Image via WikipediaAm I becoming a Workaholic?
The first inkling I had that something might be amiss was when I, along with my family, was relaxing at a friend's house. I was chatting with an artist who had recently returned from Africa. Fascinating. I reached for some chips and guacamole to keep my hands from grabbing a recording device in my pocket. This was fun. Not an interview. Still, I couldn't stop my flood of questions.
I confessed my dilemma to my husband at the end of the evening when we were home. He laughed and commented that he could see I was struggling. It's those darn interviewing instincts. They just kick in! (note to self - write article on African art from an American perspective so I can follow up with a legit QA session).
Relax - It's Summer
One of my favorite parts of my job is getting to "meet" the people I interview. Sure, it's usually by phone, but I still get unique insight into their lives. Love that.
But I think I'm getting a bit too driven.
A nice conversation has turned into a whirlwind tour. For example, when I get a 15-minute interview, I generally have six questions prepared. In my last two interviews, I was done in less than eight minutes. Self-anaysis time. Why were they so short? I can think of two reasons.
1. The interviewee was not one of my favorite people. In fact, I wondered what kind of drugs were in this person's system. The individual couldn't care less about the viewing audience for the film created, and had no personal opinions. The person didn't even have a dream for what might come next in their working universe. Weird. And a total waste of my time. Good thing I liked the film so I can write more about that.
2. The interviewee was one of my favorite people. I was so excited about interviewing the person and discovered the person was as wonderful in person as I could ever have hoped for. Thanks to my excitement, and the fact that the person was so popular that I knew there was a full docket of interviews ahead in the person's schedule, I rushed it. That 15 minutes of time was allotted to me, and I blew it. And to make things worse, I probably seemed rude in the process because I didn't take time for a bit of chit-chat even when I knew time wasn't of the essence. Rudeness isn't cool.
Proactive Planning
So what did I learn from it all?
I went into the interview from choice #1 knowing the person might be like that, based on my research. Next time I have to deal with that - I'm having at least 30 questions prepared. I'm also going to break the interviewer's rule and ask some questions with yes/no answers. At least I'll get some sort of response I can print.
For interviewees like the second one, I'm going to relax and enjoy the conversation. That was a serious job perk I threw away. Never again.
It all goes to show you live and learn, even after a decade of work. That's a good lesson to remember.
