How to Interview Someone: The Parts You Must Know!

Have you been lost trying to interview someone to determine if the person in front was being truthful? You probably started asking random questions, started to get nervous and quickly finished the interview feeling frustrated. Don’t worry, I been there too. A good solution is knowing the parts of the interview and the objective of each. This knowledge will bring you confidence and the ability to find the truth. Let’s cover them now.

The first part of the interview is the introduction. This is where the rules are set, the purpose reviews and most importantly for the interviewer, create “Rapport” and “Establish a Baseline” of the interviewee. Rapport is the ability to find a connection that will allow the other person to trust or respect you, which usually results in them sharing information with you. A good way to establish rapport is by giving genuine compliments on something not obviously known or observed, such as particular piece of clothing or accessories. A better way is to find a connection in something you both share: military experience, work experience, sports clubs, recent travels, etc. Simultaneously, you need to pay close attention to the person’s word usage, tone, rate of speech, level of education, and mannerism when talking about normal, non-threatening questions to establish his/her baseline behavior. You will use this baseline behavior in Step 3 to compare his/her reaction to more prying questions.

With the rapport and baseline established, the second part is the assessment phase. Here, you must gather as much information as possible with your questions. At this stage, it is very important that most of the talking is done by the other person. Encourage them to talk more with yeses, keep going, and head nods. Don’t interrupt them and don’t ask questions that can be easily answer with one-word answers, such as leading question. Leading questions are structured with the answers in them, such as “where you at your house or at the bar last night?” or “are you traveling for business or pleasure? Instead, ask Open-Ended questions that makes the person give more details, which in turn gives you more information to analyze. Taking the examples above: “can you explain where were you last night?” and “what is the reason that brings you here?” If you can tailor open-ended questions to get to the heart of the matter, meaning asking what the person really wants—that is gold. Example, “What is it that you really want to accomplish here?”

 The third part, which is the hardest part, is the cross-examination. In this phase, you must question them about your suspicions or their inconsistencies. This section is too vast to cover anything but a small introduction, so just know that it requires time and effort to correctly apply different questioning techniques while interpreting verbal and non-verbal cues. However, here are a few basic guidelines to follow:

a) rely on your rapport to put internal pressure, meaning make him/her feel what they will lose not what you will make them lose

b) compare their baseline behavior to their behavior when answering tough or accusatory questions

c) if you see a cluster (several or group) of verbal or non-verbal deceptive cues while covering a certain area, question that area further

d) remember people have different personalities, so try different methods to get information such as using emotions, logic, imagination, etc.

In future blogs we will dive deeper in this subject covering specific techniques and theme-based questions to discover the truth.

The fourth part is the resolution phase. You have now discovered the information you need to make your decision whether the person is truthful or not. If the person is legitimate, complete the interview by checking you have all the information for your reports, returning any samples or evidence provided to you during the interview, and thanking the person for their time. If, however, you deemed the person untruthful or guilty follow your agency or company’s standard operating procedures on these events.

In conclusion, you have learned the parts of the interview and their individual objective, which will give you the confidence to navigate any interview and avoid ever feeling lost. Remember, interview, in particular for law enforcement purpose, is a deep and wide subject that requires constant training and dedication to become skilled.

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