His Adversaries

By Cass R. Sunstein

Mr. Sunstein is a law professor at Harvard and an author of “Noise,” with Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony.

Our all-American belief that money really does buy happiness is roughly correct for about 85 percent of us. We know this thanks to the latest and perhaps final work of Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize winner who insisted on the value of working with those with whom we disagree.

Professor Kahneman, who died last week at the age of 90, is best known for his pathbreaking explorations of human judgment and decision making and of how people deviate from perfect rationality. He should also be remembered for a living and working philosophy that has never been more relevant: his enthusiasm for collaborating with his intellectual adversaries. This enthusiasm was deeply personal. He experienced real joy working with others to discover the truth, even if he learned that he was wrong (something that often delighted him).

Back to that finding, published last year , that for a strong majority of us, more is better when it comes to money. In 2010, Professor Kahneman and the Princeton economist Angus Deaton (also a Nobel Prize winner) published a highly influential essay that found that, on average, higher-income groups show higher levels of happiness — but only to a point. Beyond a threshold at or below $90,000, Professor Kahneman and Professor Deaton found, there is no further progress in average happiness as income increases.

Eleven years later, Matthew Killingsworth, a senior fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, found exactly the opposite : People with higher income reported higher levels of average happiness. Period. The more money people have, the happier they are likely to be.

What gives? You could imagine some furious exchange in which Professor Kahneman and Professor Deaton made sharp objections to Dr. Killingsworth’s paper, to which Dr. Killingsworth answered equally sharply, leaving readers confused and exhausted.

Professor Kahneman saw such a dynamic as “angry science,” which he described as a “nasty world of critiques, replies and rejoinders” and “as a contest, where the aim is to embarrass.” As Professor Kahneman put it, those who live in that nasty world offer “a summary caricature of the target position, refute the weakest argument in that caricature and declare the total destruction of the adversary’s position.” In his account, angry science is “a demeaning experience.” That dynamic might sound familiar, particularly in our politics.

Instead, Professor Kahneman favored an alternative that he termed “adversarial collaboration.” When people who disagree work together to test a hypothesis, they are involved in a common endeavor. They are trying not to win but to figure out what’s true. They might even become friends.

In that spirit, Professor Kahneman, well into his 80s, asked Dr. Killingsworth to collaborate, with the help of a friendly arbiter, Prof. Barbara Mellers, an influential and widely admired psychologist. Their task was to look closely at Dr. Killingsworth’s data to see whether he had analyzed it properly and to understand what, if anything, had been missed by Professor Kahneman and Professor Deaton.

Their central conclusion was simple. Dr. Killingsworth missed a threshold effect in his data that affected only one group: the least happy 15 percent. For these largely unhappy people, average happiness does grow with rising income, up to a level of around $100,000, but it stops growing after that. For a majority of us, by contrast, average happiness keeps growing with increases in income.

Both sides were partly right and partly wrong. Their adversarial collaboration showed that the real story is more interesting and more complicated than anyone saw individually.

Professor Kahneman engaged in a number of adversarial collaborations, with varying degrees of success. His first (and funniest) try was with his wife, the distinguished psychologist Anne Treisman. Their disagreement never did get resolved. (Dr. Treisman died in 2018.) Both of them were able to explain away the results of their experiments — a tribute to what he called “the stubborn persistence of challenged beliefs.” Still, adversarial collaborations sometimes produce both agreement and truth, and he said that “a common feature of all my experiences has been that the adversaries ended up on friendlier terms than they started.”

Professor Kahneman meant both to encourage better science and to strengthen the better angels of our nature. In academic life, adversarial collaborations hold great value . We could easily imagine a situation in which adversaries routinely collaborated to see if they could resolve disputes about the health effects of air pollutants, the consequences of increases in the minimum wage, the harms of climate change or the deterrent effects of the death penalty.

And the idea can be understood more broadly. In fact, the U.S. Constitution should be seen as an effort to create the conditions for adversarial collaboration. Before the founding, it was often thought that republics could work only if people were relatively homogeneous — if they were broadly in agreement with one another. Objecting to the proposed Constitution, the pseudonymous antifederalist Brutus emphasized this point: “In a republic, the manners, sentiments and interests of the people should be similar. If this be not the case, there will be a constant clashing of opinions, and the representatives of one part will be continually striving against those of the other.”

Those who favored the Constitution thought that Brutus had it exactly backward. In their view, the constant clashing of opinions was something not to fear but to welcome, at least if people collaborate — if they act as if they are engaged in a common endeavor. Sounding a lot like Professor Kahneman, Alexander Hamilton put it this way : “The differences of opinion, and the jarrings of parties” in the legislative department of the government “often promote deliberation and circumspection and serve to check excesses in the majority.”

