Experiences of First Interview

Me and Yi did three interviews last Friday. I would like to share my experience with all of you.

Overview of the interview process

Before doing interviews, we first illustrated the aim and the procedure of the interview to interviewees. Then, we assured these three interviewees that a) any information obtained in the interview will not be reported without their consent b) information obtained in the interview will be used only for the purpose of this study. Lastly, we informed these three interviewees that they would be given the report if requested. These proceudres seek to promote trust between interviewees and us so that interviewees are open amd honsty to respond our questions.  

All three interviewees are Chinese students. The first interviewee is a male and currently doing a master degree in ANU. The second interviewee is a female and currently doing a master degree in ANU. The third interviewee is a female who finished her master degree in ANU two years ago. These three interviewees were asked about their experiences of studying in ANU and living in Canberra. 

Some thoughts about the interviews 

First, these three interviewees are all my close friends. These three interviewees are willling to cooperate with us. From the interviews, I could not tell that they were inentionall hiding nor relutant to tell us information. I am curious to think whether the interviews would be so favouring if the interviewees are those who I did not know? Next time I will test this.  

Second, all these three interviewees are Chinese internatinal students who have traditional Eastern norms and values. I am wondering whether interviews results will be different if interviewees are from Western countries (e.g. Euro)? 

Third, at the first instance, me and Yi were struggling whether to design specific questions for interviewees. We finally agreed with each other that we would not design specific questions which may limit the scope of interview results. But in our real research project, since our research project focuses on specific issues, is it necessary for us to design specific issues before doing interviews? 

Fourth, I found it is quite helpful that if we could do tape recording and taking notes/memos simultaneously. This is specifically useful when we do critical analysis, which can save us a lot of time. We do not need to re-listen interview and we can pick up critial information from our notes/memos. 

Lastly, we did our first two interviews on a group context and third interview individually. We found group interviews may make interviewees more relax, which is favourable to the interview results.