- Assignment Objectives and General Instructions:
Most of you know someone whose professional accomplishments you admire or about whom you want to know more. Such a person could be a business owner, a corporate manager, or anyone else in a profession that interests you.
As part of this assignment, you are to identify and secure an interview with that person and write up this person’s story in a 3 page memo to yourself (Times Roman 12 pt, 1 inch margins,double spaced). You should write it as a narrative (not questions and answer) and as a conversation with yourself that analyzes what you have taken away from the interview.
As we discussed in class, you need to decide in advance:
· What do you want to get out of the interview? What is the value of meeting and speaking to this person?
· What do you offer the person with whom you want to meet? What value will your conversation bring to them?
You need to write down answers to each of these questions before you start. They will also be due with the memo.
As we also discussed in class, you also need to come up with a minimum of 10 questions to ask during the interview. Most of these need to be specific and very much tied to the value that you are creating for yourself from this interview.
Write down the questions. Practice asking them. Do not worry if you do not get through all of them. However, remember to consider the flow of the interview when sequencing questions. The questions will also be included with the memo that you submit.
You must conclude the report with a one page assessment of what you learned in the interview. What was surprising? What was challenging? What did you take away from it?
Outline of the Memo:
The memo is 3 pages long. Times Roman font 12. Double spaced. One inch margins all around.
- Name, Title, and Email Address of the person you interviewed.
2. Date and time of the interview.
3. Answer to these two questions: No more than 2 sentences each.
What is the value of meeting and speaking to this person?
What do you offer the person with whom you want to meet?
4. Memo Main Section: Report 2 pages
5. Memo Assessment Section: At least one page assessment of what you learned in the interview. What was
surprising? What was challenging? What did you take away from it? How has this interview changed what you
may do in the future?
Sample Interview Questions:
Here is an example of a series of questions you can ask if the person you are interviewing is a business owner.
You can adapt the questions to other contexts. Note: the person you interview does not need to be a business
owner. These are questions just to start you thinking. I expect you to come up with mostly your own questions.
1. What is the nature of the business? How long has it been around? Who founded it? Who runs it? How successful is it?
2. Who is the person that you are interviewing? What is their education and experience? Where are they from? What brought them into business ownership?
3. Why did they start this business? Is this the first business they have started? How long did it take them to get started? How long did it take them to begin to make profits?
4. What do they do on a day to day basis? What decisions do they make? How many hours do they work? How much time to they have to spend with their families in leisure?
5. What are the most challenging parts of running the business? What keeps them up at night?
What are the most rewarding parts of running the business?
6. What are their plans for the future? Do they plan to run the business for a long time? How big do they want to grow it? How soon?
7. What advice would they give to students about starting, owning, and running a business
