Esparza 1
Joshua Esparza
John Haner
WRI 118
18 October 2015
Portfolio 1
Professional Goals and Audience Analysis
After I graduate college with a degree in Economics, I plan to become a
business analyst for any company. In every Economics class that I have taken at UC
Merced, I have thoroughly enjoyed the material and felt that there was real value in
the lessons being taught. It is because of this enjoyment that motivates me to learn
and become a sales analyst. I like to think of the marketing world as one big
competition showcasing who can be more successful and appeal to the customer
base better. I have had experience analyzing statistical data in my statistical
analysis class and have used the statistical analysis program, STATA to create real
world models. My end of the year project was a model that correlated the
relationship between the amount of exercise individuals in the United States
received and obesity rates in the US. My team and I analyzed all the variables that
would affect the weight of an individual: sugar intake, exercise, age, region,
ethnicity, etc. We found that exercise had the strongest correlation with the obesity
rates in the US. In order to improve my chance of getting an internship or job in my
field, I need to take more upper division Economics classes to learn about statistical
analysis and gain experience working in the field.
The company I chose to apply for was a company in Los Angeles called Nox.
Nox is a company that specializes in the online aspects of business, for example,
creating websites for businesses or streaming videos online for a small share of the
profit from these companies. My particular job is a business analyst intern that is
required to be comfortable using statistical analysis and to have a strong motivation
to do my job well. There are no specific requirements, only that the candidate has a
strong work ethic and has strong fundamentals to achieve that goal.
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Josh Esparza
Sophomore Josh Esparza currently attends UC Merced with a major in Economics.
Josh studies new ways for people to conduct business to improve the market
economy.
While attending UC Merced, Josh enrolled in a five-month course on data analytics
and used STATA, a business statistics program, to analyze data and create a model
to display the effects of exercise on obesity in the US.
Before graduation, Josh will study abroad to experience how business operates in
other parts of the world and to have the experience of living in another country.
After graduation, Josh plans to be employed in business analytics to utilize his skills
in Economics.
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Joshua Esparza
8412 5 t h
Jesparza5@ucmerced.edu
Education
University of California, Merced
Expected: 2018
Major: Economics BA
GPA: 3.337
Major GPA: 3.85
School Projects: Created a statistical model with a team of 5 that correlates
exercise with obesity rates in the US.
Skills
5 months experience with STATA, statistical analysis program
WPM: 53.07
Clubs and Hobbies
Tennis Club at UC Merced
Event Coordinator/ Team Leader (Lead drills at practices)
American Football/Hockey Enthusiast
Amateur exterminator
My sister and I would think of creative new ways to kill insects
Summer Volunteer: Downey High School Tennis practices
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Joshua Esparza
8412 5 t h st. APT 101 * Downey, CA 90241
* Jesparza5@ucmerced.edu
Payam Zarabi
Founder and President of Nox Solutions
Nox Solutions
1642 Westwood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Dear Mr. Zarabi:
I am a sophomore currently attending the University of California, Merced. With a
major in Economics, I strive to revolutionize the marketing scene by thinking of
innovative ways to conduct business. I have some experience working with
statistical analysis:
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I have 5 months of experience using a statistical business program,
STATA, during which time I repeatedly created models and analyzed
data.
I have experience working with my father who owns an electrical
contracting business, Top Quality Electric.
I
Normally, inexperience in the workplace is a bad thing, but I believe that because I
have no experience working as an actual statistical analyst, I am much more eager to
work than someone who has been working this type of job for years. I also enjoy
learning more and more about Econ and hope to continue learning as a member of
your company.
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Job Interview
Pitch: Good evening, my name is Josh and I am currently a student at the University
of California, Merced. I would like to be a sales analyst for your company because I
enjoy the competitiveness of sales; if I can calculate the optimal amount of goods to
outsell the competition, it brings a sort of self-satisfaction knowing that I did my job.
I am comfortable using the statistical analysis software STATA, and have had plenty
of experience running statistical models. I believe I would be a good candidate for
the position because I have experience running statistical models and working with
various types of data analysis and I have never received less than an A in any of my
economics classes. One of the projects for my analysis of statistical data class was a
model that linked the correlation between the amount of exercise people in the US
received on average and obesity rates in the US. My ultimate career goal is to create
a company or product that will be the pioneer in its market and I believe being a
sales analyst will give me a unique perspective on the market that only a sales
analyst can have.
