Networking and informational interviewing

Our current labour market is volatile; career paths less clear; educational choices more broad; with a vast quantity of advice being available... which tends to be of variable quality or applicability. That is where I find informational interviewing comes into its own: we can go and talk to a 'real' person, who has gained experience, training, and education, and who now do a real job. A couple of recent posts has looked at this topic (here).

Informational interviewing is a technique where the interviewer contacts "a previously unknown person (usually a career model), conducting background research (on the person, occupation, and organization), meeting the person for between 30-45 minutes, and acting in a professional manner" (Kanar, 2020, p. 2, citing Decarie, 2010). While Kanar (2020) suggests that the interviewee is unknown to the interviewer, initial interviewees in New Zealand tend to be family friends, then the circle moves outwards as the interviewer seeks different or more specific information. Those already in the field of interest tend to connect us with others in the field: we literally use our networks. 

Not only does undertaking interviews with family connections and then onto others in the field helps us to build networks, it also helps those of us about to enter the workforce realise just how critical networking is in helping us to find our next opportunities. Those of us who tend to end up in interesting roles have often developed our own self-efficacy in networking because we collect people along the way via our professional experience across organisations. 

Deliberately building networks is an excellent professional development skill to hone. Broad networks can be immensely useful when changing roles, when changing fields, or when changing country. We never know when chatting to someone in an airline queue, alongside the sportsfield, at a cafe, at a gallery opening, or outside the meeting room at a job interview might lead us to our next rewarding role.

Not only can informational interviews help to better match us with jobs, and build our career preparedness skills, undertaking the interview also boosts our networking self-efficacy (Kanar, 2023). The more we practice, the better we get - now there is a surprise!

Sam

References:

Kanar, A. M. (2023). Effectiveness of informational interviewing for facilitating networking self‐efficacy in university students. The Career Development Quarterly, 71(2), 147-159. https://doi.org/10.1002/cdq.12318

Kanar, A. (2020). Increasing student engagement in human resource management courses through informational interviewing. Journal of Human Resources Education, 14(3/4), 1-13. file:///D:/+Customer%20Files/Lecturing/CD%20Articles/Kanar%20-%20Increasing%20student%20engagement,%202020.pdf

read more "Networking and informational interviewing"

Checking our informational interviewing data

Just because we have undertaken study in a particular field to prepare our entry, it does not mean that we necessarily have fit in the field; or that we know the arcane nature of gaining our first position within that sector. Lun notes that our "career-focused majors might not [give us] adequate understanding about [our] career path choice and real-world job opportunities" (2020, p. 1).

In a couple of recent posts we have looked at informational interviewing (here). What we have not yet talked about are some questions we can ask ourselves to ensure that we have had our questions answered by our informational interviewee. However, Lun has done some of the grunt work for us (2020) in studying students undertaking an informational interview assignment. We can apply Lun's methodical approach and can ask ourselves to what degree we can answer the following questions:

1. "I am able to identify the kinds of tasks that could be done in a typical week
2. "I am able to identify the characteristics a person needs to have in this job
3. "I am able to identify the types of advancement opportunities available for an entry-level worker in this career
4. "I am able to identify the hours typical for most jobs in this occupation
5. "I understand how this career could affect my lifestyle
6. "I understand the preparation needed for people in this career
7. "I am able to identify the specialties that are available in this career" (Lun, 2020, p. 3).

They're pretty useful questions to ask. Even better, a list of more reflective questions are provided which we can ask ourselves later; once we have had time to mentally process and digest our interview. We need our "boys in the basement" (King, 1998, p. 120) - our sub-conscious - to work through our impressions, while we get on with other things. Then, once we have enough distance to look back, we will be better able to to understand the tone, the gaps, and what wasn't said. Those questions we work through are (Lun, 2020; NB: "assignment" is edited out):

1. "What is your overall perception of the interview?
2. "How do you think this informational [interview] has helped you to understand the nature of the career in which you are interested?
3. "What aspects of this [interview] were most helpful in guiding your questions and thoughts that added to your increased understanding of the career?
4. "After conducting the interview, how would you say [this] shaped your attitude toward this field?
5. "What was your education plan before this interview [...]? After this [...], what educational goal have you planned?
6. "What was your career goal before this interview [...]? After this [...], what career goal do you have?" (pp. 3-4).

These too are very helpful. 

Sam

References:

King, S. (1998). Bag of Bones. Scribner.

Lun, M. W. A. (2020). Informational interview: Broadening helping field professional students’ perception of employment opportunities in the real world. Journal of Social Service Research, 46(1), 124-132. https://doi.org/10.1080/01488376.2018.1532943

read more "Checking our informational interviewing data"

Sample informational interview questions

In a recent post - here - I looked at an infographic created by (Al-Ani et al., 2020). In that post, I looked at the reasons why we might want to undertake an informational interview. 

What I did not do was to consider what questions someone would want to ask in an informational interview, and where they might find a list of potential questions to spark inspiration. However, that is exactly what the Canadian creators of the accompanying infographic did (Al-Ani et al., 2020). So I think - rather than reinventing the wheel - it would make sense to look at what they and their respondents came up with. 

