Developing the Skill of Effective Interviewing

Each day, we casually interview those in our lives. When we ask our friends how their day went, our boss what they are looking for in a specific project, or even the grocery story cashier about a top, new product – this is all considered interview, if you think about it. We too are often interviewed! When we go the doctor and are asked to fill out our health form, when we are applying for a job, or when a waitress takes our order – these are all forms of interview, as there are questions being asked to be used in some way.

While we may partake in casual interviewing every day, it can be easy to get confused when it comes to formal interviewing. Understanding what kind of questions need to be asked can be a difficult task. This article reviews the art of interviewing and offers great tips for creating effective questions.

Craig Sager interviewing Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant in 2010. (Source: NPR)

This week’s COMM 415 lecture offers great insight into the world of interviewing. When it comes to interviewing, there are a few areas that interviewers need to develop, but question development is the focus of this post. To create an effective interview, proper question development is vital. In order to create questions that will benefit your story, you need to understand the different types of questions:

• Closed-ended questions

• Open-ended questions

• Leading questions

• Probing questions

The main focus of this post is around open and closed-ended questions. Professor Vareberg explains in the Week 8 lecture that, ‘Open-ended questions invite the respondent to kind of answer in whatever way they choose, whereas a closed-ended question is going to narrow and restrict potential answer choices” (Vareberg). There are many questions that can be asked in an interview, but the key to success is understanding those question types and the information you may gather by asking each.

When looking at open-ended questions, there are a variety of advantages and disadvantages to the style:

(Source: Week 8 Lecture)

Close-ended questions also offer advantages and disadvantages that must be taken into consideration before curating your question list:

(Source: Week 8 Lecture)

While there is a great variety to choose from, it is not always effective to decide on one type of question or even to stick with a specific layout. Question formatting all depends on the interview, who it is with, and what purpose it serves.

When you are preparing for an interview, it is vital to ask yourself what kind of information you are looking for. You need to uncover the focus of the interview: are you gearing more towards the emotions of the interviewee, the opinions, or the facts? If you are looking to keep the interview strictly factual, for say, a story focused around the history of a building – you may want to focus on more closed-ended questions to begin. This ensures you gather essential information like dates and locations. When diving into interviews about relationships and experiences, open-ended questions can really capture the emotion and thoughts of the interviewee, offering essential words to contribute to the end product.

These are all ideas that must be kept in mind with formulating an interview. Next time you interview someone, what methods do you think would be most effective in gathering efficient information? How does each question type appeal to you?

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Work Cited

Vareberg, Kyle. [Kyle Vareberg]. (2020, Jan.) Week 8 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=140vHW5aul8