The place where I work have started including a short employee news letter and are asking for suggestions on what to include in it. I've considered suggesting that I interview a different person in the company to put in but I have extreamely little interview experience. If I end up doing it, is there any suggestions out there in regards to interviews? Mark, you do such a good job with them I'm sure you must have some secret methods that you might be willing to share.

Matt,

I have written profiles for magazines before. I've found that I work best with a minitape recorder and a list of questions. However, be able to throw the questions out, if a conversation gets going. That's all an interview is/. It's a directed conversation. The stiffer you are, the more non-responsive the interview is.

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Most people -- once they get warmed up -- love to talk about themselves. Before you go in, decide what you most want to know about the subject, how they got to where they are and where they want to be next. But don't stick only to the scripted questions. As they answer, new things will occur to you. Follow them up.

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I agree with mark totally. Plus, he's got more experience too. It's been years since I worked in journalism, and I'm just going off memory.

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Cool, thanks guys. I still haven't decided if I want to suggest doing it or not as I'm not sure how some of the people receiveing it will react. I can see a lot of "What is this crap all about that they stuck in with my paycheck?" There are some very interesting characters that I work with though, so it could be interesting. I not sure if my courage is in quite the right spot yet though. I just thought I'd get some info in case I do. Thanks.

The master of interviewing, hands down, has got to be Studs Terkel. Only, after he transcribes the tape, he takes out all mention of himself, so that what you're reading sounds like a monologue. His book "Working" is fascinating. I don't how this would be helpful, other than a reading tip, however.

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Ken

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm definitely mulling it over. I'll have to see if I can come up with some good questions and see if there are enough ones that would be interesting. I think I'd like to focus on peoples interests outside of work rather than their areas of expertise in the company.