My systems week experience was a dynamic, complex and transformative time. I found it challenging in many ways yet ultimately very rewarding, causing me to look forward to similar work in full-time employment. This report is a reflection on some aspects that taught me the most.
Full time work
The project was very time-intensive. I have never done a project full time for a whole week. I struggled with facing the early starts and late finishes and felt quite exhausted throughout. I felt pressure from my peers and the desire to make a good impression. I had not realised how tiring it is to socialise so much. However, it was good to be there hands on the whole time and I began to adjust. If I had missed parts I wouldn’t …show more content…
To compound this we had made the mistake of leaving one person in charge of design. Initially this was done to would allow them to have full creative control, avoid multiple-version problems and avoid conflicting. However, on Friday we entered a panic. The editor was swamped with small fix-up requests, stress levels ran high and emotions were provoked which only made progress harder. Our report was submitted in the last minute, in a state that was not how we wanted. In the future I need to be aware of the last minute issues and be ready to face them. This was a wakeup call to the serious time pressure faced in the real world. It is interesting that Rob claimed in class that if this project were actually done, it would be with a smaller team and a lot more time, around 6 …show more content…
This made me realise the importance of personal connections within the group - icebreaker games - and the group documents we used at the start to collate and share our main skill, interests and hobbies with the group. I am not sure if the decision to use this person was best and wonder if there were more democratic ways of trialing and electing the best, or at least giving others a turn at performing it. Regardless, it has become clear that most successful engineers or consultants of any type will need to be comfortable and effective at presenting their solutions to groups. I enjoyed the mixture of serious and humorous presentations on the final day. I think the systems teaching team handled this well and I liked that way that instead of being strict serious about it they seemed to be enjoying the