Best Interview Examples: Break the Traditional Boundaries of Interviewing

Learn From the Best Interview Examples

The interview is a productive conversation and a great tool for collecting information. If you want to create a good and informative interview, follow the main rule: What goes around comes around. The quality of answers and accuracy of received information will depend on questions that you will be asking the interviewee. An interesting and effective interview will significantly depend on the interviewer. Your aim as interviewer is to ask questions that will engage the person answering the questions.

An interview may take several forms: a face-to-face interview, a phone interview, or an interview by email. Every interview requires good preparation. If you want to make an effective interview, you will need to know more information about the biography, accomplishments, and other basic information about the professional activities of the interviewee. The more information you know, the better questions you will ask, and you will get a more detailed response.

At payforwriting we give you the most interesting and working interview examples that will help you construct good interviews. Consider the approaches the authors use in conversations and you will receive a wealth of important information, as well as from our guide on how to summarize an interview.

What a Good Interview Essay Example Looks Like

What is a good interview? First, we need to talk about how to conduct a good interview. It will depend on what kind of interview you are going to do.

An interview on the internet is the easiest one. You sit in your comfortable chair, gather as much information about the interviewee, and on this basis create the questionnaire. It may be an online form or just an electronic document. If applicable, you can accompany the questionnaire with images or additional material if needed. Think about questions carefully, as they should be interesting and concise, and the interviewee may refuse to answer them. Adapt any available interview letter template or use questionnaire online services for this case.

An interview by phone will require from you the same as by internet, but in addition, you will need to find a quiet place to talk and avoid any noise. For this type of interview you will need to have good communication skills, as you need to use your voice more effectively. Speak with enthusiasm to create a warm atmosphere. Make sure that your voice sounds loud enough to be heard. Skip to a neutral or friendly manner to make a good impression. Be careful with pauses, as the interviewee may think that the line went down. To save time, use sample phone interview questions.

An interview face-to-face may be hard for the beginner interviewer. Along with the questions, your voice, appearance, psychological stability, and mood will play a great role. Besides, you will need to create an impression of a credible, responsible, pleasant person that is interesting to talk to. If you need to get certain information you should be ready to put as much effort as you can to get the interviewee to talk. Smiling, body language, active listening, pauses – everything may play a positive or negative role during the interview.

Always record the interview so as not to skip any single detail. When you get to the writing, you will eliminate uninteresting moments and highlight the most informative answers.
A good interview should contain a “prehistory.” It can be short information about the interviewee or about the circumstances in which you have met him or her.

Don’t forget to say thank you to the interviewee for the time spent on the interview. Send the published article to the interviewee or their representative to keep them up-to-date with the published material.

To make a good interview you will need to answer the following questions:

• How many questions will be enough?
• How much time do you have for the interview?
• What is the main aim of the interview?
• What to talk about?
• How to motivate the interviewee to answer the questions?
• What interesting questions should be asked?

Check several star interview examples and samples from our blog to see what a good interview looks like.

Avoid These Mistakes From Our Interview Guide Example

We are all people and everyone makes mistakes. If you want to avoid unpleasant moments and get the most from the interview, try to avoid the following mistakes in your interview.

• Not preparing questions ahead. If you are not an experienced interviewer, it will be better to create a list of questions carefully picked for the interviewee. Many people think that it will be easy to find questions during the interview, but in reality it doesn’t work. If you don’t prepare for the interview, it’s more likely that you will fail. For example, if you will be interviewing a famous person, familiarize yourself with his or her biography and character to avoid an embarrassing situation.
• Asking questions too long or complex. Always keep in mind that you are here to involve the person in conversation and get a certain amount of information. Your questions should be no longer than three sentences. Also, don’t start the interview with serious questions. Instead, try to create an atmosphere that will promote a cheerful conversation. Remember that the text of the interview shouldn’t be too long (unless you place several interviews in one article).
• Not considering the interviewee’s personality. The interview should be flexible. Questions can be changed depending on the situation to reveal more interesting and unexpected information. If you notice that the interviewee is experiencing negative emotions, quickly switch your conversation into a positive mood with a more comfortable question.
• Asking incorrect questions. Questions that may embarrass or perplex the interviewee can spoil the interview. If you will need to ask a sensitive question, make sure that it won’t hurt the interviewee. To create an atmosphere of trust, try to copy the interviewee’s mood, way of speaking, and body language (but don’t overdo it).
• Failing to save questions in reserve. Always keep several questions in reserve if the interviewee gives short answers. It may be more general questions about favorite movies, books, events, etc. Also, you can ask leading questions if the interviewee tries to slip away from the question or the answer remains unclear.
• Not listening to the interviewee. Even professional interviewers can make this mistake. Don’t be self-obsessed. If you listen to the interviewee attentively, you will become an outstanding interlocutor. Listen carefully to the answers, since any information can be extremely useful and interesting.
• Forgetting to thank the interviewee. Even if the interview was fruitless, you still need to give thanks to the person that has spent time on your questions. This should also be applied in the email interview. It is important, as you may face the need to take another interview from the same person.

