We recently finished our practice interviews. It was a good experience to freshen up on our interviewing skills before doing the real interviews for our eminent person project. Though a bit strange having two people watch you interrogate another person about their personal life, dreams, and goals, the practice was very useful in many ways. I went into the practice interviews pretty confident, and I came out even more confident with the help of the strengths and weaknesses my group member listed for me (I won’t mention who they are since I’m not sure if they would like that). While interviewing, I tried to show engagement by leaning forward on my chair and nodding my head. Apparently, I was leaning forward so much that it became a closed, unwelcoming position. Some advice was that I should lean forward occasionally but still keep an open and welcoming position. I also had during my interview tried to build off answers that seemed interesting or didn’t have much or enough of an answer. The person writing my assessment mentioned that though I was very good at building questions on the spot, I did stutter while trying to find the right words. Perhaps next time, I should pause and think for the right words and then finish the question. And I did occasionally cut the interviewee off to ask a question which could be problematic, but that’s on me. The interview witness did also tell me that I was very good at making the interviewee feel comfortable. I feel quite proud of that as it would be terrible to make the person I’m interviewing uncomfortable after asking for their time. Another strength that was listed for me was I was very good at asking for clarification to make sure the answers and impressions I was getting were an accurate representation of the truth. I think these practice interviews have given me good insight into my strengths and weaknesses as an interviewer and I am excited to do my real interviews with the professionals to learn more about my eminent person.