Angry science is paralleled by angry democracy, a “nasty world of critiques, replies and rejoinders,” whose “aim is to embarrass,” Professor Kahneman said. That’s especially true, of course, in the midst of political campaigns, when the whole point is to win.

Still, the idea of adversarial collaboration has never been more important. Within organizations of all kinds — including corporations, nonprofits, think tanks and government agencies — sustained efforts should be made to lower the volume by isolating the points of disagreement and specifying tests to establish what’s right. Asking how a disagreement might actually be resolved tends to turn enemies, focused on winning and losing, into teammates, focused on truth.

As usual, Professor Kahneman was right. We could use a lot more of that.

Cass R. Sunstein is a law professor at Harvard and an author of “Noise,” with Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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The No. 1 personality trait employers always look for, from a workplace psychologist with 10+ years experience: It's 'universally valuable'

As a workplace psychologist with over a decade of experience, I specialize in helping organizations create great experiences for their employees and job candidates. 

I speak with hundreds of executives and HR professionals every year about what is most important to them. While they occasionally have concerns about how to deal with trends like "quiet quitting," hiring good talent is always at the top of their priority lists.

Conscientiousness is the top trait that employers always look for in new hires. Here's what that means, and why it's in demand.

The personality trait employers prize the most: Conscientiousness

You may be familiar with the five factor model , also known as the set of Big Five personality traits.

• Openness to experience : Huge capacity for curiosity and imagination
• Conscientiousness : Organized, responsible and hard working
• Extraversion : Gregarious and energized by social interactions
• Agreeableness : Cooperative and unselfish
• Emotional stability : Secure and has predictable emotional reactions

While each of these personality traits can be important for certain positions, conscientiousness predicts performance across many jobs. That makes it universally valuable for employers. 

Conscientiousness transcends specific job tasks. Very often, the initial role that someone is hired for will change as the needs of the organization evolve. So employees who have this trait are more likely to find success, regardless of the job. 

How you can demonstrate conscientiousness 

During the hiring process, there are a few simple ways you can show potential employers that you possess this key trait.

Many pre-hire personality assessments are rooted in the Big Five, and employers use them to better understand candidates' knowledge, skills, abilities and characteristics.

Then there is the interview itself. Effective interview questions will often ask about a time you engaged in a specific behavior that is relevant to the job as a way to better gauge your organizational skills and work ethic .

DON'T MISS:  The ultimate guide to acing your interview and landing your dream job

When presented with these types of questions, use a consistent structure to demonstrate your conscientiousness: Explain the context, describe what you did, share the results and what you learned from the experience.

Recruiters and hiring managers observe candidates' responsiveness to calls and emails, punctuality and professionalism — subtle cues that are all proxies for conscientiousness. So show up on time and proofread any written material to demonstrate that you can be counted on to take work seriously.

This continues even after you land the job. Employers and managers take note of small behaviors that indicate care, meticulousness and proactivity.

How to become more conscientious

If you're not quite sure about your level of conscientiousness, do some reflection. You can talk with a trusted friend or colleague, or take a Big Five personality assessment online.

If you find that you're conscientious, that's great. Emphasize your diligence and work ethic.

If these traits don't come naturally to you, though, that's OK. You may be able to establish supports where you need them. Introverts, for example, tend to get drained by the constant social interaction that is common in workplaces. But they can still be highly successful by setting boundaries for themselves and carving out dedicated time to focus and recharge.

The same is true for conscientiousness. If you aren't the most naturally organized employee, identify tools to help you stay on top of things, whether that is a digital assistant, time management coaching or a weekly calendar review.

Conscientiousness is a durable, transferrable trait that will always be sought out by employers. For people serious about finding a fulfilling job, it's essential to be true to yourself.

If conscientiousness isn't your strength, don't pretend otherwise. That said, with practice, there are ways to develop that muscle. This will take some effort, but it might just help you land your next big job.

Dr. Benjamin Granger is Chief Workplace Psychologist and Head of EX Advisory Services at Qualtrics. He has over a decade of experience building Experience Management (XM) programs across the globe and leads EX thought leadership and research initiatives across Qualtrics and the XM Institute.

Granger is an instructor in CNBC's new online course How to Ace Your Job Interview , which teaches what hiring managers are really looking for, body language techniques, what to say and not to say, and the best way to talk about pay. CNBC Make It readers can save 25% with discount code 25OFF.

