Let’s Talk About Interviewing

Interviews, a Creative Commons photo taken by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

Now that’s a gripping topic, isn’t it. Of all the “Let’s talk abouts,” I could have come up with, it’s interviewing … yay? Maybe?

It’s interesting to me, though – just like font choice is also interesting to me, and I know I’m not alone there (Lynn Jatania, Jeff Eustace, I’m looking at both of you!) – so maybe some of you are interested in interviewing as well, and just afraid to say so.

For those of you who don’t know, I have a Bachelor of Journalism. And one of the things we learned in j-school, was interviewing. I have a vivid mental image of a basement classroom with chairs for role-playing (I hate role-playing!). The interesting thing about my school was that we did “real” work right from the beginning. There were student-run newspapers, and broadcasts, and email newsletters we had to produce, so we were “doing” it at the same time as we were “learning” it. It was a good way to learn.

Learning this way meant you could wince about the interview you did Monday when you learned all the mistakes you made in class on Tuesday. Yikes … humiliation and mortification are powerful learning tools.

So, what are my main takeaways about interviewing from those days? Well they might seem simple, but they’re deceptively difficult. They are:

1) Be prepared. Have your equipment prepared. Is this an in-person interview? A phone interview? Today it could be a Skype interview. What will your surroundings be like? Will you be using a recorder? If so, do you have recording space on it? Do you have batteries in it? Do you have extra batteries? Do you have a notebook? Do you have a pen that works, and another one that also works in your bag? If it’s a phone interview that you’re recording, do you have the equipment you need to do that? Have you done a dry run to make sure it works? If in-person, what will your surroundings be like? How will you make your subject, and yourself, comfortable?

2) Be prepared2. What information do you need to take away from this interview? Often, you’ll have limited time, so you need to make sure you get what you need. Do research. Prepare questions. Don’t overlook the obvious. What is the person’s name? How is it spelled? TV and radio reporters will often get you to spell your name right into their camera / recorder at the beginning of the interview – good idea. What is the person’s job title? A long, meaty interview is next-t0-useless if you can’t explain who it is you interviewed and why they have something useful to say. Google your interviewee. I Google my resume clients and I once found out, in addition to having an impressive background in not-for-profit management, my client was also a Juno-nominated musician. That was useful information for the resume. It could also be useful to know before you interview that person.

3) Shut up. This is the biggest and (for me) hardest part. Just SHUT UP. This interview is not about you. You were assigned to write a story on Big Name Politician, not a story about “Ways in Which Big Name Politician’s Life Mirrors Your Own.” I’m exaggerating slightly here, but it’s not far off the truth to say the only words you should say are “What happened next?” and “And then what?” Occasionally “How did that feel?” is good. Note, not “That must have made you feel excited,” but “How did that feel?”

Some “shut up” rules:

– Don’t anticipate your interviewee’s answer – “That must have been terrifying …” AAARRRGGGHHH nooooo … because what if they actually thought it was exhilarating, or boring, or whatever? What if you could have had a really good, surprising answer from them, but you jumped in, and put your spin on it, and to be polite they say, “Oh, I guess maybe it was a little …” which is not a stellar answer. Or they say, “Well, no, it wasn’t,” and they kind of shut down. You ask the questions, they give the answers.

– Don’t start talking about yourself. Please. I’ve been listening to “Q” over the last little while (since the Jian thing …) and I’ve noticed a huge difference between the guest hosts who are journalists, and the guest host who are celebrities. The celebrities might be talented people, who do interesting things, but they are NOT great interviewers. They frequently start questions with, “When I first appeared on Broadway, this happened – has that ever happened to you?” or they cut guests off, saying “Oh! I have two small kids, and I often feel that way.” Um, not to be mean, but who cares? This is not about the host. This is about the guest. We want to know what happened to the guest the first time he / she appeared on Broadway. If you listen to an interview like this, you’ll find the rhythm is off. The guest often pauses to see what the interviewer is going to interject. Which leads me to:

– An interview is not a conversation. It’s not two people each having fifty per cent of the time to talk. It’s more like ten / ninety and the guest should get the ninety. It’s (short question / prompt) – (hopefully) long answer – (next question / prompt) – another long answer. This is not them saying “this happened to me” and you saying “Cool, a similar thing happened to me.” This is them saying “this happened to me” and you saying “when?” and “where?” and “how?” and “why?” and “how did it make you feel?” and “what happened next?”

OK, hopefully you get the picture. I have strong opinions on good and bad interviewing, but that doesn’t mean I’m good at it myself. I have to bite my tongue, and sit on my hands, to not jump in with, “Oh! Really? I went there too!” or “Don’t you just love it when that happens? It happened to me …” or “That must have been so exciting!”

Tomorrow I start an interview process for a new book. And so, I’ve checked my recorder batteries, and reminded myself to bring a notebook, and I’ve been thinking for ages about the questions, and what I need to cover, but I still have one more thing to do – which is write “SHUT UP” on the back of each hand, and at the top of several pages in my notebook.

Shut up.

I hope I can do it.

I’ll let you know …