Finally! All of my sub-questions are done and it’s time for the dreadful scheduling of an interview. It’s made easier because I am allowed to do it over email or skype. But I still have to find, contact, and schedule with someone who knows a lot about my topic, which is kind of impossible in my case. Ugh. That is the exact reason why it is the dreadful scheduling of an interview and not just the scheduling of an interview. Even worse is that it is May 12 and my interview is due on May 25. Now you can see what my problem is. Anyway, I should probably start gathering some more resources.
Step One: Finding an Interview Source
In library we worked on finding keywords to type into the catalog search in order to find print sources. I used these keywords and typed them into the Google search engine, sometimes adding words and sometimes removing them, in order to find some sources. One of the first names that came up was of an employee at the Maritime aquarium which is located in Norwalk, Connecticut. I checked out their website and they seem like a reliable source. It’s important to make sure that your source is reliable because you don’t want to have false information included in a research project. It’s time for the next step!
Step Two: Contacting Your Interview Source
Mrs. Cooper was extremely helpful when she had given us a template that showed us that we want to sound polite and not demanding. And that we want to state where we are coming from, who we are, and why we need the interview. This are just a few of the tips we were given. Once you start typing up the email it’s quite hard to stop. Well, until you don’t have any more to write. The next step I took was editing and revising any grammatical errors that I may or may not have had. The final and most nerve-racking step of them all is to click the send button. I can’t even believe that a professional is going to be reading this!
Step Three: Scheduling Your Interview
I can’t believe it! They wrote back! 🙂 And what they wrote back is great. They wrote something along the lines of “Thank you for contacting me. I am available on Tuesday at 5:00, does that work?” Now of course I didn’t write the entire email because it was really long but as you can probably guess I replied with a yes. Not in that exact wording though.
I have some bad news. It’s the day before the interview and they just canceled on me. Back to square one… WHY!!!!! 🙁
Step Four: Finding Someone Else
I started simple and just typed in “aquariums that hold axolotls” but not many things came up. Since this happened I ended up using google’s advance search and found the Dallas World Aquarium Zoo located in Dallas, Texas. Thank goodness I can do this over skype! As you may remember I have to check that this website is truthful about their information so that I do not receive any false information. After checking the website, it seems that this website is trustworthy and it is time to contact them.
Step 5: Re-Contacting Your Interview Source
It’s as though drafting emails becomes harder and harder as you do more and more. But why? Maybe it’s because you want it to be perfect so that you don’t have to re-re-contact or find yet another person!!! As you can see, this is actually quite pressureful. But I think that I might have finally found the template that fits my use perfectly. At least it isn’t as hard to click send! 🙂
Step 6: Scheduling Your Interview Again
They wrote back! They said they can skype any time on Tuesday as long as I notify them first. I wrote back saying that I would call around 5 and that I had about eleven questions prepared. I think that I gave them enough information to prepare them for the interview and gave myself enough time to prepare my questions.
Step 7: The Interview
Yay!!! The interview is finally here! We began with introducing ourselves to each other and I asked if I was able to record the interview because you shouldn’t record without permission, but I was only able to record voice. After this brief introduction I stated one of my prepared interview questions and they politely answered with mostly elaborate, well thought through questions. This seems like it will help me out in the long run!
Click here to see my interview
Overall, I think that switching interviews actually guided me towards better information and more time to prepare. Thank you universe!!! 🙂
Wow, Apollonia! What a thoughtful and detailed account of your experience! I am so glad that everything worked out in the end to your benefit. I am also happy that the email template was helpful for you. I can’t wait to see how the rest of your project progresses! Great job!!