Tim Seckler ENGL 1102 Timothy Seckler Professor Presnell English 1102 26 March 2012 Primary Research March

21, 2012, between 8 pm and 9 pm I conducted an email interview with my dad. My dad is currently a Test Engineer for IBM, and has an extensive background in computers. He has worked for IBM and Lenovo for a lot of his career. He also has been around during many different presidencies. He is not biased or committed to one party, as he has voted for a different party on several occasions. His knowledge of politics and the fact that he is in a similar field that I am pursuing makes him a credible source for my research topic. Through this interview I hoped to find answers to some of my initial questions in my proposal. The research I have done so far has given me more knowledge on my topic in a more general sense, but this interview helps me get a more personal opinion on the state of the job market and the outlook for my chosen career path.

Below is my interview: 1. When you listen to a presidential debate, how confident are you that they will follow through if they were to be elected? I am moderately confident that they will follow through. I think all politicians make promises based on what they feel their present audience wants to hear. Also even as president, you don't have absolute power to implement policy.

Tim Seckler ENGL 1102 2. The current state of the job market is at one of its worst times, who is to blame for it if not the president? I believe the current job market and state of the economy is a direct result of the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act by Congress and then president Clinton in 1999 and the lack of self regulation by the banking industry. Competition from low cost manufacturing locations overseas is also a major factor to the current job market. 3. After hearing about possible Republican candidates, what do you believe they can bring to the table? I believe they can bring fiscal responsibility to government. 4. What do you believe are possible solutions to improving the job market? The current job market is a result of the lack of demand for non essential products. This decrease in demand is the resulting effect of the stagnation of job salaries over the last 15 years due to global job competition. The long term solution is to "level the playing field" of the global job market and increase manufacturing in the United States. 5. Do you believe that a Bachelor's degree is enough in today's job market? I think that depends on the career you are pursuing. For an engineering career it is the bare minimum requirement. A lot of job posting are requiring a Masters Degree or PHD. 6. How do you think the outlook is for Computer Engineers or other related majors 4-5 years from now? I think the outlook is bright for Computer Engineering. Computers are essential to most business and demand for computer engineering skills will increase.

Tim Seckler ENGL 1102

This interview helped me learn a lot of things that I was not aware of about the job market. The interview provided me with both possible causes and solutions. My dads response about Republicans supports what I have found in my research so far. One of the causes to the poor job market that he provided is something that I have not even heard of, so that is great information that I received. One of the limitations to my primary research is that my dads political background isnt as big as I might have needed for this topic. With this information, I will be able to research some of the things I didnt know about that my dad mentioned. It will also help me confirm some of the information I already received because I have information on both parties. Seckler, Kenneth. Email interview. 21 Mar. 2012. Reflection 1. The hardest part of gathering primary research was deciding what kind of primary research I was going to do. I really had to think about questions that would be useful to my research and help answer some of the questions I had in my proposal. 2. The thing I like about my primary research is that it comes from someone who is in a similar career as me. I think it will be useful because it answered my questions well and also provided me with more things to research in depth. 3. The group helped discuss what primary research is and practiced interview questions with a member of my group. That helped me get a feel for what kind of questions to ask. Those things were used to help them as well.