Dear content creators, I used to oversee interview scheduling as part of my job, and I am now frequently on the receiving end of interview requests. There are some things that MANY of you do not do that I think of as basic professionalism. A THREAD:

1. When requesting an interview, you should provide:
- a link to your podcast/YouTube/whatever
- what you want to talk about
- how much time you want & when
- whether there is homework
- why I should want to talk to you

I get many requests missing at least 2-3 of these items

(If you can't answer that last question, I highly recommend this thread.) https://twitter.com/TheOneTAR/status/1336797199678590977

2. Avoid a ton of back-and-forth on scheduling by providing specifics. I find it much easier to reply to "We usually do Saturday mornings but Tuesday lunchtime can also work. Would you be available on January 9?" than "When would work for you?" (ps you MUST give your time zone!)

3. When the time is firm, send a calendar invite that has all the info above, PLUS LOGISTICS. I should not have to reach out to you 15 min before an interview asking whether we're talking on Skype or Zoom. It should be on my calendar, in the invite you sent me.

Or you can send it in an email and I will paste it into my calendar. But you MUST send logistics info, even if it's just "we'll send you a link to x service 15 minutes before we start," or I'll be bewildered when I get a reminder to get on a call that I don't have the info for.

I strongly prefer calendar invites, because a) it saves me that cut-and-paste step, and b) I used to work in a multi-time-zone office, and auto-adjusting calendar invites saved us from time-zone-based scheduling errors MANY TIMES

4. It's a nice touch to send an email the day before for something we scheduled months ago. "just checking in to confirm our chat tomorrow" lets me know you are on your game.

5. Thank you notes are also nice. (Email is fine -- I don't love giving out my physical address.)

Is any of this off-base? Do you have any other tips?

Oh also I have a new rule that you have to be pretty special to get more than 60 minutes of my time. This goes for podcasts I listen to as well as podcasts requesting my presence. I am increasingly convinced that anything over an hour is just disorganized.