Their questions were as follows (Al-Ani et al., 2020):

1. "What is it like to work in this career?
2. "What is the typical salary range? What is the long-term salary potential?
3. "How did you get started doing this type of work?
4. "What most surprised you when you started working in this field?
5. "What connections would be most helpful to hired here?
6. "What education, skills and experience are needed?
7. "How does one get hired into this part of the organisation?
8. "What are employers looking for when hiring people for this kind of work?
9. "How do my qualifications compare with employer expectations?
10. "What parts of the job do you find the most challenging? The most enjoyable?
11. "What are the skills you use most in your work?
12. "What are the opportunities in this career path?
13. "What advice would you give to someone who wants to get started in this industry?
14. "Why do people leave this field?
15. "How do you see this industry developing in the future? How is your industry changing?
16. "What is the typical career path for people in this field?
17. "May I have your business card?
18. "Could I follow you on LinkedIn?
19. "Could you suggest one or two other people I could talk to about my career development?
20. "Is there anything else you think I need to know?"  (Al-Ani et al., 2020, p. 35). 

Click on the infographic immediately above to open it in your web browser. 

This is, in my view, a very helpful guide for those who are seeking information on career options :-)

Sam

References:

Al-Ani, A., Bourhill, T., & Rancourt, D. E. (2020). Embedding Informational Interviews into Postsecondary Curriculum. Canadian Journal of Career Development, 19(2), 33-44. https://cjcd.ceric.ca/index.php/cjcd/article/download/16/7

read more "Sample informational interview questions"

Informational interviewing

An informational interview is a pretty standard investigative tool in the career development quiver where we create an opportunity "to pick someone's brain about a profession, business, or industry" (Plakhotnik, 2017, p. 1, citing Decarie, 2010, p. 306). We use our networks to find people to chat to; if anyone remembers the old US shampoo ad "I told two friends about it, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on" (ewjxn, 2020, 0:07), you know how our networks can lead us to 'experts' in their fields with very few degrees of separation (Milgram, 1967).

Side note: The ideas of degrees of separation arose from a study exploring how many steps were needed for a parcel being passed by hand to reach a target person in a different city, which averaged at 5.5 intermediary steps from the first person "in rural Nebraska to a target person in suburban Boston" (Gao, 2005, p. 39; Milgram, 1967). Interestingly, digital media has closed the gap, with "the average degrees of separation based on [Facebook]'s own data [now being] 3.5" (Chung, 2019, p. 395).

When we want a change of direction, or are new to a field, informational interviews can help us to see if we have 'fit' with a profession: whether our personality, values, skills, abilities, interests, personal circumstances, status, and physical and mental health will assist us in finding work in the area of interest (Inkson et al., 2015). It can also help us understand what skills and abilities we may need to build to gain entry or to change direction... and what mental or physical training we may need. 

How do we set up an informational interview? There are a few steps we need to take:

Spiel. Create a quick two or three sentence story, to quickly convey why we are asking for help. For example: "I am very interested in working in [xxx] field, and I am looking for people to talk to about it. Could I make a time to have a quick chat with you about how you got into this area, and what a typical work day is for you? Or can you recommend someone else I could talk to?" If you got this person's name from someone else, mention that early: "I am very interested in working in [xxx] field, and Jane Doe suggested that I call you. Could I make a time to have a quick chat with you..." etc.

Networks. To find people, we ask our networks. If we are younger, we leverage our parents' networks, as well as joining LinkedIn, and contacting "family, and friends" (Al-Ani et al., 2020, p. 34). If we are younger, we can "'play the student card' and to leverage the kindness of strangers who are asked to help" (p. 34). If we can contact the person directly - a quick call, or a quick face to face request is best - we just ask them for 30 minutes of their time to meet, using our spiel. Try meeting in a neutral place, such as a cafe. If possible, buy them a coffee or tea as a low risk thank you.

Plan. We sit down and plan some questions that we want to ask: but not too many. In general each question will take roughly two minutes to answer. So if we are taking half an hour of someone's time, we should ideally ask fewer than fifteen questions. Research by Al-Ani et al. (2020, p. 35) assists us with 20 questions for us to choose from - see the diagram accompanying this post, and the infographic below. 

Action. Then we arrive early. We are prepared, so we are honouring the gift our person is giving us of their time. We do our interview. We take notes. We keep a careful eye on the time, and ask if they need to go, even if we have not asked all our questions (most people will be generous). And we close by asking if there is anyone else this person could connect us with so we can continue learning about the field.

While no learning is ever wasted, informational interviewing can prevent us investing our resources in preparing for a field which is unlikely to sustain us. For example, my post-secondary school goal was to be a journalist. At the end of my second to last year I did an internship the local newspaper, and found that I didn't fit with the journalists: they were all men; and either ancient, cynical and raddled, or young thrusters. I felt I did not fit. By experiencing the workplace, I could see that my romantic ideals probably would not have bridged me from my training into work. By meeting and talking to a range of people in the field, we can absorb that feeling of fit... or not.

While I am not saying that we all need role models in our chosen fields to succeed, if we go into a field and do not see people like ourselves, we may need tenacity to get ahead. There is no right and wrong: some people love that type of challenge; others find it daunting. I have a friend who battled her way through a variety of New Zealand Fire Service roles, continually fighting a male-dominated culture. I would have been exhausted by it, but she was driven by a very strong set of values and beliefs in equal-opportunity which sustained her. By talking to someone in the role about the mental and physical fortitude we need to be successful.

