Informational Interview

For my informational interview I chose to interview Alicea Davis who is an oil and gas accountant for Shell Oil Company. Alicea is a good friend of the family and since I want to become an accountant for Shell Oil upon graduation, I knew she would be able to provide me with a great insight into her job and the company. I was quite surprised when we started off the interview discussing her educational background and learned that she had never attended college. After she graduated high school she said she never even thought about attending college. No one in her family had encouraged her to go and she didn’t think it would effect where she would be in the future. It’s incredible how different things were just thirty years ago, cause she was right, just six months after her high school graduation she landed a job with Shell Oil working in the mailroom. Alicea attributes getting the job to her having work experience all through out high school. She recalls not many of her friends working during high school like her unless they were forced to and so she thinks that’s why she stood out to the company. She informed that Shell Oil looks for very motivated people who can think on their own and can communicate well. Her experience in interviews, from what she can remember, its been many years is that they want to get to know what kind of person you are to see if you will fit in with the company. She also recalls them wanting to know your mobility, if you will be able to travel since the company is so global. Alicea has been with the company for twenty-eight years now about to go on twenty-nine. After working for about two years in the mailroom she was promoted to the finance department and spent most her time processing invoices. Her position there led her to the accounting department she is at now. Her main responsibilities are to help with the processing of the accounting software, provide support on the applications, analyze and troubleshoot processing issues and implement new projects that could help optimize the current system. Alicea told me her favorite part about her job is being able to help others and getting gratification from that. She also stated, “Every day is a new day at work” and she likes the aspect of things always changing. However there are some downfalls to her job, she doesn’t enjoy the stress that comes with it. The stress comes from having too much work and not enough people. On top of her