April 2, 2024

Eclipse Psychology: When the Sun and Moon Align, So Do We

How a total solar eclipse creates connection, unity and caring among the people watching

By Katie Weeman

Students observing a partial solar eclipse on June 21, 2020, in Lhokseumawe, Aceh Province, Indonesia.

NurPhoto/Getty Images

This article is part of a special report on the total solar eclipse that will be visible from parts of the U.S., Mexico and Canada on April 8, 2024.

It was 11:45 A.M. on August 21, 2017. I was in a grassy field in Glendo, Wyo., where I was surrounded by strangers turned friends, more than I could count—and far more people than had ever flocked to this town, population 210 or so. Golden sunlight blanketed thousands of cars parked in haphazard rows all over the rolling hills. The shadows were quickly growing longer, the air was still, and all of our faces pointed to the sky. As the moon progressively covered the sun, the light melted away, the sky blackened, and the temperature dropped. At the moment of totality, when the moon completely covered the sun , some people around me suddenly gasped. Some cheered; some cried; others laughed in disbelief.

Exactly 53 minutes later, in a downtown park in Greenville, S.C., the person who edited this story and the many individuals around him reacted in exactly the same ways.

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When a total solar eclipse descends—as one will across Mexico, the U.S. and Canada on April 8—everyone and everything in the path of totality are engulfed by deep shadow. Unlike the New Year’s Eve countdown that lurches across the globe one blocky time zone after another, the shadow of totality is a dark spot on Earth that measures about 100 miles wide and cruises steadily along a path, covering several thousand miles in four to five hours. The human experiences along that path are not isolated events any more than individual dominoes are isolated pillars in a formation. Once that first domino is tipped, we are all linked into something bigger—and unstoppable. We all experience the momentum and the awe together.

When this phenomenon progresses from Mexico through Texas, the Great Lakes and Canada on April 8, many observers will describe the event as life-changing, well beyond expectations. “You feel a sense of wrongness in those moments before totality , when your surroundings change so rapidly,” says Kate Russo, an author, psychologist and eclipse chaser. “Our initial response is to ask ourselves, ‘Is this an opportunity or a threat?’ When the light changes and the temperature drops, that triggers primal fear. When we have that threat response, our whole body is tuned in to taking in as much information as possible.”

Russo, who has witnessed 13 total eclipses and counting, has interviewed eclipse viewers from around the world. She continues to notice the same emotions felt by all. They begin with that sense of wrongness and primal fear as totality approaches. When totality starts, we feel powerful awe and connection to the world around us. A sense of euphoria develops as we continue watching, and when it’s over, we have a strong desire to seek out the next eclipse.

“The awe we feel during a total eclipse makes us think outside our sense of self. It makes you more attuned to things outside of you,” says Sean Goldy, a postdoctoral fellow at the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

Goldy and his team analyzed Twitter data from nearly 2.9 million people during the 2017 total solar eclipse. They found that people within the path of totality were more likely to use not only language that expressed awe but also language that conveyed being unified and affiliated with others. That meant using more “we” words (“us” instead of “me”) and more humble words (“maybe” instead of “always”).

“During an eclipse, people have a broader, more collective focus,” Goldy says. “We also found that the more people expressed awe, the more likely they were to use those ‘we’ words, indicating that people who experience this emotion feel more connected with others.”

This connectivity ties into a sociological concept known as “collective effervescence,” Russo and Goldy say. When groups of humans come together over a shared experience, the energy is greater than the sum of its parts. If you’ve ever been to a large concert or sporting event, you’ve felt the electricity generated by a hive of humans. It magnifies our emotions.

I felt exactly that unified feeling in the open field in Glendo, as if thousands of us were breathing as one. But that’s not the only way people can experience a total eclipse.

During the 2008 total eclipse in Mongolia “I was up on a peak,” Russo recounts. “I was with only my husband and a close friend. We had left the rest of our 25-person tour group at the bottom of the hill. From that vantage point, when the shadow came sweeping in, there was not one man-made thing I could see: no power lines, no buildings or structures. Nothing tethered me to time: It could have been thousands of years ago or long into the future. In that moment, it was as if time didn’t exist.”

Giving us the ability to unhitch ourselves from time—to stop dwelling on time is a unique superpower of a total eclipse. In Russo’s work as a clinical psychologist, she notices patterns in our modern-day mentality. “People with anxiety tend to spend a lot of time in the future. And people with depression spend a lot of time in the past,” she says. An eclipse, time and time again, has the ability to snap us back into the present, at least for a few minutes. “And when you’re less anxious and worried, it opens you up to be more attuned to other people, feel more connected, care for others and be more compassionate,” Goldy says.

