On Tuesday night you had the opportunity to interview someone from your observation two weeks ago. Did you find out anything that surprised you? Was there any response that led your interview in a direction different than originally intended? What are some of the components that make up a good interview?
Unfortunately due to scheduling issues we were unable to conduct a formal interview. However, we were able to communicate via email. Jessica and I were interested in Andrea because she was the only one in our area that was doing homework. The BBC was busy and very loud so I found it interesting that anyone was able to complete any sort of homework. After reading her responses to our questions we found that she goes to the BBC a lot and does her homework. I thought this was interesting because I know I would not be able to get anything done in that area. I think if we were able to conduct an actual interview our results would have been the same. I don't think we would have strayed to far from the questions we had planned out. I think in order to have a good interview you need to have a plan in place. I think it is helpful to have specific questions along with alternative questions in case the person does not respond how you expected. It is important to be ready for anything.
ReplyDeleteWe had some trouble getting our person to meet us for the interview. I thought that was interesting because he seemed perfectly willing to meet us when we originally spoke with him. It was surprising to hear some of his answers since we asked about his experience working at the help desk, and what he enjoyed the most had nothing to do with technology. We did stay with the questions we originally had prepared because they covered a wide range of topics. I think to have a successful interview it is important to be in a location that allows conversation to be easy. Therefore a place the is not really loud is desirable. It is also good to have open ended questions to allow a more natural conversation to develop.
ReplyDeleteMy interview went pretty typical. We stuck with the questions that we came up and and deviated just a little bit once answers were provided. She told us she was an elementary education major but didn't seem to ask Terri or I questions when we told her we were teachers as well. She was very open and never seemed nervous. She never gave one word answers. Good components to an interview consist of good questions. You want questions that do not require one word answers and can build upon answers. Once she said she was an elementary major we asked her what grades she was interested in and what made her choose elementary education and we were able to build from that.
ReplyDeleteI think our interview went as well as tot be expected considering we had just met her. She seemed very willing to answer all of our questions without hesitation. We were able to ask some questions base on answers she gave to previous questions. As Kristina stated she did not feel comfortable enough to ask us questions about the teaching profession. She did seem quite a bit reserved and maybe if we had more meetings she would feel more comfortable to ask us about our jobs. Some of the components that we used to make up our interview were to be prepared. I believe we had good leading questions and we were able to derive other questions from her responses. We uses open ended questions as well to keep it more conversation like instead of an interrogation. We also tried to make it personal and ask about her and her likes/interests.
ReplyDeleteLaura and I interviewed a student employee of the library IT desk. When we first asked about completing an interview, he seemed more than willing and was responsive to emails that were sent to him. As the date to conduct the interview approached, he was not as responsive. Fortunately we were able to meet with our original interviewee. We conducted our interview in a quiet setting of the library. During the interview I was shocked that when we asked about what he enjoyed about working at the IT desk, his responses had nothing to do with technology (which is also his major). I believe the setting is important when conducting an interview so that both the interviewer and interviewee are comfortable and have an area free of distraction and noise. I also believe that is important to have open-ended and flexible questions, this way it allows for more of a conversation type of interview to occur. This also allows for other questions to become formulated.
ReplyDeleteNicole and I interviewed a girl who was studying at the BBC. She was the only student sitting alone studying at the time our observation took place. I found this to be very interesting, because there was a lot of movement in the environment and it was fairly noisy. Due to this, the BBC would not be an ideal study place for me. This was one of the main reasons why we ask Andrea if we could interview her. I really wanted to find out why she chose the BBC over more the more quite options available on campus. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet with Andrea, but we were able to get some answers via email! The response I found most interesting to our interview questions was to the question about why she chooses the BBC. Andrea stated that she really liked doing work in there because there she did no feel alone. Although she was not socializing, being around other who were made it easier to feel included.
ReplyDeleteI think in order to conduct a good interview the interviewer should be prepared and should chose a setting where the interviewee feels most comfortable.