Job Packet Assignment #1:
A memo report on an informational interview

Length and genre: 2 page report in memo form, a thank-you note.

Due date: January 30, 2003 (Bring a blank, business-appropriate note card, with an addressed and stamped envelope, and a good pen to class on January 30^th. Your interview must be completed by January 30^th.) Assignment: Your first assignment for this unit is to undertake an informational interview with a practicing professional in a field of work you are interested in entering. (And after the interview, you’ll write a follow-up thank-you note that I will mail for you.) To complete this assignment, you will need to identify a professional, call that person, and request an interview. You may work with Jennifer Erickson in the Career Center to identify an appropriate person, but you must contact, interview, and thank that person yourself. Begin working on this immediately.

Purpose: This assignment serves several purposes:

• it requires you to make a potential contact in the community
• it gives you experience in a very important business situation–the interview
• it gives you practice organizing interview information into a report (another important job skill)
• it gives you an opportunity to begin working with the Career Center
• it provides you with important information about the field you hope to enter
• it gives you experience writing a letter and a memo (learning the differences between these types of business correspondence

Audience: The audience for your thank-you note is the person you interviewed. Make sure you know the person’s preferred tiled, correctly spelled first and last name, and business address. The audience for the memo assignment is me, Betsy. You are summarizing the highlights of a 20 minute interview and drawing some conclusions about the field you are hoping to enter.

Planning and Drafting:

1. Set up an interview with someone in your field immediately. Read information on informational interviews and do any background research on your interviewee or his/her place of employment. (Be sure to read the on-line handout about etiquette.)
2. Plan questions and practice interviewing before you actually conduct your interview (feel free to use questions from book or handouts).
3. Take notes during your interview; it’s just respectful. But remember you’re really having a conversation.
4. Using memo format, write up a report on your interview. Work to use the language and ideas we have been using to discuss the job search process. This report should include:

• the basics–your career interests, who you interviewed, their place of employment, the date and time of the interview
• how the interview went, in general, what you asked and what your respondent said–a summary
• what you learned from this interview
• what you wish you learned

• care to using memo format
• attractive, readable page design (single-spaced, block paragraphs, headers, bulleted lists)
• clear, well organized prose that employs forecasting, transitions, clear relationships between sentences
• appropriate level of diction, consistent point of view, careful word choice
• careful editing and correct grammar
  

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