Russo, who founded Being in the Shadow , an organization that provides information about total solar eclipses and organizes eclipse events around the world, has experienced this firsthand. Venue managers regularly tell her that eclipse crowds are among the most polite and humble: they follow the rules; they pick up their garbage—they care.

Eclipses remind us that we are part of something bigger, that we are connected with something vast. In the hours before and after totality you have to wear protective glasses to look at the sun, to prevent damage to your eyes. But during the brief time when the moon blocks the last of the sun’s rays, you can finally lower your glasses and look directly at the eclipse. It’s like making eye contact with the universe.

“In my practice, usually if someone says, ‘I feel insignificant,’ that’s a negative thing. But the meaning shifts during an eclipse,” Russo says. To feel insignificant in the moon’s shadow instead means that your sense of self shrinks, that your ego shrinks, she says.

The scale of our “big picture” often changes after witnessing the awe of totality, too. “When you zoom out—really zoom out—it blows away our differences,” Goldy says. When you sit in the shadow of a celestial rock blocking the light of a star 400 times its size that burns at 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit on its surface, suddenly that argument with your partner, that bill sitting on your counter or even the differences among people’s beliefs, origins or politics feel insignificant. When we shift our perspective, connection becomes boundless.

You don’t need to wait for the next eclipse to feel this way. As we travel through life, we lose our relationship with everyday awe. Remember what that feels like? It’s the way a dog looks at a treat or the way my toddler points to the “blue sky!” outside his car window in the middle of rush hour traffic. To find awe, we have to surrender our full attention to the beauty around us. During an eclipse, that comes easily. In everyday life, we may need to be more intentional.

“Totality kick-starts our ability to experience wonder,” Russo says. And with that kick start, maybe we can all use our wonderment faculties more—whether that means pausing for a moment during a morning walk, a hug or a random sunset on a Tuesday. In the continental U.S., we won’t experience another total eclipse until 2044. Let’s not wait until then to seek awe and connection.

No glasses? No problem. Three cool ways to safely view the eclipse.

‘pinhole projectors’ will do the trick. so will plants in your backyard..

The April 8 total solar eclipse is finally here — and it’s sure to amaze and delight the millions who see it.

Everyone in the Lower 48 states will be able to view at least a partial solar eclipse, assuming cloud-free skies .

To savor the eclipse, you don’t need special equipment. Even if you can’t get your hands on eclipse glasses , there are old school, low-tech ways to see it. If you’re crafty and canny, the eclipse can still be a memorable experience.

2024 total solar eclipse

Safety first

The first rule of enjoying the eclipse is to avoid looking directly at the sun without eye protection. Even brief glances can cause permanent damage.

The only exception to this rule is for lucky spectators in the path of totality during the few minutes of the total eclipse, when the sun is fully blocked by the moon.

For those witnessing the partial solar eclipse, even when most of the sun’s surface is blocked, the remaining, visible crescent is still intensely bright and cannot be safely viewed without eye protection.

But, if you don’t have eye protection, here are some safe ways to experience the partial eclipse through indirect means:

Make a pinhole projector

A way around looking directly the sun is to make your own eclipse projector using a cereal box. It’s a safe and terrific way to capture the eclipse action.

Clear the kitchen table and find the craft scissors. In addition to the cereal box, you’ll need a piece of aluminum foil, tape and a small nail or pushpin.

First, eat your Froot Loops — or whatever toasted grain you prefer — and keep the box. On a white piece of paper or white cardboard, trace the bottom of the box. Then, clip out the traced rectangle from the paper and put it in the bottom of the opened box. That’s your screen that images of the eclipse will project onto.

Cut out two squares (1.5 inches should suffice) on the lid of the box and then tape the lid back together. For one square, cover the hole in foil and tape it down. Gently put a pushpin or small nail hole through it, as that is the lens that the sun’s light will pass through. The smaller the hole, the sharper the projected image.

When using your personal box theater, turn away from the sun — and let the sun’s rays shine through the tiny pin hole. Look through the other hole in the lid to see the eclipse action — during the eclipse you’ll see the moon biting a chunk from the sun.

Other kinds of small boxes — such as shoe boxes or small package boxes — work well, too. And your kids can decorate them for fun.

Looking to the trees

If you’re not inclined to make a projector box, you can also view the partial phases of the eclipse in the shadows of trees and plants.

The small gaps in between leaves, branches and pine needles act as miniature projectors. When light passes through, a small image of the sun is cast onto the ground. As the partial eclipse progresses, you’ll see the small circles evolve into sickle-shaped crescents, eventually waning to a sliver.

You may consider holding a white piece of paper or poster board beneath a tree or plant to make it easier to spot the shadows.

