Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #335 - Interviews

Episode Date: May 27, 2016

Mark talks about some of the interviews he has done and tips about doing good interviews.

I'm pulling up in my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so today's topic is... I'm going to talk about something I do a lot that I've never discussed, I think, on my podcast. Being interviewed. So one of my jobs, one of my many various jobs, is I'm a spokesperson for the company. Well, one of the spokespeople for the company. And one of the things that entails is I do a lot of interviews.

So today, I'm going to talk about all the things I've learned about doing interviews. So it's sort of a topic on how to be interviewed or how to do a good interview, I guess, is the... So the assumption here is that you're the interviewee and not the interviewer. There's a whole probably different podcast on how to interview people. I've done some of that. But I've done a lot more of being the interviewee where someone's interviewing me. So one of the things that's very interesting is I have actually had training.

So they give you what's called media training, where usually it's like a half day and they take you aside and there's experts that come in and talk about how best to do interviews and stuff. So I want to share with you today some valuable tips learned over the years. A, of just doing a lot of interviews and B, being through media training and stuff. Okay, number one. These aren't in a particular order other than the order they come to me. First off, I think a lot of times there's this concern of interviews as being some adversary, adversarial thing.

Um, somehow when people have interviews, they're thinking like they're being grilled and, you know, in a police, you know, uh, in a police room or, you know, there's a light shining on them and they're like, where were you the night of whatever? Um, the reality is that most interviews, you and the interviewer are on the same side. That what you're trying to do is, usually what happens in an interview is, they want information so that they can sell whatever, you know, whatever thing that their interview is going to go on, they want people to read it. And you usually have some kind of information you want to get out. Um, and so there's, it's a symbiotic relationship. It's not an adversarial relationship.

So the first thing is stop thinking of your interviewer as being adversarial. So one of the things that's important is, and something they stress is, when you're being interviewed, there's a reason you're being interviewed, and you want to understand what that reason is. You both want to understand what the interviewer wants out of the interview, and you want to understand what you want out of the interview. So first off, oftentimes, the interviewer will give you the questions ahead of time. Because in most interviews, once again, they're not trying to surprise you with the questions.

They're trying to get good answers. And so the way they get the best answers is they want you to prepare. So they'll tell you ahead is they want you to prepare. So they'll tell you ahead of time what the questions are. So number one is if you're doing an interview, please remember that you can, I mean, they might not give you the questions. Some interviewers like to, you know, be more spontaneous. So just because you ask for the questions doesn't always mean you'll get the questions. But most interviewers will in fact give you the questions ahead of time so that you can see and you can think about them. The good thing about getting the questions ahead of time is you also can understand, like, one of the big things you want

in an interview is you want to have a sense of what the interviewer wants. What are they looking for? Sometimes they have an angle on the story they're interested. Sometimes they don't have an angle on the story and they're curious in your angle on the story. And the other big question is, what's the topic? What do they want to talk about? So normally, before you begin an interview, the first thing you want to do, sometimes this can be done ahead of time. Now, I also have, Wizards has a PR department.

So I'm always, usually I'm not the first person to talk to the interviewer. My PR department, they will do that. But even so, even through my PR department or myself, I want to make sure that we have some discussion with the interviewer. Usually that's done before you even sit down to the interview. You know, it's very common that my PR department will talk with the interviewer, they'll get the questions, and then they'll share the questions with me, and I can think about the questions. If you get to an interview and you

don't have questions, one of the things that's very valuable is to spend a little time early on, sort of before you officially start the interview, of just making sure you understand what the interviewer wants. And once again, let me stress this. In most cases, it's not an adversarial relationship that they want you to give a good interview just as much as you want to give a good interview.

They want it to be good to read. They want their readers, wherever they're posting this, to be happy with the interview. So they're more than happy to spend some time and energy with you so everyone's on board on what the interview is about. Okay, next.

You are not obligated to say anything you don't want to say. You should realize what you're trying to say and what you're not trying to say. You as the interviewee, if there's things you don't want to say, then don't say them. You're not obligated to say them. Even if, by the way, if an interviewer asks you a question that you are not supposed to answer and you don't have a good answer, you allowed to say I can't answer that um it is not something ideal you want to do I mean usually you want to sort of uh take a question and shift it to whatever you can answer um but

be aware of understand in an interview what it is you're trying to say also understand what you sometimes there's things I'm not allowed to say. For example, it's real common in my interviews that they're trying to get information about future products. And there's some information I'm allowed to give out in the interview. There's definitely interviews where I'm giving them information for the first time.

