How to jazz up a potentially boring and dreadful interview shadow experience

May 6, 2009 8:13 AM

Looking for interesting ideas on how to jazz up a potentially boring and dreadful interview shadow experience.

I work for a large blue company which encourages the “Shadowing” of other individuals to increase understanding and collaboration within the company. Basically you follow a person around for an hour, day, or week whatever the two of you agree upon to see first hand what they do for the company. These experiences can be with organizations that have nothing to do with your organization, but they are limited to within the company itself.

Unlike most of my fellow co-workers, I work remotely and cannot do this shadowing in person. I had the idea that if I could come up with a list of interview style questions to ask the person I’m interested in shadowing, I could perform a shadow remotely.

I’m looking for ideas which might enhance this idea of an interview style shadow (for instance, I also had the idea that I could attend a conference call that the subject is hosting) and some really cool questions to ask in the interview. The questions should not be too time consuming, but mostly they should be interesting to both me and the person being interviewed. They should be questions you WANT to answer.

Assumptions you can make are that I know this person professionally, who their management is, what organization they work for, and the very basics of their job. You can also assume that they are higher up the chain than I am and have more education and experience. I also target folks where I am interested in the org that they work for and how to get in it… but I must be subtle about it.

posted by vermontlife to work & money (3 comments total)

I had the idea that if I could come up with a list of interview style questions to ask the person I’m interested in shadowing, I could perform a shadow remotely.

Is it okay to critique your original assumption? If you want to "target" people who you are interested in working for, I think you will very quickly see that there is no surrogate for face to face contact.

Most likely a lot of these people will not be entirely smitten by the ideas of the HR department about "shadowing". As it goes, a lot of people find these HR inventions silly, time consuming, and distracting. So imagine your request for a "shadow" coming in. They will sigh and say: why not, if he/she insists. But then they see that you actually want to add another layer of complexity to the proceeding (being in another location, adding an interview), and it becomes a plain old nuisance, and it becomes easier to say no.

You don't mention exactly how remotely you work. I would say: if there is any opportunity to go to headquarters/wherever your targets work, try your damnedest to get there. It will be a lot more beneficial. People don't remember people they had a phone interview with and a conference call. They do remember someone who followed them around for a few hours or a day, and who travelled to make that meeting possible.
posted by NekulturnY at 8:42 AM on May 6

I am doing something very similar to this for my job. Some good questions:
- What is your background? Where did you go to school? What did you study? What did you do before this job?
- What is your biggest challenge? or What makes working in this area challenging?
- What do you wish you knew before you started this job?
- What is your best/biggest accomplishment?
-What is a typical day like for you? In front of the computer? Internal or external meetings? Client contact? Vendor contact? Lots of time on the phone?
- What do you wish others understood about your dept's work?

They key here is to ask about them and their opinion, and not "what do I need to do to come work there."

This kind of an interview can be informative and interesting. HOWEVER, I do think it is worth the effort to actually go and meet someone if you can.
posted by jeoc at 10:35 AM on May 6

To address the concerns brought up.

They benefit from being shadowed because it is a general commitment they make to the company and can use my request to satisfy.

There is no chance to do this in person. Some people work in different locations in the same country as me (US); others in different Geographies. Some people work from home offices; others from offices in sites. We all work for networks that are global, so we are used to doing things remotely.

Thanks jeoc for the questions... I have added a few to my list.

Hoping for more ideas!
posted by vermontlife at 6:29 AM on May 7