GOA INSTITUTE OF

MANAGEMENT
Research Methods

PGDM (2019-2021)
Section - A

Out-of-class Evaluative Exercise

Submitted to,

Prof. Divya Singhal

Submitted by,

Group – 11
Deepak Joshi - 2019011
Melinda D’Costa - 2019023
Muskan Taneja - 2019024
Preeta De - 2019035
Soham Chakraborty - 2019047
Yash Dogra – 2019060
Introduction:
We carried out research to find out whether millennials are really different. We carefully
selected four respondents and sent them out invitations for the interview. While the millennials
preferred interview over tea in the evening, our beloved gen z opted for late-night interviews.
For the interviews, we chose the amphitheatre and the prayer room. We took one millennial
and one gen z respondent to each of the locations individually. While conducting the interview
we noticed few traits of both the generations like the millennials were more patient and their
answers were more elaborate but when it came to the gen z their answers were short and crisp
and their behaviour was restless. The interview with the gen z took lesser time than what it
took with the millennials.
1. How we went about doing this assignment-
On receiving the topic, we brainstormed within our group as to how to go about the
research. Though our group is small, we had generation diversity amongst ourselves.
We checked how previous researches for gender diversity were carried out. Based on
that we came to the conclusion that we will be needing distinctive respondents for our
research. We took out the database of our batch and selected a mix of students. We then
sent out formal invitations to the selected candidates and asked for a suitable time for
the interview. We booked their calendars, divided ourselves into subgroups and
interviewed the individuals at the scheduled time and location

2. Interview questions-
➢ What kind of things make you feel nostalgic?
➢ What are some things from the past you would be excited to see make a
comeback?
➢ What is something you did "before it was cool?"
➢ What is a brand that you feel is authentic or crafted?
➢ What does a brand need to do or say to convince you it is authentic or crafted?
➢ What are the type of experiences that gives you FOMO (fear of missing out)?
➢ Where are you and what are you doing when you are most likely to share your
experiences with friends? (via SnapChat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, text
messages, etc.)
➢ What is your "I was there" story? (can include any unique and exciting event or
moment that you've experienced)
➢ Which is the one thing about your generation that you think sets it apart?
 ➢ When choosing a job what is the one factor that you look for in the workplace?

3. How we selected/chose our respondents-

The topic given to us was “Are Millennials Different?”
Based on this what we thought was that in order to get an answer to this we would
require people from a different generation as well. Hence, we compared Millennials
with people from Generation Z. We chose 2 people who belonged to Generation Z and
2 who belonged to Generation Y (Millennials). In order to bring about a diverse
opinion, we chose 2 females (1 from Generation Z and the other Generation Y) and 2
males (1 from Generation Z and the other Generation Y).
We selected respondents as follows:
Generation Y
1. Male – year of birth (1993)
2. Female – year of birth (1991)
Generation Z
3. Male – year of birth (1999)
4. Female – year of birth (1998)

4. The things we learned about conducting interviews-

Some of the major points that we learned are as follows:
➢ It is necessary to ask relevant questions that are crisp and to the point in order to keep
the respondent engaged
➢ Time is a vital factor. Hence, the length of the interview should not exceed the time
decided prior to the interview. This could lead to the interviewee getting restless and
disinterested
➢ Choosing the right people to interview is the key because this would help in getting the
desired results quickly
➢ The individual being interviewed needs to be made comfortable and the interview
should be taken in such an environment which would make the interviewee feel at ease
to respond
➢ Irrelevant and unnecessary questions should strictly be avoided
➢ An appropriate schedule to carry out the interview should be decided keeping the
interviewee in mind
 ➢ It is essential to familiarize the interviewee with the goals of the research and give
him/her a brief of the research. This would help in getting more appropriate and relevant
answers

5. Major themes that elicited from your interviews-

The major themes that came up in the interview were:

➢ Nostalgia: The fact that people no matter which generation they belonged to were
impacted almost in the same way. For example, childhood remained the most favourite
memory for each of the respondents.
➢ The functioning of the two generations. The way they think and take decisions came
out from their responses. Like when asked for a time to set the interview, millennials
opted for mornings or early evenings whereas gen z preferred late-night conversations.

6. Most surprising or unexpected findings?

Though the respondents were from two different generations yet they had similar base
ideas about certain things like factors while choosing a workplace, experiences that
generate the feeling of missing out and experiences they wanted should make a
comeback.

Conclusion:
While doing the interviews we came to know about various aspects of the two generations. We
got an idea about the thought process and attitude of both the generations towards nostalgia.
We discovered how nostalgia for certain items and experiences were common to both the
generations. The common myth about millennials being totally different from the others was
indeed true but when it came to certain matters the roots of both the respondents were the same.
Hence we can conclude that the two generations even though have their differences but yet
have similar roots.

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