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University Writing & Communication Center

The Role of Communication in Different Careers

 

(If your major/chosen career path is not listed here and would like it to be, contact Dr. Jeansonne at Christine_jeansonne@subr.edu.)

The communication skills for each career were determined by a.) interviews and discussions with people working in those professions, b.) discussions with students majoring in those professions, c.) what was listed in job advertisements as necessary communication skills for those professions, and finally, d.) some of the latest academic research on communication skills needed in these fields (for a bibliography of those academic journals, contact Dr. Jeansonne).

Nursing

  • Creating care plans for patients
  • Charting
  • Updating EMRs
  • Oral communication/bedside manner with patients and families
  • Appropriate use of compassion and emotion/pathos
  • Use of logos and facts to clearly convey medical situation
  • Technological communication
  • Adjusting for language barriers and cultural differences
  • Active listening
  • Policy-making
  • Reading non-verbal communication from patients as indicators of condition
  • Presentation skills needed to describe the needed treatment

 

Teaching

  • Effectively build lesson plans
  • Ability to “read the room” to discern if students are following the lesson
  • Clear communication to students in both the classroom and one-on-one interactions
  • Create assignments that facilitate meaningful dialogue among students
  • Discuss with parents of students at parent-teacher conferences
  • Appropriately communicate the importance of proper discipline in the classroom
  • Collaborate with colleagues in leading student groups and organizations
  • Cultivate a “teacher voice” to gain students’ attention
  • Active listening and empathy for students
  • Bridging cultural differences and varying backgrounds
  • Meeting students “where they are” in terms of development and knowledge
  • Keeping up with a digital world of educational resources
  • Non-verbal communication, like eye contact and hand gestures to gain students’ attention

 

Engineering

  • Communicate design ideas
  • Revision tracking
  • Engineering reports
  • Research
  • Checking and communicating project progress
  • Procurement data acquisition
  • Bill of materials
  • Technical specifications
  • Report test results and clearly convey them to colleagues
  • Composing manufacturing instructions
  • Creating and understanding user manuals
  • Technical emails
  • Data manipulation
  • Regulatory interpretations
  • Technological innovation

 

Business

  • Good writing and proper speech promote brand credibility.
  • Communicating with customers
  • Report writing that conveys business and technical info
  • Persuading customers of product’s worth
  • Writing a press release to promote business
  • “Financials,” which outline the overall state of the business
  • Writing the minutes of a business meeting
  • Proposal that presents a project overview
  • Sales email or sales presentation that pitches the product to a group of people
  • Management of employees
  • Reaching customers on social media/advertising
  • Instructional writing (Creating a user’s manual, specifications, a memo)
  • Brand promotion

 

Marketing

  • Content strategies
  • Marketing plans
  • Effective writing that highlights the important aspects of a product
  • Creating design briefs
  • Appealing to the masses with short, shareable content
  • Answering the customer question, “WIIFM”?: “What’s in it for me?”
  • Networking with colleagues and building relationships
  • Working as brand ambassadors for a business
  • Reaching customers on social media/advertising
  • Television commercials and print media
  • The use of key words in quality content to grab audience’s attention

 

Criminal Justice

  • Evidence reports
  • Writing arrest, criminal, and incident reports
  • Community outreach
  • Social media posts
  • Internet and paper memos
  • Emails and texts
  • Intelligence reporting and documentation
  • Policy papers and studies
  • Forensic science technicians compose records of their findings and conclusions.
  • Issuing proposals
  • Interacting with members of the public
  • Building trusting relationships with colleagues

 

Psychology

  • Using appropriate conversational styles and tones needed to build relationships with clients
  • Taking notes for each client
  • Handling information with insurance companies
  • Having compassion when dealing with client stress and emotional situations
  • Interpretations of clients’ situations
  • Advisements
  • Asking appropriate, productive questions
  • Listening as a necessary tool
  • Interacting with people from different cultures, socio-economic, and social backgrounds
  • Academic research and keeping up with latest studies
  • Scientific writing
  • Empirical observations and experimental results
  • Lab reports

 

Accounting

  • Emailing clients about finances
  • Writing formal letters to the IRS and Department of Revenue on a regular basis
  • Communicating and networking with colleagues
  • Explaining complex financial information in a clear, concise way to clients
  • Budget preparation
  • Completing the oral and written exams often required during the hiring process
  • Writing an analysis of business performance or financial reports
  • Understanding and applying new tax laws
  • Reviewing contracts for clients

 

Medical Doctor

  • Having an appropriate “bedside manner”
  • Patient listening and empathy
  • Reading non-verbal communication from patients as indicators of condition
  • Technological communication
  • Adjusting for language barriers and cultural differences
  • Encouraging patients’ compliance with medical treatment
  • Communicating with families of patients
  • Persuading patients to cultivate a healthy lifestyle
  • Clearly presenting treatment options and diagnosis
  • Active listening
  • Networking with colleagues
  • Reading latest research, data, and science
  • Medical journals

 

Social Work

  • Communicate with clients to learn information about their respective situations
  • Listening skills
  • Nonverbal communication, such as eye contact
  • Handling conflict and difficult situations with an appropriate, measured response
  • Showing empathy and compassion
  • Critical thinking needed to help clients
  • Setting boundaries
  • Communicating with care providers
  • Document what you do with client and provide written reports

 

Agricultural Sciences

  • Motivating a work force (on a farm, research facility, etc.)
  • Implementing new technology and resources
  • Using different communication instruments, such as charts and flag systems
  • Holding and participating in meetings with colleagues and/or employees
  • Understanding of agricultural policy and science
  • Knowing and applying basic economics, such as ag finance, government relations, and media management
  • Interpersonal skills with colleagues
  • Oral communication skills when dealing with customers
  • Grant preparation
  • Computer skills (Word processing, databases, spread sheets)
  • Written skills when composing emails, media outreach, advertising

 

Urban Forestry and Natural Resources

  • Writing effective reports
  • Governmental procedures and policies
  • Grant preparation
  • Insect and disease diagnosis and treatment requirements
  • Knowledge of personnel rules
  • Proper tree selection and planting procedures
  • Program and project management
  • Computer skills (Word processing, databases, spread sheets)
  • Pruning principals
  • Understanding the OSHA rules
  • Interpreting plan drawings
  • Learning the latest scientific technologies