But I have to be aware of what I'm allowed to give, what future things I'm supposed to say. And then if I'm not supposed to say that, I can't say that. And now I've done this long enough. I've learned how to be coy where instead of saying, I can't say that, I will give an answer that essentially is, I can't say that, but a little more entertaining, a little less, you know, one of the things that's important when you do an interview though is to understand what

information they want out of you and you need to know what you do and don't want to say. And don't say the things you don't want to say. Even if somebody asks you directly the thing you don't want to say, in most interviews, you can just say, oh, sorry, I can't answer that. That is acceptable. Okay, the next thing about the interview is understand the medium of the interview.

Meaning, you are going to talk longer than the interview. So this is an important thing to realize. Every once in a while, I mean, there's certain kind of interviews, and you'll usually know what they are, in which the whole interview is used. the whole interview is used. Usually that's like a recorded interview and it's on a podcast or something where it's a long form thing where they pretty much want to use all the content they have. And they'll be very upfront of, like, if a reporter is going to tape you, they are obligated to tell you they are going to tape you. They must say, is it okay if I tape you? Be aware that when you interview, anything you say can go in the interview. That's why I say don't say things you don't want to say.

Once you're in the interview and you say things, it's fair game for them to print things you said. That's why it's important for you to not say things you don't want to say. Obviously, I mean, I have a PR department and stuff. So, I mean, if I really, really say something that I later regret, we can go talk to them. I mean, the people you're interviewing have the right to say it, but you can ask them sometimes. If you think you said something you rather you shouldn't have said. But if you never say things you don't want to say,

then you don't have to worry about that. Okay, but here's the larger thing is figure out how you're being interviewed. So, for example, there's an email interview. There's a phone interview. There is like a podcast where it's a little more live, if you will. The big question is how are they interviewing you and then how are they going to edit? How long? Like you want to understand the ratio of how long are they talking with you with how long do you think the article is going to be.

That will also give you a lot of important information. with how long do you think the article is going to be. That will also give you a lot of important information. And the reason this is so important is, if you want to be a good interview, you have to understand the medium that you're being interviewed in, and then accordingly give answers. So, for example, let's say you're doing a video interview.

Most video interviews tend to be quicker clips. Ask question, have answer. And that video tends not to do as long of answers as, say, print. French, you can talk longer and it's just easier to read in the nature of how print works. So it's important for you to understand what kind of interview you're having

so you can give the right kind of answers. And the other thing to remember is you're most likely going to get edited, which means not everything you say is going to end up in the interview. So be aware, like one of the things that's important when you do the interview is you want to make sure that you hit your point and you can hit it multiple times. That's okay. When they're editing your interview and you don't know where the edits are going to happen, sometimes you just want to hit the point enough times to make sure

that one of the things to remember is you're going to do the interview, the interviewer is going to go back and is going to most likely, well, essentially interviews are done in one of a few ways. The interview is doing something to record your answers. So it could be in print in which you've typed your answers and they have your answers all typed out. It could be an oral interview or a video interview where you're being interviewed, it's on tape.

Or it could be that they're taking notes. The one where they're taking notes is the one where you have to be more exact because you have to make sure they write down the right thing you have to make sure usually this day and age people tend to record the interview not even because they're going to play the recording but it allows them to go back and listen to things

so it's important to understand what points you want to hit and make sure you hit those points a couple times especially if it's an interview that's going to get edited. So you make sure that they're hitting, you're hitting the point that's important to you. The other thing to understand is your goal as an interviewee is to enter, is you want to be a compelling interview. So what, what makes a compelling interview?

So let's talk about that for a second. Why would somebody want to read you? Okay, so there's two main things that you provide in an interview. One is information and one is entertainment. So first off, you might be saying things they don't know. Why are you being interviewed? Because you have expertise and the knowledge that the reader does not have. So you can share stories or you can tell things that the reader goes, oh, I didn't know that. The second thing is you can be entertaining. That you can, you know, you can make answers fun and that how you're telling it can be entertaining. The nature by which you're telling it can be entertaining.

