Why oh why did I decide to do a PhD based on interviewing? I am quite a shy person and I find the whole process of contacting people, convincing them to be interviewed, interviewing them and following up so stressful! In fact, I don't have enough interviews and now have to go and get some more and am putting it off...and off...gah! Does anyone else have this problem? Or any tips?

My PhD was part interview based (part participant observation with the people) and I really regretted it at first but I just found that I just got into it. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like you have so you have to grit your teeth and get through it.

As with so many things in life, the best tip is probably to be in the moment. Unless you can really justify it as productive and useful, try to stop yourself from pessimistically anticipating the future or negatively dwelling on the past. There's no point worrying about sounding silly be going really over the top to ask someone to interview nor cringing at all the little things you wish you hadn't said. This is just something you've got to do and, I'm sure, at the end of it, you'll have data that's far better than you thought.

Put it this way, I suffer from panic attacks and extreme anxiety, and I'm very shy. Yet I still managed to do this for a year and a half without too much trouble. I bet you can do it too, just try to switch off.

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Good advice from MM. I think I would be the opposite as although also being quite introverted, I worked in customer service for sixteen years for an airline in a very busy airport dealing with complaints, delayed flights, cancellations and so I didn't mind the face-to-face contact aspect of my fieldwork. I felt that I switched back into my customer relations type zone!

It sounds like the more you put them off, the worse they are getting in your mind. What about looking ahead on the calander and marking when you would like to have your additional interviews done by? Then I would crack on trying to organise them. On the actual day of the interview I would often get quite nervous beforehand and check my email hoping that they would cancel but that only actually happened once and then I was raging 'coz I had to do it all over again!

Once they are under way, you will be getting another step closer to completing them. I have heard of people being pulled up in their viva over too few interviews so it's prudent to do a few more if your supv doesn't think you have enough.

I used to make my initial contact via email and then follow that up with a phone call two or three days later. That way you can say "I'm following up on an email I sent on Monday - have you had a chance to consider it yet?" Often I got the impression that they were speed reading my email when I phoned but at least it gave me a chance to lay down what I was looking for in a logical manner. If you're nervous it can be difficult to transmit your request for an interview clearly. Have your diary to hand so that if they suggest a day you can immediately agree or not. If it doesn't suit you, I would immediately suggest an alternate day, otherwise you will have to make that phone call all over again. Try to get the mobile number of the person you are meeting so that if, yikes, you are running late you will be able to contact them. I think making eye contact and using the person's name is a good way to convince them that you are concentrating on what they are saying - that was 'beaten' into us in my airline training!

Other than that just be pragmatic about it, every additional interview you do brings you that bit closer to not having to do any more of them!!

Good luck

Tell you what: I'll do your interviews for you if you do my analysis - deal??;-)

Hi there,

I'm pretty shy as well and I'm doing a lot of one-on-one interviews for my research. I find it helps if you think of it as playing a role - you are the official interviewer (or even psychiatrist-type person!) and you are listening to these people in your professional capacity.

To be honest, the interviewees are probably thinking more about what they are saying and how they are coming across than what you are doing - people are often happy to have someone really listen to them.

Hope that helps, and good luck!