Chase for Clinical Geneticists

This week, right after our Business Symposium, we began compiling a list of professionals in our field for potential interviews. Mr. Pirtle assigned us to find a minimum of 50 contacts, and it was definitely a struggle. Finding clinical geneticists online is not a problem, but determining which ones are relatively nearby, worth talking to, and had sufficient contact information was a monstrosity. I was able to get to around 30 contacts before I wanted to give up. A solution I found that made things easier was to also include genetic counselors, rather than solely clinical geneticists, into my contact list. After that, things went by faster. After creating the list on Google Sheets, I was amazed by something. Only 4, just 4, of the contacts I had written down had emails. This might be because many clinical geneticists would rather take phone calls than look through their emails, but it was still surprising. I ended up readying my email template and shooting out my inquiries for an interview to these 4 contacts. I was happy to get a response only a few hours after by a certain Dr. Robert Hopkin, who referred me to his secretary to schedule an interview. After a few more days, we decided on having the interview next Tuesday right after school. Before then, I am going to revise the list of interview questions I have and also practice my conversational skills. Next week, I am going to start contacting the clinical geneticists in my list with only phone numbers. To prepare for that, I will be taking a look at the script again for making a voicemail, talking to a receptionist, and explaining the ISM program.