Work

Life-Path Interview 04

Purpose: Understand how work entered a person's life, their skills, barriers, employment patterns, and relationship with responsibility and contribution.

Approximate ages are fine. The participant may skip any question.

Participant code: ____________________ Date: ____________________

Interviewer: ____________________

□ The participant agrees to have these responses recorded and stored privately for Union support planning. Questions may be skipped. The participant can ask the administrator to review or correct the record, or discuss withdrawal.

1. First Work

What is the first work you remember doing? It can include paid work, helping family, yard work, childcare, informal work, volunteering, or selling things.

How old were you?

Did you enjoy being useful?

2. First Paid Job

What was your first paid job?

How did you get it?

What did you learn?

What were you good at?

What was difficult?

3. Learning to Work

Who taught you how to work?

What did they teach you that stayed with you?

• Show up

• Work safely

• Finish the job

• Use tools

• Work with a crew

• Ask questions

• Take pride in the result

4. Employment Barriers

Was there a period when keeping regular employment became difficult?

What got in the way?

Which barriers were within your control? Which were not?

5. Skills Beyond a Resume

What can you do well that would not necessarily appear on a conventional resume?

What have people relied on you to do?

What kind of problem do people naturally ask you to solve?

6. Bad and Good Workplaces

What makes you work harder for someone?

What makes you stop caring about a job?

What was the best supervisor or employer you had like?

7. Looking Forward

What kind of work would you like to become better at?

What would make employment sustainable for you now?

What would you want someone hiring you to understand?

8. Participant's Own Interpretation

Finish: "The kind of work I am best at is..."

Finish: "You get the best work out of me when..."

Interviewer Notes

First work age: ____________________________________________

First paid employment age: ____________________________________________

Skills demonstrated: ____________________________________________

Employment barriers: ____________________________________________

Conditions under which person succeeds: ____________________________________________

Possible training / mentorship areas: ____________________________________________