Interviewing Jeff Andrews - Essay Example

INTERVIEWING CAREER RESEARCH Interview Guide This interview guide provides the guidelines on the interview that will be done by me with the general manager of Bank of America, California branch Mr. Jeff Andrews. The interview will take approximately 35 minutes and is to happen at the bank in his office. This interview will touch on the following thematic areas. The background information of Bank of America as well as that of the C.E.O. This will give insights on why he chose the job he is doing, and justify his reasons for being in the banking sector. Secondly, the initiatives taken by the CEO to propel the business and keep it on top will be discussed. Planning and organizing as some of the roles of management will be looked at and how they are applied in the business to grow it (Guion, Diehl, & McDonald, 2011). Additionally, technical skills of the employees including trainings and building of their capacity will be investigated in the interview. Further, the interview will investigate work standards in terms of how they are measured in the organization. This will also give insights on how employees conduct self evaluation. The interview will investigate the duties and responsibilities of the C.E.O including challenges of the job and how he handles the challenges. Finally, the future of the business including employment opportunities will be discussed. This will give insights on the steps I should take in order to be suitable candidate for an opening in the position of human resource assistant. The interview will conclude with appreciation for the CEO’S time and a promise to see him again. Moderate schedule Purpose statement: I am planning to interview the general manager of Bank of America, California branch Mr. Jeff Andrews. In the course of this interview, I plan to ask him a bit of the background information on how he got in to the banking sector; the initiatives he has in place to make the bank stay on top; how he does planning and organizing in his business to achieve their goals; technical skills building among employees; work standards; his duties and responsibilities; the future of the business among others as indicated below. 1. Background How did your educational background influence your choice of getting in to banking? Why did you choose this sector? Transition: that bit of how settled on this business venture prompts me to ask you something about your initiatives. 2. Initiative What do you do that makes your way of business different from others? Any strategies you have to ensure job improvement? What Projects and ideas have you in place to further grow the business? Transition: ideas always have to be implemented in order for them to be beneficial otherwise they will remain just that. Let us talk about planning and organizing to achieve your goals based on your good ideas. 3. Planning and organizing How do you schedule and organize your actions and programs to enable you meet your goals? How do you evaluate your priorities to keep your business on top? Transition: well, as you evaluate, important to note is the technical skill of the human resource you have in your company. Let us focus on it for a bit. 4. Technical skills Do you train your staff to ensure they have adequate skills? What technical equipment skills are you looking for when recruiting staff? Transition: Even as you train and build the technical capacity of your employees there is need for an evaluation. 5. Work standard What are some of the standards you use to measure the work done by employees? How do you ensure employees conduct self evaluation? Do you reward work achievement? Transition: as the C.E.O of this company, you definitely have a lot in your hands. Let us talk about a day in your life. 6. Duties and responsibilities How many hours in a day do you work? What is the number of employees under your supervision? What are some of the challenges you experience about your job? What are some of the things that motivate you about your job? What don’t you like about your job? If you had a chance to change something about your job what would it be? What are some of the preparations you do for your job each day? Transition: Interesting responses. You make me envy your post. Any way as we wind up this conversation, let us shift gears a bit to the future of working with Bank of America as one of the leading financial institutions in the US. 7. Future of Job and Conclusion What expectations do you have for someone intending to join your labour force as a human resource assistant? What steps can someone take to become a good human resource assistant? Can we discuss the salary package that this post attracts? Do you have insurance covers for employees? Are there any other benefits that employees are entitled to? Conclusion: thank you a lot for your time; I hope to see you again next time. May be we shall talk about me coming in to be under your supervision. Post interview report The career field of my interest is Human Resource Management assistant. Human resource managers involve in planning, directing and coordinating the administrative functions of their organizations (Labour, n.d.). They also oversee the processes of recruiting, interviewing as well as hiring of staff. Further, they often consult with the organization’s top executives concerning the strategic plans and provide the link between the employees of the organization with management. They are concerned with administrative and management roles in connection with personnel (Ulrich, 2013). These administrative roles include all the clerical jobs required for the department to run smoothly. All the business and travel arrangements for staff are coordinated by this office. I interviewed the general manager of Bank of America, California branch Mr. Jeff Andrews. Bank of America is popularly referred by people