Overcoming Challenges

At the beginning of my internship, I received an employee manual that laid out what was expected of me throughout the summer--conducting interviews was not on that list. When I was told about this new responsibility, I was immediately intimidated. I was anxious to talk to this person that had accomplished so much and I had no idea what their personality was going to be like. I asked myself,"how am I going to do this? Type everything they say? Record them? Is that allowed?" All of these questions swimming in my head as I researched the interviewee. Finally the day came and as I made my way down to Detroit, I prepared myself. I ended up conducting a good interview and the interviewee was extremely approachable and compliant. I enjoyed the experience, but what made my day was when I saw the interviewee on a seperate occasion, after I had posted the blog of the interview. He said he thought the blog turned out great! Even though it was a nerve-wracking experience, I am now in the process of conducting a second interview, but I will be going into this one with much more confidence. 

I learned a lot from the first interview. I learned to not bother with the laptop, it is impossible to type everything they're saying. Also, I hated feeling disengaged from the conversation. For my next interview I will definitely just record the session, and then take notes on a good, old-fashioned note book. I learned to be relaxed in the interview, to treat it like a normal conversation. I am surprised at myself that I handled the task after being thrown into it unexpectedly and I look forward to my next interview.

As summer is about half way over, as is my internship. I have kept my lines of communication open and have attending countless meetings and video chats. I've dealt with a lot of different aspects of the store--including writing, fashion, communications, and event coordination. However, there is always room for improvement and I hope to do that in my writing and preparedness.