In this blog post, I share four takeaways from my first experience interviewing Professor Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail, the Vice Chancellor (VC) of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Learn what goes behind the scene before the interview session. Find out what to do, and what not to do, pre-interview.
Prof. Abd. Karim Alias, CDAE Director reached out to me before Ramadhan, about a month and half ago. To interview USM VC and write a post based on the interview. It would become the featured article of SimplySpeaking, a blog that Prof. Karim launched recently plans to launch soon. A platform communicating the science and research in USM to the public.
A formidable task…
An interesting idea, interviewing USM VC. Well… daunting too.
FYI, Professor Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail is known as a woman of many firsts. In addition to serving as the first female VC of USM and, earlier, of USIM, she holds top positions in the country including as the first female Director-General of Higher Education and is currently the first female President of Academy of Sciences Malaysia (2016-2019).
For me, Prof. Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail is my inspiration. My role model. I got to know about her from my late dad when I started in USM as a young lecturer. My first encounter with Prof. Asma was at a PTK session.
Then later, at university meetings, namely when I was a School representative to USM library – Prof. Datuk Dr. Asma chaired library meetings in USM in her capacity as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).
Knowing her style… A formidable task, so it seemed.
~~~
Things fell into place
A week before the interview, Prof. Karim requested for interview questions. (Interestingly) I already had some questions earlier.
If you had read my book Elevate, I shared my creative processes – how ideas just came to me, like streams of visitors. So they came, and by ritual, I knew I had to note them somewhere. I noted them down using my favourite app, iA Writer, on my iPhone. Then, off to bed.
During our initial phone discussion, I shared these questions with Prof. Karim. I wanted to construct a portrait of Prof. Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail, I said to him.
Prof. Karim asked for few more questions by the next morning. (Perhaps he felt they were insufficient? for an hour long interview…). I replied,”No problem Prof. but can you give me until tomorrow midnight? I’ll give 3-4 more questions after Terawih prayers, before midnight.”
During that week, I was busy working on my first online course on Udemy: “Elevate Your Research Presentations!” Pushing through demam dan batuk to get it done–before May ends.
Alhamdullilah, everything fell into its place. The course was approved by Udemy in less than a day with no corrections. It was published in the early morning of 30 May 2019, a day before the scheduled interview with Datuk VC.
As such, you must have a game plan. You also should know how you work best and be well prepared for what could happen during the interview. In reverse order, the following are four takeaways from my experience interviewing Prof. Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail, USM Vice Chancellor recently:
1. Come well prepared, yet let thing flow naturally
After the initial discussion with Prof. Karim, I began to see my role for this session in another perspective. As mentioned above, I wanted to construct a portrait of Datuk VC. Then, I slowly realised my role is not just that.
Stories aren’t souvenir tee-shirts or GameBoys. Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible. Sometimes the fossil you uncover is small; a seashell. Sometimes it’s enormous, a Tyrannosaurus Rex…
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, p.188
It’s not simply a reporting job. Interviewing and writing about a distinguished, prominent person is not only a huge task, but also a delicate one.
A writer’s job is not unlike an archeologist’s [1], who discovers and unearths a 4000-year-old Royal tomb in Egypt.
It takes time. Painstaking time and effort to unveil the story.
And in time, I realised my task is to reveal her story, her personality and beauty to those who may not know her. To those who want to know her beyond Datuk VC. And to those who already knew her–to re-affirm why they love working for her.
So… I knew I had to come well prepared, yet be prepared to let the interview flow naturally.
If one thinks of controlling such interview, it may not work in your favour. So don’t be a dam.
From this experience, I learned it’s best to treat such interview like a river. Let a river runs its course but stay aware when the right opportunities arise to channel the interview, the conversations to where you want it to be.
2. What you seek…
To be honest, after the initial phone discussion with Prof. Karim, I didn’t immediately look for the questions. I let them come to me.
“What you seek is seeking you”
–Rumi
I hardly do anything towards generating more questions that Prof. Karim asked. It’s not that I’m lazy or too confident. It’s because, with age, I knew better how I work. More precisely, how my brain and body work best.
When I was younger, I used to be quite nervous or nearly had panic attacks whenever I was faced with such requests or invitation to present impromptu. I turned down many. Hahaha… If I had known myself better 20 years earlier, I would just relax.
