My Feedback

Considering how little I got to prepare for this, I think the interview went pretty well, although coming up with a few more questions beforehand would have helped. I liked the transitions that I used in between responses, making my questions feel more connected with one another. For example, I would comment on the interviewee’s answers as one normally would and use that buffer sentence to come up with another question related to what was just said. One thing that stood out as needing improvement was more consistent eye contact, and I think the reason that this was the case is because I needed to think on the spot a lot more than I would have liked to. This did not take that much away from the flow, but it is still something to keep in mind as I get more experience in this area. Overall, none of it felt too awkward and was mostly pretty casual. This is why we were able to make some changes as we were going, leaving the group with a solid set of interviews to work with.

Preparing for the Real Interview

I sent the email to my soccer coach a couple of days ago, requesting to set up the interview. He has already responded and told me to remind him after the next practice (Monday), for further discussion and to set up a date. The way that CLE and this eminent project have lined up has given me a good amount of interview experience, and on both sides of it as well. It is beneficial to be practicing as both the interviewer and the interviewee because both roles require a similar skill, which is the ability to connect your own responses with what was previously said. Whether that be a question or an answer, I need to have as much prepared for the interview as I can beforehand. One problem with the peer interviews is that we did not really have a consistent topic for our discussions, so it’s important to establish a theme for the upcoming eminent interview. I plan to focus on talking about some aspects of his own coaching style and get a background of some of his values as a coach. I am interested in this for two reasons, one of them being that he is my coach, I am intrigued about finding out how our team is like from his perspective. Secondly, I will be able to compare what I already know about Phil Jackson with someone that I personally know, which is something that I cannot do with the internet. If everything that I have planned so far goes well, then I expect to be set on a good track to a successful eminent project this year.