Interviewer: Give me an example of a time when something did not go as planned.
How did you handle the situation?
Interviewee: An example of a time when something did not go as planned was when
I was unofficially employed in my fathers company, Top Quality Electric, over the
summer. My job was to record each business transaction that my father’s company
was involved in and one particular time, the company my father was employed by,
was reluctant to give me the information required to complete my work and so I had
to persist. Without the proper information recorded for my fathers company, there
could be some legal issues so it was important that I persist and get the information
from the company.
Interviewer: Give me an example of a time when you had to work individually in a
group to achieve results.
Interviewee: In my Writing 10 class at UC Merced, my team members, Nick and
Connie, and I were asked to create a found poem (A found poem is a poem made
entirely of others work). After working with them for a few minutes I could tell that
their writing was subpar so I decided to take the lead on this found poem project. I
did not exclude them entirely, I simply offered to write the poem and input their
ideas as well as my own.
Interviewer: Give me an example of a time when you used your leadership skills to
help a team succeed.
Interviewee: My senior year of high school, I was on my school’s tennis team and as
one of the older players of the team, I felt obligated to support the younger members
in any way possible. We used to pretend that tennis was our sort of drug and we
passed that mentality on to the other players that they had to constantly to play
Esparza 6
tennis to feed their addiction. We invited players to play on the weekends,
sometimes ran drills during the practices, and talked about different strategies to
implement during the game. We ended up tying the school record for how far the
team proceeded in CIF so it was an overall success. I still go back during their
season to watch some of the games and help out every summer.
Esparza 7
Journal Reflection
Process
Writing 118 is a class that primarily focuses on the audience to whom I am writing,
which is a shift from the writing styles that I am used to. Normally when I write a
paper about any topic, I use my own opinions about my paper to correct it but
everything we wrote in this class was completed with the target audience in mind.
When I was working on the assignments, I was not sure if my writing was adequate
or not because my own opinions about the paper were not as important as they
normally are. That is why peer reviews in this class are crucial for creating a good
paper, because the more people I had reviewing my paper, the more likely I was to
appeal to all types of perspectives and ultimately highlighted what was essential in
my writing. Using the remarks my peers gave me, I incorporated in only the most
essential information. For example, in my resume, one of the students who peer
edited my paper pointed out that the tone of one my characteristics seemed
inappropriate for the context of the paper. However, I did not mean for the tone to
be portrayed as it was so I changed it to be more fitting with the rest of my resume.
Rhetoric
When applying for a job, the most important part of the application is appealing to
the interviewer. In order to appeal to the interviewer and persuade them to get the
job, some form of rhetoric must be used. The assignment, professional goals and
audience analysis, was a preliminary assignment to prepare to use rhetoric in the
remaining assignments. For example, after doing audience analysis on the company
I focused on, Nox Solutions, I learned that the company was looking for someone
who was comfortable with statistical analysis and although I have only taken one
class on the subject of statistical analysis, I used details and examples to create an
ethos for myself or an image that frames my character as someone who is
comfortable running statistical analytics. The use of emotional stories is also a key
rhetorical tool that can be used to put a scenario in context for the interviewer, or to
exaggerate a characteristic about myself. I believe that telling stories is an easier
form of communication that is more understandable. I used stories during the job
interview to illustrate the characteristics that the interviewer was asking me to
display.
Collaboration
In previous writing classes, peer reviews were helpful with creating a better paper,
but in this writing class, peer reviews are essential because the only thing that
matters in the job application is whether the interviewer thinks you are qualified. In
order to appeal to more people and sound more qualified, peer reviews are needed
to get a wider variety of opinions so that when the application is actually submitted,
it is more likely that the interviewer will respond well to your application.
Research Ethics
Research ethics also ties back to the professional goals and audience analysis
assignment. The audience analysis of the company directly affected the rest of my
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assignments because the rest of the assignments were written with the audience in
mind. The job that I chose, business analyst, has generic qualifications that are
associated with that job and it is because of those ethical standards of the job that I
wrote my assignments to display those ethical standards or generic qualifications.
Craft
For many of these assignments, I did not know the format so I learned a lot about
professional formatting. I also learned that there are different styles of professional
writing and different formatting options to use while staying under the professional
writing category which I thought was really interesting because before this class, I
though professional writing was its own style of writing.