Whether you’re in your first semester of college or the last, interviewing people will find its way into one of the courses you have to take, but finding the right approach on how to interview someone is a tough task for those who are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with it. However, if you follow these three tips, the overall process should become a lot easier.  

Do your background research!  

Whether you are interviewing someone for a class or at work, it is important to know who you are interviewing and what their story is. If it’s a classmate, you have the opportunity to get to know them briefly before an interview to understand who they are and how to shape the questions you’re going to ask them. For a job, let’s say that you’re a hiring manager reviewing someone’s resume and learning a lot about them, which can help formulate questions that test the meddle of the person you are interviewing. Interviewing can come into play for a video project and knowing a lot about a person’s background can help create an introduction that displays confidence and knowledge just by knowing a bit about someone beforehand. 

Overprepare with questions 

Having experience in interviews has resulted in overpreparing with questions, which is a benefit I have had from the planning process. What I mean by that is to have three to five extra questions for an interview as a contingency plan. It’s better to have questions in the back of your mind in case you need them as opposed to not having them and panicking if the person you’re interviewing is breezing through questions. By having extra questions, you don’t have to worry so much about having to fill time for the required length of an interview. The rule of thumb that I implement is that I try to have two questions for every two minutes of the interview. Having more questions is the best route to take when preparing to interview someone due to the lack of stress of worrying what to say if you don’t have anymore.  

Have fun and relax.  

Interviewing people is fun so remember to take the interview seriously but have fun while doing it. Interviewing someone allows for a deeper insight into who they are as people and allows for strong connections and bonds to be formed just by doing your interviewer responsibilities correctly. Have faith in your skills and do the best that you can, while giving off a calm and relaxed demeanor that allows your interviewee to feel comfortable and enjoy the questions. The energy put out during an interview can be felt by all involved and allowing good energy to be put in the air makes for an engaging interview.