How to Conduct an Interview

Interviewing others is an essential part of jobs like news reporting or studies that involve getting information from experts on a specific subject. Students may also conduct interviews to gain information for a paper they must do. No matter what, the same tips to getting the most you can get out of an interview can be used by everyone.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Attentiveness
• Paper
• Pen/Pencil
• Tape recorder (optional)

1. Write down everything you possibly can think of that you want or need to ask your interviewee. It’s best to take at least two days to write down all the questions you need to ask because sometimes another question may come to mind the next day that you didn’t think of the day before.

2. Write your questions in order starting from the easiest question to the toughest. You want your interviewee to feel comfortable at first. If you begin the interview asking tough questions the person may think is too challenging or unfair they could walk out before the interview gets going.

3. If you plan to use a tape recorder, please ask the interviewee can you use one before you turn it on. Some people are uncomfortable with tape recorders, and you want to make the interviewee as comfortable as possible.

4. If your interviewee says something you don’t understand, ask them to repeat it. You want to get your info as right as possible, and the interviewee doesn’t want to have his or her words taken out of context or misconstrued.

5. Come to the interview early. You want your interviewee to know that you’re serious about your work.

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on 9/30/2009 Evoca (www.evoca.com) makes it easy to record your interviews using any phone or Skype. Simply call your interviewee and then add our call recording service as another "party" to your call. It's also known as "three-way dialing". Most mobile phones and landlines can do it.

As soon as you end the call, we instantly save the recording to your online account as an MP3 recording. You can share the recording by email with your interviewee, editor, colleagues, or followers. Promoting a cause, a book, or the interviewee? You can post it to your blog, website, or social networking pages in a viral player widget. We auto-generate the code for you to post it online. You can include a “share” button on the player widget to let your fans and supporters post it to their blogs, websites, and social media pages, too. Or you can keep it private inside your account for your own use.

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