Quick Tip: Case Study Interview Prep You May Have Missed

BY Holly Yoos

April 6, 2021

So you’ve been pulled in to conduct a case study interview.

And you’ve done all you can to prepare for it.

But there’s one small aspect of interview prep you may have missed.

And that’s nailing down exactly how to pronounce the name of the person you’ll be interviewing—as well as the name of the company they represent.

Hopefully, someone on your team will be able to confirm pronunciation. Surely the account manager will know?

But if no one on your team is certain of pronunciation—and you find yourself with an unfamiliar name you don’t want to mangle—follow these tips to get it right:

1. Check the person’s LinkedIn profile

LinkedIn has an option to record your name and upload it to your profile as a short audio file. If the person you’ll be interviewing has done this, you’ll see a small speaker icon next to their name at the top of their profile page.

Click the icon to hear the proper pronunciation—then write it out phonetically and practice it.

2. Google the person or company

Look for videos where someone pronounces the interviewee name and/or company name. Try to find more than one example in case it was bungled in the first one.

3. Google the first name

If you can’t find an example of someone saying the interviewee’s name, Google the person’s first name to see how others with the same name pronounce it.

4. Consult others in your network

A name that’s unfamiliar to you may be very common in other parts of the world. Reach to your network to see if others have insights into the pronunciation (although if confidentiality is a consideration, you may have to skip this step).

Of course you can (and should!) confirm pronunciation with your interviewee once you’re on the call.

But making the effort to get it right the first time is a sign of true care and professionalism.

Want to work with a group of professionals to get those customer case study interviews off your plate?

Author

Holly Yoos

Head of Writing and Interviewing

Based in Vancouver, Canada, Holly is pumped to tell stories of companies succeeding and doing good in the world.

Ya, you like that? Well, there’s more where that came from!

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