Answering a student’s questions about interviews and education
Questions from Andrea Perera
- Do you have any suggestions for preparing interview questions?
- How did you become a professional podcaster? What kind of post-secondary education did you complete?
- Where do you get your podcast thoughts from?
Questions 2 and 3 were to a degree answered in the first installment of this run. As for education, I have a Masters degree in Public Administration from New York University, which obviously has nothing to do with my work these days (except perhaps for government clients). You see, my first career was in systems analysis, thanks to a stint working in the computing center as an undergrad. After I finished my studies at NYU, I started working in the nonprofit sector, for the Mayor’s Office of the City of New York.
A couple of years after moving to Toronto, I chose to leave the wonderful world of IT and flip my career on its head. The communications aspect of the job is what I liked, so I did a post-grad certificate at Ryerson University in magazine journalism. It’s a fabulous program.
As for podcast thoughts: they’re everywhere! As I mentioned last time, I’m always meeting fascinating people who are candidates for interviews. My main concern, but, is that I can package the theme matter, whatever it is, into a small sufficient segment.
To answer the part about the interview questions: I don’t like to give exact questions in advance, because I’ve found that the guest would tend to over prepare. Some would even write out the answers and try to read them on the podcast. Unless you’re very skilled, reading is deadly on a podcast. So I provide general question areas before the interview. The best questions usually arise during the interview, in response to something the guest has already said. I reckon I’m pretty relaxed about the questions after so many years interviewing people for print articles. I can always reckon of something to question! I do remind the guest that the podcast will be abridged, which takes some of the pressure off them. People would otherwise worry about being “perfect.”