Gadgets and fingers

Leaves aren’t special — they just happen to be good at producing tiny projections. But realistically, any hole that’s about a quarter inch wide, give or take, will do the trick. That means you could even parade around outside with your pasta colander, cheese grater or serving spoon with holes in it and look at its shadow. Place white paper or poster board on the ground to see the projection more clearly.

You could also just hold your fingers out and crisscross them to make for half a dozen or so small openings between. Just extend your fingers on both hands as if you’re trying to make a W , and then overlap them.

Simple, yet elegant.

A total solar eclipse will pass across the United States on Monday, April 8. See what the eclipse will look like in your city .

Path of totality: Our interactive visual map allows you to traverse the eclipse’s path from Mexico to Maine. If you’re traveling for the eclipse , we rounded up the top things to do in several major cities prime for viewing. In Carbondale, Ill., lucky residents are preparing to experience totality for the second time in seven years .

Preparing for the eclipse: The most important thing you’ll need is eclipse glasses — here’s how to get them and avoid buying fakes . If you want to capture the magic of the moment, check out our guide for photographing the eclipse with your phone. Here’s what to expect in terms of cloud cover and eclipse traffic .

The science: This eclipse may be especially dramatic because the sun is at its most active period in two decades. In the past, solar eclipses have helped scientists learn more about the universe . Here’s everything else you need to know about the solar eclipse.

• Your ultimate guide to the total solar eclipse, its path and how to watch 2 hours ago Your ultimate guide to the total solar eclipse, its path and how to watch 2 hours ago
• Here’s what not to do to safely watch the total solar eclipse April 5, 2024 Here’s what not to do to safely watch the total solar eclipse April 5, 2024
• Eclipse tourists should plan for overloaded cell networks April 2, 2024 Eclipse tourists should plan for overloaded cell networks April 2, 2024

Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Intercultural Communication — My Personal Experience of Working with People of Different Cultures

Experiencing Different Cultures: My Personal Experience

• Categories: Cultural Identity Culture and Communication Intercultural Communication

About this sample

Words: 2461 |

13 min read

Published: Apr 8, 2022

Words: 2461 | Pages: 5 | 13 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, cross cultural experience (essay example), nature of international communication and universal systems, contrasting cultural values, culture shock, language and written communication patterns.

• Adler, P. S. (1975) 'The transitional experience: An alternative view of culture shock,' Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 15, 13-23.
• Bullock Ch., Oswald Sh., Wang J. (2002). Expatriate Selection: The Key to International Success. International Business & Economics Research Journal, Vol. 1 (11), pp. 69 – 78.
• Fantini, A. E. (2000). A central concern: Developing intercultural competence. (School for International Training Occasional Papers Series, (1), 25-42. Retrieved from http://www.brandeis.edu/globalbrandeis/documents/centralconcern.pdf
• Genelot, D. (1998), Manager dans la Complexité, Réflexions à l’Usage des Dirigeants, 2nd ed., INSEP Éditions, Paris, .
• Hall, E. (1959). The Silent Language. New York: Doubleday.
• Hall, E.T. (1990). Understanding Cultural Differences. Germans, French and Americans. Yarmouth: Intercultural Press.
• Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond Culture. New York: Doubleday.
• Hofstede, G.H. (1980). Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Beverly Hills,
• Oberg, K. (1954). Culture shock. (Bobbs-Merrill Reprint Series in the Social Sciences, A-329). Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.
• Oberg.K. (1960). Culture shock: Adjustments to new cultural environments. Practical Anthropology, 4, 177-182.
• Stadler, S. (2011). Intercultural Competence and its Complementary Role in Language Education. In Perez-Llantada, C. and Watson, M. (eds.), Specialized Languages in the Global Village: A Multi-Perspective Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholar Press, 259-284.

Should follow an “upside down” triangle format, meaning, the writer should start off broad and introduce the text and author or topic being discussed, and then get more specific to the thesis statement.

Provides a foundational overview, outlining the historical context and introducing key information that will be further explored in the essay, setting the stage for the argument to follow.

Cornerstone of the essay, presenting the central argument that will be elaborated upon and supported with evidence and analysis throughout the rest of the paper.

The topic sentence serves as the main point or focus of a paragraph in an essay, summarizing the key idea that will be discussed in that paragraph.

The body of each paragraph builds an argument in support of the topic sentence, citing information from sources as evidence.

After each piece of evidence is provided, the author should explain HOW and WHY the evidence supports the claim.

Should follow a right side up triangle format, meaning, specifics should be mentioned first such as restating the thesis, and then get more broad about the topic at hand. Lastly, leave the reader with something to think about and ponder once they are done reading.

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