Day Two

Day Two was a “hands-on testing” sort of day that encouraged me to learn and revise my approach throughout the process. Today was my first interview, and I had the opportunity to speak with Hannah Dolhai, the advocacy and programs associate at the Cystic Fibrosis Research Institute (CFRI). It was a great discussion, and I learned a lot about CF and CFRI. I used my phone to record audio as well as the Google Meet transcription feature so that I could look back on our conversation and pull out specific quotes later in the process. The goal of using these external resources was that I could engage in the interview rather than being bogged down in taking notes.

However, I repeatedly noticed myself steering the meeting back to my list of preprepared questions instead of asking spontaneous follow-ups where there were opportunities. This meant that I had run through my whole list significantly earlier than I had anticipated, and had to come up with multiple questions on the spot to extend the conversation.

For my coming interviews, I will treat my list as a baseline rather than something I absolutely need to finish. I’ll come up with relevant questions on the spot and let the discussion go in the right direction, even if it isn’t what I originally expected.

Additionally, the session I had originally planned for Thursday was moved back to Wednesday due to a scheduling conflict on the other end. Both of today’s events taught me that nothing is going to go as expected, and you need to be ready to meet those changes! I’ll make sure to apply this lesson throughout the next few weeks.