One of the things I often say, if you watch me being interviewed, is it is important, especially on video interviews, audio and video interviews, that you want to feel, you want to come across as excited that you are there. That interviews with energy are just more compelling and easier to listen to.

I do videos all the time, like inside R&B and stuff. People always ask that, my energy level is so high. Now, A, I have videos all the time, like inside R&B and stuff. People always ask that my energy level is so high. Now, A, I have a high energy level, but B, you want to be very, like, it is just more interested listening to somebody who is excited by what they're talking about. That, you know, you can say the most interesting content monotone and it's just less, it's not as much fun to listen to. You know, you can talk about things and the things you say could be very interesting, but if you have a very monotone tone,

it's boring to listen to. You know, or if you're compelling, okay, let me tell you about what I'm doing. This is awesome. You know, when you, when you really have energy that comes across. In general, I would say energy is good for any interview, only because the way you present yourself will be reflected in the interview. If it's being done on audio or video, it'll capture it. If you're being interviewed through some other means, you want to convey to the interviewer your sense of excitement so they explain it. Like a lot of times if someone's interviewing you and taking notes, they're going to take record of your demeanor. And part of being a good interviewer is to give information so the person reading the interview gets a sense of the person being interviewed.

But it's important to remember how you're being interviewed. And you want to make sure that you have plenty of education and information, that you want to share things that people don't know. So one of the things, for example, is let's say I'm being interviewed about a new set. That's a very common thing for me to be interviewed about. So what I want to make sure before I sit down is, okay, I want to have some stories. In general, one of the things that people find entertaining is stories. Stories are very entertaining.

We as a race, as humans, we really connect to storytelling. It's inner genes, as they say. So if you can find a way to process your information and give it, but give it through a story, that is very compelling. The other thing to be aware of is that you want to make sure the interview is fun,

it's light, you know. I mean, unless it's a serious interview. A serious interview, you've got to be serious. Most interviews tend to be a little lighter, though. And you want to make sure, in general, it's also to get a good rapport with the person who's interviewing with you. Now, it depends. The other thing to realize about your interview is

there is what we call an open reporter and a blind reporter. That's a journalism term. What that means is, is the interviewer going to be present in the interview? For example, there's two different ways to do an interview. I'll just use video as an easy example. One thing is, like, you start the interview and there's some voice or something. We interviewed Mark Rosewater about the latest set. And then all the

interview is you answering things. In that kind of interview, what they'll say to you is, hey, you're not going to see me. When you answer questions, can you essentially repeat the question? So if I say to you, what's exciting about this new set? I need you to start your answer with, well, I'll tell, what's exciting about this new set? I need you to start your

answer with, well, I'll tell you what's exciting about this new set. A blind interview means that the audience doesn't see the interviewer. It means that it's just you being interviewed. An open interview means that the interviewer is part of the interview and the audience sees them. They see them asking questions. Now, be aware, it is very common, especially in video, for the person asking questions to ask you, when the camera's on you, they'll just ask the questions and then they'll turn the camera on then and they'll re-ask the questions. Especially if they only have one camera.

Have you ever watched, well, there's a couple of movies re-ask the questions, especially if they only have one camera. If you've ever watched, well, there's a couple of movies where the plot hinges on understanding that they have one camera to interview with. But anyway, so be aware also, like I said, how they're interviewing. If they're interviewing with a camera,

if they have one camera, and it's an open interview, meaning that you're going to see both of them, they'll interview you, then interview themselves. And not interview, they'll record themselves. The other thing is when you're doing a video interview, always ask the person doing the interview where they want you to look. Usually the trick when you're doing a video interview is the interviewer sits a little

off from the camera and you're looking at the interviewer sits a little off from the camera and you're looking at the interviewer. Usually, usually they don't have you look at the camera in an interview. You can. When you're looking at the camera, it comes across as you're talking directly to the audience. And if it's an interview where you're trying to talk to the audience or there's a moment where in a video interview you want to sort of talk to the audience, you can look at the camera. But in general, you tend to look off on video interviews. On audio interviews, be aware that

you need clean audio between questions and answers. So one of the things that's careful, I'm just getting some technical stuff now, make sure they ask the question and you leave a second of space before you answer it. That one of the things about audio is they have what's called the clean cut, which means that wherever they break, it can't sound as if something is about to start. And if you answer your question before they finish the question, then they're locked in that.