And informational interviewing is a great tool to help us evaluate fit :-)

Sam

References:

Al-Ani, A., Bourhill, T., & Rancourt, D. E. (2020). Embedding Informational Interviews into Postsecondary Curriculum. Canadian Journal of Career Development, 19(2), 33-44. https://cjcd.ceric.ca/index.php/cjcd/article/download/16/7

Chung, K. S. K. (2019). Chapter 18: Social Network Analysis Toolset. In A. Gorod, L. Hallo, V. Ireland, I. Gunawan (Eds.), Evolving Toolbox for Complex Project Management (pp. 395-416). Auerbach Publications.

ewjxn. (2020, March 4). 1984 Fabergé Organics shampoo "Heather Locklear told two friends" TV Commercial [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Hyxmj1Yf6Dk

Gao, H. (2005). The invisible handshake: interpreting the job-seeking communication of foreign-born Chinese in the United States. [Doctoral thesis, University of South Florida]. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/2888

Inkson, K., Dries, N. & Arnold, J. (2015). Chapter 6: Careers as Fit. In Understanding Careers (pp. 136-162). SAGE Publications Ltd.

Milgram, S. (1967). The small world problem. Psychology Today, 1(1), 61-67. https://doi.org/10.1037/e400002009-005

Plakhotnik, M. S. (2017). Using the informational interview to get an insight into the profession of a manager. The International Journal of Management Education, 15(2), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2017.02.002

read more "Informational interviewing"

Clear methods writing: actual to plan

I had an interesting problem with a student recently, where they were writing the wrong elements in the wrong tense in their methods chapter. I found it hard to pinpoint why it was wrong, but - once I realised WHICH conventions were being flouted - really made things clearer for me... which will translate into my being able to provide clearer instruction.

Initially, I thought this was a matter of the student not having specifically cited particular elements drawn from the source at the point they were mentioned in the sentence. However, I soon realised that they were combining the expert theory/view with what they had done. So instead of the academic writing sandwich: "John Doe says to do this" followed by "so I did this [applied project detail]", the student was mashing the two together. For example, the student wrote:

“Semi-structured interviews gave the researcher an advantage to plan ahead of time and allowed the researcher to appear competent and prepared (Newton, 2010)"

When I read the paragraph, I was confused. Did the student do this (i.e. was this applied in their primary research - actual), or did the cited author write this (i.e. being cited as an expert or theoretical view - plan)? I was left confused as to whether this was actual or plan. Done, or advice. Reality or theory.

I advised the student that when we cite, then we cite in the present tense, because the advice remains current. However, we apply the theory to our own research findings and write in the past tense, because we're writing up our results after we have done our research.

I also suggested that, if the initial paragraph was written from the point of view of the expert advice, one option would be to change the paragraph to:

As a research tool, SSI gives the researcher an advantage to plan ahead of time, allowing the researcher to appear competent and prepared (Newton, 2010).

This makes the ownership of the theory very clear. But now we need to rework the student's sentence to fit with what had been intended, so we could write:

For this project, the researcher found that using semi-structured interviews allowed the mapping of a range of participant responses, and the advance preparation of answers to likely questions, and prompts to keep the exploration on track.

If we put these two sentences together, we end up with a paragraph explaining one of the elements about why semi-structured interviews were chosen. But we are missing a definition of what semi-structured interviews are, to lead off, and to complete that triplet. As a rough example:

Semi-structured interviews (SSI) have been defined as “ascertain[ing] subjective responses from persons regarding a particular situation or phenomenon they have experienced” (McIntosh & Morse, 2015, p. 1). As a research tool, SSI gives the researcher an advantage to plan ahead of time, allowing the researcher to appear competent and prepared (Newton, 2010). For this project, the researcher found that SSIs allowed the mapping of a range of participant responses, the advance preparation of answers to likely questions, and prompt development which all helped to keep the interview exploration on track.

Then we would write the next triplet (or even pair if the McIntosh and Morse definition related to both concepts well enough); perhaps those of social cues; then perhaps freedom of expression, and so forth.

It is amazing how much we can learn, just from looking at the writing of others.

Sam

References:

• McIntosh, M. J., & Morse, J. M. (2015). Situating and Constructing Diversity in Semi-Structured Interviews. Global Qualitative Nursing Research, 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1177/2333393615597674
• Newton, N. (2010). The use of semi-structured interviews in qualitative research: strengths and weaknesses. https://www.academia.edu/1561689/The_use_of_semi_structured_interviews_in_qualitative_research_strengths_and_weaknesses

read more "Clear methods writing: actual to plan"

Creating a set of data collection questions

Data collection questions are largely created from the reading we have done for our literature review. From all the good quality research papers we have read, we should be starting to form a picture of how we too can answer our research question, using good quality research examples to help us to construct our questions, our strategy to ask our questions, and how we might analyse the data from the questions we ask.

The process that I like to use is:

· Download the template “03 Data Questions Framework v3.docx”, available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hIwdCTq0ro0RX5IsTeH0A8W22COyITh2/view?usp=sharing.

