Interview number one!

My first interview was with the shelter manager. Her name was Amy Duskiewicz. She was very nice and polite throughout the interview. The air was pretty comfortable, similar to the overall vibe of Providence Animal Rescue League. She answered every question I asked with clarity and thoroughness. There were some awkward points, but she never seemed annoyed with me. I think it was successful overall.

One of the interesting points I took from the interview was when Amy talked about her history with “sheltering.” The actual term sheltering was interesting in itself, which made me realize that in the animal welfare world, it’s probably a known verb. In the interview Amy gave me her background with animals revealing that she has been involved with them throughout her entire life. This made me wonder if most of the people in the animal welfare world have this type of experience. Amy raised dogs for the blind when she was little, worked at an animal shelter in Boston throughout college, worked as a vet tech in Vermont, moved to New Orleans and taught theatre(with her degree)-while she worked with Project Humane, moved to Vermont and managed a shelter, then moved to North Smithfield for her job at Providence Animal Rescue League. Amy moved all over the country to pursue a career with animals, “and honestly that’s kind of, in the animal welfare world, that’s kind of how it is.” (Amy) I thought this was the most interesting point of the interview because it illustrates an extreme dedication to the welfare of animals, and I admire that.

The biggest problem I had with this interview was how I kept losing my train of thought and forgetting the follow-up questions I had. I had a list of questions that pretty much dominated the interview, but whenever I formulated follow-up questions I didn’t write them down, and then forgot them. I remembered Dr. Cook’s advice about writing down questions, but not until it was too late. My next interview will probably go smoother because now I gained that experience. 

I realized that keeping time is probably something else I need to work on as well. Tomorrow I plan on bringing a watch so I know how much time has passed, because with this interview I definitely did not. I dragged out the interview in fear that it was not long enough, to find out at the end that it was twenty minutes longer than necessary. This wouldn’t have been a problem if I didn’t have to type it, but I did, and it was dreadful. Also, because I wasn’t keeping track of time, I was forced to run through Providence to Kennedy Plaza in order to catch my bus. All of these things made me realize that a watch will be truly beneficial.