interview/thank you

To: Professor Bonfiglio and English 302 Students

From: Jane Doe

Date: August 31, 2018

Subject: Professional Interview

I emailed with Ms. Emily Jackman during the first week of September and conducted an informational interview with her over the phone on Saturday, September 8th. Emily Jackman is a relative who has also served as a mentor and role model for me. I chose to interview Emily because she works in government contracting, which is a career field that I am interested in pursuing. I also chose her because she and I have similar writing styles, which would make her business writing more applicable to me.

Emily received concurrent degrees in Economics and Mathematics from Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University. She also minored in psychology, which she said has helped her a lot with communication within the workplace. While pursuing her undergraduate degrees, Emily also held a number of internships. Her first internship was with the United States Department of Defense. The next summer, she worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Emily currently works in Systems Testing at Qualcomm, a large technology company. She works for QCSS, or Qualcomm’s Cyber Security Solutions. QCSS works largely on the development of satellite communications products. Due to the fact that the work that she does is for both the US and foreign governments, she could not go into more detail than that.

Emily’s job is 50% communication. Although she works in a technical business, she finds that half of her time goes into explaining and communicating what she is working on. She says that good communication skills, both in person and in writing, are the key to a successful work environment. She estimates that 50%-80% of wasted time in the workplace can be attributed to miscommunication and low communication.

Ms. Jackman mostly communicates through talking. Her workplace environment is unconventional, as it is set up so that Emily and her coworkers have three workspaces. The two primary workspaces are an adjoining computer lab and classroom. This is where she does about 50% of her work. Qualcomm sets up its offices this way because it fosters teamwork, which also increases the amount of communication that is done verbally, rather than by email or telephone. The third workspace that Emily has is a personal office upstairs from the classroom and computer lab. This office is meant for working on individual projects or hosting business meetings. The office is where she does the does most of her communicating with executives and other teams at Qualcomm, which is the other half of her job.

Ms. Jackman frequently email for:

· Communicating with out of state coworkers

· Scheduling skype calls and phone calls

· Updating supervisors on team progress

Emily uses email to communicate with out of state coworkers when a phone call would be unnecessary. She does this often because she works on projects that are based in both San Diego (where she works) and Colorado. If she needs to have a back and forth conversation with someone in Colorado, she generally takes the time to make a phone call. In the end, she finds phone calls save time because you can avoid sending multiple emails and waiting for responses.

Generally, Emily uses email to schedule skype meetings and phone calls with coworkers. This is largely due to the fact that many of her teammates are located in Colorado. Since she is one of the newest hires on her team, she often Skypes with her Qualcomm mentor. She schedules these skype calls over email.

Emails that Emily sends to update supervisors are generally short and to the point. While it would be quicker to just tell her boss how far she is on her project, her supervisors generally want a written record of progress, rather than verbal. When she emails them, they have written proof that the communication took place.

When not using email or communicating verbally, Emily and her team use an intranet website to communicate with each other. They have to use this means of communication because it is secure. Everyone on her team is required to have a security clearance from the US government, and the information they are working with in their projects is generally sensitive. The protection of information and security of communication is usually the highest concern in deciding how to communicate with coworkers and supervisors.

Emily’s team at Qualcomm also has frequent meetings to make sure everyone is up to date on project and company information. The time she spends in meetings a day can vary between none and eight or nine hours. Usually her meetings are scheduled. For example, once a month, her team meets for three hours to discuss what the upcoming month will look like. Similarly, every two weeks, they meet for two hours to do more detailed planning.

Through my interview of Emily, I realize how much communication is required in the workplace, even when you work in a more technical business role.

If you have any questions about my interview of Emily Jackman, please feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Jane Doe