04 Dec 09 Series Wrap-Up – NaPodPoMo Day 30

Background

As part of NaPodPoMo, I’ve released a video (preferred) or audio (if needed) segment every day in November 2009, where I practiced answering a typical interviewing question.  Were my answers perfect? Probably not.  This experiment had the following objectives:

• Practice answering typical interviewing questions
• Produce content for the internet on a consistent basis
• Develop some rudimentary skill in video production

Here, then, for your enjoyment, is the last installment of the series, as Day 30 of 30:

NaPodPoMo Day 30: Series Wrap-up

Feedback

Dawn from Cincinnati sent in a great critique of how I did with the videos, mentioning that the idea was great and shared some suggestions for how I could get better. Chris Meyer from Las Vegas sent in some audio feedback that this series came out at a time that he was interviewing for a job, and the interviewers commented that he was well-prepared. This series helped him be prepared for the interviewing questions.

Lessons Learned

• Seeing the return on my time investment. Producing video content to go out every single day was rather strenuous. If I didn’t see the benefit of me getting practice answering job interview questions, I probably wouldn’t have done it this way.
• Producing in bulk, scheduling to be published later. Many of these videos were recorded and produced in bulk, and then scheduled to be published on the days they went out.  Creating content, whether video or blog posts, in bulk while in a creative frame of mind, was very helpful.  Being able to schedule the blog posts ahead of time was also very helpful.
• Learning to produce and edit video. I feel much more comfortable recording, editing, publishing, tagging, and in general producing video now. The tools I used were
  • Lenovo Easy Capture for the webcam recording, built-in laptop mic
  • Windows Movie Maker to edit, add titles, and publish
  • Free Video Converter utility to convert WMV files to MP4
  • iTunes to add ID3 tags
• Promoting through social networking. Promoting the videos on Facebook and LinkedIn, and occasionally on Twitter, helped drive traffic.
• Would I do this again? I don’t know if I’d commit to producing video every day like this. We’ll see. NaPodPoMo 2010 is a ways off.

The background music for this series is called “Dodging Buses” by Derek K. Miller. Check out his Penmachine Podcast.

If you would like to download this file directly, you can do that as well. Direct link (mp4, 8:27, 16.4 MB)

Related articles by Daniel Johnson Jr and Zemanta

• How have you demonstrated effective written communication skills? – NaPodPoMo Day 19 (getthatjobonline.com)
• Mastering the Behavioral-Based Interview (timesunion.com)
• Free Video Editing Tools: Guide To The Best Software And Web-Based Services (masternewmedia.org)
• National Podcast Post Month (NaPodPoMo) (danieljohnsonjr.com)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (16.5MB)

Tags: Derek K. Miller, feedback, interviewing, job search, lessons learned, NaPodPoMo, video, video production