Employee Interview Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to help you develop a richer understanding of careers, leadership, and employment dynamics. In essence, it will help you understand what is "really is going on" at work.

You are asked to conduct an interview. The rules/expectations for the assignment are provided below.

The person you interview:

- Should be at least 30 years old
- The person cannot be an immediate family member (and preferably not a family member at all).
- AND, should be employed in a full-time position (at least 35 hours a week).
- AND, should be responsible for managing at least 5 employees.
- AND, should be at least at a mid-level position in his/her organization.
- AND, should preferably be a college graduate.
- In a perfect world, the interview should be conducted in person. I understand that this may be challenging. If you need to send this form to your interviewee and then conduct the interview over the phone, that's fine. If you feel that sending the questions along and having your interviewee respond by completing the document in word processing format is the best approach (or only approach), that's okay as well. The objective is to interview the person with the most interesting things to say (and can help you the most). At the end, this should be typed. If your interviewee writes something, and you then type the responses, please provide both.
- 12 point Times Roman Font, one inch margins, and 1.5 line spacing.
- Use a standard interviewer/interviewee format shown below:

Question 1: In general, what are the major activities that make up your day at work?

Section 1 - Background information to be included (approximately one page'ish):

- Name of the person
- Current job title, education, and prior jobs
- Family and non-work responsibilities
- Name and description of the company he/she is currently employed (a full paragraph)
- How was the interview conducted? (A few sentences will suffice)

Section 2 - Questions to be asked (I am assuming this will be minimally five pages in length):

1. In general, what are the major activities that make up your day at work?

2. What are the best features of your job? What does it provide you that you really like?

3. What aspects of your job do you really dislike? How do you deal with them?

4. What didn't school (college, high school, trade school) teach you in preparation for the world of work? What was missing? What would you advise teachers to teach?

5. What person had the biggest influence on your choice of career as well as the successes that you have achieved thus far? What message did you take away from this person that was particularly impactful?

6. What is your opinion of the most recent generation to enter the workforce (e.g., Millennials)? What words of wisdom would you bestow upon them to make sure they get their careers off on the right foot?

7. Is balancing work and non-work an issue for you? What are the difficulties and what are the ways you have found to best resolve them?

8. If you had to give a lecture to a class of seniors graduating from the FSU Business School, what three topics do you feel would be the most important to cover? Why those three?

9. What had been the biggest change in the way that work is conducted during your career? If you had to predict the biggest change that will be experienced in the year 2050, what would it be?

10. What job would you love to have if you weren't doing the one you are currently doing? Why?

Section 3 - Your questions (I am assuming this will be minimally 3-4 pages in length)

- Please come up with SEVEN questions that you are interested in asking.
- As long as they pertain to work, they should be fine. Don't ask "yes"/"no" questions - get people talking.
- Use the same format noted above.

Section 4 - Advice (I am assuming this will be minimally ¼ to ½ a page in length).

- Ask your interviewee to offer advice for college graduates newly entering the workforce.
- Please provide the content of the discussion in written/prose format (not bullets please).