Interviews can be like a door at the end of a dark hallway - we kind of have to go through it to get to other opportunities but at the same time we get really anxious of what lies behind it. Do we get the position or are we rejected? Does the company not need us at the moment but would like to stay in touch? I did an article a while back on tips for interviewees which you can check out right here but what about interviewers? Does a book of guidelines exist somewhere? Are there helpful hints to get you on your way to conducting a splendid interview? Possibly! But if you don't want to dig through the many layers of the internet to find one then here's one just for you!
As you may or may not know, I'm a current college sophomore and I'm involved with a few organizations on campus where I'm in a position to conduct various interviews with students. One such position is my membership on the recruitment committee of my campus emergency response team. This required a strict degree of professionalism with more rigid organization-selected questions. At the same time I'm also an author for my college's chapter of Her Campus, where you can check out my articles here. For "Campus Celebrity" interviews that I conduct, I can design my own questions for my interviewee.
It's only been two months of school and I've already conducted so many interviews with people! Here, I share with you hints and tips that I've come up with and used for conducting a fruitful interview:
1. Obey question limits.
Sometimes your editor may put a cap on the number of questions you can ask your interviewee. Make sure you obey this limit even though you secretly think it really sucks. If you don't then your editor will just cut some questions when you submit the interview and you'll be unhappy anyway. For a recent interview I pitched to my person in charge, I was told I could only ask my interviewees 5 questions each. I didn't agree with that because I felt there was so much more I could ask and I really couldn't show off these people in just five questions. There are actually ways around this! Read on to discover them!
2. Ask meaningful questions.
If you are in charge of the questions you ask make sure that they are questions really probe the interviewee and force them to dig deep. For Campus Celebrity interviews that I do, I already know why this person stands out and why I picked them so my goal now is to discover each of their stories. You can't discover anything if you aren't willing to dig. This is where your interviewee can get really personal and therefore give you some great stuff. Your questions should serve as a trigger to this gold mine. Some good trigger questions have to do with asking your interviewee to describe their growth from a situation or what their idea of a related concept is. To see these kinds of questions in action you can check out my interview with Campus Celebrity and Pink Gloves Boxing Co-Instructor Krista Pullen here.
3. Make sure your questions cannot be answered with 'yes' or 'no'.
If your question can be answered in just a word then it is not a good question and you need to work on that! A question like this does not allow an interviewee to share anything more than just a few fast fun facts about themselves. Try to structure your question in a way that forces the person you're interviewing to elaborate without you having to ask them to do so. Plus, it'll just annoy you to have to ask multiple times for them to continue. If it is at this point then the quality of the interview is extremely forced and very subpar. This is also one way I get around having to conduct a very limited interview.
4. Ask two-part questions.
This is another tactic I like using when I have a limit on the number of questions I can ask my interviewee. You pretty much compile two questions into one number so you still kind of adhere to the cap but you're still working around it. For example, a question I asked an interviewee was "How did your role within the organization foster your growth as a student and how do you use this growth in everyday life?" Allow your interviewee to answer in two parts so it's not just one big jumbled mess. Doing this contributes to the quality of your interview because you ask two important questions in one and this promises a quality response.
5. If your group interview is separate you must do this!
Recently I was working on a Campus Celebrity piece where I had three people as the subject of my interview. Interviewing more than one subject at once is absolutely ideal however it did not work out for me that way. All four of us were free at different times from the others so I could only interview them one at a time on different days.
Only I'd know that the group interview was separate but if you want to make it look like this was done when you were one big group then here's what you should do: When asking your second and third interviewees questions, give them a brief summary of what their colleague said. You don't have to go in depth - one sentence is fine. This ensures that your interviewee doesn't repeat information. You absolutely positively do not want repeated information all throughout your interview! It's extremely boring to read your interviewee could have put more thought and energy into answering the question from an untold point of view.
6. Always arrive on time if not early.
This is important because first of all, it's a basic code of professionalism - even if you're conducting a fun, silly interview you must be professional to some degree. Second, this asserts that professionalism because it shows your interviewee that you take your task seriously. Third, if you're late it cuts into your interview time, which is a big deal if you have more interviews lined up right after or if you're operating on a tight schedule. For one Campus Celebrity interview I was conducting, I was 1 minute late to the interview because I woke up a little late. You're probably thinking that 1 minute is no big deal but in my mind it was, especially since my interviewee was waiting for me when I got there!
