Steal These Interview Tips from Oprah, Stephen Colbert, and Others to Up Your Recruiting Game
By | Laura Hilgers | www.linkedin.com
One of the things that distinguishes great recruiters from good ones is the ability to crush an interview. When you can put a candidate at ease, create a smooth conversational flow, and elicit important information, you’re one step closer to matching a candidate to the perfect role.
And who can do this better than the people who’ve achieved fame by asking questions? We’re talking Oprah Winfrey, Terry Gross, Marc Maron, and Stephen Colbert. Over the course of their careers, they’ve collectively talked to hundreds of thousands of people and learned how to frame questions in ways that gather vital information and create fascinating conversations.
Many of them have shared publicly how they conduct great interviews, and we’ve sifted through their responses to come up with eight tips to help you hone your skills too. Here’s what they have to say:
1. Do your prep work
This is Interviewing 101, but the best way to conduct a great interview is to do your research up front and find out who your subject or candidate is before you ever begin. No one is better than this than Terry Gross, the longstanding host of NPR’s Fresh Air. She’s asked probing questions and gotten compelling responses from many luminaries, including most recently Colson Whitehead, Halle Berry, and Benedict Cumberbatch.