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Subject:Interviewing SMEs From:geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA Date:Thu, 26 Jun 1997 09:41:35 -0500
Hillary Jones wondered <<how to get the info you need from
a reluctant SME? How do you overcome hurdles like being
younger, being female, being not a programmer/engineer,
being new to the company?>>
My number one advice is to do more than show up on their
doorsteps only when you need something from them. Don't go
out of your way to make friends with someone you really
don't like--most people pick up on the lie really fast--but
do be civil, talk about sports or military history if
that's what they like, give them the opportunity to tell
you what they do and why they do it, and eat lunch with
them occasionally. Share Dilbert cartoons. Learn enough
about what they do so that you're not always annoying them
with stupid questions that you really should know the
answers to. Be a true colleague, not just someone annoying
in the same building. It's much harder to ignore someone
you like and respect than someone who bugs you and comes
off as a fool.
As for hurdles like being younger, being female, being not
a programmer/engineer, being new to the company... Well,
the first one and the last one you'll solve with the
passage of time <grin>. Being female you're pretty much
stuck with unless you plan drastic measures that I don't
want to know about <grin X 2>, but they'll still learn to
respect you if you do something to earn their respect. As
for not being an engineer, do some reading in their
areas... "Engineering for Dummies" sort of stuff perhaps...
just enough so that even if you're not an engineer, you can
at least mostly understand them when they talk.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.
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