· Go through the research sources found in the literature review, and explore the methodology, to see what questions they asked which provided the same type of results you are seeking

· List all the questions that you may have to ask in the first column of the Data Questions Framework table then:

o detail what type of answer you want to get to this question in column 2

o add a citation for where this question has been used in previous research in column 3

o consider how you will analyse the data you get from this question in column 4

o map all the possible questions to its relevant research aim in column 5

o indicate that you have checked for sense, clarity, have proofed the question, and have checked that the instructions are clear in column 6

· Try to answer each of the elements above are detailed as fully as possible

· Keep adding questions to the framework until you will have potentially gathered enough data to answer your research question

· Refine the wording of each question, to make them all as clear and unambiguous as possible

· Reorganise the questions in what would be the most logical order to ask them

· Save this framework. Then create another copy, which you will edit further than the next step

· Before sending to your supervisor for review, check that:

o each question asked is a single question: i.e. one ’question’ does not contain three questions, for example: “What are your views on the work conditions for your current jobs? (e.g. working hours and pay) Are they different from your expectations? If so how?”. This should be split into three questions

o you do not have more than 15 questions overall for a one hour interview; you do not have more than 20 questions overall for survey

o you are not unintentionally asking the same things in different ways (we may intentionally ask the same thing in different ways to cross-check for validity)

o personal questions, such as demographics, are asked at the end of the data collection instrument.

This process seems to work well for students.

Sam

read more "Creating a set of data collection questions"

Preparing an Interview Script

As mentioned in other posts (here) the development of the data collection questions takes time, planning and care. We should have developed a research protocol which covers the elements we need to plan before the interview. Before the interview, in our interview protocol, we will already have planned to meet somewhere with few distractions, where the participant feels safe. We should also have planned how we would get to our location.

However, in addition, we also need to have developed an interview script which we take with us to the interview itself (Bolderston, 2012; Remenyi, 2011), which is the topic of this post.

The interview script is in three parts:

1. Warm-up: within the interview script we should have listed what we will say to introduce our project to our participants, how we will remind them about their rights and our responsibilities, and the ‘rules of engagement’ around breaks, phones, potential discomfort, or potential withdrawal. We reiterate how long the interview will last, and how we will keep their identity confidential, and how their data will be used. We would remind our participants about who will have access to the interview recording – such as professional transcribers, research supervisors – and that these people are bound by either confidentiality agreements or codes of ethics. Although all this is quite serious, we are building trust in this stage, and need to be explicit about appreciating the gift that the participant is giving us. We should note a time down against this section, and have practiced delivering it, so that we know roughly how long it will take. Be prepared for questions, and factor in the time to answer these (Bolderston, 2012; McNamara, 2010; Remenyi, 2011).
   
   
2. Interview questions: then we get into the main body of the interview, going through the data collection questions – if structured – item by item, further exploring using our prompts; or if semi-structured, following our lines of enquiry as they arise outside the script. Ask easy to answer questions early in the script to give the participant confidence. Get the participant feeling confident in talking. Build rapport. Work towards having the most important questions about a third of the way into the interview, while the participant is still fresh. Be watchful of the participant going off track, and steer them back onto your agenda. Make notes on the script. Jot impressions. Note the timestamp on the recording so we can go back to this point later (McNamara, 2010; Patton, 2014; Remenyi, 2011).
   
   We should have time estimates against each of our interview questions, and have practiced on a few volunteers to get a reasonable idea of how long it would take an ‘ideal’ candidate to answer our questions. As a rough rule of thumb, it takes around an hour to ask and obtain answers to ten to twelve open-ended questions. Once we have run through our questions, if we have time, we can go back to our notes and ensure that we have covered everything we needed to.
   
   
3. Thanks: we need to thank the participant for their time, remind them of the next steps in the process (perhaps if there will be an email or a phone call follow up), and then wind the session up.

A note about time: as the interviewer, we need to keep a close eye on time, and when we get to the end of our agreed time, even if we have not received answers to all our questions, our ‘contract’ with our participant ends. We need to be careful not to have act hunger and push on without checking that going over the time even by five minutes. Stop, and thank the participant. If we have very few questions left to obtain answers to, we could ask the participant if they have the time and energy to answer our remaining questions.

If we have more than a couple of questions, we could also ask if we could call them later to obtain the remaining answers, at the same time as we might contact them to seek clarification of any of their other answers.

In general people are very generous, but we should be very careful not to take unnecessary advantage of that generosity.


Sam

References:

• Bolderston, A. (2012). Conducting a research interview. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences, 43(1), 66-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmir.2011.12.002
• McNamara, C. (2010). General Guidelines for Conducting Interviews. https://managementhelp.org/businessresearch/interviews.htm
• Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research and Evaluation Methods (4th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
• Remenyi, D. (2011). Field Methods for Academic Research - Interviews, Focus Groups and Questionnaires in Business and Management Studies (2nd ed.). Academic Publishing Ltd.

read more "Preparing an Interview Script"

The interview protocol

When interviewing, it is usually good idea to set up an interview protocol before starting, and prepare a script to print and take with us. The script should detail our introductory statements, our questions and prompts, how long we expect each question to last, and have some blank notes areas for us to jot down any impressions as the interview progresses (see here for more information on data collection questions).

