POL4800Interview Assignment

For this overall assignment you are required to identify and interview a professional who works in a
field (broadly) related to political science or legal studies. You can interview someone you already
know, but I’d recommend against a family member or close friend. Use this opportunity to do some
networking. Perhaps there is somewhere you would like to get a job or an internship, an interview
with someone in that organization would be ideal.
You should research the person’s individual background and the position that the person is in (i.e.,
if you are interviewing someone who is a paralegal, you should look up the basic responsibilities of
a paralegal, the typical educational requirements, etc.). You should then develop a list of interview
questions. I typically recommend 15-20 questions for a half-hour interview.
Interview questions generally can fall into a few categories:
 Biographic/personal background.
 Professional description.
 Insight-driven.
 Reflective
A good interview will probably have some questions from each of these categories.
Upon completing the interview, you will write a paper of approximately 4-6 pages (doublespaced),
in which you do the following:
 Describe/summarize the interview (I do not want a question by question replay, just tell the
story of the interview).
 Discuss the most important takeaway from the interview—what was it, why was it
important, how does this affect your future thinking/action.
 Describe your ideal professional path for the next ten years. Where do you want to be? What
are potential paths to that outcome? In order to start walking that path, what would you
need to do in five years, next year, now?
o How has your college experience shaped your vision for your plan? In what ways are
you well-prepared? What areas do you still need to work on? What help do you need?
What are you most excited about for your future?
Your paper should be:
 4-6 pages long
 Include a header with your name, the class name, my name, the date.
 12 pt. font, Times New Roman
 Chicago or APA style
 Double-spaced (excluding header, block quotes, bibliographic info, which should be
single-spaced)
 1” margins
 No title page