Going Solo: My First Interview

As mentioned in my previous post, not for profit organisations present some fantastic learning opportunities to interns such as myself. Not for profits are typically in need of extra assistance and students will often find themselves with the opportunity to be involved in some quality organisational activities.

During the course of my internship at Baptistcare WA, I was involved in the production of the quarterly newsletter ‘Reaching Out.’ As I was involved in content generation, my supervisor and I would have meetings with various departments to get their wrap of the last few months. I obtained my big opportunity on one occasion when my supervisor was unable to accompany me on a scheduled interview.

My assignment involved paying a visit to a young woman living with Cerebral Palsy who Baptistcare provided assistance to. Subsequently, I needed to form a story to be included in Reaching Out from the interview. Having no knowledge or experience with the issue of Cerebral Palsy, I did not know what to expect. However, I knew that I would be dealing with a sensitive issue and needed to tread carefully.

The interview sailed fairly smoothly. The young woman was confident and outgoing, with quite a story to tell. This made my job of interviewing and forming a story much easier, given that I did not need to probe or provide too much direction to our discussion. As I was hurriedly scribbling away, I could see that the story was perfect material for our newsletter – which exists to inform industry and stakeholders on how Baptistcare is fulfilling its mission. The story was a true example of Baptistcare’s mission in action.

With quite a story to tell and so much scribbled down, I ended up writing a piece that was about double the length my supervisor was looking for. Of course, it’s always better to be over prepared than under and cutting the story down was a piece of cake. As usual with all Public Relations practices at Baptistcare, any direct quotes and images used in my article had to be approved by the subject in writing.

The biggest issue with this assignment, however, was ensuring that the subject of my story was satisfied with her portrayal. The story would be going public to all of Baptistcare’s stakeholders and industry partners, as well as online. It was difficult to get into contact with the young lady given that she was facing some personal issues at the time. This meant that the story had to be pulled from the planned issue of the newsletter. We were not prepared to run the story unless we had absolute confidence that she was satisfied.

Fortunately, my story was published in a later newsletter once we were able to make contact and obtain approval and I now have a record of my first solo interview to place into my portfolio.

Job Interview Using Skype

Hello Everyone,

Now, I'd like to share about my experience having an interview via Skype. 

After 3 days waiting for respond from Fortune PR,  finally they asked me to have an interview with them. But the thing is I still have to finish my semester, therefore i couldn't go back to my country to have an interview with them. Then, they asked me to have an interview via Skype. 

As we all know that Skype is a communications program that can be downloaded free of charge. This internet-based programs are capable of presenting high-quality sound and picture. A big companies abroad and international scale always using Skype to save more cost and time.

Interview via skype only requires equipment, such as a computer or laptop, webcam, headset, and the speed of internet work. So, according to my experience, here's what you need to consider:

1.     Suitable Background. Choose a white or clean wall with the best lighting, so the employer does not get distracted during the interview.

2.     Choose the formal outfit, for example: Black jacket. Do not dress up the upper half of your body while keeping the lower half and wearing short pants or pajama. In case you need to get something, you don't want the employer to see your pajama or short pants right?

3.     This is how I find interesting to have an interview via Skype, you can put notes around your webcam in case you forget about what you wanna say, but make sure you still maintain your eye contact.

4.     Maintain eye contact. Rather than look at the person on the screen, try to look directly into the webcam!

5.     Don't forget to make sure you have strong signals on your computer and check the wireless network too. 

Hope this tips will help you to get the best experience for having a job interview using Skype.

Thank you for reading, until my next post.

Cheers,

Della Patricia Mandiro

LUCT

An unexpected request and a positive outcome

While waiting for my interview on CSR in Mauritius (refer to previous post), I have decided to talk about an unexpected event that took place last week. I was interviewed by a journalist about my internship at PILS. I have learnd that the key rule concerning interviews is preparation. Sometimes the preparation needs to be quite intensive when dealing with controversial issues. So, I was a bit hesitant at first, when the journalist showed up and requested to interview me on the spot. But in the end, I decided that it would be a good opportunity to promote the organisation.

So, the interview started and I started talking about me in general. Then he asked me some questions and I noticed that he was “putting words in my mouth”. I have been warned about this habit of journalists, who act like that when they are expecting a specific outcome from the interview. So, to remedy the situation, I was very careful not to simply say yes or no to whatever questions he was asking. Instead, I was giving complete answers in well structured sentences.

I also had to keep in mind that I was representing the organisation and I had to find a way to send a message to the readership of the newspaper which was mainly composed of youngsters. Whenever I was unsure about any information, like the result of a small research we carried out, I was very careful to stick to facts and keep my personal opinion and interpretation private.

Overall, it was a nice experience and it allowed me to be more familiar with some interviewing techniques.