Dull Dull Dull!

The last post about interviewing technique (re: drying up) reminded me that there is another important point to be made if you are conducting an interview.

What are the dullest interviews to listen to? What really turns you off from an interview?

The worst interviews, in my opinion, are those where the interviewee just keeps answering yes and no. The interviewer never asks them an open question nor do they get the opportunity to elaborate on a yes or no answer.

This is usually due to one of three reasons:

• The interviewer simply doesn’t know any better
• The interviewer is lazy and hasn’t thought through the interview properly
• The interviewer thinks he/she knows the subject better than the person they are interviewing and requires only a back-up “yes” or “no” to boost their ego

Examples of closed questions, requiring yes or no answers:

• “You are an expert on horse care. Is that right?”
• “Good grooming is really important, isn’t it?”
• “You should use a variety of brushes and implements for grooming a horse properly, shouldn’t you?”

Now, similar questions but open-ended:

• “Can you tell me more about your experience in horse care and what qualified you for your position as head groom at Newmarket?”
• “Why is good grooming so important?”
• “What brushes and implements do you recommend for grooming a horse properly and why are they the important ones?”

Never give your interviewee the opportunity to give a one word answer. They will almost always take the easy way out if you do. As you can see from the open-ended questions above, it would be difficult (or impossible) to answer them in less than a few sentences.

Your role as an interviewer is not to show your own expertise, it is to prompt your guest to talk as much as possible on their topic. Your input should be minimal – guiding and punctuating the interview not dominating it.

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