RESOURCE: Share your story with the UC Tech community – Interview questions and options

Van Williams and Laurel Skurko

January 1, 2024All Articles, , ,

By Laurel Skurko. The UC Tech news team, working with Van Williams, VP of IT and chief information officer (CIO) of the University of California, looks forward to learning more about you and sharing your news with the UC tech community. You can learn more about the UC Tech news team and audiences on our About Page or by searching this website. Below, please find the questions we typically ask our interview subjects.

Some interview subjects simply write answers to questions about themselves, a project they are working on and/or an event they hosted. Others prefer to schedule time for a Zoom conversation. Please scroll to the bottom of this page to see a few examples. We look forward to hearing from you.

We cover many kinds of stories, including:

  1. About people – you and your work – so people can connect with you or simply learn more about you and your career.
  2. About projects – a completed project, or one where you are still in the midst of getting a result and may want to connect with your counterparts in other locations.
  3. About networking/educational events – we hope to work with you to capture the essence of what was shared in a webinar or other events in order to help share with others and/or continue the conversations started at the event.

(1) About people – Interview questions

Below, please find prompts to help the UC IT Blog team share more about you with the UC tech community.

Can you answer the following questions as they relate to you: 

  1. Tell me about you and your career at UC (or before that) Where have you been and where are you headed, who/what influenced your journey? 
  2. Are there any technical skills, leadership skills, and/or diversity factors that are important to you that you can share with the community? 
  3. What do you find most meaningful about your work? Do you have preferred/valued resources to share w/ the UC Tech community, with those at UC Office of the President, and/or those w/ UC (think about the three audiences and what you might share)? Those could be on a specific topic or general.  
  4. What is a typical day or week like for you (inside or outside work)? Any routines, insights or resources you can share about what makes you tick or how you get things done? Are there any Diversity Equity and Inclusion awareness events that are meaningful to you that you’d like to share?

A couple of additional ideas (feel free to take or leave them): 

  1. What do you enjoy about working in the technology field? 
  2. In what areas do you think UC is leading in your field? 
  3. Are there any current trends that you think will be important/people should know about or look forward to? 

(2) About projects – Interview questions

  1. Name of person, name of the team, or name of the project (for team or project names, please keep them short and memorable, is possible.) 
  2. All project team members –  if applicable (Name, title, department, location/organization, and please indicate if they are faculty or staff, along with their email address(s).   
  3. Which location was affected by the work? (the name(s) of the organization affected) 
  4. Summary (1-3 sentences summarizing the project – a summary of the “narrative,” below) 
  5. Narrative (1.5-2 pages in Word – up to about 1,000 words-  feel free to include visuals). This is a descriptive narrative about the person/team and their portfolio of work – or the initiative/project –  in terms of what elements were most important to you, such as innovation, collaboration, etc. Please include: 
    1. Description of the initiative(s) or portfolio of work that supports your conclusions regarding excellence in innovation, collaboration, etc.
    2. Provide details regarding the complexity, impact, and mission alignment (mission, vision or values ) of your work how you measured success (quantitative and qualitative metrics are welcome).
    3. The time during which the work was done. 

(3) About networking/educational events

Here we hope to relay the key takeaways, how many/who attended, and possible next steps. This can help those who would like to learn from all that was covered, thanks to the combination of materials and people you gathered. Feel free to provide a link to the event video and any takeaways, guest count, etc. Learn more about event marketing at the University of California here.

Photos and other information

We hope you include a portrait, photos of you and your team. Some have offered pictures with family and/or pets as well.

We enjoy including bio’s, and often link to your LinkedIn profile at the bottom of each article.

Interview methods

Interview examples

C-suite Leaders

Other Community Members

Covering projects/ UC Tech Awards winners

Covering networking/educational events

Call to action

Schedule time for a Zoom interview with our editors or send your news to UCITBlog@UCOP.edu

Laurel Skurko, UC Tech News editor, Zoom interview with
Harold Shin and Ernesto Carrasco, UCLA

Contact

Laurel Skurko, Marketing & Communications, IT Services, UC Office of the President
Laurel Skurko
Marketing & Communications
UC Office of the President

[Cover photo caption: Laurel Skurko and Van Williams at UC Office of the President]