Megan Riksen (00:04):

Hello and welcome to the Work Like a Laker podcast. I'm Megan Riksen and today's kind of special because for the first time we're have all three hosts together. So Grace Pushman. Hello? Hi, Megan and Brian Bossick. Hello. Hi, Megan. So good to have us all together today. And we have a fun topic where we're talking about skills and especially during a time when we're all at home,spending a lot more time by ourselves and our roommates and the people we live with. Sure we're busy with school and work and all the other things in our lives, but maybe there's also some time to develop a new skill, whether that's something fun that you've had on your list forever that you wanted to do or something that, you know, maybe could propel your career forward in some way. So we're going to kind of talk about both sides, kind of the full skill spectrum. Um and we thought we'd take turns kind of sharing one career focus, skill, something you might want to try to master over the winter, give you some ideas for that, but then, you know, to keep things interesting, we're going to go the full other side and also talk about some skills that each of us took on to learn over the past few weeks that are purely fun and you will absolutely see what we mean by that. So Grace, would you like to start us off with your, your first career-related skill tip?

New Speaker (01:55):

Yes. And I'm really excited to talk about this one because it's something that I personally have been trying to do myself, which is to develop language skills. So language skills are very important, really in any job you have, because if you can learn a second or third language that is going to be very marketable, really in almost any industry that you're going to work in. So if you're going to be in a job where maybe you're patient facing or client facing or customer facing, there's a good chance. You're going to run into someone who might speak a different language than English. And so knowing a second language can be super helpful in your career and also look really great on a resume. Also, if you're working for a company, for example, that has international, that could also come in handy. So I have a few resources that you can use to develop some language skills. There are a ton out there. I did do some research and looked up a lot of free ones that I could find, but I'm going to just recommend today. Although there are a lot more, but the one that I personally use is called duo lingo. And that you might've heard of that one before, because I feel like it's the most popular one, but it's website or an app that you can use where you can basically, there's like different levels where you can pick from a bunch of different languages.

Grace Pushman (03:07):

I am doing Spanish currently, and you can and you can, even with Spanish, you can do Mexican Spanish, or you can do Spanish from Spain. So it's really neat. They even have differences with that. So it's neat because it's makes it feel like a game. Like there are different levels. You get encouraged to have streaks where you're, you know, on there for multiple days in a row, you get points. So it feels really fun and you can also have friends join and do it as well. So you can make it sort of a competition with your friends. And it's really, there's a lot of different, there's a lot of variety within the app. So you can, it will have you speak the language out loud. It will have you read it. It will have you translate. There's a lot of great things to keep it fresh and fun and exciting.

Grace Pushman (03:53):

And so that's one tool it's called Duolingo. It is free. And then the other one that I have not personally tried, but I've heard good things about is called hello talk. And it has also a free one. And this is when we were actually paired with someone who speaks that language, and then you can have conversations with them. So I think, you know, maybe it depends on what kind of learner you are with what will work better for you. But I do know that a lot of people say that to learn a language, the best way to do it is just to have conversations with people in that language. So I think hello talk would be one that could be extremely helpful. And also if you're feeling isolated at home, like a lot of us are right now, that might also be a benefit is to be able to meet someone new on that's.

Megan Riksen (04:33):

Cool. I've definitely heard of Duolingo, but I had never heard of the HelloTalk.

New Speaker (04:37):

Yeah. I think there are a few lines. Hello. Talk is just the one that I saw the most when I was doing research, but I think there are a few options that are free where you can be paired with someone.

Megan Riksen (04:46):

Very cool. Nice. So, grace, do you want to share your fun skill that you learned?

New Speaker (04:53):

Yeah. Yes. And this one, I don't know how practical it is, but it was fun to try. So if any of you on either like Tik TOK or YouTube, or really online at all, you may have seen something called whipped coffee. And I remember the first time I saw it was on a YouTube video and someone was making it and I didn't know what they were doing. I thought that they had poured themselves a glass of milk and then were pouring peanut butter on top.

Grace Pushman (05:18):

That's what it looks like to me. And I love peanut butter. So I was very intrigued. I was like, what's going on here? Is this something that I should try? But then the person explained that it was whipped coffee, which basically is, like I said, you, you pour yourself a glass of milk and then you make this whipped coffee, make sure that you put on top of the milk and it has the same color as peanut butter, but it's a little bit creamier looking. And it's really, I mean, I think it's very aesthetically pleasing if you've ever seen whipped coffee before it looks really cute. So I was like, okay, well, that's definitely what I want to try to do. I'm not someone who ever makes stuff in the kitchen. I don't cook or bake or anything. So I thought it would be a little bit outside my comfort zone.

