I have an – in North America – exceptionally uncommon last name. Despite this, I once received a confirmation for an in-person interview in a city I used to live in.
That was weird enough, but I followed up; the company’s business focus was close to, but not quite in, the industry I was covering. It wasn’t entirely impossible that my editor had arranged an interview and neglected to mention it to me. And that they misunderstood and assumed I’d be doing the interview in person.
Nope. Turns out that there was another journalist with the same last name, also using a gmail account for professional purposes, covering a similar industry, in a city I used to live in.
I never did find the guy. I hope his article was a success.
