Entrepreneurial H*E*L*P

To help out with our business ventures, here is one link that may lead you to some data/material, if not only to broaden how you are looking at your proposal!

Here is one college's interesting website: North Dakota State's "Your Resource Guide to the Food Industry: Food Entrepreneur"

Again, to help inspire your final projects (as the one you're pitching to), here is some reading material that may or may not inspire, or even give you confidence, in your own ideas:

1) A Young Entrepreneur Makes Food, Not War

2) Uniting Around Food to Save an Ailing Town

3) QUICK BITE/Sea Cliff; Morning Coffee, Evening Sushi

4) A Southern-Fried Picnic, to Go

5) A New Era for Brooklyn's South Shore

Agenda Setting for The Interview Script

After settling into which company your group works for to complete The Interview Script, here are a couple of tasks that you are to start doing today within your groups, to help in the research process:

Research – answer a few ?s about the company that are important to pursue:

-        What is the company motto and/or what do they emphasize their company is about?

-        What are some of the general main duties and skills necessary of a person working in the public relations OR marketing aspect of a company?

-        Consider the current culture – what are some possible cultural/ business events that may likely affect your company?

*

1) Go to the Company Website: seek out information from their "about" or "history" section. 

Tip:Have someone on the team draft a professional-looking e-mail inquiry to their human resources department that:

a. explains that you are doing it for a class project, and 

b. you want to know what kind of qualifications and characteristics they look for in hiring someone into their company. Also, ask them You may get a response, you may not, but this is part of the research process. For some help, go to page 117 of our text)

2) Library Research: Expanding beyond the workplace
-Everyone in the group should brainstorm together, and create a list of, various kinds of data and job-related material might be useful when discussing the available position. For example: there are theories, and standard practices and tools used within various fields. When you are about to interview someone, it is helpful to get to know some of what the experts know in that position...so...to the library! (http://www.chipublib.org)

The Interview Script Assignment

The Interview Script (50 points)
Due: Monday, May 4, 2009

Explanation:

For this assignment you are putting yourself in the position of INTERVIEWER. More specifically, you are a Human Resources employee that is assigned to put together an “interview script” by the Human Resources manager; one that (s)he can use to evaluate potential candidates for a position in Public Relations/Marketing.

Further explanation of the kinds of questions and answers you will put together will be listed below. Also, for this assignment, you will be working in small groups of 2-3 people, as you would in the workplace.

You are allowed to choose your own company, which we will do during class time, once small groups are formed.

First steps:
1) First, exchange contact information for communicating outside of class time.

2) As a group, choose an easily researchable company; one whose product each of you is familiar with.

3) To begin your research, search/go to that company’s website and start looking for relevant information on the company’s history and its company goals/motto/beliefs/ core values. The website is usually starting reference point, and sometimes there is an “about” or “history” section where this information is located. Make sure to record this information so you can evaluate and use material for your Interview Script.

4) You will also want to do outside research using the school and public libraries, using interlibrary loans, periodical indexes, and other secondary source material (refer to Chapter 6 of Technical Communications for a refresher).

5) Start creating an agenda for the group to follow in the writing process.

Goals/Requirements:

1) The Interview Script includes both:

a. specific questions appropriate to be asked based on the company and the position being interviewed for, and:

b. exemplary answers that are specifically related to company and to Public Relations/Marketing position, but also to the current economic climate of 2009!

2) The script should be approximately two complete pages, single-spaced, with a minimum of six questions.

3) The script should include researched (and cited) material, both from primary and secondary sources. 

4) Each student will get evaluated both on group work and individual part in putting the script together. (There will be an evaluation form filled out by group members.)