ON INTERVIEWING

This week’s reading and lectorial outlined how to conduct and shoot interviews. This information was very overwhelming. I knew that a lot went into interviewing people beyond just sitting down and asking them questions, but I didn’t know just how lengthy and deep the process is. The biggest takeaway I got from all of it was, surprisingly, not really about the act of interviewing itself. Louise Turley came in to the lectorial to give us some expert advice and knowledge and the main thing that stuck to me was practice. We can learn all these techniques and conventions but if we don’t but it into practice, we won’t be good at it. More specifically, ‘build up your toolbox‘. As you build up your toolbox, you’ll get better at the act of interviewing. However, you can’t build up your toolbox if you don’t start conducting real, live interviews. It seems to be a a circular thing. To be good at it, you have to start doing it and when you first start doing it, you won’t be very good but that’s how you learn.
Today, Louise is an experienced interviewer but she didn’t start that way. No one ever does. She is who she is today because she has had years of experience under her belt.

Another takeaway from the lectorial is purpose. When you interview someone, you have to have a purpose. Why are you interviewing this person in particular? When you decide where to conduct the interview, you have to have a good reason why. You also have to decide on the tone of the interview and choose questions based on that. Every aspect of the interview has to be considered.

We only just covered the basics of interviewing and I was already quite overwhelmed. Despite that, I did find it very interesting and I want to put the things I’ve just learned into practice.