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1 Teaching the Interviewing Course
Charles J. Stewart
McGraw-Hill conducts surveys of instructors who teach interviewing courses prior to
Establishing the Relevance of Your Course
Establishing the relevance of your course in the eyes of your students is critical to its success,
but this is often a difficult task. Although few students have experiences in their projected
careers or professional lives, many are certain they know exactly which courses are relevant –
necessary — for their futures and which are not. For example, I taught a course in the principles
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relevance directly by discussing why they will play the role of applicant only a few times in their
lives, but will serve as interviewers on search committees throughout their professional and
social lives. For instance, give examples of meeting former students in the fall who had
graduated the previous spring and were back on campus as recruiters for their companies and
organizations. Few of these students were in human resources positions. Students are not
alone in seeing “interviewing” as a phase of job seeking. When talking with a high level hospital
administrator a few years ago, I mentioned that I was teaching a course in interviewing to
nursing students in a nearby city. He replied, “Nursing students don’t need an interviewing
course. There are plenty of jobs in nursing.” He seemed unaware that nurses are involved every
day in a variety of interviews such as information getting and giving, counseling, and persuasion
with physicians, patients, family members, and visiting friends.
From the first day of your course, identify and discuss the numerous interactions your
students take part in nearly every day without thinking of them as interviews, and emphasize
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Employ demonstrations that show the relevance of the concepts and principles of
interviewing. For instance, at the start of class when you have assigned readings on question
types and uses, admit that it is natural to wonder why it is necessary to learn the names of so
many questions. After all, “Isn’t a question merely a question?” Then demonstrate why
knowing the names and unique characteristics of questions are important. As a wood-worker, I
like to dump a sack of screwdrivers on the table at the front of the room. The screwdrivers
range in size from a couple of inches to more than a foot long and some have slot, square,
Phillips, hex, pentagon, or torx-shaped tips. I explain how each screw driver has a name and is
lengthy answer. They will not ask a leading question when they do not want to influence how
an interviewee replies. A simple demonstration gets and maintains attention and helps
students understand, or at least grudgingly accept, the importance of learning question types,
names, and uses.
Maintaining Interest
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It is a truism that human beings are story tellers; it’s what we do that is unique to us. Few
activities get and maintain interest better than telling stories about experiences in conducting
or taking part in a political survey, getting and following instructions to a home in the country,
understanding medical terminology during a checkup, or conducting employment interviews in
the lobby of a hotel. Encourage students to share their experiences that resonate well with
others their age.
A common mistake in teaching interviewing is to come to class with lecture notes in
hand and power point slides at the ready. Make your course interactive with students playing
active roles in every class period. Get them and keep them involved from day one. For
instance, instead of doing traditional student self-introductions in which students become
acquainted with one another, employ an interview exercise in which they form trios and
conduct three five-minute, ice-breaker interviews in which they rotate the roles of interviewer,
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classes, broadcast news events, and with eye witnesses, political leaders, researchers, and
famous people. Use small groups to evaluate a selection of resumes and report their reactions,
suggestions, and preferences to the whole class. Students are more likely to sustain their
interest in the learning process if you make your class interesting and maintain focus on
interviewing and its relevance to their futures.
Motivating Students to Read the Textbook
Motivating students to read the textbook and other materials is an age-old problem. The key is
to give students good reasons to read and come prepared to each class. If you spend most of
the class period lecturing on the readings or answering questions from students who have not
Emphasize every day that your class is highly interactive so its success depends on the
participation of every student every day. Keep track of daily participation, and make this a
portion of final grades. When assigning a chapter on the interviewing process, for instance,
include a sample interview with strengths and weaknesses as part of the reading. At the start of
the next class, ask if there are questions about the reading. Make this question-answer portion
of the class brief. Then, instead of lecturing on the interviewing process, draw out and apply the
theories and principles by analyzing the interview and having students address questions such
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as: What perceptions do the interviewer and interviewee have of themselves, each other, and
the situation? What is the apparent relationship of the two parties? At which communication
levels do the interactions occur? How does language affect the interview? How does nonverbal
Providing Opportunities to Practice Skills
A major problem encountered when teaching the interviewing course is providing
opportunities to practice interviewing skills during limited class time. You must schedule
enough days to discuss adequately the principles and practices of interviewing, to make
interviewing assignments, and to provide students with adequate time to practice in-class
interviews. If not, students will become frustrated because they feel ill-prepared for interviews
and exams, do not fully understand what you expect of them as interviewers and interviewees,
and do not have enough time to exhibit what they have learned in class.
There are a number of ways to assure that students have adequate skills-building
opportunities. First, keep lecture-discussion days to the minimum needed for discussing and
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illustrating interviewing principles and making sure students understand what is expected in
practice interviews. Second, make interviews long enough so they are realistic and give parties
adequate time to practice necessary skills. Third, have more than one interview occurring in
different parts of the classroom with sound or video recorders providing copies of each for
grading and discussion. Keep time and move about the room to observe the interviews.
Recorders make it possible to have several interviews take place during each class period.