For the peer practice interview activity, I interviewed Kalayla and AJ assessed my interviewing skills. After reading AJ’s response to observing my interviewing skills, I gained a deeper insight into what aspects I might want to work on and what aspects I might want to maintain. One of the suggestions AJ note and observed during my interview was that I was sometimes fidgeting with my pen. I think this is a great suggestion to how I can improve next time as this may be distracting to the interviewee when they are responding. I would begin to improve upon this my first limiting the fidgeting opportunities. These habits can be more effectively dealt with if I simply had nothing to fidget with, combined with a small reminder in my mind to stay focused on my interview. The second piece of feedback AJ provided me with is discussing a lot more variety of topics rather than just 2 or 3. During my interview, I discussed Kalayla’s interests/hobbies, her goals for the future, and her experiences in TALONS. AJ suggested that I should talk more about Kalayla’s interests/hobbies. I agree with this suggestion as I believe I should balance the time used for each topic more evenly across the presentation.

 

A few aspects I want to preserve from this interview is being able to transition between topics and ideas smoothly. I frequently found thinking too much about your questions may create an awkward moment for the interviewees and may come off as unprepared or unprofessional. To avoid this, I’ve tried to rehearse a lot of my questions ahead of time and the list I have created will act as a guideline for my conversation. Being prepared and rehearsed with your questions also allowed me to be more comfortable expanding upon ideas as I had the basic structure by heart. I could focus more of my attention on the subjects being discussed rather than reading out all the questions and noting down all the answers. Other than this, I also want to maintain my respect for the interviewee. AJ pointed out that he liked how I gave the interviewees space to express their ideas. I want to maintain this respect and provide them with enough time. Giving them a comfortable environment doesn’t just mean I am listening, but rather having a posture that is welcoming and shows my interest in what they are saying, not critiquing what they are saying. I enjoyed this activity as it brought me a lot of insight into better-interviewing skills.