I chose Holt International Children’s Services for my informational interview because it was the agency my parents chose when they wanted to adopt. They chose Holt International because their first priority is to serve the children in their care. They work to support birth families and children so they can stay together, and if needed, they help find adoptive families for children in their birth country. Only then is international adoption an option they consider for a child. As an adoptee, I thought it would be interesting to talk to someone who works there.

Before I contacted Holt International, I explored their website and blog for various media. I found many articles, videos, and photos that talked about different adoptive families’ stories. I liked how the written articles told the stories and then in the video, the child or family would talk about the story from their own point of view. They were very professionally done, and very meaningful.

On October 30^th, I interviewed Brian Campbell. He works at Holt International as a manager in the multimedia department. Travel is a part of this job because Holt provides services in many countries. As I interviewed Mr. Campbell and asked him my questions, he told me some interesting stories about his trips. One story he told me was when he was in the Philippines. He saw a group of young boys and wanted to take their picture. The youngsters followed Mr. Campbell and as soon as he turned to take their picture, they instantly started smiling, laughing and dancing for the camera.

Mr. Campbell also told me about when he was in Thailand and had to cross a lake to get to the other side. The only way he could get there was to walk on this very “dodgy” bridge. He told me it was not very wide and when several people were walking on it, the bridge started to waver and bend. He couldn’t afford to get the camera wet, so he handed it over to his assistant before carefully balancing his way across. I enjoyed hearing about his experiences in other countries.

When Mr. Campbell goes traveling it’s not always with the whole crew. Sometimes it’s just himself and the writer. He takes the photos and videos while his assistant writes the stories. Afterwards they bring their work back home to the Eugene office and do their production work with the rest of the team. In Eugene, on a day-to-day basis, Mr. Campbell prioritizes current tasks and also plans ahead for the next week. Like most people, I didn’t know how much time, effort and work goes into making everything look professional and presentable. It takes a good amount of time to get all of their work done and finished by a certain deadline, which is one of Mr. Campbell’s daily challenges. One of the biggest opportunities in the department includes digital marketing for social websites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. Mr. Campbell mentioned they’re always open to offering internships because their job requires many hands and their work is very intense. Holt’s staff also looks for employees who are motivated to help children and families. They care about why people want to work for them.