I transcribed all of the taped interviews so as to get a thick description. Lindlof
and Taylor (2002) recommended that the interviewers transcribe interviews
themselves because they (the interviewers) are familiar with the “speech patterns,
references to people and place” of their interviewees (p. 205). For research questions
one and two, I read and re-read the transcripts and used other data from documents
and notetaking during the interviews to create a thick description. Then, I looked for
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common meanings if they emerged in the interviews. In this section, I used the
language of participants and my own interpretations to create a thick description. For
research question three, the focus of the analysis was on the components of
communication competence in job interviews. I identified the themes that were
evident in the data by grouping common statements or ideas. I did this by using
notecards. Moreover, I also used the data from the transcripts and my journal and
notes from the fieldwork to interpret my data. All data were used to create an
ethnographic survey.