Grace Pushman (05:57):

And so then I, I did try a bunch of different recipes. So basically what they say is to use two tablespoons of water, two tablespoons of sugar and two tablespoons of instant coffee. And it has to be instant coffee for it to whip the way you want it to whip. And then you just combine those ingredients into a bowl. And then I use a hand mixer. I think some people try it, like with just like to ha like with do it with a fork or something. And that takes forever. So use an electric hand mixer if you can. And I found like the first time I did it, I don't really like coffee, but I do really like sugar. So I tried to do, I tried to do just one tablespoon of instant coffee, two tablespoons of sugar and one tablespoon of hot chocolate mix.

Grace Pushman (06:38):

That that would be really good. And it was delicious, but it did not whip very well. So finally I went to the, you know, the instructions that I had read, which was the two tablespoons of instant coffee and that worked great. I would recommend Nescafe. The hazelnut was my favorite version that I tried. But I would recommend it if you, especially, if you like sugary drinks, it's a little bit sweet, but very delicious.

Megan Riksen (07:02):

Sounds good for like an afternoon, pick me up. Yeah. Like you need something a little sweet to get through the rest of the day.

New Speaker (07:09):

Yeah, exactly. And then, I mean, again, I'm trying to, you know, stay in more, so it saves me a trip to Starbucks, which is always nice too. Absolutely.

Brian Bossick (07:18):

Looks good and tastes good.

Megan Riksen (07:20):

Yes. Double whammy. Awesome. How did it feel to try something new grace to learn that new skill?

New Speaker (07:29):

I think it always is such a good feeling to try something new. Even if you don't like aren't fully successful. Like I said, the first time I tried it, I did it with the hot cocoa. It did not work, but I think it's just nice to, to put your mind to something and then keep trying until you succeed at it because it just, you know, you feel the growth and it's just, it's also fun. So highly recommend.

Megan Riksen (07:51):

Nice. Awesome. Well, good, Brian, let's move over to you. Would you like to start with your more career focused skill?

Brian Bossick (08:00):

Sure. you know, today I'd like to talk a little bit about intercultural fluency and what I mean by that, that, that term is that we take a look at our openness, our inclusiveness, our sensitivity, and our ability to connect with all people and to really understand cultural differences. When you think about the world of work, when you think about our world in general, you know, the world of work has become so multi-generational and so diverse, right? And so it's really important for us as we are entering that workforce, to know how to work with everyone, how to connect with them, how to build on their skills for them to understand us. And I think there are some concrete things that we can really do to kind of bolster that, that intercultural fluency honestly it starts. And I think that's one of the biggest things that people ask is like, that's a big topic, where do I start?

Brian Bossick (08:49):

Start small, right? Start with yourself, like first, try to kind of understand you and your strengths and what you do. I mean, you could even come to the career center, take a Myers-Briggs right, meet with somebody, take a brief personality assessment, understand who you are, your strengths, your blind spots. But then I think some of the things that we can do to kind of grow from there is to be really intentional about what we consume. And this can be everything from certain podcasts that we listen to. So you might find one that, Hey, I'm always on this kind of a sports podcast today. I know there's one on, as we're talking about the changing workforce and generations in the workforce. Well, let me listen to that and see what it's about. Right? Cause we talk about intercultural difference. We're we're talking about so many different topics.

Brian Bossick (09:32):

We're talking about race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, spirituality, all those areas of identity that are important for us to learn how to connect with. So looking at the small things we can do, right. Listening to kind of a different type of podcast reading a book that isn't your typical book that you would normally read. Right. So if you're getting ready to kind of like let's say you're in the field of psychology and it's your major and you have a choice of like three books for class. Well, maybe you're reading on the psychology of gender and what does that mean? Right. So you're choosing things to kind of challenge. And then I think the other thing to think about is if you have friends or family or people in your inner circle that have identities different than yours. And when they're talking about certain things that maybe you don't fully understand, listen, right.

Brian Bossick (10:22):

Just sit back and listen and try to understand their perspective. And I think even by doing that, your friendship grows, your understanding grows and they get to know you better. So just some of those things being intentional about what we consume, what we do, and then focusing on the people in our lives, who, who can learn from us and we can learn from them. So I would say intercultural fluency is, is one of the big things I can look for. And I know it's one of the questions when we are going to a job interview. One of the most frequent questions people get is, Hey, tell me how you work either with individuals that are different than you. How do you work with diversity and what does that mean to you? So if you have concrete examples in your life about the things you're doing, I think that goes a long way and not just professionally, but personally, too.

