Communication challenges are designed to simulate stressful, complicated, workplace situations. For the communication challenges, you will be provided a description of a situation requiring immediate action.
Communication Challenge Prompt
You have been an Assistant Admissions Director at Northwestern University for 5 years. You love Northwestern. You love Chicago and living close to family. Your parents live just a few hours south in Danville, IL and they make trips up every other weekend to visit your one-month-old daughter. Your partner also loves the city and enjoys the fast-paced life working downtown at a competitive advertising firm.
You love your job. You get to work with smart, driven colleagues and mentor passionate students. You get to read brilliant student application essays. You get to use your creativity in helping design admissions materials. Of course, not everything about the job is great. You also must read poorly written application materials and write rejection letters to bright students who have dreamed of attending Northwestern since they were toddlers. You have to write long, boring reports with statistical data for administrators.
One day the Admissions Director knocks on your office door and says:
“I have great news for you! Northwestern is opening a satellite campus in Dubai. They will need an Admissions Director for the school, and I’ve told the administrators you’d be a great fit. They trust my judgment. You’d still have to go through the application process and all the formalities but the job is yours if you want it. The salary is negotiable, of course, but it will be at least $15,000 more than you’re making here. You’ll also be starting on the ground floor, and helping build the new school’s identity. It’s a lot of responsibility, but this job has the potential for a lot of growth. As Director, you won’t get to be as involved in the nitty-gritty, creative aspects of writing and design as you are now. You’ll be leading a team of writers and designers instead. Anyway, they’ve got the ball rolling on this really fast, so I’d need to hear your decision by the end of the week.”
Now please respond by explaining the multiple ways you understand the above situation, how you plan to bring this decision up to your partner, and how you will respond to your boss, the Admissions Director. Include the specific messages of what you will say and how you will say it. Also, include an analysis of the entire situation and any of the ethical and political implications of your decision–i.e. how will this decision impact your career path, your family, your life, etc. Your full response should be 2-3 developed paragraphs.
Communication Challenge Submission Directions
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