An Interesting Interview

This week was very exciting mainly because I got to do my first interview with a professional clinical geneticist. While I was putting the contact list of geneticists I could interview together, I found that out of 50 I typed in only 4 had actual emails. Out of those 4, only one clinical geneticist responded to me, Dr. Robert Hopkin. I was very pleased to obtain an interview so quickly. However, I found it very challenging to make phone calls with professionals, as many of the clinical geneticists I tried to contact either didn't have voicemails set up or had defunct numbers. Mr. Pirtle gave me a sound suggestion, though. He recommended me to use LinkedIn instead to contact professionals if the telephone didn't work. That was far more effective, and I was able to send a brief message on LinkedIn to those clinical geneticists on my list & connect with them. Something strange I found was that these professionals will often accept your connection but won't respond to the message. Next week, I will follow up on my new connections and give them more details about the ISM program, so I can score a few more interviews. Concerning my first interview with Dr. Rob Hopkin on Wednesday, I had gleaned a great deal of knowledge from him. I liked him because you could see how passionate he was about his career. Even when I asked him what he would go back and change, he said there was nothing important. That made me a bit shocked, but of course, I was happy for him. Dr. Hopkin showed me a new, more positive perspective on direct-to-customer companies like 23andme. While in my research assessments I found many geneticists to oppose these companies, he believes that they'd be useful tools if they can improve their display of genetic information. Dr. Hopkin explained to me how telemedicine is a powerful tool during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has made it easier for his patients to get on a video call versus traveling for miles by car to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital. It was also interesting to hear from him how coronavirus has affected some genetic disorders of his patients. For some time, a big issue he faced was conflicts between the genetic and COVID-19 treatment that were not understood earlier this year. The most important takeaway, I think, from the interview was his encouragement for me to be curious and dig deeper when I can. His curiosity was his biggest motivator to pursue the field, and I felt that. Next week, I'm going to try my luck again with phoning professionals, and from the interview, I want to take a good look at just how much the genetic industry has soared in the last couple of decades. Dr. Hopkin pointed out how different things were in the 80s and how much the industry has changed since then.