This week, I had my first interview! Well, it was less of an interview and more of a conversation to get advice and information. The person I talked to was an ISM alumni who studied astrobiology, a field that's related to mine, so I was able to learn a lot about college life and what makes a potential candidate stand out in this field. I think this mock-interview was very helpful for me because I got the practice of creating questions before hand and taking notes during the interview. I also got a large list of professional contacts, and this is amazing because I had been struggling to find and connect with professionals for the past couple of weeks.
Using this knowledge, I want to start contact people on the list of people I received as well as find new people for myself. I have set a goal of reaching out and setting up at least one research interview by the end of this week so that I can start getting information about astrophysics and potential mentors. Additionally, we have an ISM Business Symposium coming up, and here we will also meet and interview professionals, although they may not be in our field of interest. I'll try to implement my experience of interviews for this, and prepare questions to make sure we have meaningful conversations.