Homework
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 homework, 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. 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:
1. What do you want to get out of the interview? What is the value of meeting and speaking to this person?
2. What do you offer the person with whom you want to meet? What value will your conversation bring to them?
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.
A. What is the nature of the business? How long has it been around? Who founded it? Who runs it? How successful is it?
B. Who is the person that you are interviewing? What is their education and experience? Where are they from? What brought them into business ownership?
C. 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?
D. 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?
E. What are the most challenging parts of running the business? What keeps them up at night?
F. What are the most rewarding parts of running the business?
G. 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?
H. What advice would they give to students about starting, owning, and running a business
Format your homework according to the give formatting requirements:
1. The answer must be double spaced, typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the course title, the student's name, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The references and Citations should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.