Reddit reviews Olympus VN-8100PC Digital Voice Recorder 142600 (Silver and Black)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NPKO4E

Bought for $3 two weeks ago, sold for $235 yesterday.

I don't know what you've already done to prepare, so I'll write this starting from the ground up.

1. READ: First thing I did was read Kvale's book on interviewing. I found it really helpful. There are loads of other books you can read on different qualitative methods and interview techniques. This book is pretty comprehensive, though admittedly it's been a while since I've read it.
   
   
2. HARDWARE: You'll need at least two tape recorders to run during the interview, you don't want one of those to die. It's happened to me and it made feel so unprofessional! I used Olympus VN-8100PC because they were provided by my lab.
   
   
3. PRACTICE: Unfortunately the best way to get better at interviewing is to practice interviewing. If you're real ambitious, perhaps you'll do a test run with a viable candidate. I did a few interviews for my Masters, 13 individual and 7 focus group, and the more I did it the better I was at it. Individual interviews are much simpler than focus groups, so you're lucky. Just remember to probe and deflect. Sounds dirty, I know, but that's basically what I've found to be the key to interviewing. Also, remember why you're there. It's really easy to let people go off on tangents, but it's your job to keep them on track. Oh, and I guess make sure your interview script meets your needs.
   
4. THE INTERVIEW: It shouldn't be too tough to keep your participant's comfortable and engaged. They've already agreed to participate in your interview and presumably signed a consent form, so they know what's up. In my experience, everyone was pretty chatty and I just had to sit back and steer the conversation. You should probably offer them water, a snack isn't really necessary for an individual interview, as it should probably only last about an hour. And bring a notepad and pen with you. I usually write down probing questions so I don't have to interrupt them.
   
   
5. TRANSCRIBING: Transcribing is awful. Luckily, individual interviews go pretty quick. Express Scribe is great for transcribing. You can get a free trial on the website that you can uninstall and re-install a few times to really get your bang for your buck. Windows Media Player and whatever Apple alternative are also good, but Express Scribe is better. I usually allotted about twice as long as the interview for the transcription. I listened to the interview at half speed and transcribed what I could without stopping the recording. Then I'd go back and fill in what I missed. This is the technique that preserved most of my sanity. I've also heard a rumor that smoking just a little bit of weed helps with this transcription. I've never done this of course. Just a rumor.
   
   
6. CODING SOFTWARE: I don't know how you'll be analyzing your interviews, but my guess is you'll need coding software. I use NVivo because it's what is available to me, but I know Atlas is more popular and less expensive. There are books available on how to use these programs. It's a little difficult to explain over the internet. There's also the ghetto/free method of just using a Word document and utilizing the comment and highlight functions. Whatever floats your boat. A coding program is fancy and probably more effective, but ultimately not necessary.
   
   
7. CODING: Coding is awful and it never ends. Again, I don't know if this is what you're doing. I'm only experienced with qualitative coding, and if that's what you're doing then I recommend this The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers by Johnny Saldana. It discusses every type of coding ever. I haven't really looked into quantitative stuff (e.g. frequency counts), but I'm sure there's easily accessible information.
   
   
   Well shit, I put more effort into that than I did my thesis. Upvote me, damn it! And let me know if you have any questions, because I probably missed some points.
   

Digital Recorder $50

These are made for meetings and such and have a function to start and stop recording based on the ambient level of sound. That is they start recording when someone starts talking.

It's illegal to record someone without telling them, but then again, so is sexual harassment. Doubt this is going anywhere near a court of law, unless things really go off the rails. Produce the tape for HR and that should be enough to cast reasonable doubt on her version.

You should be thinking about a new job, though. These situations tend not to end well for anyone, regardless of who's in the right. Good luck.

I have a voice recorder just for instances like this.

Get yourself a small, inexpensive voice recorder that has a USB output, like this:
http://www.amazon.com/RCA-VR5220-Digital-Voice-Recorder/dp/B001U5VND2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1311853155&sr=8-2
or
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NPKO4E


And get this really awesome, cheap microphone to record the call/voice mail:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GU88CQ