Week 6

Our search is basically complete- just in time for Spring Break. When we met yesterday, we essentially finalized our list. There is about 30 businesses. While there are a few we're looking a little more into, or keeping our eye on, for the most part we are done with the research phase of the project. From here on out, it's gathering detailed information, reporting, and writing our piece.
I'm happy with the list we came up with, and I'm glad we took our time in making sure it was correct. We discussed briefly the final layout that we would aim for which involved possibly breaking the list into categories such as "veterans to the list," "beach jobs," "fast growing," etc. Those were just thoughts, but I guess we'll get to that later.
It actually worked out perfectly because now we can begin the next phase of the project right after spring break and spend the whole second half of the semester working on that. I don't think it will be as difficult as the first phase because through our research, we already have a lot of the information that we need. Getting quotes and writing the piece will be the focus of the next couple of weeks. With three people working on it, it shouldn't be too strenuous.

Week 5

As a group, we narrowed our search down significantly last Monday. The three interns and Mark sat down and we each went through our entire lists. We separated them into four categories; "definitely," "maybe," "look more into," and "no." It was interesting to see which business made it into which category. The bigger companies like banks etc. that usually make similar lists often ended up on our "maybe" or "no" list because most of them are making massive layoffs. A place of business inwhich one's job isn't secure certainly isn't a good place to work.
From there, we split up the lists. Each category that we were planning on persuing (definitely, maybe, and look more into) had about 15 business total, so we each took 5 per category. I spent the rest of the week researching my assigned five businesses in the "look more into" category which included BRAC, Maintenance/Blue Collar Jobs, Dover Air Force Base, Autotote, and Work From Home. As it turns out, it's difficult to find much useful information for any of these, no matter how many newspaper articles or websites I look at involving them. I plan on continuing to try, however. The best thing about working here is that I can work on my own pace, generally. We have a lot of time to get what we need done, which assures that when our piece finally comes out it will be the best it can possibly be.
After I'm done with the "look more into" category" I'll probably begin calling the business listed in the maybe and definitely category to get more info on them than what I already have (which is quite a bit). That will probably be my task next week.

Week 4

This past week will likely be the last full week of straight research. We're meeting as a group again Monday to put our lists together and hopefully finalize the jobs that we want to report on. After that, we'll be able to do some reporting, make some calls, and hopefully even venture out to get interviews. At this point, I feel like I've hit a wall. I've found all the businesses I feel like I could have found.
A lot of the businesses we've been discussing look really interesting, and I want to know more about them. I'm sure the readers will too, which is why I think this will turn into a really good piece when it's all said and done.
In my opinion, actually traveling to the different businesses would give me a better feel for it. I might notice something about the workplace or employees that couldn't be portrayed over the phone. I'm definitely looking forward to it. First though, we'll see what kind of list we come up with at our meeting on Monday.

Week 3

This past week has been a little more focused and narrowed down than the previous two. We met last Monday as a group to share our list and brainstorm a few ideas that we had been thinking about with Mark. That was certainly helpful. It made me aware of what the other research assistants were thinking about. For the most part, everyone had come up with similar companies that are considered "good places to work." They were well paying, stable, fast growing jobs with good benefits. We decided that since we had a pretty full list of jobs like that, we'd look for some more "fun jobs." We thought of things that Delaware had to offer that maybe other places didn't. One idea was it's beaches.
That became my focus for the rest of the week. I spent my time searching Dewey Beach and Rehobeth Beach and the many different jobs/careers that one could have in a vibrant summer community like that.
One place I found was the Rehobeth Beach bandstand, which involves setting up for different bands to play on the beach. Another job I found was working as a physical trainer at the Rehobeth Beach Fitness Center. It was located directly on the boardwalk. Not to mention, I found out that fitness trainers and aerobic instructors rank among the ten hottest careers in 2009. This type of place was perfect for our list.
Things are still a little slow, but at least we're all way more focused. Next week things will pick up quite a bit. We meet again Monday to somewhat finalize our lists so we can all start making calls and doing actual reporting rather than researching. I'm excited for that.
I'm also pretty happy with what we've all come up with so far. I think this is going to make for a great piece when it's all said and done.