as BofA is headquartered in Charlotte. It is one of the leading American multinational financial services corporations coming at second position in the largest bank holding company. It was also listed as the third biggest company in the world (Henry, 2013). In the course of the interview, we had a candid conversation that discussed the background information on how he got in the banking sector; the initiatives he has in place to make his business stay on top dwelling on how he develops and implements his ideas; how he does planning and organizing in his business to achieve their goals; technical skills building among employees and what they consider before employing personnel; work standards and how they measure employee’s performance; his duties and responsibilities as the Chief executive officer; and finally, the future of the business in terms of skills development and employment. The interview process was one very comfortable and less stressing. It was more of fire side chart kind off interview. The atmosphere was conducive and we kept away from the formal interview mannerism that often characterizes such talks. The introduction started off rather in a formal manner but through it I had to make it easy to release any stress and anxiousness given the busy nature of people holding the positions like his. The discussion then became a friendly chart as we got through with the interview. In the onset the manager felt a little bit busy to have this talk in a candid manner but when he noticed the conversation was easy and he also realized I was appreciating his responses in a manner that I appeared inspired he was motivated further to get even chattier. The atmosphere changed from less friendly to so a friendly one through the interview process. I closed the interview with a request on my guest to give me a piece of advice with regards to working in management field and that’s what he loved about it. He was a very resourceful person who knew what to say when. The unforeseen problems that came up were time schedule where a client had to see him in the time he had slotted for my interview. This was a pressing issue that could not weight and thus made me wait a little longer before commencing my interview. The information learned through this assignment was impressive and I was very grateful. The insights he shared with me were life changing. I got inspired even more to work harder as I chase my dream. Even though he did not come from the organization that I had earlier on expressed interest in, I was motivated to join Bank of America as an employee. I discovered that he was very time conscientious and as such was able to use all the time he had resourcefully and create time for our interview. Even though this was an unforeseen problem, his good problem solving skills came in hand just in the right time. He did a bit of instructing other departmental heads and within a few minutes the whole issue was sorted out through delegation. On my part the problem was more of an opportunity for me to get more acclimatized with that environment and as such even made my interview better. The CEO of Bank of America gave thoughtful insights on the steps that one can take to become a successful applicant for the post of a human resource assistant. In his view and knowledge as a CEO, the steps I need to take in order to make myself a successful applicant for a human resource assistant post involves ensuring that I build my skills on the following: first are organization skills. Strong management skills including time conscientiousness and organization are key to being a successful human resource manager; multitasking is a quality so necessary (Mello, 2014). A human resource person deals with many issues within a given time and is thus expected to be able to multitask. Dealing with gray is a skill that is essential for anybody interested in this field. The ability to work with the incomplete information to achieve the necessary goals is central to this job. The negotiation skills also come in handy in this job. These are skills that as a person intending to work in a human resource environment must build. Negotiation skills will help in finding acceptable middle grounds around issues. Additionally, communication skills are key to this job. Effective communication reduces mistakes and as such a good human resource person should be able to channel communication in the best of ways possible. Problem solving skill, conflict management skills among others are also critical in this position. As an aspiring human resource person, I will need to improve my skills in these key areas described. This will improve my chances of landing the job swell as growing up the career ladder. I plan to accomplish this through doing research, reading a lot and attending seminars and workshops where I can get more insights on how to build my skills. Attending seminars will make me interact with the right people especially in the professional environment who have the relevant experiences and thus will advise me accordingly. Further he advised that I engage in networking to ensure I learn some of the best practices that are applied in the human resource field currently to make me be up to date. These steps, I believe will make me a good candidate for any openings in my area of interest as a human resource assistant in any organization that I will face. Reference Mello, J. (2014). Strategic human resource management. Cengage Learning. Ulrich, D. (2013). Human resource champions: The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Harvard Business Press. Guion, L. A., Diehl, D. C., & McDonald, D. (2011). Conducting an in-depth interview. Labour, U. S. (n.d.). Bureau of Labour Statistics. Retrieved Mar 18, 2015, from Bureau of Labour Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/ Henry, J. (2013). Bank of America Center. Read More