The things to consider are (McNamara, 2010; Remenyi, 2011):

1. Before the interview starts:
• Where we will hold the interview. We need to have somewhere where the participant feels safe, where we won't be interrupted, where it is quiet, where there is enough natural light, etc. We need to be aware that our participants may like to be interviewed in a familiar environment, such as at home or in the office. We need to have planned our travel to the location, and organised any other logistics such as refreshments, tissues, notes, pens, charging of any electronic equipment etc.
• Ensure we have a hardcopy of our interview script (see here)
• We need to ensure our participants understand their rights and our responsibilities with their data. We need to have clear boundaries and expectations, confidentiality, and how data will be recorded, analysed and stored (and storage duration). Participants need to understand and sign the informed consent form. We need to be sure that the participant understands the interview purpose. We reiterate how to contact us. They need to have already agreed to and have signed the informed consent form, which we will already have on file
• We need to explain the interview structure, note-taking, the recording, and are explicit about the duration of the interview. We agree our time to meet and when the interview will end.
2. During the interview:
• First check that the recording is working before you get into the main body of the interview
• Work through our interview script in our suggested order, using our listed prompts
• Treat all our participant's answers with equanimity, as if we have "heard it all before" (Patton, 2014, p. 671) to reduce judgment and bias
• Use note-taking judiciously (this is where a formatted interview script will help us - there will be a gap that we can simply make notes alongside the relevant question
• The script should list bridging statements to help us to segue between elements of the interview - to smooth the transition between different sections of the interview
• Keep the balance of who is talking on the participant side: aim for a maximum of 10% of interviewer time, and 90% participant.
3. After the interview:
• Thank our participants for the gift of their time in an email, a note, or a card. Reiterate that if they have any questions they can contact us. Let them know that you will email them whatever you have promised (such as a secure link to their recording, a copy of the paper, or a summary of the findings) as a courtesy
• Check the recording, password it, photograph the notes, and save all the files to the location specified in our ethics approval
• Make notes alongside our interview to clarify them while things are fresh in our mind. Photograph the additional notes and save to our save location
• Note any reflections that we already have, and any impressions that we may now be noting. A useful list to consider is what went well; what could we have improved; what was missing; what surprised us. Save those files too to our save location.

While this is not an exhaustive list, it does give us a place to start from.


Sam

References:

• McNamara, C. (2010). General Guidelines for Conducting Interviews. https://managementhelp.org/businessresearch/interviews.htm
• Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research and Evaluation Methods (4th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
  
• Remenyi, D. (2011). Field Methods for Academic Research - Interviews, Focus Groups and Questionnaires in Business and Management Studies (2nd ed.). Academic Publishing

read more "The interview protocol"

Different types of target questions

When planning data collection questions for interviews, there are a number of types of questions we have as tools to create our target questions from, which can be clustered into six key domains:

1. Experience and behaviour questions: "Questions about what a person does or has done aim to elicit behaviors, experiences, actions, and activities that would have been observable had the observer been present: “If I followed you through a typical day, what would I see you doing? What experiences would I observe you having?” “If I had been in the program with you, what would I have seen you doing?” (Patton, 2014, p. 651)
2. Opinions or values questions: "Questions aimed at understanding the cognitive and interpretive processes of people ask about opinions, judgments and values—”head stuff” as opposed to actions and behaviors: Answers to these questions tell us what people think about some experience or issue. They tell us about people’s goals, intentions, desires, and expectations. 'What do you believe?' 'What do you think about ____?' 'What would you like to see happen?' 'What is your opinion of_____?'" (Patton, 2014, p. 651)
3. Feeling questions: "Emotional centers in the brain can be distinguished from cognitive areas. Feeling questions aim at eliciting emotions—feeling responses of people to their experiences and thoughts. Feelings tap the affective dimension of human life. In asking feeling questions—for example, 'How do you feel about that?'—the interviewer is looking for adjective responses: anxious, happy, afraid, intimidated, confident, and so on" (Patton, 2014, p. 651)
4. Knowledge questions: these "inquire about the respondent’s factual information—what the respondent knows. Certain things are facts, like whether it is against the law to drive while drunk and how the law defines drunkenness. These things are not opinions or feelings. Knowledge about a program may include knowing what services are available, who is eligible, what the rules and regulations of the program are, how one enrolls in the program, and so on" (Patton, 2014, p. 652)
5. Sensory experience questions: "ask about what is seen, heard, touched, tasted, and smelled. Responses to these questions allow the interviewer to enter into the sensory experience of the respondent. 'When you walk through the doors of the program, what do you see? Tell me what I would see if I walked through the doors with you'. Or again, 'What does the counselor ask you when you meet with him? What does he actually say?' Sensory questions attempt to have interviewees describe the stimuli that they experience. Technically, sensory data are a type of behavioral or experiential data—they capture the experience of the senses. However, the types of questions asked to gather sensory data are sufficiently distinct to merit a separate category" (Patton, 2014, p. 652)
6. Background or demographic questions: "Age, education, occupation, and the like are standard background questions that identify characteristics of the person being interviewed. Answers to these questions help the interviewer locate the respondent in relation to other people. Asking these questions in an open-ended rather than closed manner elicits the respondent’s own categorical worldview. Asked about age, a person aged 55 might respond 'I’m 55' or 'I’m middle-aged' or 'I’m at the cusp of old age' or 'I’m still young at heart' or 'I’m in my mid-50s' or 'I’m 10 years from retirement' or 'I’m between 40 and 60 (smiling broadly)', and so forth. Responses to open-ended, qualitative background inquiries tell us about how people categorize themselves in today’s endlessly categorizing world" (Patton, 2014, p. 652)

We need to be careful to distinguish between opinion and feeling questions: opinion is more analytical, more superficial, and less involving than feeling. We need to be careful that a question actually asks for feelings, or seeks feeling-level answers through prompts or clarifiers if the sought-for answers are not provided. Our questions need to be very clearly worded. For example, if we are seeking a feeling answer, it is clearer for the interviewee to be asked "How do you feel about that?" rather than "What do you think about that?".

