Interviewing

On Interviewing
Lecture outline by Ted Pease
Utah State University

Inspiration:

“He who asks is a fool for five minutes. He who does not is a fool forever.”

—Chinese proverb

“Judge a man not by his answers, but by his questions.”

—Voltaire

“Someone once wrote that there’s no more seductive sentence in the English language than,
‘I want to hear your story.’ And maybe they’re right. Because often you don’t
have to do any more than that.”

—Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press, 2003

1. Whatever happened to natural curiosity?

2. Who are good interviewers?

3. Two Rules of Thumb
a. The Boy Scout Rule: Be prepared
b. Define parameter/goals for the interview—what do you want to talk about?

4. What’s Wrong with This Picture? Typical problems with interviews
a. The formal interview
b. The Dreaded List
c. Go Fish! Failure to define the purpose. What do you want? (aimlessness, wandering, adrift…)
d. Lack of preparation (see 3.a, c above)
e. PAY ATTENTION, YOU BOOB! Failure to listen/probe/follow/think….
f. Careless/inappropriate appearance.
g. Preconceptions/stereotyping
h. Rambling questions. FOCUS! The “debate” interview.
(Q: “Blahblahblahblahblahblahblah……. Don’t you think, Senator?” A: “No. Next question?”)
i. Insensitivity
j. Laziness, (1. Do your homework and don’t waste people’s time. 2. Pay attention to responses, nuances, environment, cues….)

5. Kinds of Interview Questions
a. Openers—icebreakers, first moves
b. Filters
c. Routine fact Qs (WWWWWH, etc.)
d. Number Questions (How many? How big? How hot? How cold?....)
e. Concept Questions (How worried are you? What would happen if?)
f. Follow-ups, probes.
g. Quote/anecdote prompts (schmoozing)
h. Hunches
i. Recaps
j. Followups

6. The 10 Stages of the Interview
a. Conceptualization. Defining the purpose. Noodling. (“Apply butt to chair.”)
b. Background/homework/Boyscoutery
c. Refining the target (Who? Why? get appt.)
d. Preliminary planning. If-then questions.
e. The meeting—icebreakers
f. Getting down to business…..
g. Building rapport, credentials, connection, trust.
h. The Big One
i. Recovery. Cleanup. Fill in the blanks.
j. Closure—forward-thinking

A Final Thought:

“What makes a good newspaperman? The answer is easy. He knows everything. He is aware not only of what goes on in the world today, but his brain is a repository of the accumulated wisdom of the ages. He is not only handsome, but he has the physical strength which enables him to perform great feats of energy. He can go for nights on end without sleep. He dresses well and talks with charm. Men admire him; women adore him; tycoons and statesmen are willing to share their secrets with him. He hates lies and meanness and sham, but he keeps his temper. He is loyal to his paper and to what he looks upon as the profession; whether it is a profession, or merely a craft, he resents attempts to debate it. When he dies, a lot of people are sorry, and some of them remember him for several days.”

—Stanley Walker, newspaperman,
New York Herald-Tribune, 1924