Megan Riksen (11:09):

I think that's great. Yeah. I loved what you said about just that, that curiosity, like you find out more about people who are different from you and that then can unlock doors to, Oh, you get a recommendation for a book or a podcast, and then you're learning more or you're going down that track. And, and then you can just keep opening those doors as you go. And I think that process itself is something you could use, as you said, in an interview response. Right. Just to be able to say, yeah, I feel like I haven't had a lot of exposure to people who are different from me. So here's the steps I am currently taking to learn more. Right.

Brian Bossick (11:41):

Exactly. Iyou know, one of the terms we often hear about that now is cultural humility, right. The idea that you'll never be an expert. Right. And that's okay. But you want to approach things with an mind and that you're going to always be learning and there's that natural curiosity. And recognizing that. So yeah, well said, I think it can really trickle down very well.

Megan Riksen (12:04):

Awesome. Okay. So did you do something fun? Brian did something fun.

Brian Bossick (12:10):

I did. And really messy too. So no, apparently, so this was something that we talk about like what's the trending topic did not know, but this was slightly trending and that was cool too. You know, you're not fully out of touch. So no my kids and I, we did tie dye and so I have not done that in gosh, like 20 years. And my daughter got a tie dye kit for her birthday that we recently busted out over the holiday break and it came with like a tie dye making machine and you just put the shirt in there and yeah, I mean, you can also do this with rubber bands in a bucket, right? So there are other ways that you can make tie dye. But this was really cool. You put the shirts in different colors and different parts and you just spun it around and twisted it and then you let it dry for a day and you make these extremely cool designs.

Brian Bossick (12:58):

So it was really fun. It was a great way to like tap into your creativity. So bond, and this would be, you know, this was with my kids, but this can be with roommates and friends and others that just let you kind of express yourself in a different way. And it's not very expensive at all. And like I said, you don't have to buy like the the $15 tie dye making kit that has a spinning machine. You know, you can use rubber bands in a bucket, and different tie dye. And, and it really works very, very well.

New Speaker (13:25):

Brian, how old are your kids? Again?

Brian Bossick (13:28):

They are eight and five.

New Speaker (13:30):

Okay. And did they have fun with that? I'm guessing

Brian Bossick (13:33):

They had a blast. They had an absolute blast and it took us probably three tries to get it working. The first time we didn't seal the machine correctly, so like lots of stuff spilled everywhere. So we had fun cleaning it up too. And they had fun. My daughter went first and by the end she thought she was an expert. She told my son exactly what he was doing wrong

Brian Bossick (13:55):

So they bonded really well. So they had a great, great time.

Megan Riksen (13:59):

And did the, did the actual final product turn out?

Brian Bossick (14:03):

No, but he did. It really did. There's a couple guidelines for how to wash them and, and I would certainly recommend when you wash them the first couple of times do not put them with other things. So no, we're good. We're good. Yes, we are good. We follow those, but I have heard of horror stories where if you throw it in with stuff before it's been washed once or twice, everything's spotted.

Megan Riksen (14:24):

Wow. Yeah, that sounds terrible.

Brian Bossick (14:27):

But no, the final product worked out good and they are actually like t-shirts, we can wear versus like rags, which is a win for everybody.

Megan Riksen (14:34):

Major wins. Yeah. Boy, that brings me back to like my summer camp days. I feel like that was always an activity at summer camp. So I'm glad, I'm glad the trend has come back around. Me too.

Brian Bossick (14:45):

I've found that the last one I had was when I was an undergrad in college and I think it got stored away somewhere and I found it the other day. And I was told that our newer shirts looked a lot better than that. So I was really deficient.

Megan Riksen (15:01):

All right. So I'll move on to I'm so sorry. Oh, no. Well, hey we're all three hosts, but I still was kind of being the bossy one in the group. So I'll just boss myself around and go to the next one.

Brian Bossick (15:16):

Can you talk about the business skill that you learned or the career skill that you would like to share?

