Not so Oscar Worthy: Conducting and Preparing for my First Interview

Nick a -

Hello everyone! It’s time for another update. After talking to my mentor, I decided to modify my logo from the previous post. She emphasized the importance of simplicity and scalability, so I’m working on a redesigned logo that best represents my podcast while also fitting well on smaller “real estate” like phone screens.

Due to scheduling conflicts, I had to postpone my interview with a nurse to a later date. However, I was able to interview a technical program manager who works at Meta in Seattle. I hosted the interview on Zoom and was terrified that my computer would restart for no reason—or that I had mixed up the time zones—but everything turned out well. I initially expected the interview to last around 30 to 45 minutes, but it ended up taking only half the time I had planned.

Afterward, a bunch of questions swirled in my head: Did I ask enough questions? Should I have talked more? Do I have any Chipotle reward points to redeem? Okay, maybe I was just a little hungry after the interview. Since this was my first interview, I worried that any mistake might mean the entire recording was ruined. But despite my concerns, I learned a lot of interesting information about his job.

When I asked him what movie or TV show best describes his work, he mentioned Suits. While the show doesn’t have many direct connections to his job, he emphasized the importance of networking and collaboration with colleagues.

I also have plans to meet with other professionals, but I’ll share more about that in my next post. As Ruff Ruffman from Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman would say, “The world is your laboratory.”

See you in my next post!



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Comments:

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    allison_h
    Hi Nick! I think it's so cool that you were able to interview a person all the way in Seattle and I'm so glad it went well! After your experience interviewing the technical program manager, do you have any revisions to the questions you plan on asking future guests? Are there any questions that didn't seem to work as well or any new questions you thought of?
    March 4, 2025 at 1:09 pm - Reply
    danielle_l
    Hey, Nick! Glad to hear the first interview went well; there's always the most to learn from the first of anything! I think that TV/movie question is really smart as it can put things more easily into perspective for your audience. Also, I love the Fetch! reference; everyone needs to watch it. For your new logo, are you thinking of drawing/designing some sort of symbol for it? Can't wait to see what's next!
    March 4, 2025 at 2:03 pm - Reply
    katherine_v
    Hello, Nick! I totally understand being nervous, but it seems like you did fine regardless. Congratulations on completing your first interview! You mentioned the episode ended up shorter than you expected; do you have any plans to maybe make the interview time longer like how you expected it?
    March 4, 2025 at 7:58 pm - Reply
    cason_t
    Hi Nick, I'm glad you were able to meet with someone. I was just curious on how you were able to get in contact with them. Also, how is the process of creating an episode on Spotify? I hope your next interview goes well!
    March 4, 2025 at 9:47 pm - Reply
    Anonymous
    Hey Allison, when I conducted my first interview, I didn't ask too many follow-up questions since I had a script that I wanted to follow. So, I think I'm going to keep my original set of questions but also ask some other smaller questions that branch off of my main questions. One thing I didn't do that much for my first interview was research about the person's job beforehand, so I think I can contribute more to the conversation by learning more about what people do before I interview them. Most of my questions were general, so I'm thinking of including more career-specific questions for my future interviews.
    March 6, 2025 at 8:09 am - Reply
    nick_a
    Hey Danielle, I don't think I will be designing a symbol for my new logo. I am thinking of making the title stand out a little more and I also want to minimize the background for my redesign.
    March 6, 2025 at 8:20 am - Reply
    nick_a
    Hi Kathy, one of the things I want to do is ask more follow-up questions. However, I think how I approach each interview will be different in some way. Some people may like to talk more so I may not need to ask any other questions besides the ones I have already prepared. In other cases, I might have to ask more questions so the interview will be longer. However, I don't want my podcast to be too long as well, since I think my target audience of high schoolers will prefer shorter episodes.
    March 6, 2025 at 8:27 am - Reply
    nick_a
    Hello Cason, for finding people to interview, one of the most important things I learned is the power of connections. I would reach out to people I know and see if they know anyone I can reach out to in the job fields I'm interested in. As of right now, I am just conducting interviews. Once I have a majority of the recordings I need, I will work on editing and uploading the episodes on Spotify.
    March 6, 2025 at 8:39 am - Reply

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