7. Have your interview materials ready.
Don't fumble for your interview materials in front of your interviewee! This is also a good reason for you to arrive early when interviewing someone. In case you were wondering, for that one interview where I was 1 minute late, I already had the question document pulled up on my laptop so all I had to do was sit, open my laptop, and begin the interview. There was no searching for the document or any last minute question corrections!
8. Start off with light conversation.
I like doing this because it calms down a nervous interviewee. You don't need to summarize your whole day but just a few words of exchange before the interview are ideal. You could discuss the nature of the interview if you'd like to talk about something related.
9. Tell your interviewee when you are getting into the actual questions.
Especially if you have a light conversation with them right before, let them know when you will begin asking questions pertaining to the interview. Something along the lines of "We will now begin the interview" is completely fine. If they know that basically everything they say from that point on will be recorded for the interview then they are going to try to give their best formulated answers. It would suck if two questions into the interview your interviewee finally realizes that the previous questions were not part of light conversation!
10. Let them know you will be taking notes during the interview.
Not everyone feels acknowledged when the person they're speaking to is heatedly writing on a piece of paper or doing something that doesn't allow them to make eye contact. I like to let my interviewees know that even though I'm looking down writing or typing I am still listening to everything they say. This tells the interviewee that every part of their response is noted so they will want to make sure they give substantial responses.
11. Don't be afraid to push them for more detail.
Ask a follow up question even if you didn't plan to do so. If your interviewee can provide more details in response to a question then make sure you ask questions such as "what do you mean by this?" "can you give an example of ____?" "how did you feel about ____?" These are all good ways of politely pushing your interviewee to elaborate. You certainly don't under any circumstances want to say "can you add more to your answer?" or anything along those lines! This will make them nervous and less likely to provide good answers for future questions. Keep in mind that by pushing them to elaborate you are essentially making your interview piece better - no one wants to read a super boring, underdeveloped interview. Your name is attached to this - build a good reputation with good interviews!
Whenever I feel like an interviewee is lacking in his or her responses I always ask the above stated questions, especially if they aren't hitting a point that I want them to hit. As an interviewer, I care a lot about the interviews I submit and I don't want to add completely fresh sentences to the interview afterward because I feel like it's dishonest since your interviewee didn't explicitly say that exact thing. These questions are designed to help your interviewee along without basically talking for them.
12. Acknowledge what your interviewee says.
By this I mean you should find something to comment on in what your interviewee says. In one interview I conducted, the guy I was interviewing was talking about how he chose to be part of a certain organization because he hadn't done anything with his college career yet and wanted to get involved with something. I then proceeded to relate that many students on campus feel the absolute same way and, off the record, we spoke briefly about how students feel they can get the little push they need. Acknowledging a response in this sense makes an interviewee more calm and less nervous (if they were nervous to begin with). Furthermore they might end up saying something that you would like to include to further supplement the interview.
13. Don't praise their responses.
Ummmm...what? When I was an interviewer for the emergency response team, one of my partners would always tell the interviewee "Good answer, that's what we're looking for". Please don't do this if you're interviewing an applicant who would like to gain admittance into your professional organization. First off, since they now know that that's the kind of answer you like to hear, they're going to try to tailor the rest of their responses so that you hear what you like. This doesn't give you a true feel for whether or not the applicant is a good fit for your organization. You could end up accepting someone who shouldn't have been accepted.
Second, you will make them think that they have some kind of huge advantage and will likely get into the organization. Even if you like what they said for question #4 you may not like the rest of the interview or your colleagues may not think it's a good idea to accept this person. Avoid saying anything that will give your interviewee false hope.
14. Ask for them to repeat themselves.
Do this as necessary to ensure that you have recorded everything that was told to you. You're probably afraid that if you ask them to repeat themselves a few times it means that you're "inattentive" but truth be told, how inattentive will you be when you have a rockin' interview? If you're interviewing from a journalistic point of view then you should know that the job of a journalist is to get the best obtainable version of the truth. If you aren't catching what that person is saying and not asking them to repeat themselves then you're missing some pretty good pieces of the truth. Don't set yourself up to return home after the interview, take a look at the responses and then say, "crap, I didn't catch that part!"
