I recently interviewed two journalists for their alumni magazines, and it brought up a fear. Besides interviewing celebrities (which I haven’t done much of), interviewing journalists is my most intimidating task. Why? Because they know my job and might even be better than me at doing it.
Two different career points
The first journalist I interviewed recently has had a really high-profile career. He’s put in years as editor of an American magazine I admire. He has a Pulitzer prize nomination and nine books published. AND an honorary doctorate. If I’ve done enough interviewing to be comfortable with it, he’s done enough interviewing to be even more so. He may legitimately judge the quality of my questions and my research. Did I read his Wikipedia page closely before the call and even most of his latest book? You bet.
The other journalist was just a few years into her career but was already in a desirable job at a top wire service, reporting on a cutting-edge topic. I definitely had more experience, but she would be freshly trained in interviewing. How would she react to my questions?
Similar open minds
Fortunately, they were both lovely. The terse emails from the older journalist turned out to be just his style and not evidence of his impatience with me. The younger journalist confessed she’d never been interviewed before and was looking forward to the process. I was the one to reassure her!
The best thing about both, and the total upside of interviewing journalists, is that both knew what a good interview answer sounds like– full of life and shared examples and personal details in their answers. The older editor was very inspiring in his accomplishments, and the younger was excited about her aspirations and we had a nice discussion about the trajectory of journalism. I’ll file these away in my mind for how to act next time someone asks to interview me.
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