Some interviews, due to the research answers being sought, may focus on experience questions, opinion questions, knowledge questions, and background questions. Other projects may focus largely on feeling questions, sensory questions and background questions. But it is useful to know that there are different types of questions.

This is a very interesting area to explore.


Sam

References:

• Cooper, D. R. & Schindler, P. S. (2013). Business Research Methods (12th ed.). Irwin McGraw-Hill.
• Guest, G., Namey, E. E., & Mitchell, M. L. (2012). Collecting Qualitative Data: A field manual for applied research. SAGE Publications, Inc.
• Patton, M. Q. (2014). Qualitative research and Evaluation Methods (4th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
• Wengraf, T. (2002). Qualitative research interviewing: Biographic narrative and semi-structured methods. SAGE Publications Ltd.

read more "Different types of target questions"

Different types of Interviews

When we are constructing interview questions, there are a range of question types that we can consider, depending on the types of interview we are creating. There are considered to be two ends to the interview continuum:

1. At one end we have the structured interview, where the questions, prompts and clarifiers are all determined ahead of time. This type of interview, if planned carefully, will give us some level of consistency across our collected data.
2. At the other ends is the unstructured interview, where no questions are determined in advance, but will be entirely participant led, and its direction will depend on what the participant decides to share, and what questions the researcher decides to ask or what prompts the researcher uses.
3. Somewhere between the two ends lies the semi-structured interview. This is "where research and planning produce a session in which most of the informant's responses can't be predicted in advance and where you as interviewer therefore have to improvise probably half - and maybe 80% or more - of your responses to what they say in response to your initial prepared question or questions" (Wengraf, 2002, p. 5).

Further, Cooper and Schinder (2013) cluster question types into three sectors: those of administrative; classification; and target. They define these as follows:

• Administrative questions identify the participant, interviewer, interview location, and conditions. These questions are rarely asked of the participant but are necessary for studying patterns within the data and identify possible error sources.
• Classification questions usually cover sociological-demographic variables that allow participants’ answers to be grouped so that patterns are revealed and can be studied. These questions usually appear at the end of [the instrument].
• Target questions address the investigative questions of a specific study. These are grouped by topic in the survey. Target questions may be structured (they present the participants with a fixed set of choices; often called closed questions) or unstructured (they do not limit responses but do provide a frame of reference for participants’ answers; sometimes referred to as open-ended questions).

However, Cooper and Schinder's taxonomy is not the only one. There are a range of question types within the target questions, the subject of other posts (here and here).

Sam

References:

• Cooper, D. R. & Schindler, P. S. (2013). Business Research Methods (12th ed.). Irwin McGraw-Hill.
• Wengraf, T. (2002). Qualitative research interviewing: Biographic narrative and semi-structured methods. SAGE Publications Ltd.

read more "Different types of Interviews"

Active Career Exploration (ACE)

(Chen et al, 2015; Chen, 2015)

So who's heard of the Active Career Exploration (ACE) plan for career development?

I certainly hadn't.

I think that's because some scientists OUTSIDE the career industry wanted to know how to manage their own career paths, so they built a process to cover their needs. This group of people were Ph.D. students and postdoc scholars at the University of Michigan. They created a  plan for career development which they call "Active Career Exploration" or ACE (Chen et al, 2015; Chen, 2015).

This is really an action plan for where informational interviewing intersects with career research, with an out-cross to career development. But it is a great idea.

Their model is laid out as follows. You spend ten hours over a month (whether that is just for one month or each month will depend on you, and the results you gain). Your goal is to meet people to learn about a career or industry of interest to you, so that you can decide if it is something that you want to pursue further. If it is interesting, then you need to build a plan to prepare yourself for actually working in this sector.

Chen et al (2015) suggest that choosing and researching a career should take about two hours in the first month (and they have some tools for that), then you need to spend some time - three hours is suggested - cold emailing or cold calling people to generate contacts in that sector, and communicating with them. The suggesting is that at "least 5 should be people you do not already know". You find one or more people who is on the money for you, and organise an informational interview with them to get the low-down on your career of interest (around three hours). Then your last two hours are spent in building a plan for self-development so you get the "skills, experience, and expertise" for this role... or if this particular sector or career doesn't fire for you, to plan your research for something different next month.

You can read the authors' first article in their series on this career model at the link below.

Sam

References:

• Chen, Albert (2015). Cold E-mails and Hot Coffee: 10 hours in 1 month to get high-yield career information and build your network from zero. Retrieved 20 June 2015 from http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Cold%20e-mails%20and%20hot%20coffee%20061615.pdf
• Chen, Albert; Wong, Sara; Martinez-Santibanez, Gabriel; Londono-Joshi, Angelina; Wishart, Paula & Goldstrohm, Aaron (2015). Cold E-mails and Hot Coffee: Take action on your career. Retrieved 28 June 2015 from http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2015_06_18/caredit.a1500157

read more "Active Career Exploration (ACE) "

The Basics Of A Successful Informational Interview

(ActiveJobSeekers, 2014)

While we are familiar with Informational interviewing being  used for scoping out individuals work ideas, it is also extremely useful for checking out potential customers, suppliers or collaborators to see if the feel of the company being interviewed is 'right' for your organisation.

