How to Give a Good Interview

For the past month or two, I’ve been doing a ton of interviews and giveaways. Check out my Facebook to see them.

Now, I’m pretty much a nobody, but I’m thankful for each interview or email I get from people. That said, even though I’m no one (yet), I think I do an excellent or at least entertaining, job at doing interviews. Here’s some tips that will work well so that your interview won’t be boring.

3. BE HONEST

The world is full of liars. People lie every day and don’t even realize it. There’s a filter people learn to put over their words when they’re still kids. However, when you give an interview you should remove the filter at least a little bit

All the controversy from interviews generally come up when people tell the truth, and they get a lot of flack from it. But those make for the most interesting and memorable interviews. We expect certain answers but when you’re honest, you give people a real insight into how you work, what you think, or how you feel.

Now there are downsides to being honest. People might not like what you have to say. You should never be down on someone on how they feel even if they are racist or sexist. When someone’s honest, you’ll always know where you stand.

2. TALK LIKE HOW YOU’D SPEAK TO FRIENDS

In conversational speak, people are more relaxed. They’ll use contractions, fragmented sentences, made up words, and all sorts of crazy stuff. While you’re talking to your boss or dealing with customers, you’re more formal, and in being more formal, you’re also stiff.

In an interview, I like to talk as if I’m with my friends. That way, not only will I be more relaxed and less nervous, the interviewer will be more relaxed. In doing so, we can have a conversation. Those make for a better interview than the ones where the interviewee’s defensive or the interviewer has to work to draw the person out.

You can even do it in a written interview. When the readers read the wall of text, if you’re formal and stiff, they’re likely to start skimming. You also want to do it so they get a feel for you as a person.

1. LET YOUR PERSONALITY SHINE

I’ve found that most people have a personality. They just hold it back for various reasons. You need to have that personality come through in an interview so that people get to know who you are. By having a personality, people will feel as if you’re human and hopefully relate or be interested in what you have to say.

Without a personality, people will become bored. They’ll tune out whatever you have to say or skim your interview. I’ve seen and heard so many interviews where people sound like a robot. They sound automatic and when they try to plug their wares, I not only don’t care, I’ll actively avoid them.

Those are the three, main things I try to do when I give an interview and I believe most people enjoy my interviews. At the very least, they’re not boring. Of course, I could have summed up this entire post with two sayings I heard while growing up.

Do you, and keep it real!

Marc Johnson