{"id":13563,"date":"2016-11-15T15:00:47","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T20:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=13563"},"modified":"2019-04-08T18:52:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T22:52:48","slug":"how-to-conduct-an-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/how-to-conduct-an-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Tips on Conducting an Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, you have your interview set. You have a date, time and location. Now you\u2019re nervous about the actual interview! You might be a journalism major or just stuck taking an elective class that requires you to interview someone. Whatever the reason you\u2019re reading this, the bottom line is: you\u2019re looking for help. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some tips that could be useful for a phone or a face-to-face interview.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"conduct-interviews\"<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Do your research<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Yes, there\u2019s a step before the actual interview: research your topic beforehand. If you\u2019re interviewing someone who has their bio or articles about them online, read them. You want to show your interviewee that you\u2019re a professional and not just some college kid. If you\u2019re not an expert on the topic of the interview, read up on it. Let\u2019s say you need to interview a person in a science field and you don\u2019t know anything about that field — then make sure you at least understand the basics going into the interview!<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Write\/type your questions<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

This may sound obvious, but it\u2019s very important. Make sure you plan out your questions so that when you ask them it\u2019s in a cohesive manner. Oftentimes you will go off script and ask follow up questions that you didn\u2019t anticipate, but if you feel like the interview has gone in the wrong direction, having your questions with you can serve as a great reminder as to which question to ask to bring the interview back on the right direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Determine how you will take notes<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Before you start your interview, ask the person you’re interviewing for permission to record the interview. Nowadays, journalists are blessed with technology that makes their jobs so much easier. Plan ahead on how you will be recording your interview. Are you going to be using your phone to record, or a tape\/voice recorder? Will the video be recorded on camera? There are even apps you can use to record a phone interview. No matter which method you choose, you should always have a backup in case something goes wrong with your original plan. The best fail-safe is to always bring a notebook or paper to jot down notes as the interview progresses. <\/span><\/p>\n

4. Start off light<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re nervous, chances are the interviewee might be too! Don\u2019t start the interview with your main questions; work up to it. You want to make the person feel comfortable. Tell a joke, ask them about their background, ask them about their day or weekend. It\u2019s important (depending on the topic) that the interview feels almost like a conversation. When they\u2019re comfortable, the interviewee will give you better answers and might even let slip some information they weren\u2019t planning to.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Don’t ask dumb questions<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

In school they teach us that there are no dumb questions. Well, they\u2019re partly right. If an interviewee brings up words or a subject that you\u2019re clueless about, don\u2019t be afraid to ask for clarification. A good interviewer should be naturally inquisitive, so don\u2019t be afraid of looking dumb — after all, you\u2019re there to ask questions! Now, what you should avoid is sounding repetitive. Don\u2019t ask the same question multiple times — it\u2019ll appear to the interviewee as though you\u2019re not listening. Also avoid unnecessary questions that could be answered by something like a bio on a website. For example, don\u2019t ask a question like \u201cwhere did you grow up\u201d if you know that the person grew up in Chicago. But, \u201cI read that you grew up in Chicago, what was that like?\u201d is a good question.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Ask open-ended questions<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

A good interviewer draws out the information he or she needs from the interviewee. The easiest way to do this is to ask open-ended questions. If you only ask questions that can only have yes or no answers, then you haven\u2019t learned anything from the interviewee. \u201cWhat are your thoughts on what happened?\u201d is a good example of an open-ended question. Always ask for your interviewee\u2019s opinions. Do they agree or disagree? Why? “Yes” or “no” questions are a necessary part of interviews, but always plan a follow-up question if it fits.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, you have your interview set. You have a date, time and location. Now you\u2019re nervous about the actual interview! You might be a journalism major or just stuck taking an elective class that requires you to interview someone. Whatever the reason you\u2019re reading this, the bottom line is: you\u2019re looking for help. Here are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":13795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brooklyn","category-student-life"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/How-to-Conduct-an-Interview.png",833,534,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/How-to-Conduct-an-Interview-225x144.png",225,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/How-to-Conduct-an-Interview-300x192.png",300,192,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/How-to-Conduct-an-Interview.png",833,534,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/How-to-Conduct-an-Interview.png",833,534,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/How-to-Conduct-an-Interview.png",833,534,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/How-to-Conduct-an-Interview.png",833,534,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Brian Bonilla","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/brian\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"So, you have your interview set. You have a date, time and location. Now you\u2019re nervous about the actual interview! You might be a journalism major or just stuck taking an elective class that requires you to interview someone. Whatever the reason you\u2019re reading this, the bottom line is: you\u2019re looking for help. Here are…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/How-to-Conduct-an-Interview.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}