Today I was on Bloomberg Quicktake to talk about my book Raven and how I wrote it to try to increase diversity in tech. Squeee!
I spoke with them for about 20 minutes over the weekend so they’d have some material to ask me questions from, but I had no idea what they were going to ask me today. It went okay – I didn’t majorly embarrass myself – but to be honest, I left the interview feeling vaguely like I’d missed an opportunity to say more. Though I didn’t know what. I was more a ball of adrenaline and nerves after the interview than before, so it took a while to calm down after that.
Here’s the video link: Quicktake “Take the Lead” 02/08/2021, go to 31:50.
What was I doing closing my eyes so much!?
Now that I’ve watched it had some time to reflect, I realize why I missed an opportunity and what I should have done better. So let me share my lessons learned.
Before the interview, the only “prep” I did was trying to be in a good mental state to answer any questions they were going to ask me on the subjects that I know well. I can easily talk to you about why I wrote my book and what the need is, any day, with no real prep. But what I wasn’t ready for is doing that well in only 2 minutes. I was ready to let her lead the conversation. But I wasn’t ready to lead the conversation myself. She asked me some very open-ended questions that I could have taken over and steered my own direction, but I didn’t.
I should have been ready with talking points I wanted to hit. Which would be:
- Stats on gender and racial diversity in the software industry. I know these by heart, I just didn’t jump up and blurt them out.
- Stories like the Hunger Games have made a big difference in other fields; we need a similar phenomenon to change stereotypes and inspire kids to enter tech. (This I did cover, at least)
- Tech companies should be working together to fund the creation of new content like this, and to make it easier for families and teachers to find good STEM content for kids.
I’ve heard, before, that I need to be ready with my elevator pitch. But I had never quite boiled it down to this minimum before. Of course, now, it’s a ‘DUH’ moment. Sigh!
I guess I’ll be more ready next time I need to talk to someone. But while it should feel like a proud moment, it feels like a bit of a miss. 😕😞