Reference no: EM131278863

Discussion

Research the career you are most interested in pursuing after graduation. Answer the following:
• What is the career?
• What is the growth rate?
• What are the educational requirements?
• What is the average salary?
Is there potential for growth?

Discussion II

When was the last time you experienced some type of change? Explain the change and how you reacted to it. Which character from the book did you most identify with during this change? After reading this book would you respond any differently now?

Assignment Description:

1. Conduct an Employer Research Session with a professional in your field of interest.

a. Interview must be in person or over the phone

b. Choose your interviewee wisely - stretch yourself beyond the convenient - a parent or sibling may seem the easiest, but someone outside of your family may be able to provide new information and expand your network.

2. Ask at least 5 questions - you may use the questions discussed in the Informational Interview power point presentation or come up with your own questions.

3. Provide a one page summary of your findings. Specifically, answer the following questions:

· Who did you interview? Include the person's name, title, place of employment, and phone number or email address.

· Why did you choose this person? What did you hope to learn from the interview? (3-5 sentences minimum)

· Which questions gave you the most interesting/useful information? (2-3 sentences minimum)

· What did you learn about the career field and/or about informational interviewing? (5-7 sentences minimum)

4. Write at thank you note to the person you interviewed and turn in a copy of the note (if you hand write the note, you may type the contents of the letter to turn in.)

How to Set Up a Session:

The details of an research session are outlined in the power point presentation for week 6, so read through that before you begin. You may also find the following information useful. Remember:

1. People love to share their experiences. While you may feel awkward asking a person if you can interview him or her, he or she will be honored and excited to share their experience with you.
2. You don't need to know your interviewee. If you are interested in getting to know a particular business or career field, either check the organization's website for the most relevant person to you or call to find out with whom you should speak.
3. Call or email your potential interviewee. Explain what you are doing and ask to set up a 30 minute conversation. Don't try to interview someone without first scheduling the interview. You need to be respectful of the interviewee's time.

part II

Instructions

Read the following cases and answer the questions that follow. You should write your answers in this document, and answers should be between one half and one full page for each question.

1. For the past six months, you've been heading a hiring committee in charge of hiring a new division manager. It's been a grueling process-filtering through thousands of applications, seemingly endless meetings and discussions debating people's qualifications, so many interviews in different cities that it's hard to remember whom you met and where, and even more debates about who should be flown to your headquarters for a day of final interviews.

But it's almost all over now. After so many interviews and meetings and discussions, the committee has settled on a candidate that everyone thinks is ideal for the job-Ivy-league educated, lots of management experience, a great personality, driven to succeed, willing to learn. He was near the top of your list when you began this process six months ago, and here he is now, in first place at the finish line.

You head into the last hiring committee meeting with lots of relief. Not only are you happy that you found the right person for the job, but you're really glad that this meeting is just going be a formality. No more debates or arguments about applicants' work experiences, education, or hobbies. Just walk on in, take a quick vote, and then make a call with the job offer.

But as you walk into the committee meeting, there's a strange vibe. Some people look quite worried, whereas others are just angry. When you ask what's going on, one of the committee members responds that in the past few days, she added the final candidate as a friend on Facebook, and what she found on his profile was quite disturbing. There were several photos of him passed out on the sidewalk after drinking too much. Other photos showed him smoking marijuana at a friend's apartment. Another photo shows him wearing a Nazi costume for what you assume is a Halloween party. And there's the language-almost all of his posts are filled with obscenities.

After seeing all of this, half the committee wants to go with another candidate. They can't imagine that this is the kind of person they want leading your company's most important division. The other half of the committee thinks it's not a big deal at all. They believe that how he spends his personal time has absolutely no reflection on his ability to manage, and they're angry that committee members would try to use it against him.

So here you are, faced with a split (and angry) committee. They're looking to you to make break the deadlock-should we hire this guy or move on to someone else?

Questions:

· What decision would you make? Would you hire this person or reopen the search?

· In your opinion, are companies justified in using an applicant's Facebook or Twitter accounts when considering them for a job?

· Do you believe that a company should be concerned with how a potential employee spends his or her personal time?

2. Five years ago, your company assigned you to a management position in its new research facility in South Korea. You were thrilled with the promotion, and grateful to your bosses, who recognized your skills and talents. At the same time, there was a lot to be nervous about-adjusting to a new culture and language, finding a school for your kids and a job for your wife, figuring out where to buy familiar groceries. But even with all the struggles, you've thoroughly enjoyed your time in Korea, as you got to learn new things from your employees and teach them new things from your experiences. In fact, you're quite surprised that you've had such little conflict with your Korean associates.

There is, however, one area that you could never quite get a handle on-vacation time. Like every other employee in the company, your employees were given three weeks of paid vacation per year. But, other than the occasional three-day weekend, they never took any time off. At first, you wondered if this was just unique to your company. But then, you saw statistics that showed that Koreans, on average, worked more than 2,300 hours per year, 600 more than the average American. While these long hours show great organizational commitment, they have extremely negative effects. Overworked employees are more prone to stress and physical illness and are less likely to be efficient or productive. Indeed, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, an international group comprised of 30 of the world's largest economies, South Korea ranks near the bottom in terms of productivity.

Even the South Korean government has taken notice of the dangers of overwork. A few months ago, President Myung Bak Lee announced that all state employees would be required to take 16 days of vacation per year. You were quite happy to hear about this policy, and hopeful that it would influence the private sector. But, you also wonder if there aren't other changes needed. From your conversations with Korean managers, you've learned that there is one big reason why Korean employees don't take vacation time-because their supervisors don't take vacation time. Even while requiring government employees to take 16 days off, President Lee himself has taken off only four days since his 2008 election. Jin-soo Kim, a director in the Ministry of Public Administration who wrote the 16-day policy, took no vacation time at all in 2008. Even you, the "enlightened" American, remember working through Lunar New Year's Day, one of the biggest holidays in Korea.

You desperately want your employees to take more time off. It's what's best for them, their families, and for the company's productivity and efficiency. What is the best way to motivate them to take a break?[1]

[1] Source: Evan Ramstad and Jaeyeon Woo "South Korea Works Overtime To Tackle Vacation Shortage" The Wall Street Journal. March 1, 2010. A1, 22.

Discussion

If you could be any animal, what animal would you be and why?

This is an example of a brainteaser type question. There often is no right answer to brainteasers, the interviewer is more interested in HOW you arrive at your answer. As with any question in an interview, don't answer "I don't know."