What is the purpose of an interview?
The purpose is to record a beneficial and
informative interview with a person of your choice.
To arrange, format, construct and conduct a
meeting that will both inform and enhance your
interpersonal skills in a professional manner.
The construction of your interview is what you want to achieve from it.
STEP 1.
Contact your interviewee and give
them a reason for your contact and WHY you
chose them in particular. You CAN be straight
and explain it is a College requirement if you
wish?
BUT explain the reason that they were or are
your particular choice.
STEP 2.
Contact your interviewee and arrange a mutual
method of connection, in person, Skype, email
or any other method that is acceptable.
Preparation
Make a list of what you want to get out of this
interview and how beneficial it can be for your
practice and something that you can produce
a tangible outcome, in print or other medium
from the interview.
What Kinds of questions are there?
Introducing questions:
'Why did you...?' or 'Can you tell me about...?
‘Through these questions you introduce the topic.
Follow up questions:
Through these you can elaborate on their initial
answer. Questions may include:
'What did you mean...?' or
'Can you give more detail...?'
Probing questions:
You can employ direct questioning to follow up
what has been said and to get more detail.
'Do you have any examples?' or
'Could you say more about...?'
Specifying questions: Such as
'What happened when you said that?' or
'What did he say next?'
Direct questions:
Questions with a yes or no answer are direct
questions.
You might want to leave these questions until
the end so you don't lead the interviewee to
answer a certain way.
Indirect questions:
You can ask these to get the interviewee's true
opinion.
Structuring questions:
These move the interview on to the next subject.
For example, 'Moving on to...'
Interpreting questions: 'Do you mean that...?'
or 'Is it correct that...?'
1. Start slow, safe and personal.
Begin with a question that focuses
on the person and not the topic at hand, such as:
"Where did you grow up," or "what was your first job
out of College?" First off, you relax your subject and
you humanise the interaction. This relaxes the
atmosphere, starts the conversation on safe ground,
and let's you get a sense of the where your subject
is coming from. Second, you sometimes
get a surprisingly good story.
2. Coax, don't hammer.
Your audience is too sophisticated and businesslike for
complexities, the Post Modernist questions,
their feeling on life after death?.
The up-close, but soft style that coaxes revealing,
newsworthy, useful answers.
3. Make some questions open ended.
All interviews require you to ask specific questions
that get answered with narrow data points.
"What was you last job title?"
The most interesting responses can come from
open-ended questions, such as, "What is your vision
for your organisation five years from today?"
or "Do you worry about any unintended consequences
from what you are trying to accomplish?"
4. Ask what you don't know.
There's a ‘legal’ tip that advises you to only
ask witnesses questions that you already know
the answers to.
Lawyers hate surprises.
Reporters love them.
Surprises mean you achieve something that has
not been previously reported?
5. Let the interviewees wander a bit, but be careful.
Interviewers, can try to hard to control the
conversation, when the person in the other seat is the
one who can produce the information wanted.
There is a danger, however. If you are conducting a
business interview, the company representative may
resort to talking points and "Corpspeak" if you allow
too much silence. Stop writing, fold your arms and
look away a little. They often trail off.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.
6. Don't send advance questions.
Sometimes, time requires one to send email questions,
and then you’ll get written answers in return.
These are often adequate but the result is rarely as
good as a face-to-face, candid interaction.
Make clear the topics
that you wish to cover and even ask if there are other
subjects the interviewee would like to discuss.
But don't send full questions in advance.
The result is that very little new ground is covered.
It also eliminates follow-up questions,
the ones that drill down on what was or was not said
in the response. Very often, the followup question
produces the bet information.
7. Be prepared. Find the overlooked.
Quite often, a subject's response to one question begs
for a follow up. Many times the follow-up question
reveals more than either the interviewer or interviewee
expected. You just can't make that happen when you
are following a script. When you do that, your mind
very often goes on to your next question and you are
not listening carefully to what your subject is saying.
Be prepared and I let the subject know what subjects
you want to cover.
8. Listen, really listen.
The value of an interviews comes out of of what
people say, not what you ask.
The key is to pay close attention to what is
not answered and make on-the-spot judgements
on why that area was skipped or glossed.
Was it uninteresting to the subject?
Unimportant? Painfully embarrassing?
Use good judgement,
9. There are dumb questions.
Try NOT to ask a question that your subject has
already answered. It discloses that you really
weren't listening after all. Also try not to ask
any questions that are answered in the
interviewee's online biog or website/blog FAQ.
And remember above all, the interview is
about the person you are talking to,
NOT about you.
Some good questions you could
ask in your interview may include:
• What’s the best advice you ever received?
• Who inspires you and why?
• What’s the hardest lesson you ever learned?
• Describe a defining moment in your life.
• What is your biggest accomplishment?
• Do you have a personal motto?
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