How to Conduct an Interview?

Conducting interviews is the chance and a way to understand the real qualities of the person in front of you. It is the time to assess the negatives against the positives and see and reach a conclusion within a very short period of time. To do this a very organized and effective method has to be implemented so that in-depth knowledge can be gained about the person. So before I give you some guidelines it has to be determined the reason behind conducting the interview. An interview can be taken for a job or to publish a feature or as a part of a survey. Though the basic structure of the interview remains the same but there are certain minute differences, which are to be taken care of in accordance with the situation and the circumstance.

Tips to conduct Interview

• If you have chosen the person whom you want to interview call him and get an appointment and try and cooperate with him or her regarding the time and date since the interview process should not be completed in a hurry.
• Do not be late for the interview neither early so that the person can understand that you are a professional.
• When you meet him or her, introduce yourself and convey the reason for the interview.
• When you start the interview first try to make the person comfortable with lighter things so that he or she can relax.
• Do your homework thoroughly like doing proper research on the person you would interview or if it is a job interview, you should thoroughly go through the resume and then ask the questions based on that. If you have time in hand, do jot down the questions on a paper. This way you gain a confidence and at times there is a kind of healthy intimidation that arises in the mind of the interviewee.
• When you start talking to the person do let the person provide his own opinion, that way you would be able to extract information on things that you would like to know without asking.
• Keep a steady eye contact with the person to show that you are interested in what he is saying. You can also appreciate if he makes a point that is worth it.
• Try and make your question to the point. Do not beat around the bush so that the interviewee can understand you question well, and also answer it in the right way.
• In case you want to fathom the knowledge of the person ask question that can only be answered by providing facts.
• Once you are done with asking questions you can summarize all the topics that you covered so that you can share your understanding of the topics with the interviewee. In case there are doubts ask the person to clarify.
• Try to wrap the interview within time so that the questions do not seem pointless and redundant.
• Lastly thank the person for sharing his time and thoughts with you.

This is the basic outline that can be followed while taking an interview but you can certainly modify according to you special needs and requirements.