BOLA - Study Skills - Interviewing

Study Skills for Effe ctive Learn ing

Interviewing

a key competence in Business.
An interview is a structured conversation with a purpose. The may take place on employer's premises or at the college.
Interviews may be required for information gathering for an assignment. You may also find yourself in studio, interview situations (may be role-playing ) to develop your inter-personal skills.
In Business interviews may be general purpose information gathering and problem-solving interviews. More specialist interviews are for recruitment, counselling, disciplinary and grievance interviewing, appraisal interviewing etc

Key steps
Before the interview
Know the purpose and objectives of your interview. f you are the one who prepares the setting for the interview make sure that the venue and time is satisfactory. Ensure that you remove any physical or psychological barriers. Ensure privacy.
If you are visiting for an interview make sure you have communicated effectively with your client. Dress fittingly for the interview. Be comfortable.
make sure you have prepared for the interview i.e. you clearly understand the purpose of the interview. You have researched the background needed for the interview and you have an interview plan.
In the interview itself
Arrive on time!
Introduce yourself and your role properly. Shake hands! Smile and pass the time of day. Establish rapport through your warmth and naturalness. Agree the "plan"for the interview. Confirm time available. Establish any rules of "confidentiality" if these are clearly important. Ask to take notes (n.b. too much note taking will adversely affect your ability to maintain "contact" with your interviewee).
The Main Body.
Move into the main part of the interview clearly and professionally. Keep your objectives in mind and work to your plan.
Introduce early topic of questioning and use effective questioning technique

Well-structured open-ended questions (I know six honest serving men...etc)
Having opened up an area of questioning then use shorter probe questions to penetrate the area. Stay with the topic until you have the information you want. Be sensitive however to your client's feelings. Don't over-pressurise.
Avoid closed questions which prompt a Yes/No answer - or use them to good effect!
Avoid leading questions i.e. questions which themselves allude to the answer expected.

Summarise periodically
to confirm understanding and to keep to your plan

Control the pace of the interview.

Listen, observe, use silences intelligently. Listen by active listening i.e. good body posture, eye contact and integration of answers and next questions.

Keep rapport going - smile, be yourself.

Be sensitive and flexible. If your original interview plan is clearly off track - then clarify the area for discussion. If you lose the thread - don't waffle, acknowledge it, move onto another topic and ask if you may return to the original line later.

Encourage the interviewee to talk by your open-ended questions and non-verbal encouragers (eye contact, head nods, key work repetition, paraphrasing) Invite questions and answer them

Winding-up
Finish on a high note. Summarise the progress made. Explain the next steps.
Close the interview nicely. Arranging the date of next meeting and/or lines of communication if you need to follow-up. Thank your client. Shake hands and depart.
Interview Reports
Straight after the interview - write up your interview notes while they are still warm. Don;'t let them go off the boil. Common faults with interview technique.

not arriving because of poor planing
be careful of initial impressions - HALO or HORNS effect
talking too much yourself at the expense of the interviewee
unspecified confused objectives
bias and prejudice - the influence of your dislikes
unsystematic/poor planning e.g. having too many questions for the time available
failure to establish rapport
stereotyping - fixed mental impressions of subject.

Study Skills Index

© This resource was developed by C. Jarvis.