work story

Although blogging isn't required for this week, posting your work story to your blog will get you used to blogging as well as thinking about organizational communication.

My work story includes all sorts of jobs to pay the bills while I was in school, such as food co-op manager and unit clerk on a hospital burn unit. My first job (outside of babysitting) was stuffing envelopes and other clerical work for a small psychology journal. I've waited tables (2 weeks) and sold Avon products (2 months). I knew in 8th grade that I wanted to be a professor (my father is a retired psychology professor and my stepmother is a retired business communication professor, so teaching runs in the family), I just wasn't sure about the "of what" part.

When I started my bachelor's at Western Michigan U, I majored in psychology (too many experiments and surveys), switched to interior design (I didn't have a "vision" sense), and briefly considered majoring in English (my poetry was really awful). Finally, my junior year I took a class in interpersonal communication and another in sociology, and I was hooked, majoring in the former and minoring in the latter. I taught my first university class, public speaking, in 1980 as a teaching assistant working on my master's in communication at the U of Massachusetts.

In my present life as a professor, I teach, conduct research, write textbooks and journal articles, and engage in professional and community service. Many of you know me as one of the primary advisors in the department (and if you're a COMM major or minor and haven't met with an advisor to plan your fall schedule, plan to attend a drop in advising session this month). I'm also the advising liaison for the College of Social Sciences and the faculty advisor for the COMM Club.

I'm looking forward to learning about your work stories.

~ Professor Cyborg