I think this is a general format of how I might ask the questions, I wonder if they transition well.

Informational Interview Questions- Genetic Counselor (who does genetic research in developmental delays, autism, and epilepsy and cancer risks on the side)

1.   Is there a daily routine for you as a genetic counselor; what is a typical day for you?

2. I find that genetic research in epilepsy and autism is fascinating. Can you provide advice on what kinds of challenges you encounter when doing genetic research and where to look for resources to better understand epilepsy and autism?

3. I have struggled with Physics and Organic Chemistry. Are there any important skills or courses that helped you in your career path decision and what advice for students do you have to prepare for genetic research?

4.  What advice do you offer to people with a high risk for hereditary cancer, and are they receptive to it?

5. What was your first job coming out of school with your degree, and what was that experience like for you?

6. I am interested in becoming a genetic counselor, do you have any suggestions for me such as where to look for entry-level jobs, part-time positions, volunteer opportunities, people to connect to, or internships?

Dear Anita

Thank you for being the inspiration in my life that helps brighten my days. You are a light in the darkness for people who are struggling by providing your advice, take care of yourself and have a great week ahead! Here is a week blessing:

May your sorrows be less and your joys keep growing with each day, may positivity shine upon your path to light your way and may healing energies surround you helping clear negativity and obstacles away.

Dear Anita

The phone conversation with the genetic counselor helped me better understand ways to build my scientific research skills. They gave advice on taking courses such as statistics that can help students understand the data analysis and how conducting surveys can help students learn more information about what they are interested in studying. One of the main challenges they say that people studying genetics face is understand how to apply the research they find and how to analyze it for information that is relevant for their topic. Sometimes I have trouble picking out what pieces of the research sources that I find are relevant and I find myself taking lots of notes on my topic when I can shorten them a bit. The main advice they gave was that it is important to look at the research sources that a person finds with a “critical eye” and think about what pieces fit into the topic you are looking for and then summarize those points. They said that while they were in school, they looked for research lab opportunities to gain insight on how to conduct experiments and trials for genetics research in autism. They provided advice on looking for professors that do research in genetics and working with them to gain insight into the career path. Since I am looking for some job-shadowing opportunities to understand genetics research, I am thinking about reaching out to people to see if I can learn more about research in a lab. They said that most of the job-shadowing and internships are in Philadelphia which is far from New Jersey, so my best option is to job-shadow a professor. I think that it was a very insightful discussion and although I felt quite nervous during the phone conversation they were very helpful and provided good advice. I think that my next step is to look for job-shadowing opportunities in New Jersey to build my research skills so that it can help with genetics. Building up the research skills will also help me with Organic Chemistry when I take it in the Spring semester because I will better understand ways to analyze research data. I am thinking of reaching out to some professors to see if there are any research opportunities. Hope you have a good week ahead and good luck with your life’s path.

Dear Anita

Thank you so much for your advice. Since it would be helpful if the person I had a phone conversation with had job-shadowing opportunities, I am working on connecting with other people studying genetics research. I enjoyed the phone conversation with the genetic counselor yesterday and was hoping for some job-shadowing opportunities to learn more, but they said that there weren’t any available. The advice that they provided was informative and insightful, I learned about the challenges they faced in their genetic research of exploring epilepsy and autism because the brain is a complex thing to study and that building good research analysis skills early on can be helpful when trying to understand the material. They gave advice to reach out to professors and college research places to build my research skills and that is what I am working on. Tomorrow I will have a phone conversation at 1pm with a cancer genetics counselor who works at Rutgers University research which may provide me advice on some job-shadowing opportunities for college students that I might be able to participate in. Since the cancer genetic counselor works at a college university research place, there is a chance that they might allow college students to job-shadow them or offer advice. I have eight questions that I have for the cancer genetic counselor to help me learn more about their work. I wonder if these questions are good and if the question about looking for building genetics research skills is worded okay (that is question six). Hopefully there will be some job-shadowing opportunities available for some of the genetics professionals that I am contacting. Looking for advice, here are the eight questions that I will ask the cancer genetics tomorrow on the phone and hope for a job-shadowing opportunity.

The students picked out their Spring 2019 semester schedule today. The Stress and Anxiety class was full the time I decided to take it. I decided to take a Meditation class so I can learn mindfulness meditations strategies to reduce stress instead. I am also taking Genetics with the professor that I hope to job-shadow or gain more research opportunities with in the Spring semester. After I take Genetics, I may look for some job-shadowing or research opportunities for the Fall 2020 semester to help me build my scientific research skills. In addition, I am taking a Scientific Literary class this upcoming Spring 2019 semester to learn how to read scientific articles and look at them with a critical eye and use sources for my research planning. I  am considering taking Organic Chemistry Fall 2020 so I won’t be too stressed, but I am still thinking about it because it might make me part-time and reduce financial aid. Thank you so much for all your advice, hope you have a great rest of the week.