Writing is my job, but my secondary skill is interviewing. I’ve even come to think of it as one of my AI-resistant skills. Is there anyone who can interview like a human? Not yet. Here are my favourite tips on this top skill:
Ever since I first heard it, my favourite interview question has been: “Is there anything I haven’t asked you about that I should be thinking about when writing this story.”
Oh, the anecdotes that that question has brought me! The saved embarrassment when it raised an entire line of questioning that I had neglected because I didn’t even think about it. While a third of the time it leads to “I don’t think so, you’ve covered it extremely well” or some other response that floats my ego, the majority of the time, I’m nothing but grateful for the chance for the interviewee to help me even further.
My favourite interview technique is listening.
I’ve gotten better at it over the years, but even now when I listen to myself on replay, I’m always cringing. I think to myself, SHUT UP! Every time I interrupt my interviewee, even if it is just an encouraging “mm hmm”.
I used to interrupt a lot more. But over the years, I’ve realized that the more I can let people just speak, the better chance I’ll have at a natural conversation. Sometimes people apologize when I let them “ramble”, as they word it. But I’m fine for them to spill out the details.
Meanwhile, I’m typing as quickly as I can (never trust recorders not to fail) and also mentally jotting my follow-up questions. On the few occasions that an interviewee does go too long on a tangent (especially when our call has a time limit), I will bring them back to the topic. But mostly I’m just grateful for someone who knows their own story well enough to tell me what I need to know.
My last favourite advice on interviewing is to think of it as a conversation.
Funny, when you get interviewed after being the interviewer for so long (this happened to me recently) that you know what your interviewer is looking for: anecdotes, detail in terms of describing any process or scene they’re asking you about. The occasional big picture statement that helps with the thesis they are arguing in their article.
Despite interviewing experience, as soon as you become an interviewee, you go right back to the common worries that anyone has. You hope you’ve said the right thing, that you’ve sounded smart, that your interviewer gets the story right. That’s why when an interviewee occasionally prompts me directly—you’ll make me sound smart, right?
I’m like, “”that’s my job””.
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