Steve Landry, Canadian Career Practitioner, posted some great advice on informational interviewing on a LinkedIn group which I follow, Collaborative Career Conversations. Steve was kind enough to let me repeat his post here.

Following is a great article from Forbes Writer Susan Adams on the importance of conducting a strategically planned informational interview.

Remember, the reason you're connecting with someone is not to take up as much time as you can, nor expect that they will get you a job at their company, or fold under pressure to feel sorry for you and over extend themselves, making them feel uncomfortable in the process.

"Read as much as you can about the company so you can avoid asking questions like, 'who are your clients,' when the clients are listed on the company website. Find the interviewee’s bio on the company website or through LinkedIn. Check out Facebook, Twitter and other social media."

By doing your research ahead of time, you will begin to understand things like: who are the organizations' stakeholders, what is their focus (mission statement, values and key stakeholders responsible for their history)?

"...You shouldn't pivot and turn an informational interview into a bid for a job, she says you should always network by asking if the interviewee can recommend another contact."

Show genuine interest in the person you are meeting with, and start the conversation by explaining briefly your intent, and err on the side of not taking up too much of their time (ultimately, what I have found is that if you start by asking for a few minutes of their time, it will end up paying off to a very generous offering of their time).

I really love Susan's list.....she has captured some real gems, that will enable you or the job seeker you are working with, to really prepare well for the Informational Interview and get maximum value through the exchange.

Here's the first 5 on the list, there are 25 more for you to check out:

1. Tell me about the career path that led you to your job. Caveat: Try to glean information from Linked in or the company website and ask a more specific question, like, I understand you’re from Des Moines and you worked in sales there. How did you wind up working in advertising in New York?
2. Tell me about your job. What are the core components?
3. What did you do yesterday?
4. What experiences best prepared you for your job?
5. Tell me what happens in various divisions of your agency, like the client side, the finance side, the media buying side, the creative side.

Hope this was helpful for you. I know this is will be one of my diamond resources in my tool kit to share with my job seekers.

Cheers
Steve.




References:

• ActiveJobSeekers. (2014). Get Back to Work: Informational Interview. Retrieved 12 March 2015 from http://www.activejobseekers.org/get-back-work-informational-interview/
• Adams, S. (2015). 30 Questions To Ask In An Informational Interview. Retrieved 11 March 2015 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2015/03/04/30-questions-to-ask-in-an-informational-interview/
• Landry, S. J. (2015). The Basics Of A Successful Informational Interview. Retrieved 12 March 2015 from https://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=3711595&discussionID=5980679872584957952&trk=eml-group_discussion_new_comment-respond-btn&midToken=AQGAxGsctAQ4_g&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=0WczOX9BTQH6E1

read more "The Basics Of A Successful Informational Interview"

Newsletter Issue 149, May 2008

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 149, May 2008

Hi guys,

We continue Anita Attridge's article on organisational culture in That’s How We Do Things Around Here, Part 3 below.

Fuel may be increasing at the pumps, but Sports Utility Vehicle Sales are still on the Rise. 

You Can Query Windows Secrets Back Issues   TLAs for SMEs        Tips, Short & Hot Keys        Hot Linx

Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

That’s How We Do Things Around Here, Part 3

In the third part of Anita Attridge's article on organisational culture, we look at at networking, personal observation and interview questions about culture.

Network, Network, Network: The Critical Next Step

After gaining an initial understanding of the company, getting in front of people is one of the best ways to learn about what really goes on there. So, who can you network with to learn about the companies you’re interested in? If you’ve never done this before, you might be surprised at how many resources you actually have:

• Make a list all of the people you know and the companies they work for. This list should include friends, relatives, present and former colleagues, neighbors—even the people you run into when you’re at the gym or out walking the dog. There might be dozens of people you don’t realize you have fairly easy access to.
• Also list the professional, community and religious organizations to which you belong. There are all those people you know from church, synagogue, PTA, Little League, etc. Professional associations have lists of members and their workplaces. These lists are invaluable tools for identifying people to call. Even if you don’t know the people, you can contact them and tell them that you’re a member of the organization and would like to have an informational meeting. Members like to help other members.
• Scour your alumni directories. Fellow alums are excellent for networking.

Use all of these networking resources! The more people you talk with the more you’ll learn, and since you’re asking for information—not a job—people are likely to be cooperative and generous.

 

Personal Observation: You Can Be an Eyewitness

At The Five O’Clock Club we have always recommended arriving early for interviews. This gives you the chance to see and hear what’s going on in the workplace. You can ask for water, and may be directed to the water cooler or to the employee kitchen. You can observe:

• How people are interacting with each other.
• How they’re dressed.
• The energy level and activity.
• Items on display in the company reception area. What company symbols are visible and how are they used?
• How the physical space is designed. Are there offices and cubicles of varying size? Are there cubicles in a large bullpen area, or are offices accessible by corridor?
• The awards, certificates of recognition and employee photos on display. These offer clues to the company values.

