My First Interview
My first interview went surprisingly smoothly. My plan was to interview a phone salesman for the story I was writing on smartphones. Thankfully, that plan didn’t get altered too much.
It was 7 p.m. Monday night. The story was due 24 hours from now. I left work, stopped by my apartment for five minutes and ran out the door. After practicing my introduction a couple times to myself in the car, I finally got the nerve to go inside AT&T, and interview my first source.
“Hello, I’m a journalism student from UF doing a story on smartphones,” I started. “I was wondering if I could take a few minutes of your time and ask you some questions.”
“Sorry but we’re not allowed,” the AT&T man said. “You have to go through our media relations department.”
That’s great. Now what was I supposed to do? I had a few seconds of disillusion and panic but quickly snapped out of it. I didn’t need someone from AT&T. If they didn’t want to cooperate, I could just go to another cell phone shop. Luckily, T-Mobile was just across the street.
“Hello, I’m a journalism student from UF doing a story on smartphones,” I started. “I was wondering if I could take a few minutes of your time and ask you some questions.”
“Well, I’m pretty busy right now,” the saleswoman said.
My heart sank. I might as well walk out the door now.
“But let me ask someone else for you,” she continued.
I thanked the woman and gave her a big smile. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. She directed me to one of her co-workers, a young man named John. He looked as if he was being forced to do this interview and was worried about the length of the questions. When I assured him it would just be six or seven easy questions, he relaxed a little.
I took a seat in front of John and began my interview. I was nervous in the beginning, but John’s friendliness calmed me down. I was getting really good quotes while having a pleasant conversation with someone. Everything was perfect. Good thing because I didn’t have time for things to go wrong.
2 years ago • Notes