15. Tell them it's okay to take their time.
Don't rush perfection - or anything close to perfection! If your interviewee wants to take their time to formulate a response then it's actually better for you because of the quality. I know, I know, long awkward pauses will get on your nerves as soon as they stop being awkward and are just long but handle this professionally and let them know they can take their time to respond. For a professional organization, however, this may be a bad sign if the interviewee is taking really long to respond to a question. Nevertheless, letting them know that you will wait will make them a little less nervous and spazzy.
16. Handle your mistakes politely.
Hannah Montana once said, "Nobody's Perfect," and she couldn't be more right. Sometimes we interviewers will make a mistake ourselves. It's completely fine but it's how you handle that mistake that speaks volumes. Don't laugh really hard and obnoxiously - it's cool that you can laugh at yourself when you make a mistake but please don't bring that oh-so wonderful "good sport" attitude to this situation. Say "excuse me" and correct yourself or "I'm sorry I meant to say ___" because this sounds way more professional. This goes for any kind of interview you're conducting - it doesn't have to be just for a professional organization. Bringing this as an interviewer is a good way for you to practice this kind of etiquette which will be extremely useful anywhere you go in life. Your interviewee will not judge you for tripping over your words but you don't want to be seen negatively by your colleagues because you giggled like a school girl when your brain didn't match your words.
17. Do your best to write down everything that is said.
You don't want to miss a beat! Even if your interviewee says something you think is strange or unrelated now, you might like it later or realize that it can be used for something else. You want to make sure you keep a record of everything that is said. If you're typing the responses as they're said then this makes your job relatively easy if you can type faster than you write. If you must write, try using abbreviations or write in script since your pencil hardly leaves the paper when doing that. Only write in script if it's readable and you can understand what you wrote without having to think too hard.
18. Worry about grammar later.
When I type during an interview I save grammar for last. I focus on writing things the exact way the interviewee says them, even if they don't have splendid grammar. I don't capitalize everything that should be capitalized because in my mind it saves me time when I'm not pressing Shift or Caps Lock during an interview. Other than periods, I don't use punctuation during the interview. I save all that technical stuff for afterward when I'm reviewing and editing the interview. If you're going to fuss about misplaced commas while the interviewee is speaking then you aren't going to catch everything they say and you will likely miss some pretty good stuff.
19. Don't delete anything, even if they ask you to.
During one of my Campus Celebrity interviews, my interviewee gave me a response that I thought was nice and then he paused and said, "actually, completely scratch that, I want to redo that part." Of course, I allowed him to redo that segment and I really liked what he said the second time around but there were a few things he said originally that I wanted to keep. This being said I was glad I didn't delete anything when he told me to. Try to hold onto things you think are essential. The interviewee may not see it as great but you have to go with your gut on this. Chances are, saving that should-be-forgotten response will pay off.
20. Let them know they have reached the last question.
I like doing this because to be honest the interviewee is probably wondering when the interview will end. As an interviewee at a certain point you just want to get out of the hot seat and put that interview behind you even if you think you did really well. Also, some people just don't like having the spotlight on them so knowing that they are nearly at the end of the line is reassuring. The interesting thing is that knowing that they have reached the last question actually motivates some interviewees. At the end of one of my Campus Celebrity interviews, I said that we were on the final question and my interviewee said, "okay, I have to really make this one count." The person being interviewed is more likely to try to give one heck-of-an answer if they know that they only have one last chance to do so.
21. Ask if there are any questions they'd like to return to.
Sometimes your interviewee may be worried that they didn't get the chance to say everything they wanted to say. Don't lie - we've all been there at some point and we just really wish we could go back and add that one extra point to really seal the deal. Once every question has been answered, I say, "At this point are there any questions you would like to return to?" This improves the quality of your interview as well because your interviewee gives you more details to make everything way more substantial.
I hope you enjoyed these tips and will consider implementing some of them if you're an interviewer - or if you aren't then I just hope you liked reading this =) Remember that these interviews have your name and reputation attached to them so do your part to make sure you put out work that you're proud of!
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