As well as observing, you can also ask questions. If you meet someone at the water cooler, you can say, “There’s so much hustle and bustle here [or: This place seems so calm], what’s it like to work here?” Of course, you’re trying to get a feel for the company culture. You may be surprised at the answers. (See our book Mastering the Job Interview and Winning the Money Game by Kate Wendleton.)

Ask Questions about Company Culture During the Interview

Based on your research and networking, you should have questions that relate to the culture. Having done the Working Style Preferences exercise, you have a better grasp of the kind of environment you’ll do well in, and you can probe as to how the work gets done. It might be too confrontational to ask, “Is it appropriate to question current practices in the organization or is it best to just follow the practices in place?” Nor would you want to say, “According to what I’ve been reading on the blogs, your CEO is a real tyrant.” But you can ask, “What’s the tone here? Is it okay to make suggestions about improving procedures? What’s the company culture like?”

Case Study: Doris: “If Only I Had Asked”

Doris, a marketing researcher, interviewed for a position at a research consulting firm. She met with her perspective boss, the president and several colleagues. The projects sounded interesting and challenging, so Doris was delighted to receive an offer. In her previous jobs she had enjoyed collaborating with colleagues, and she looked forward to doing the same in her new role.

On her first major project, she did extensive research, summarized her findings and asked a colleague—who was working on a similar project—if he would like to compare notes. He told her that wouldn’t be necessary because everyone worked alone for the most part, and had the freedom to present projects to management and customers without consulting others. Research was the key, not collegiality. Doris soon found that everyone liked to work alone; no one was interested in collaborating or even sharing information. In fact, they considered collaboration a waste of time.

Doris realized that this culture was different from those she had worked in before. Collaboration was important to her and she assumed that most organizations operated on this basis. It had not even occurred to her to ask—during the interview—about how people accomplished their projects. Now she would have to adjust to a lonely way of working, or move on.

In the next newsletter, in part four of Anita's article, we look at at adjusting to culture and observing culture from within..

SUV Sales still on the Rise

Some people are too are too addicted to living lives with a large footprint, especially if sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are anything to go by:

• In 2007, US sales of small SUVs totalled 301,625 year-to-date through November, an increase of 22.7% vs the year-ago period, according to AutoData
• BMW saw its 2007 profits up by 9%, in part because of higher sales of its popular X5 SUV
• In 2007, 341,798 SUVs were sold in China, up 49.1 percent compared to the 229,182 SUVs sold in 2006. And in the first two months of 2008, sales of SUVs in China were up 38 percent, while sales of luxury cars climbed 30 percent compared with the corresponding period a year ago
• In Australia, sales of new SUVs jumped 4.6% in October 2007 compared to September 2007
• And in New Zealand, SUVs accounted for a record 23.7% of passenger car sales in 2007, up from 20.5% in 2006, and just 17.2% back in 2004.

Perhaps higher fuel prices may influence the prosperous eco-unwilling, but these figures certainly don't reflect that happening yet. Maybe once we are up to $2.50 a litre?!

You Can Query Windows Secrets Back Issues

For those of you who have been thankful from the bottom of your heart for the expertise at Woody's Office Watch, the LangaList, Brians Buzz or Windows Secrets, those amalgamated organisations have just set up a search tool on their website at http://windowssecrets.com/search/

You can either query their content or all Windows sites. They have added the ability for you to search every individual article that's ever appeared in the Windows Secrets Newsletter, the LangaList Newsletter and Brian's Buzz on Windows). They plan to add Woody's Office Watch back issues to 1998 in the coming weeks.

You use Google  instead of Windows Secrets, but the advantage of using Windows Secrets is that their front-end makes Google only crawl through sites focusing exclusively on Microsoft Window information. So instead of seeing row after row of sites that sell Windows, you'll get results from sites that have great information about Windows.

Nifty, eh?!

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs for you:

• VMFS, Virtual Machine File System. A cluster file system, developed and is used to store virtual machine disk images, including photos. Multiple servers can read/write the same file-system simultaneously, while locking individual virtual machine files. VMFS volumes can be "grown" by spanning multiple VMFS volumes together.

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

Over the next few newsletters, we are going to look at all you can do with Alt and letters. This time it's I (there are no Gs or Hs):

• PowerPoint "Switch to the Index tab" Alt & I
• Access "Switch to Index tab while working in Help menu" Alt & I
• Word "Switch to Index tab while working in Help menu" Alt & I
• Word "Switch to Print Preview; use when working" Alt & Ctrl & I
• Outlook "In the Save As dialog box to select the Folder List; arrow keys to select a folder" Alt & I, Arrow Keys
• Word "Display the Mark Citations dialog box" Alt & Shift & I

Hot Linx

If there is ANYTHING that you need a how to video on, the place to search for it is http://www.wonderhowto.com/. They claim to have every 'how to' video ever made... give them a try!

To download programmes (TV, that is!) off the internet, the bit torrent software takes a wonderful approach; finding the files and snitching a bit from hundreds or millions of other users that pours into your PC and is bionically reassembled from http://www.bittorrent.com/

And still on the TV mode, get your news live & streaming at http://www.bbc.co.uk/?ok. Who needs a TV really - when you can watch your favourite news items just when you want them :-)

Another up & coming thing is software as a service. Where you no longer buy your software, but rent a spot in a 'multi-tenancy building'. Check out http://www.saas.com/

---

                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here

read more "Newsletter Issue 149, May 2008"