Interviewing

I’m now on the third book that involves interviewing people. And I’ve pretty well got the process down, although I admit that finding interview subjects for this Avionics book is proving difficult.

But the actual interview itself is not.

I ready my questions ahead of time. Actually I prepare several lists of questions so I’m ready in case someone new should come into play. I have questions for students, instructors, employers, supervisors, working techs, experts. Even if I’m going to interview a student, I take all the lists with me so I’m prepared.

But I pretty much know the questions.

For the interviews I did last week, I didn’t actually lay the list out in front of me. I usually start the interview off and then follow the subject’s lead. I let him talk. If there’s a lull, I ask a question and by that direct him where I want him to go. For this round, I had sent the questions to the subjects ahead of time. One gave me his written answers to take with me. Two did not. One of those two, after we had talked, asked me if I was going to ask him the questions on the list. We actually had already covered most of them. But I took out the list, scanned down and found one we hadn’t covered.