Instructions
Week 3 and 6: Interview a Professional in the Field.
Please review the directions for this 2 part assignment carefully. It is IMPERATIVE that you read the syllabus concerning this assignment.
Assignment 2 is due Week 3
This assignment directly relates to the professional interview in Assignment 4, which is due in Week 6.
The student will develop a set of questions to be asked during an in-depth interview of a professional in the field of child and/or family development. Your questions must be an appropriate number of quality questions that are in-depth. It is unlikely that you can do this in fewer than 10 - 15 questions. This assignment focuses on interviewing a professional whose primary responsibility is directly related to child or family development, not someone who works primarily with children (for example, a schoolteacher or school counselor would NOT be appropriate for this interview). Also, your interviewee cannot be a family member or close friend. You must name the interviewee and give his/her job title and company.
The questions should inquire about the interviewee's job responsibilities, academic preparation for entry into the field including course work and practical hands-on training, on-the-job training and experience, satisfaction with the job and work environment, and recommendations to anyone considering entering the field. It may also be valuable to have a "day in the life" question.
These questions will be submitted to the instructor for approval prior to the end of week 3.
IMPORTANT: Your interviewee MUST have a professional email account from which to send a verification email to your professor indicating the interview took place (nopubic email domains such as gmail, yahoo, hotmail, outlook, etc.). It is YOUR responsibility to verify your interviewee has an acceptable email account prior to selecting your interviewee for this assignment.
Part II due Week 6
Conduct your interview. Interviews may be conducted on site (for this the student must send to the potential interviewee a respectful and professional inquiry about the possibility of an interview) or on the phone. Online asynchronous (e.g. e-mail) or synchronous (e.g. IM or Chat) interviews are not acceptable for this assignment. A brief email from the interviewee indicating that the interview was conducted over the phone or in-person must be submitted via e-mail to your instructor. This email should be sent directly by the interviewee and not forwarded by the student.
Upon completion of your interview, write a paper that includes each interview question along with a summary of the professional's answers. You should also include a two or three paragraph conclusion describing what you learned during the interview. Your final interview should be between 5-7 pages in length. Remember, this is an in-depth interview, not a series of brief questions.
This assignment is due by 11:55 PM EST on Sunday of week 6. As with other written assignments, all work must be in compliance with university academic standards and formatting rules of the American Psychological Association (APA) – 6th Edition.
NOTE: This assignment will not be accepted for grading without the interviewee verification documentation. Please have this documentation sent from your interviewee's professional email account (no hotmail, gmail, yahoo or other public domain - if anyone can sign up for the account, it is not a professional email account) to your instructor's regular APUS e-mail account.
Rubrics - Interview Questions and Interviewing a Professional in the Field
Part 1 - Questions
| The proposed interviewee meets the qualifications outlined in the syllabus. Questions are thorough and deep. Very few yes/no questions. Questions thoroughly cover all aspects of the job, as described in the assignment. | 80 |
| Questions submitted to instructor by deadline. | 10 |
| There are a MINIMUM of ten questions. | 10 |
Part II – The Interview and Report
| Interviews are conducted on site or on the phone | 10 |
| Documentation letter is sent by interviewee to instructor | Assignment will not be graded without this letter |
| Questions are submitted, as well as a summary of the responses to each one. | 20 |
| Critical thinking is evident in the concluding paragraphs. Evidence of serious understanding of the career being researched. | 50 |
| No more than two errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. | 10 |
| Assignment is submitted on time. | 10 |
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