My Blog

[jay-ell]

So, I have this blog. I have had a few people flake out on me in quick succession, and I need someone to interview (by phone) ASAP. (Preferably 2 someones, because I don't have anyone lined up for next week, either, and apparently I can't count on my supposed co-writer to get her stories up on time, or at all.) I know some of you have volunteered, and I've talked to at least one of you off-board, but to make it easier on myself, I thought I'd start a thread to keep it all in once place.

So if you're interested, please post here a brief (4 - 8 line) description of some interesting aspect(s) of your career path, current or former job(s), etc. and a rough timetable for when you'd be available to spend an hour or so with me on the phone. I will choose two based on availability and balance with the three interviews I've already posted (e.g. I don't really need another computer programmer again so soon) and if you don't make it in this time I'll keep you on file for a later date.

If I can get a couple interviews done this week I will...uh...love you forever? Give you tiny cans of Dr. Pepper?

Please and thank you.

[AugustWest]

I'm certainly willing to give you the time, but I don't know if my career could be considered a detour.  I went to law school and I practice law.  But I have meandered around within the profession a good bit.  If you'd told me I'd end up doing tax law when I was in law school, I'd have laughed at you.

I will...uh...love you forever?

Long time would be sufficient.

[littlefallsmets]

Some day, when I've figured out what the hell to do with my life, I will be happy to help you with this, jayelle, but...

Right now it ain't applicable to a dude.

[pmcd9]

You expressed interest in doing a story on my father.  He is available for an interview whenever you need him.  Info on his career can be found here.

[pmcd9]

After reading your post about Danny Dunston I think my career path might be of interest to your readers.  It's in a similar vein, but not the same at all.

[Nabubrush]

I'm here for you. I'm not sure how much is interesting, but on the other hand there's a thread around here somewhere specifically about my particular picaresque. Crap jobs, off to uni, major based on an off-the-cuff remark an advisor made, never worked in my field, currently working as an engineer in the frozen wastes. An interview would probably be easier once I'm home (I head home the first of April) but whatever helps you out I can probably swing.

[theinevitable]

sorry that I flaked out on giving you an interview, JL. I'm sure everyone was excited to hear the story of how I got my exciting career.

[Nabubrush]

sorry that I flaked out on giving you an interview, JL. I'm sure everyone was excited to hear the story of how I got my exciting career.

Don't be that guy, inev. Don't be a flake. Inquiring minds are waiting to hear your story.

[theinevitable]

Now I just have to turn his, Ray style, into my motivation to get an exciting job.

[jay-ell]

I think Nabu might be my best bet for the moment, since August's might be similar to the one I posted last week, and Paul thinks his is a lot like the one I posted 2 weeks ago. I could also do Paul's dad, which sounds really fascinating, but I have to confess I'm more comfortable with Nabu because I (sort of) know him.

Paul, if you can convince me your dad isn't scary, I'll interview him first and wait 'til Nabu gets home. I would like to interview him this week but honestly my schedule is so full the only times I have are in the evenings after the kids to go bed. So, like, 8 or 9 PM EST. During a normal week I have mornings available, but this week Pedro is having minor surgery on Wednesday so the only morning I can count on is tomorrow between 9 and 10:30 EST. Is that too soon? If so, I will figure out something else for this Friday and I can talk to him next week. You can call or text me (I think you have my number still? If not, PM me) and we can figure out scheduling.

My theoretical co-writer supposedly did her first interview over the weekend that was supposed to go up Saturday, but who knows if that's going to happen. If she did the interview, I can post her piece this coming Friday. My photographer who flaked out last week is set up for an interview tomorrow night, so if she makes that I can post that the following week and it will give me a little more time to get my ducks in a row with you guys. But I feel like I need a backup plan because I have been let down by a lot of people this week and I'm not inclined to trust them when, quite honestly, there's no reason for them to be invested in this project (other than free publicity, which, apparently, is not motivating for an already-successful, well-known local wedding photographer.)

I think Wombat is still up for a mid-April piece to coincide with the publication of her first book, right? If so, and if I get a response from the professional video game competitor, I might be set until May.

[wombat]

End of April is better for me. Actually, beginning of May. I am speaking on a panel at a mystery conference last weekend in April and maybe there will be some funny stories of my huge success there, or not.

An old acquaintance of mine just emailed me with a long story of what she's done in the 25 years since I saw her last, which sounds like a good subject, but I think it would be better to wait to ask until you have more material up, so the blog looks more impressive when I say "hey go look at this blog, want to be interviewed?"  That being said, I don't know Paul's dad, but just on general principles I can't imagine any dad of Paul's being scary, and you had better start getting up the nerve to interview people you don't know or the project isn't going to last very long.

[AugustWest]

That being said, I don't know Paul's dad, but just on general principles I can't imagine any dad of Paul's being scary,

This. 

[jay-ell]

you had better start getting up the nerve to interview people you don't know or the project isn't going to last very long.

Also, this.

I know! At one point, I looked at Pedro and said, "Why on earth did I chose a blog topic that requires me to be social?" But it is all about personal growth, I guess.

I have a call scheduled with my cousin for tonight (B.A. in abnormal psych, worked in the psych ward of a hospital, went to law school, joined a practice, started her own practice, became well-known in the community through volunteering at her daughter's school, ended up getting appointed to serve as a trustee in her township & is now a full-time public official). Should be interesting. She's a talker.

[wombat]

I have always hated making phone calls. Hate, hate, hate. So of course my first major writing job in my life required making phone interviews. Lots of them. At least three for each 800 word article. Maybe 5% of the time I went out and covered a story in person, but the rest was phone interviews.

What I found was that interviewing people isn't that much like being social. It's not like being at a party. You're not trying to make small talk, having to come up with some topic out of nowhere that you might both be able to talk about. It's not that kind of improvisation without a net feeling that we introverts have in social situations.  Instead you have a defined subject, defined questions you need to get answers to (although don't forget to be open to answers that you didn't think to ask for). You don't have to worry you're boring the other person or whatever because you're not doing the talking. Most people love to talk about themselves and have someone hang on their every word.

So I recommend that you just think of this as something different. It's not socializing, it's a job extracting stuff from people. You'll learn how best to basically manipulate people to get their best stories out of them. Which might actually help you fake being social as a side benefit, but basically, you can do it by analyzing your experiences and discovering what works to get information out of people, even if you have no intuitive grasp of human socialization. This was my experience, anyway.

[Nabubrush]

I plan on our phone call going well enough that you look forward to continuing this experiment.