Professional Interview

This blog will consist of my interview with my dad whom had experience with engineering technology.


I received permission from Mr. Olson (my teacher) for interviewing my father, and I also received permission from my father for allowing me to interview him.


Here is some basic information about him:


Name: Michael J. Cox
Specific Degree: Bachelor of Science
Place of Employment: United States Navy
Contact Information: coxrocks50@hotmail.com


Here are the questions that I had asked him, and the responses that I got from my father about them.


Please describe your engineering field.

Gas-turbine engineering, he was the Chief Engineer for a guided missile frigate in the United States Navy. He was responsible for two LM2500 gas-turbine engines for primary propulsion and two diesel engines for auxiliary power. He also was also a gas turbine inspector for the Commander, Pacific Fleet's Propulsion Examining Board. He would fly all over the Pacific to Japan, Hawaii, and the West Coast Naval Bases to inspect the Engineering plants of all surface combatants. These included, carriers, cruisers, destroyers, and frigates.

What is your current job title?

He is a Commander in the United States Navy, and his designator is a Surface Warfare Officer.


Please describe your particular job and duties.

As the Chief Engineer, he was responsible for 75 engineers for the operation and maintenance of the ship. He and his engineers provided heat, electricity, propulsion, and fresh water for a crew of 350 people on the ship.

What is your average work schedule?

When his ship was in port, he would arrive at the ship at 6:00 A.M. and depart around 7:00 P.M. five to six days a week.  When the ship was underway, he worked for 18 to 20 hours a day seven days a week. The ship was underway about 2/3rds  of the time conducting operations and training for deployment.

Starting with high school, describe your educational background chronologically.

He took college focused AP and Honors classes like trigonometry, chemistry, and physics in high school. In college he took calculus, differential equations, electrical engineering, and chemistry. He received a masters degree in international business. After college he took various engineering courses with the navy.

If you had it to do over, related to your career or education, would you do anything differently?

He felt like that he was satisfied with his education and careers he took and wouldn't change a thing because each event that he took led to the next event and that greatly benefited him.

What advice would you give to me as someone interested in pursuing a career path similar to yours?



The advice he gave was to go to Naval Academy, or if I can't do that I should go to the Naval ROTC at another university.


Here are my reflections on my interview with my dad.


What surprised me the most in my interview with my dad was that he put in a ton of time when working at his ship when it is in port and underway.


The most important piece of information that I learned from this interview was that if I wanted to gain the same education on engineering then I know which classes to take like calculus and trigonometry, and where I should go to finish my education like the Naval Academy.


This interview has influenced my feelings about my future career by giving me an idea of what I might do with the engineering skills that I learned in courses and classes, and it gave me a great example of one part of the jobs that you can do that require skills in engineering.