Three great interview strategies

Warren Ethridge from The Warren Report gave a fantastic opening talk at Gnomedex this morning, and focused on helping us get the most out of interviews. No matter why you’re interviewing someone, this is great advice:

Shock them & get their attention
Let them know right away that this isn’t going to be a typical interview. Get them out of their comfort zone, for both of your sakes. If they weren’t giving you their full attention, they will now – for the entire remainder of the interview.

Win their trust
Know something about them going in, study them (at least a little) to know why they’re there and what they can contribute (for their and your specific interests). The more they trust you earlier in the interview, the more earnest and interesting they’ll be throughout.

Earn their respect
Prove that you care, and want to learn more about them. Listen to their answers. Better yet, don’t come in with a written or prepared set of questions. Spend your time listening and reacting, and let your instincts and their answers take you to the next question. You’ll both get more out of it.