Your write-up should include an interpretation of both the contents and the spirit of the interview for the reader. Don't just write the responses of the interviewee. Rather, write an interpretation of the interview that highlights what you felt was important and gives an overall impression of what you learned. Be sure to use proper memo format.
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To: Helen Haberman, Teacher
From: John Student
Date: December 8, 2004
Re: Interview write-up
I spent some time Friday the 28th of November talking to Mark Kemp, a resource
management professional who works in fish hatcheries. I chose to interview Mr.
Kemp because his job is of great interest to me. I plan to study environmental
science in college and am particularly interested in wildlife biology and fisheries.
Ultimately, I discovered through my interview with Mark that working in a fish hatchery is not easy. This is not your everyday job. Not only do you actually have to live at the hatchery, you have to be on call at all times. Living on site at the hatchery creates some problems for everyone. There is no separation between your job and you home life. Mark said that this is one of the hardest parts of his job
Though there are many hard parts of his job, Mark said that the overall work is rewarding and interesting. Mark spends his days feeding the fish, taking surveys, doing hatchery maintenance, and completing the paperwork that is needed to keep the hatchery running. For doing these things, an entry level worker in a fish hatchery is able to earn around 2500 dollars a month.
In order to get a job at the fish hatchery, Mark attended a four year university (OSU) and studied fish biology. Mr. Kemp said there are other routes to become trained for the job, one of which is by earning a two-year equivalent of experience on-site at a hatchery without a formal degree. In order to succeed at the hatchery, you need to understand and be able to readily apply math skills. In addition, you must have good writing skills and be able to work with people productively in teams. Obviously, a understanding fish biology is a must as well.
An interesting discovery I made in my interview was that Mark's choice of hatchery work wasn't his first. He went to school at first to study forestry. But along the way, he became interested in fisheries, which he said is a related aspect of forestry and logging practices because logging often impacts riparian areas where fish live. Mark said that one of the indirect benefits of his job is the cheap housing provided by living on site at the hatchery where is accommodations are free.
This interview was very beneficial in showing me what working at a fish hatchery is really like and what education and skills are necessary to qualify someone for a job working in hatcheries. It would have been best to visit Mark at the hatchery so I could see his work environment first hand. Still, discussing his job was a good second best.
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Example #2:
To: Helen Haberman, Teacher
From: Jane Student
Date: December 8, 2004
Re: Interview write-up
On December 4th at 3:30pm I interviewed Bruce Newhouse, a wildlife biologist at ODFW. I am interested in studying wildlife biology in college and was excited to be able to speak to someone currently in the field.
I asked the following questions:
What are the most important and necessary skills for this job?
What education and training are required?
What interpersonal qualities do you need?
What are the greatest rewards?
What are the greatest challenges?
What must you do to continue to develop professionally?
Can you describe the work environment?
What is the typical career path for this position?
Is it company policy to promote from within?
What opportunities are there relating to this field?
Results
I learned that interpersonal skills (commonly referred to as "people skills")
such as speaking, sociology and psychology can be very important in any job,
even one working primarily with wildlife. These are important because there
are many interactions with others in this field where good communication is
essential. You must work on teams, write reports and communicate data to others
concisely and accurately.
To be a wildlife biologist you need at least a Bachelor's degree, but to be competitive, most have their masters. It's good to be outgoing and an extrovert. The best parts of the job are working outside doing field work and helping animals. The greatest challenges are dealing with people, trying to make a living off of the salary, and keeping up professionally. To continue to develop professionally it's a good idea to go to classes, symposiums, and training sessions.
The work environment is a combination of office and field work. Often the field work is in harsh conditions such as rainy or snowy conditions in deep wilderness areas. The typical career path moves from college, to an internship, to a technical or biological aide position, to a biology position, and finally to an administrative position. The Fish and Wildlife Department usually promotes from within, but not as heavily as in the past. Opportunities are limited and their is stiff competition. A plus for me is they are trying to diversify, so women have a bit of a competitive advantage.
In the end, I appreciated the opportunity to learn about the field
of wildlife biology from someone who is actually practicing the profession.