Don’t be upset if you still make mistakes even after reading this text. Always keep in mind that one of the most powerful skills of an interviewer is psychological stability. Even if the interviewee doesn’t want to talk or negatively reacts to one of your questions, keep calm and move to other questions. Say sorry if it is applicable.

Interview Questions and Answers Examples

Interview questions should always be crafted in consideration of the interviewee and the aim of the interview. To interest the interviewee (especially if you are interviewing a person that gives interviews frequently) you need to ask interesting and original questions. There are several types of interview questions:

1. Case question. This type of question is asked to see how the interviewee will solve a particular problem or case. For example: “What will you do if you lose your job?”
2. Situational questions. These questions are used to find out the behavior of a person in a certain situation. For example: “I have heard that you have experienced hard days for the last two months. What did you feel? How have you overcome it?”
3. Specific professional questions. To ask this sort of question the interviewer should have good knowledge of the professional field of the interviewee. If you need to make an interview with a CEO or a professional in a particular field, you need to be up to date with the news and know the aim of the business.

In the list below you can read the common interview questions and sample answers. You can use some of them at the beginning of the interview to make it more relaxed.

• What can you tell about yourself?
• Why have you decided to become/do/work/collaborate/learn/etc.?
• What has led you to this decision/person/event/etc.?
• What was the starting point of your career/hobby/etc.?
• What are the pros and cons of your work/activity/hobby/etc.?
• What are the difficulties in your work/activity/etc.?
• What would you do differently if you had a second chance?
• What plans do you have for the next project/movie/event/etc.?
• What recommendation can you give to a novice?
• Do have the feeling that you are fed up with your current position?
• What plans do you have for the next month/decade/year/etc.?
• What is a secret of success/finding a partner/creating a strong relationship/etc.?
• What is your favorite music/film/concert/book/dish/etc.?
• Who is your favorite singer/group/director/actor/writer/character/poet/etc.?
• Do you have a real living idol? Why?
• What was the biggest failure/success/joy/sadness/etc. in your life?
• Do you have a lack of inspiration? What do you usually do in these moments?
• What personal qualities do you wish to have?
• What do you prefer to do in your free time? How would you spend your vacation?
• Was it difficult to refuse your free time/time with family/career/stability?
• Why are you so popular/successful/etc.?

This list consists of personal questions, and if you need to make a professional interview or an interview for particular research, add more specific questions related directly to the person’s activities or experience. Every new question can evolve a new chain of ideas that will create an overall more accurate picture.

Always keep in mind that the questions should help you reach the aim of the interview. But don’t be upset if you don’t succeed. The outcome of the interview doesn’t totally depend on you. It may happen that the interviewee is sick, has no mood, or experiences hard times.

How to Use the Interview Form Sample More Effectively

A sample is a great tool to learn how to do something. From a good interview script example you can learn the following things:

First, you can use the same sample interview questions in your interview or just consider the way they are presented. But don’t forget to take into account the interviewee’s personality and qualifications to be able to construct a good conversation.
Secondly, you can copy the style of a written interview. Look how the author presents the interviewee and constructs the dialogue. How does the interviewer smooth things over and move from one question to another?
Thirdly, you can use the format. Look how the author structures the text of the interview. How are the names presented? How does the author conclude the interview? See how the author presents interview answers examples.
Fourthly, look how the author ends the interview. Usually the interviewer should repeat the interviewee’s name, say thank you, and briefly outline the context of the interview.
And lastly, look how the author introduces the interviewee. Usually an interviewer should give brief information about the person and highlight the most memorable moments of his or her life.

Great Interview Article Examples on payforwriting

An interview is a story that we tell with the person’s words. To make it more interesting and engaging, use the samples that you can see on our website! We recommend you to accompany our interview writing samples with a guide on how to write up an interview to get more details about the writing process. All you need is to pick an expert that you will be interviewing, adopt questions from our samples to your current situation, and conduct an astonishing interview. And at last, to write a great interview you need great experience. It is necessary to constantly practice communication with different people and gently try the techniques for creating certain emotions and asking the right questions. Ask an ironical question about a sensitive subject, argue with someone about politics or art, and watch the reaction. If the person is offended and starts blocking you, this will mean that you have done something wrong.

We hope that our information will help you get a better understanding of how to write an interview. Here you can find good topics for an interview as well. We wish you to have interesting and effective interviews!