I began searching for people to interview by messaging local web developers on LinkedIn. I messaged six people in all, however, only one responded to my message. Fortunately, I was able to do an interview with this person. I felt discouraged by the lack of response from the other people I messaged on LinkedIn, so I switched to emailing local web design businesses to set up the remaining interviews. The owners of each business were willing to meet with me via video call.
The last interview I did was the most rewarding to me. Although this interview took much longer than the others, the interviewee really went in-depth with his answers. He discussed a WordPress theme he uses and some people he listens to about web development related things. He even showed me some work he was doing for a client. I got much more information out of this interview than I thought I would. I only wrote down some of the more important information in my notebook.
I had some disappointments with the interviews. One came with my first interviewee when he said he was not able to do a video call with me. He asked that I message him my questions instead. This was not the type of interview I had in mind, but I able to do an interview nevertheless. Another disappointment came with one of the business owners when he showed up about 20 minutes late. He said he was late because of a issue on his end with Zoom. It was a good thing I waited all that time for him, because I was considering giving him up.
Overall, I had a positive and beneficial experience interviewing local web developers. It was enriching to learn directly from people who do web development for a living, and it was interesting hearing about the things they do and how they feel about their job. One of my interview questions asked for advice for people who are starting in web development, and my interviewees gave inspiring answers. I had a great learning experience with this project and I now have a better idea of what it is like to work in web development.