THE ONE WITH SCHEDULING INTERVIEWS

During the week of September 11th to the 15th, the Independent Study and Mentorship 2 students already started to practice cold calls and begin contacting professionals for informational interviews. Along with making calls, students started to build their resumes and websites as well as research more about their topic of study.

One of the main accomplishments of this week included making calls to professionals from my contact and correspondence list. The reason that it was an achievement was because I got my first interview scheduled with Dr. Matthias Peltz, a cardiothoracic surgeon at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Furthermore, I am in the process of scheduling interviews with Dr. David Moore and Dr. Justin Schaffer, both of which are cardiothoracic surgeons at Baylor Heart Hospital in Plano.

Another accomplishment of this week included creating a resume and website template. I have decided to continue my color scheme of dark red, black and beige, as I feel that those colors best represent the boldness of cardiothoracic surgery. Both the website and resume draft will be worked on to become better this following week.

A challenge that I faced this week was being able to get interviews from the list that I devised. Since last year there were many professionals who simply didn’t have the time for interviews with students, I have to contact people at a much farther distance from the Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex, including Keller, Arlington, and Mesquite. If by any chance distance becomes an issue, I will ask for a phone interview rather than a face to face interview.

In the following week, I will continue to make calls to professionals for conducting informational interviews, edit my resume, and research a new condition pertaining to cardiothoracic surgery.