Thanks to my ‘ageing’ brain and some experiences, I knew the questions would come to me, sooner or later.
So at 10 pm that night, I started putting on the thinking cap. Alhamdullilah, the questions came and knocking at the door of my grey(ing) cells. My poor fingers had to catch up with the incoming thoughts. Hahahaa…
After 90 mins of researching, I emailed another 3-4 questions to Prof. Karim just before midnight.
Job done until next Friday. The interview.
3. Gameplan: Navigate the interview with 3 big ideas
I reached the set 30 minutes before schedule. Best to let my nerves settle down first 😉 Prof. Karim and his CDAE team were already there, setting up a Mevo camera and lightings at the VC’s waiting room.
Good energy abound.
At home earlier, I had a quick run-through the questions that Prof. Karim compiled. These include going through Datuk VC’s bio, watched some related videos on youtube and edited the questions further. I added themes and categories to the questions.
I devised a game plan as follows:
Beginning: About Datuk VC as a person, her personality, A woman of many firsts.
Middle: Her Research – Innovative healthcare, Typhoid, RDCE with TyphiDot.
End: Her vision of USM in 2050. And a concluding question 😉
In addition to 2 pages of questions, written down in detail, I also have these 3 big ideas. I was ready to go.
The big ideas serve as signposts – pertinent questions to navigate the interview session.
4. Cameras are your best friends, their angles may be your “enemies”
I often go green, paperless – using my phone to note down ideas and questions but this time, somehow, I felt strongly about printing the questions. The set of papers turned out to be more than a blessing!
As an interviewer, I took note the number of cameras in use and their angles. In this session, the CDAE team employed Mevo, a multi-angle camera.
Additionally, Prof. Karim used his amazing new gadget, Dji Osmo Pocket, a pocketable handheld camera that delivers 4K resolution recordings. (Mental note: a handbag-friendly camera for women who loves tech and travellers)
While Mevo sat on a tripod, recording the front views; the interview was shot from two additional angles–one from behind my shoulder (like this post’s cover photo) and the other diagonally where I directly faced the camera.
The less appealing angle…
On that day, I discovered that, not only the papers are useful to remind oneself of the points/questions to ask, but they are also great to cover one’s (big) tummy especially a camera is positioned not at the right angles (pun intended)…
Well, I’m glad I brought the papers with me 😉
~~~
The interview, just before…
On the set, we were to sit on a 3-seater beige sofa that was naturally lit by the 4 o’clock afternoon sun. Gentle and affable light enhanced further by a softbox lighting. Lucky that it wasn’t a rainy day.
Around ten past four, Datuk VC came out of the meeting next door. She stopped by her secretary desk to sign some documents and walked into the set.
If she had chaired hour-long meetings the entire day, it hardly showed on her face! Looking fresh, radiant and sharp, she gave a beautiful smile when she saw us.[2]
Minutes later, we both sat down at the sofa. Prof. Karim briefed Datuk VC on what the interview about. And we ready for the camera.
Camera rolling, the interview with Prof. Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail commenced. And my game plan, on.
45 minutes later…
I had goose-bumps throughout the interview.
Goose-bumps like when one sees a ghost… yet with no fear.
Instead, goose-bumps that came with deepest respect for Prof. Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail–the first woman entrusted to lead and take the country’s premier university to a greater height. To a territory uncharted by any university before.
Towards excellence with a soul.
Get up close with Prof. Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail in my next post in Simply Speaking.[3]
[1] In the book ‘On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft’ book, Stephen King reveals his creative processes during the writing of his many bestsellers. It’s beautifully described. I was quite surprised and happy to learn about his way of writing. My writing process bears some resemblances to his, in some respect. Same goes to designing a presentation. And, I believe you Stephen King =)
[2] I must find out Datuk VC’s secrets of looking fresh and radiant all day long. If there’s a next time 😉
[3] Just to set the record straight. Even though it may seem like a commissioned work, I have not been promised or received any payment from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for this interview and writing a post for Simply Speaking. Nor I represent USM. FYI, I no longer work in USM–currently unemployed and writing from home. This piece of writing is entirely my own views, impressions and experiences.
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