Informational interview

Name of the interviewee: James

Email Address:

Interview Date: June 1, 2017

Where interviewed: At my Friends Home

 

 

The Interview

The reason I chose to interview Mr. James is that he runs an NGO in Lebanon related to child labor. I am personally interested in forming an NGO in the future related to women rights, therefore, I believe that my interview with MR. James would be beneficial to understand the functioning and management of an NGO.

I asked many questions related to James’s professional life and some related to his personal life. Before the interview, I had prepared a list of 15 questions that I planned to ask during the interview but this did not turn out to be a definite plan as I had to skip some questions due to time constraint while some questions were answered in response to other questions.

I feel that some questions did provide me with valuable piece of information than others. For example the questions related to the organization of the NGO came up with more information than questions related to James’s personal life or how people thought about his work. I asked James about his funding sources that is a real source of information for me if would organize my own NGO. He provided me with in depth information about how they apply to projects advertised by USAID and WB. He informed me about project proposal preparation information that they send to their donors which play a decisive role in the decisions regarding to the allocation of projects to different NGO’s. James also provided me with useful information related to the general skills like management and communication skills required to run an NGO. He was kind enough to suggest some training courses that he participated in Dubai related to professional development and how attending seminars and conferences related to social work can enhance my knowledge about organizing and managing an NGO in my home country. I was really impressed by James’s enthusiasm related to the good work he is doing.

If I could conduct the interview again, I would like to set in a formal place like an office. As I said earlier, the interview was conducted at my friend’s home which had some disturbances that could only have been avoided if I had conducted the interview at some formal place. The other thing that would like to do differently is conduct the interview for a longer period of time. I had requested James for a 15 minute interview which went over the time. I do not think that this is a right approach to interviews.

As I said that I had a list of questions. I was unfortunately unable to ask all the questions. I think that I should have also included questions related to the events that lead James to decide to work on child labor as there might have been a specific reasons why he chose this specific area.

During the interview, I think my greatest strengths was the fact that I personally was interested in and enthusiastic about social work, which was what the interviewee did. This fact let me talk boldly and dig deep to ask for information.

 

 

Questions I planned to ask during the interview

1. What is your educational background?
2. Are you married, do you have kids?
3. What does your family say about your line of work?
4. Why did you chose to organize an NGO?
5. What are the skills required to run an NGO?
6. Where do you get your funding from?
7. How many more people work at your NGO?
8. What do you do to make your NGO a nice place to work at?
9. Do you enjoy your job?
10. What do you think is challenging about your job?
11. What are the negative points about your job?
12. How much time do you give to your job?
13. Do you think your NGO is making a difference?
14. What is the response of people to your work?
15. What would you suggest to me as I am also planning to organize an NGO about women rights in the future?