They have to connect that question to the answer there and sometimes what will happen is, which is very common in audio, is you'll answer things, they'll realize from your answer that their question was a little off and they'll re-record the question to get a slightly cleaner question

so that you're answering exactly what was asked and if you overlap their answers, it's hard for them to do that. Once again, by the way, one of the things I'm trying to explain is there's a lot of technicality of how interviews are done. One of the ways to become a good interviewer is understanding those technicalities, understanding what goes on in a video interview, what goes on in an audio interview, what goes on in an email interview. interview, what goes on in an email interview. The other thing, by the way, in general is when on video you want your answers to be shorter, in print your answers can be longer.

The major reason for that is in print you will give, so the way an email interview works is they email you with the questions they want to answer, and then you email back your answers. And then sometimes they have questions from your questions, so they'll write back another batch of questions. That's quite common in an email interview. But the thing is, they're going to pick and choose. In each case, the editing is going to happen. Like I said, these days, unless it's something

presented as long-form interviews, and usually those are podcasts these days, unless it's presented that way, what it means is you're going to be edited. And by the way, ask. Ask if you're going to be edited. You know, you could... I mean, a lot of times you can figure out from the nature of how it's done.

Usually, as a general rule of thumb, it's not going to be edited. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It is going to be edited unless they tell you it's long form. And usually they'll tell you that so you understand. The other thing, by the way, is if you're not live,

meaning if they're going to edit you, another thing to be aware is if you make a mistake, you can say, oops, let me do that again. You are allowed to redo answers. And here's a little good tip is if you realize part of the way through you don't like your answer, don't finish the answer. Stop. Say, let me try that again. Because if you have an unfinished answer, it's hard for them to use that.

Whereas if you finish your question and then try to do it again, you give them the option of using your first answer. So if you don't like your first answer to do it again, you give them the option of using your first answer. So if you don't like your first answer, don't even finish once you realize you don't like it. Now, once again, don't assume adversarialness. This is not even an adversarial thing. This is just, if I give an answer and I'm unhappy with it, I don't want them going, oh, this seems fine, and using the answer I'm unhappy with. So a lot of times when I'm doing an audio or video interview and I mess up, and it's fine, by the way.

If you're being edited, it is okay to mess up and say, oh, let me try that again. Once again, you're working with the interview to get a good interview. So if you flub something or, you know, like real common, by the way, on video and audio interviews, especially video, is where you just, like, you get tongue-tied or something,

which you stumble on words or you say the wrong word or something, where it's just, that happens a lot. It's like, okay, fine. Now, there are live interviews, by the way, which is a different animal. A live interview is where you are, they'll tell you ahead of time. I mean, a truly live interview is something in which it's being simulcast. Like, I do live interviews where, when I'm at Pro Choice, for example, I'll get interviewed, and that's being streamed.

It's literally live. There's no editing going to happen. So, in a live interview, you don't have the ability to stop and go, let me answer it again. I mean, you can clarify things. You can sort of give extra answers to what you're saying. But what you don't want to do there, which you can do in a taped interview, is if you mess something up, you just go, let me try that again. In a live interview, anything

you say is said and you can add on it. Be aware, by the way, in a live interview, the audience is a little forgiving if you stumble a little bit because they understand it's a live interview um so um the other thing that's important is um understand how long the final interview is going to be um a good example is in the video interview are they going, is it going to be a longer form? Is it going to be a shorter form? That will dictate a little bit the kind of answers you want to give. As a general rule of thumb, when you do any interview that involves sound,

you want to think of the term what's called the sound bite, which is you want to say things so that there are some sentences that, out of context, get your point across. And one of the things you'll see that professional people that do interviews professionally do is they make sure to have sound bites, good, catchy sound bites for the things they want to come across. And what a sound bite essentially is, is figure out a way to make the point you want to make in a nice, clean, pithy way that sort of encapsulizes it. Soundbites are designed so that if you just see a tiny snippet, it gets across your point in a fun, cute way in a tiny snippet.

