Module 4
4A. Interview project (to be repeated several times)
What’s involved
We suggest each team member (explorers and guides) interview someone, probably and preferably someone over forty years old, and then take notes or actually write up what you learned from them in the interview, lessons relevant to issues we have been discussing. This is not meant to be a term paper length project but something done overnight, and something you can do several times. So don’t think “huge project,” but short project; yes, we know you could easily turn this into a lengthy exercise, but it is the brevity of this exercise and doing it several times which is more important than writing it up once at length as in a term paper.
Select any adult over forty you wish. Interview them for half an hour. You can ask lots of questions in a half hour and get lots of information from them. (You could, with their permission, record their responses on your phone to help you remember as you write later?)
Picking people to interview
Then for the next 45 minutes, write up in NO more than one page a quick summary of who they were, name/profession/home town, a short bio in other words, and then in the rest of ONE page, summarize what you learned from their life story, and lessons applicable to the guide team. The purpose is not simply to write up what your interviewee said, but, more importantly, to show what you learned from them about how their life unfolded. Your commentary, your self-reflections are key here, not their life per se. Sound like fun?
As for which adult to select, you could pick a family member, but we much prefer someone else – any adult/family friend. A good starting point is a mentor in the Pathways directory (https://ipcpathways.org/career-exploration-for-seekers/). You could phone or Zoom/Skype.
Questions to ask
Sample interview questions are in the box at the bottom of this page.below.
We encourage you to use your imagination to ask questions which will provide helpful answers to you; don’t simply ask thequestions above; ask your own you want answers to, helpful to you.
Want to read more about interviewing?
There are many books which do just what this project does, but, as is often the case, you may learn much more if you do the project yourself rather than simply read their books! Sample books would include: Bronson, Bo. What Should I Do with My Life? The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question. [New York: Ballantine Books, 2005]; Terkel, Studs. Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. [New York: The New Press, 2004].
Suggested interview questions
You can dream up your own questions, but lacking some you might try these: Some are adapted from Road Trip Nation: a guide to discovering your path in life. by Mike Marriner and Nathan Gebhard with Joanne Gordon (New York: Ballantine Books 2006). You’ll recognize some of these questions from Module 1A.
Where did you go to high school? Where to college? College major? What did you think upon entering college you would do vocationally after college? Did college change your plans? What’s your best memory of college? Worst? What did you do after college? How did you spend your Twenties? Did you go to graduate or professional school? Where and why?
How did you locate your present career? What were your career goals upon graduation? Have you adjusted them since? Might you adjust them in the future? If your life took various “turns,” what and why were those pivot points?
Who have been the influential people in your life? A “successful life” for you would be defined how? Are you happy? How would you define happiness? If you had to do any of this over, what, if anything, would you have done differently?
What about your non-work life? What’s that like and how do you balance that with your work life? Any lessons about your work life and non-work life you want to share with me?
From your perspective looking back on your life in mid- or late-stream, what could you tell a young person that might be helpful?
When you were a kid, what did you want to do with your life?
What were you doing in school and how did you get from there to where you are today?
Were you ever lost?
Were there ever pressures from society telling you to be something or do something else? If so, how did you deal with that and go a different way?
When you were growing up did you have any interests that you have subsequently built into your work?
When did the light bulb go on?
When did you realize this is what you wanted to do? What obstacles have you overcome to get where you are today?
What has been the key to achieving the level of excellence that you've reached in your life? How do you balance your personal and professional life?
As you look back on your first 10 years after college what would you do differently?If you had one piece of advice to young people getting ready to jump into the real world, what would it be?