I chose my dad for my informational interview as he is a working professional in a major I am interested in, Accounting.
Interview
1) Describe the process at which you arrived at your undergraduate major. -“I was undecided at first, much like yourself, and the most important factor in my decision was making money. I had to work since I was 10 to help the family and I knew it was up to me to pay for college and support myself afterwards. After going for 2 years at a community college, I transferred to Michigan State and chose Accounting. I knew you had to be smart to do it and knew I would be able to get a job out of college, so it was a no brainer for me.”
2) What was your favorite course in college? Was it in your major? Why did you like it? -“My favorite course in college was the History of Rock and Roll, which was not in my major. As you know, I’m quite a big Bruce Springsteen fan and enjoyed learning about the artists that led up to him. It was also a pretty easy A, which didn’t hurt at all.”
3) Do you feel you mad the right choice of major? -“Yes, 100 percent. Obviously, if I had the brains and money I would’ve done something else, but given my situation it couldn’t have worked any better. I got a solid job right away, got out of Grandma’s house, and now am able to live comfortably and be able to afford vacations and a nice house.”
4)What do you think the most important skill is for someone in your career? -“I’m not sure there’s only 1 skill needed for what I do. First and foremost, you need to have math skills. You need to be able to crunch numbers on the fly and be able to relay some of these with my dealers. You also have to have some degree of salesmanship. I’m trying to convince car dealerships to partner with Ally(bank) so I have to make sure they know I’m going to be there for them and take care of them whenever they need help.”
5) What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into this career field? – “Don’t expect too much, but know that you will always be able to find a job. Sure, you’re not going to be living in a mansion or driving a Ferrari, but you will get a nice starting salary in whatever job you end up getting. Also, don’t forget to keep working hard throughout your career. The only way you are going to get promoted is to stand out by your work ethic, so never get lazy.”
Synthesis
1) I decided my dad would be best to interview because he always talks about how solid of a major Accounting is and how I can’t just throw it out based on what it sounds like. I wanted to get a better feel of what it actually was and what I could do with an Accounting degree.
2) My interview has definitely made Accounting one of my main options for a major. I found out a lot about the major and that it is guaranteed to have a relatively decent income. I’m still a little skeptical because it just doesn’t jump out to me and I don’t have a passion for it, but at the moment, it seems as good as any major I have found.
3) I learned that getting an Accounting degree does not just mean sitting behind a desk and adding up numbers. My dad is constantly driving around meeting with dealers and talking to them on the phone, which is a much more social career than I thought you could get with this degree.
4) I need to know if the classes in the major are good fits for my interests. If I saw a bunch of classes that sounded terrible on the requirements, I would be unlikely to major in it, but so far I have enjoyed my economics class, so I don’t think that would be the case.
5) The most useful tool from exploration has been the meetings with academic advisors. Actually being able to ask questions to a real person is very helpful, and I was able to learn a lot about majors like sports industry from talking to my advisor. I also learned a lot from the lectures for the majors at Ohio State as I got to hear from current students about what their coursework was like. Overall, exploration has helped me narrow my major choices down and has helped start my career path.