We will teach you what you need to prepare, how to prepare your interviewee, and how to run the interview to ensure you and the interviewee get the most out of it.

Know Your Audience

Before you even start talking with your interviewee you need to be prepared. Don’t just walk into the interview expecting you will be able to ask all the right questions.

Take some time to research the person(s) you are interviewing and take some notes on important points such as their name, occupation, brief career history, current projects and anything else that would be pertinent to your particular interview.

You should write out a list of questions that you would like to ask them. This list will help you out if you find the interview dragging or if you are blanking on something to ask. Make the questions brief and to the point and type. Print out the questions — rather than hand writing them — so you can read them easily.

Be Prepared

After you have an idea about what you want to talk about, you need to prepare for the interview itself.

First you need a good location. Choose a place that is quiet, well lit and comfortable. If you are doing a video or audio interview the quiet part is very important. Make sure the location isn’t a place where there will be frequent interruptions or unexpected guests. It also helps to have the location be somewhere beautiful or interesting like at a quiet park or an old building.

You will also need to prepare any of the equipment you will need for the interview. Charge the battery on your camera and make sure you have film enough to cover the entire interview plus some extra. Bring a notebook even if the interview is filmed so you can make points about the best parts, specific requests from the interviewee and other unexpected items. Bring some water and food for you and the interviewee so you don’t need to stop the interview if you get hungry or thirsty.

Set your equipment up early. Double check everything. Get the camera setup and positioned in the best spot. If you have the time do a practice run without the interviewee to get figure out if your location is the best.

Make sure you have comfortable seating for all in the interview process since interviews often go longer than expected and being comfortable is very important for getting a good interview.

Prepare Them

If you have the chance to contact the interviewee before the interview, send them an email or give them a phone call and give them a general idea of what you will talk about. You don’t need to give them all the questions or anything, but just give them a general overview so they can see what they need to prepare for before the interview starts.

If you do not have the chance to give them prep material before the interview, give them a general idea of what you will ask before the interview starts so they can be better prepared to give you well thought-out answers.

Make Them Comfortable

When you meet your interviewee, give them a warm welcome, ask them if they want anything to drink or eat (if possible) and lead them to the interview area. Ask them how they are and if they need anything before you start.

Make Eye Contact, and Smile!

One of the best ways to get the person you are interviewing to open up is to make eye contact with them. If you are looking down at your notes the whole time or if you just look disengaged you will make your interviewee feel uncomfortable and that will dramatically effect the quality of your interview. Look them strait in the eye and give them a warm smile so they feel like they are being listened to.

Start It Easy

Some people are naturally easy to interview and you won’t need to do much to get the ball rolling, but others can be quite difficult to get to open up and be themselves. With the shy types it is a good technique to start with simple questions and maybe crack some jokes to get them to start talking.

Start the interview with some easy, light questions like how they are doing, if they went on any trips recently or if they like elephants more than giraffes. Anything to get them to start loosening up and feeling more comfortable.

Once you feel the interviewee is feeling relaxed you can start asking more involved questions which they will be more ready for.

Engage

The worst types of interviews are the ones where the interviewer just spews out endless questions to the interviewee without really engaging in conversation. Your job as an interviewer is to get the interviewee to open up and to give honest and thoughtful answers and the best way to do this is to really listen to what they are saying and ask pointed questions based on what they are saying.

You don’t have to just run through your questions until the interview is over. Take detours and follow your interviewee’s train of thought. Allow the conversation to be fluid, just like a real person-to-person conversation.

On the flip side however, don’t run off down a trail of conversation and completely forget what you came to interview them for. Bring the conversation back to focus if you think things are getting too far off topic.

Let Them Talk

One of the tendencies of some people is to get into a back-and-forth discourse with the interviewee, and while this may be great for a conversation, you are running an interview and this is a chance for them to speak their mind, not your chance to stand on a soap box. Let them speak as much as possible and interject only when you feel that they mentioned something worth expanding upon or if they seem to be in a rut and need some guidance.

Conclusion

Those are some tips that helped me lead successful interviews with a variety of people and I hope they will be helpful to you.

Is there anything we missed that you think is essential in an interview? Let us know in the comments!

Use the tried-and-true method of using tweezers if the splinter is protruding from your skin. Use whatever tweezers you have available — sharp, chisel-point tweezers are the best — and grasp the splinter as close to the skin as possible and gently pull it straight out, being careful not to break it off in your skin.

If it isn’t budging, try squeezing the skin around the splinter a little to encourage it to move.

Elmer’s Glue

If you can’t grab the splinter or splinters with a tweezer because they are too small or are too close to the skin, try using Elmer’s glue to get them out. Dilute a little bit of the glue with some water — about 1 part water to 3 parts glue — and dab it onto the splinters, giving it a thick, even coating. Wait until the glue is completely dry and then gently peel the glue off, removing the splinter(s).

This technique is also useful if you accidentally touched a cactus with tiny spines and want to get them out without pushing them further in.

Soaking

You can soak the skin around the splinter with some warm water to soften the skin, making it easier for the splinter to dislodge. Try soaking for 5 minutes and then using tweezers again. If that doesn’t work try 10 minutes. If all else fails, move to the next section.

Razor Blade

If the splinter is embedded under you skin with no way to grab it, take a sharp, sterile razor blade and gradually cut your skin from the entry hole down to the splinter until you can get a tweezer at the splinter. Obviously be careful not to cut yourself deeply and make the wound worse, try just cutting layer by layer through the skin until you get at the splinter.

To sterilize the blade you can lightly burn the edge with a cigarette lighter (being careful not to over-heat the blade) or dip it in some hydrogen peroxide. If you choose to use a cigarette lighter, make sure to let it cool off and then wipe the soot off with a clean piece of paper towel before using.

Care of a Splinter Wound

Once you’ve got that pesky splinter out, you need to keep it clean to prevent infection. Irrigate the wound with hydrogen peroxide (or rubbing alcohol) 3-4 times a day. Keep the wound clean and dry, only covering it up if you are going to be getting dirty.

If you need to cover it up, use a band-aid with a little bit of triple antibiotic ointment. Just make sure to remove the bandaid, clean the would and let it dry or it may get soggy and possibly go septic.

If the wound doesn’t get better in a few days, go to a doctor to have it checked out.

Conclusion

Now you should have some techniques up your sleeve for removing splinters that should come in handy one day. Just remember that it’s better just to avoid getting them in the first place by wearing some good, thick gloves.

If you have some good techniques to remove splinter, let us know in the comments below!