Megan Riksen (15:20):

Yes, absolutely. So the one I want to share is pretty broad because it's technical skills and goodness that could include so many things. I will point directly to a resource on the Career Center's website, which w which we call free and virtual ways to enhance skills. Of course, willing to that in the show notes, but that's a great place where we housed just a ton of different ideas for free ways to gain skills just from home. Right? So one of them being Google Analytics, that is something I am seeing on tons of job descriptions. These days as something that's going to be beneficial. You might consider getting familiar with software like Adobe InDesign, or Photoshop. There, there are ways to gain skills with that. We list Duolingo on there. So I'm glad we kind of already, we already covered the learning a foreign language piece, but we try to keep this updated and give you just lots of good ideas across a broad range of technical skills.

Megan Riksen (16:23):

If you're more on the creative side or more in the straight like technical programming, something like that side, those are all skills that are only going to enhance your application for whatever it, whatever it is you're applying for. I often talk with students that maybe it's okay, like you're an advertising and public relations student. You've got the creative side of things down. You have some experience with that through your student org, but you don't have maybe programming knowledge, but that could be something that could set you apart from people who are applying likely for the same positions as you are. So take a look at what some of those skills could be that, that you could potentially develop. Because that can be really yeah, just beneficial to you, you know, as you, as you move forward in your career. And then as you know, even after you graduate from Grand Valley, you have your career, that's a great way to keep pushing yourself forward as well. So you don't feel stagnant so you can make even, you know, lateral moves within the same company.

Brian Bossick (17:25):

I love that Megan because I think about the idea too, that maybe something you pick up now, you won't use right away. Right. But five years later you're like, Oh, I learned how to do this. I could suddenly apply this to whatever I'm doing now.

Grace Pushman (17:36):

I think one way too, to figure out what skills might be beneficial in your career trajectory would be to look at different job descriptions for jobs you might be interested in and see what they're looking for in the qualifications. I know often they'll list, certain technical skills they want you to have. And so sometimes if you're not sure exactly what is in demand right now, you can kind of scroll through Handshake and look to see what employers are asking for. I think that's one way to, to figure that out.

New Speaker (18:05):

Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, right winter you're inside. You might be quarantining. Yeah. Get on that. You use some of that extra time for these sounds the time. Yeah. So Megan, did you also learn a fun skill?

Megan Riksen (18:21):

So I, Hmm. I don't know if this is really a skill and I don't know how well I really learned it, but it's certainly something that a lot of people are doing these days. And I learned a Tik TOK dance. Whoo. So I'm not on Tik TOK. So I looked on YouTube for TikTok compilations, and one of my favorite songs right now that I feel like I listened to every time I'm washing dishes is Blinding Lights. I just love that song. So I found the TikTok dance associated with that, which is hilarious. And I tried to do it with my youngest daughter, which, you know, she was happy to just kind of jump around. But it was fun to like try to like master, like see all the nuances and what they were doing. They were like running in doing all these moves in them, like jumping out. It was hilarious. So we tried our best. I don't think I will be posting a video of myself doing that. But who knows? Yeah. I think what I learned is that I don't have a future as a TikTok star. You never know. There's a lot of different kinds of TikTok stars. So maybe you're not a TikTik dancer, but maybe, you know, TikTok mom who doesn't know how to dance. Maybe

Brian Bossick (19:42):

That sounds like a YouTube channel. You should totally do that. Do you see another dance in your future?

Megan Riksen (19:49):

You know, it was fun and it was something that got us up and moving. So yeah, I could totally see doing some more of them because I mean, we're just laughing and you're moving around and expanding energy and having a good time. So, yeah. That's great. That's awesome.

New Speaker (20:06):

Well, Megan, if we are in the office again together sometime soon, you know, I will be asking to see performance of this dance.

Megan Riksen (20:14):

And I will pretend like I forgot it. Maybe I'll show you.

Brian Bossick (20:22):

If we record it. I promise it will just be for internal use only.

Grace Pushman (20:25):

Oh, sure. Sure, sure. So I can trust you Brian. If I record it, it will be, Oh, that's great. Good. Well, we're coming to the end of our time together. I'm sad. We're going to have to do the three hosts thing again. Maybe we just need another full episode where we just try new things are embarrassing right to ourselves.

Brian Bossick (20:49):

I think that's a great idea. There's probably so many things we could try.

Grace Pushman (20:54):

Yes. It's an everyday occurrence for me. So

Megan Riksen (20:58):

Exactly. So we hope you gave, we gave you some concrete ideas of some different ways to explore skill development. Be sure to check out the show notes for all of those details and yeah, I'll just say thanks to everyone for listening. And we hope you tune into a future episode soon.