The thought of being interviewed by a complete stranger terrified me. I was sitting in class hoping that someone familiar would say, “Candice, would you be my partner?”
We were instructed by our lecturer, Francesca, “To get into groups of two” and to interview each other on a topic. It could be an experience we had encountered during the holidays or an activity we had participated in. One clear instruction was, that it had to be a “real experience,” we could not just make up any old story.
When Chloe shouted out, “Candice, I’m with you!” I was truly relieved! I thought, “I can do this, no problem.” When Chloe began asking me questions about my holiday in South Africa, I answered them easily. Chloe began the interview with questions that only required facts, I was quite happy answering them, until questions that required reasons popped up, like “Why did you go to South Africa?” As we were in the classroom, others could hear what I was saying and I felt very uncomfortable knowing this, it made me feel uneasy as it then became a discussion between the other students.
Though I was very comfortable talking to Chloe and I know Chloe as a friend, I suddenly put up a wall and thought, “Hang on, who is going to see these answers, where is all my personal information going to be written?” It was then that I realised, if Chloe was a journalist questioning me, I think I would not actually enjoy sharing these personal experiences. I would be comfortable with facts though, questions like, “When did you leave for South Africa?” weren’t exactly hard to answer.
Being the interviewer, was a lovely job for me. “Boy, did I enjoy it!” Being curious by nature, questions came naturally. I was also very interested in Chloe’s topic, “A cruise to the Islands”. This was my chance to question someone who had been on a seventeen day cruise, as I had never had the opportunity to go on one. In the past, I could only imagine what a cruise might be like and I always wanted to know just how much it differed from the television series, “The Love Boat”.
So overall, the interviewing experience wasn’t too daunting. However, I do think that if I had an interviewee that was quite abrupt, I would
have to prepare a long list of questions beforehand, as well as think of some questions right then and there. I would definitely need to learn how to dig deeper, in order to get an interesting story out of a mundane person. I could only imagine that if I had to interview several people about something that I was passionate about, I would truly find interviewing to be a pleasurable task.
We were instructed by our lecturer, Francesca, “To get into groups of two” and to interview each other on a topic. It could be an experience we had encountered during the holidays or an activity we had participated in. One clear instruction was, that it had to be a “real experience,” we could not just make up any old story.
When Chloe shouted out, “Candice, I’m with you!” I was truly relieved! I thought, “I can do this, no problem.” When Chloe began asking me questions about my holiday in South Africa, I answered them easily. Chloe began the interview with questions that only required facts, I was quite happy answering them, until questions that required reasons popped up, like “Why did you go to South Africa?” As we were in the classroom, others could hear what I was saying and I felt very uncomfortable knowing this, it made me feel uneasy as it then became a discussion between the other students.
Though I was very comfortable talking to Chloe and I know Chloe as a friend, I suddenly put up a wall and thought, “Hang on, who is going to see these answers, where is all my personal information going to be written?” It was then that I realised, if Chloe was a journalist questioning me, I think I would not actually enjoy sharing these personal experiences. I would be comfortable with facts though, questions like, “When did you leave for South Africa?” weren’t exactly hard to answer.
Being the interviewer, was a lovely job for me. “Boy, did I enjoy it!” Being curious by nature, questions came naturally. I was also very interested in Chloe’s topic, “A cruise to the Islands”. This was my chance to question someone who had been on a seventeen day cruise, as I had never had the opportunity to go on one. In the past, I could only imagine what a cruise might be like and I always wanted to know just how much it differed from the television series, “The Love Boat”.
So overall, the interviewing experience wasn’t too daunting. However, I do think that if I had an interviewee that was quite abrupt, I would
have to prepare a long list of questions beforehand, as well as think of some questions right then and there. I would definitely need to learn how to dig deeper, in order to get an interesting story out of a mundane person. I could only imagine that if I had to interview several people about something that I was passionate about, I would truly find interviewing to be a pleasurable task.
0 Comments