What is the interview for and what is its function?

An interview is a type of dialogue between 2 or more people, there are several types of interviews such as job interviews , made in order to know the applicant for a certain job within any company or institution, or the most popular interviews journalistic , all of them created with the purpose of finding out or knowing some aspect of the questioned person or his opinion regarding various topics.

Knowing the concept and definition of an interview, the types and what they are for could be very useful information when carrying out any research work and could be useful in terms of keys to carry out one in the correct way.

What is an interview and what is it for?

An interview could be defined as the exchange of ideas and opinions through a conversation . It is worth noting that the different participants in the interview talk about a certain topic or idea. In the journalistic interview, a spontaneous talk may arise from which various topics arise about which it is possible to discuss and dialogue.

What is a job interview for?

Some experts in the labor field assure that the old way of conducting job interviews is a thing of the past and an ineffective way of knowing the job skills of the interviewee or applicant.

However, despite this, it remains a fundamental tool in most companies to recruit their employees. The function of a job interview is that the recruiter can know in a closer way who aspires to a certain position.

Despite the change in new technologies and in the way people work, it is important for the HR staff of a company to know certain aspects such as the level of emotional intelligence, their response capacity beyond their technical skills and studies.

What is a journalistic interview for?

This is one of the most popular forms of interview since we see them daily in various media, many times a journalistic interview can have an entertainment purpose as in the case of interviews with celebrities and movie stars, however in the journalism, interviews are an effective tool to investigate and learn relevant facts of world events.

What is the purpose of the interview in an investigation?

Interviews are also a fundamental part of the research and in these cases it is already known who is interviewed as a researcher and who is interviewed as a study subject. They are done in order to get information that is relevant about a certain study.

This type of interview is ideal to obtain information of various types from the public since it is done orally and not in writing. Some types of research interview are:

• The structured interview
• Unstructured research interview
• Semi-structured research interview

What is the personal interview for?

A personal interview in direct contact and in an individual way, personal interviews can be very useful to deepen the information about the interviewee and is an opportunity to meet him in a direct way. The personal interview is usually used by companies when recruiting workers since it is an ideal way to know their skills to function.

Interview types

Knowing each type of interview is essential to know what each one is for, knowing the concept of each one of them can help you discover which one could be more useful at a given moment. According to the use of the interview, it can be classified into several types that can be the following.

The journalistic interview

The concept of a journalistic interview is given by its use to disseminate information in a general and specific way, as we mentioned in the case of interviews in entertainment and entertainment, which are intended to disseminate information about a recognized star or celebrity .

The interview is also very useful to obtain information that is sustainable, opinions and to give to know a broad panorama about a certain situation. Journalists conduct interviews from many different sites to see first-hand what is happening in a particular news site.

Medical interviews

This is a vital tool to understand the patient’s condition. In medical interviews, the patient usually does not share the same information or knowledge as the doctor, so it must be kept simple so that the patient can explain and the doctor has a better idea of ​​what ails him.

These interviews can be archived as part of the patient’s medical history for effective treatment. Medical interviews are essential in the relationship between doctor and patient.

Interviews for study and human knowledge

In the study of ethnic groups and societies that can help to understand humanity, the interview is a fundamental way of knowing the culture in a closer way. It is used to better understand the behavior of the tribes and has purposes related to academic research.

Many factors such as language, folklore as well as myths come into play in this type of interview, although you can also study modern society and the interaction between people.

The therapy interview

It is a type of interview related to the medical interview, although in many cases it can be more personalized. They can be used as therapy to strengthen certain personal aspects of the patient.

The ideal in this type of interview is to make the patient feel more comfortable regarding his own condition, these interviews are usually carried out in the field of psychology and psychiatry. The interview can also be an important factor in rehabilitation and physical therapy.

Tax and police interview

Justice also uses the interview as a tool to clarify facts, find guilty and administer justice. These interviews are often portrayed on TV, in the form of interrogations.

It is useful to present the case in front of the judges and the expert investigators can use their experience to determine the innocence of someone or use tools such as the polygraph to do so. Prosecutors also use the interview to obtain information from witnesses in a criminal or criminal act and it is a basic tool in justice.

Steps to conduct an interview

The structure of an interview is very important to reach a satisfactory conclusion, the environment and preparing the questions is essential and in a more specific way the correct way to conduct an interview is as follows.

Plan and prepare

Preparation begins with choosing the right location, free from possible external interference, such as noise that may interfere with the exchange of ideas. It is very important that the interviewee feel comfortable and have a place that transmits security to be able to open up to the questions that the interviewer is going to ask.

Another important part of the preparation is to investigate the person you are going to interview, if he is a recognized character, observing some interviews that he has given previously could help you to know the type of interviews he likes and avoid some questions or topics about which he does not like to talk to the interviewee.

Presentation and development of the interview

Once you have done the preparation of the questions, the setting and the research on the interviewee, it is time to begin. Remember the importance of body language during an interview, whether you are the one who conducts it or if you are interviewed, this is especially important when being interviewed to choose a job in any company.

Questions

After introducing yourself, greeting in a pleasant way so that the interviewee feels comfortable, it is time to start asking the questions that you have previously prepared. Sometimes in journalistic interviews, the questions that will be asked could be previously discussed with the interviewee in order to know in advance to answer more easily, to get to the point and to be able to advance from one to another, especially when time is short.

Conclusion of the interview

If you have time make sure you give the interviewee enough time to answer the different questions you may have, it is necessary that any interview is as we mentioned before a dialogue and not an interrogation, try to make the whole interview like a pleasant and relaxed conversation. Once you are done, you can thank the interviewee for their time and indicate that you have already covered the different aspects of what you wanted to know about it.

Can the interview be a weapon?

In the cases of the interview applied to political debates and in cases of shock interviews, continuous questions can be used so that the interviewee is in a difficult position to maneuver or avoid the questions.

In addition, during flawed interrogations, body language and intimidation can lead the interviewee to respond to what the interviewer wants to hear and may be incriminated in crimes that he did not commit.

Tip when interviewed

No matter what type of interview it is, it is important to know the topic that is going to be discussed before hand so that the conversation is fluid and the exchange of ideas allows a favorable conclusion to be reached. In the case of job interviews, it is necessary to pay attention to what the interviewer asks and always keep the answers short and direct.