Going to interview someone for your school mag?
First job as a newbie in a dream mag?
What's to do is to get ready!
Yesterday was my school's sports day and I was supposed to write a news for it (or article, which way you put it), but since I'm learning on how to take photos, I put all of my energy on shooting and snapping, and therefore forgot the important part--INTERVIEW!
You can't pop into an event and go straight to the main star of the day saying you want an interview and go speechless in the end, you'll embarass yourself, even worse, your company!
So here's some tips that maybe will help.
1.MOST BASIC: PREPARE YOUR QUESTIONS
Make sure what event you are going to, make sure who's the star of the day, if possible, make sure that you know when he/she is free for interview, book a time with him/her is best. With all of these info, you could prepare some questions you couldn't conjure up last minute. This way, you wouldn't end up forgetting to ask important questions because of you nervousness during the interview. But of course, you can add or cancell questions according to his/her response.
2.TAKE NOTES
Two kinds of notes you are gonna make here:
First: notes on what he/she's gonna say. I mean, you can't write every word he/she pops out of her mouth with normal speed, so take notes instead, prepare symbols to easify and quicken your note taking.
Second: now this is the main one (skip this you may if you're already used to stuff like this), write down what you should do on a corner of your blank sheet used to jot down the interview. What should you do? Introduce youself, name, company, what you're writing for, what topic is your article about etc. And don't forget to say thanks after the interview even if he/she rejected it.
3.PREPARE YOURSELF
Not as in note-taking preparations, as in stuff preparations. Check what should you bring and what's going to burden you. What you should bring is note pad (for jotting down stuff), pen (with ink, not those with a little left), recorder (if needed, there's one in your handphone maybe), camera (DSLR is better for large events but if you just want a pic of him/her, a normal one will do), and your identity card (the one that proves that you're a reporter, it's very important!) Of course, this are my necessities, there may be more to you so, be flexible ok?
4.LOOKS
They say 1st impression is important, so goes for interviews too. You represent your company/ magazine, and if you dress unformally, what would they think of you? I mean if someone who dresses like a laid-back, everyday-street style came to say that they wanna interview you, and that they were from an infamous fashion magazine, you would be like: "are you sure you work for them?"
The things you wanna look out for is:
-make up: not too much for sports event and not too little for fashion events
-hair: pony tail for outdoor and maybe let down for air-cond events
-attire: no high heels for sports because you may wanna go down to the grass, nothing sexy for business events etc
-expressions/response: don't go frightening him/her by showing a shock look on your face when you've found out something that you didn't know, it's totally embarassing!
Well, that's all I have for today, hope this helps all aspring journalits, reporters, editors etc. Give me a reply once you've go through your interview, BYE~
signed,
Aqua Dreamer
