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Matt Snyder

Professor Quinn

3/11/11

English 2950

For my paper I interviewed two people that are in the job field. The one guy is an

electrical engineer for JDRM and the other person is a physician’s assistant. It was quite an

experience interviewing these two people because I have never done this before. Also, you had

to be very proper and you have to know what to say when interviewing. My aunt is a physician’s

assistant so I interviewed her and it was a lot easier to interview her than it was with the

engineer. I felt like I had to be more serious and proper and that I could not make any mistakes.

But doing this interviewing process will help me later down the road when I need to do it again.

In these next few pages I will share the information I got when I interviewed these two

intelligent people and I will also compare/contrast these two job fields.

I. Professionals’ Background

The educational path to becoming an Engineer began in high school with the basic

college preparatory classes. “Chemistry, Algebra, and Physics ended up being the most useful of

these preparatory classed in College” Says Mr. Desjardins. In College massive amounts of math

and science are needed. Essentially you have two years of calculus with a year of physics and a

year of chemistry. Most of the associated classed require portions of the mathematical skill you

learn from Calculus. Engineering required four years and one quarter of schooling for Mr.

Desjardins. Base programs are four years. Five years is required in many programs where

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Internships are required. For a physician’s assistant she received a Bachelors in Biology with a

minor in Chemistry from UT! Then my aunt applied to the UTMC PA program. That program is

a 26 month program strictly dedicated to all aspects of a physician’s assistant. “There are clinical

rotations throughout all realms of medicine like Family Practice offices, Pediatric offices,

Surgery, orthopedic offices, OB/GYN and Emergency room. Most Physician's Assistant

programs recommend you have at least 4 years of medical background (work experience). They

do not usually accept student’s right from undergrad unless they are working in a medical

setting.” Says my aunt. As you can see the requirements for a PA are very different from

becoming an engineer. For a PA it is mostly chemistry and for an engineer it is mostly physics.

“I have 16 years of experience with the work I do. My first five years of experience was

purely nuts and bolts, it consisted of getting drawings together, AutoCad work, and occasional

meetings. The last four years have been much more on the communications side with very little

AutoCad work.” Says Dave. My aunt’s experience is she works in the Emergency Room at

Flower Hospital, she examines patients, orders pertinent tests and writes prescriptions just as a

physician would however, she says her work is overseen by a Physician that is on staff at the

same time. This frees up time for the Doctor to see more ill patients. The title and licensing for

the electrical engineer is David Desjardins Partner, P.E., LEED AP (This stands for Professional

Engineer Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) JDRM Engineering, Inc. and for my

aunt her title is Physician’s Assistant...her credentials are MS, PA-C (which stands for Master's

in Science, Physician's Assistant Certified).

Dave’s work place (JDRM) occupies the second floor of a Key Bank in Sylvania Ohio.

He said there are 50 employees, 45 of which are male. Few offices are utilized. Most of the space

is open office broken up by a maze of cubicles, allowing for some privacy. For the most part the

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office is quiet. At any one time 4-7 people on the phone. My aunt’s workplace is in a level one

ER.  She is responsible for patient care, coordinating patients for testing, examining patients for

their symptoms, triaging patients and deciding which patients the actual physician should see. 

She is responsible for all aspects of the patient from the time they are admitted to the Emergency

Department until the time they are discharged either to home or actually admitted to the hospital.

My aunt’s perception of work is that she is a very valuable part of the patient care process. She is

an absolute necessity to the function of the clinical setting. She relieves pressure from the

Physician so he can stay focused on the really sick or urgent patients. Dave says “I enjoy work.

Every day I am doing something different. I work with good people and make decent money.”

Dave tells me that he is responsible to oversee the Electrical design of new construction

projects. His primary responsibility is to ensure the information that is put on a drawing is

complete and accurate. Electrical Contractors will take the drawings he creates and competitively

bid off of them. “When a bid has been received it is the assumption of the Architect that hired us

that the price provided by the Electrical Contractor is based on complete drawings. After prices

have been evaluated and a low price has been determined, the appropriate contractor is then

given a contract for the work. If changes arise after a contract has been signed with a Contractor,

the costs of doing the work needed goes up much higher than it would have been in a

competitive situation. This is why my primary responsibility is to ensure biddable drawings are

correct, otherwise the price to the owner will go up more that it would have been at bid time”

says Mr. Desjardins. He told me during the interview that his job can be very stressful at times

because of the responsibilities he has.

II. Agency Background

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My aunt told me her mission/purpose is to provide good quality and compassionate care

to as many people as possible. Dave told me his goal is to continue doing what he is doing now.

But he expects to move into higher positions as time passes and hopefully make more money

while securing a nest egg for retirement. I thought this was quite funny. Yearly salaries for a PA

range from approximately $68000 - $78,000 for 1-2 years experience and peaks at

approximately $95,000, depending on years of experience and type of setting one is working in.

Orthopedic and Surgical PA get paid the most says my aunt. Dave told me that he makes from

$90-$100 thousand a year. As you can see from both of the professions they both make great

money and both fields are great professions. When I asked Dave what kind of people he works

with he told me jerks. I think he was joking but he was serious when he said this. My aunt works

RN's, MA (medical assistants), PCT (patient care techs), xray technologists, phlebotomists,

respiratory therapists, unit secretaries, EMT's and Physicians.

The service that Dave and his company provide is a lot. He told me that they are a

consulting engineering firm that provides design services for the construction of new buildings.

They work hand in hand with Architects helping them design the building with the necessary

space required to accommodate the space needed for HVAC, Electrical, and Data

Communication systems. My dad does HVAC work and he told me that he sometimes uses

Dave’s company’s work. They put together documents for Contractors to competitively bid off

of. The services my aunt and her company provides include emergency care for whatever

problem patient presents with. Also they can assess patients, order pertinent tests and prescribe

medication. Last but not least the policies my aunt and Dave have to follow with their job. Dave

told me they work in a pretty loose environment. “Mostly the standard we are held to is just to

respect each other” says Dave. My aunt’s policies that are followed include HIPPA - which the

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privacy act where all of patients information is kept private, Must have physician look over any

prescribed meds. They must follow all isolation policies for patient and their safety.  Double

identify patients: ask patient name and date of birth before administering any medication or

performing any invasive tests says my aunt.

III. Comparison & Summary Impressions

The only similarity with their practice settings is that they both have to be respectful and

nice to everyone they work with. Other than that the setting is different. For a PA it is in a

hospital and they are constantly going from room to room. With an engineer they are sitting in a

cubicle all day drawing schematics on a computer, at least an electrical engineer. But the biggest

thing is how everyone respects each other when they work. My observations from these two

interviews are, I think both of these two professions are great to go into. I learned a lot from

interviewing both of them and it really has made me think about going into one of these

professions. With me being undecided this was a great project to do because it is helping me

decide what I want to do with my life. All in all I thought interviewing two people from our point

of interest in the job field was very successful and I am looking forward to possibly majoring in

one of these fields.