How to Improve One's Skills As an Interviewer
Regardless of the context of an interview, the aim of an interviewer is to find out as much as possible about the interviewee in relation to a particular subject. For example, your interview may be with key players immediately after a sporting victory. The aim of such an interview would be to gain insights from the players on how the game was won and what the victory means to them from an emotional standpoint. Here are some steps you can take to hone your interview skills.
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Instructions
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Be passionate about the interview subject. Whether you're an employer interviewing a potential hire or a reporter trying to get someone's perspective on an event, you must, first of all, care about what the interviewee has to say. Especially if a you are a professional in a particular field, you must overcome personal bias or distaste toward a particular subject. If you can't, you won't get the information you need.
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"Do your homework," says Mediacollege.com. That is, learn as much as you can about the interviewee before the interview. In a lot of cases, your interviews are with people you've never met and about whom you know little. Contact references or sources that may be familiar with the interviewee.
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Compile a list of questions to ask the interviewee. Give considerable thought to the kinds of questions you believe you need to ask. How often have you walked away from everyday conversations and asked yourself, "Oh, why didn't I ask him about that?" For journalistic interviews especially, you may not have a follow-up opportunity to get key information.
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Ask and listen. Boiled down to its essence, this is what an interview is all about. That may seem like an obvious point, but inexperienced interviewers tend to give more attention to what they are going to ask next than to what the interviewee is saying at any given moment.
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Practice interviewing people you encounter in everyday life. Listen to why that long-haul trucker likes (or doesn't like) to drive to far-flung parts of the country. Who knows? You might even stumble into a Pulitzer-worthy story.
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Go with the flow of the interview. The first question you ask may invalidate some of the other questions on your list. But, it may also raise new questions. Don't just automatically go down the list.
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