It doesn't have to be cute, I guess. It has to be succinct. It can be funny. It can be serious. But it gets across your point very succinctly. And that's one of the things. I guess I talked about this a little bit before, so let me get into this. Homework. You need to do your homework for interviews. You need to understand who's being interviewed, what is going on, what they want out of you. And then you need to spend time and energy making sure you have good, for example, do you have your stories figured out? What kind of stories can you tell? Do you know what it is you want to say? Like one of the things that's important before

you do an interview is you should write down on a piece of paper all the things that you want to say in an interview and actually look at that piece of paper. I mean, don't necessarily have an interviewer see you looking at a piece of paper, but you want to, before the interview, just sort of make sure you're reminding yourself the things you need to say. And that a good interview does not just spontaneously happen. I mean, given, I've done enough interviews in my life that I can handle doing a spontaneous interview, but I'm still even better prepared if I know what I'm talking about and I think about the things I want to say. It is better, as a general thought, it's not that you can't think in an interview, you can, but it's better if you know the thing you want to say.

You create a better interview. Okay, so let's, now let me talk a little bit, I talk about education information information so let me hit on those two points for a second so education is know what you are going to say that your audience doesn't know now be aware, you don't have to assume your audience knows everything and sometimes you'll give away information and some people

will know it but assume your audience doesn't know the thing you're talking about as a general rule, one of the biggest mistakes people have in interviews is they presume the audience who's listening knows things, and then they give answers that are confusing because they assume they have certain information. Don't assume your audience knows everything.

I mean, I will say this. It depends on your medium. If I'm being interviewed by mass media versus being interviewed by a magic website or something, you know, magic-centric, I'll give different answers. I mean, you want to know who's interviewing you, and you want to know who your audience is.

If I know my audience is a magic-playing audience, I'll be more technical. If it's more mass, I will do more explanatory stuff. But understand with your education how much you're explaining and how much you're giving away that's new information. It is important to explain things.

If people listen to interviews, if you say things people already know, that's okay, because for some people they won't know it. And a lot of an interview is sort of giving information. You do want to be informative.

But information is both, part of it is filling information that some people might have, others won't. And the other is giving away the new information that nobody knows. Make sure, one thing that's really good to do with an interviewer, if you talk to them ahead of time, is you might want to let them know what the exciting things you're going to say are. Not that you necessarily have to give them all the details, but you might want to say, oh, okay, I have a couple, I have a good story. Like, if you have a good story to tell, you can, if you tell them ahead

of time that you have a cool story, they could lead into the question. They might say, oh, I hear you have a story about the time you blah, blah, blah. And you could, if you give your interviewer information, that helps them. Once again, not adversary. They can help you. If you have a cool story, they want you to tell the cool story. In fact, if you watch talk shows, the way a talk show works is somebody does what they call a warm-up interview, where somebody interviews the person that's going to be interviewed, finds out all the interesting things that there is to say, and then you ever see

interviewers have the note cards in talk shows? Those note cards give them notes about what is the interesting thing the person's going to say. So the reason they're able to ask insightful questions is somebody did all the prep work and figured out what the information was that was interesting and let them know so they knew what to ask. And that is why, for example, you'll see it's very common on a talk show to go, oh, so you have any stories or hear your story?

They'll lead them into stories so they can tell the story they want to tell. Now, the same thing is when you're going to, the interviewees on a talk show, they also say, okay, why am I here? What am I doing? You know, is there some, I mean, I need to be educational. I need to figure out what information I'm giving away. Okay, the second part is entertaining. Okay, so now you have to understand what information you're giving away. You need to figure out how is the best way to get across that information.

I've already talked about how stories are very valuable. Another thing that always goes over well is when you're giving behind-the-scenes information or I'm going to share something that most people might not know. People love hearing things that they feel are sort of secretive or behind the curtain or behind the scenes. That stuff in general, if you're in a situation to have that kind of information, that is very useful to use. That stuff in general, if you're in a situation to have that kind of information, that is very useful to use.

And once again, so let's say I'm going to have an interview. I'm preparing to do an interview. I want to know sort of what I have to say. Like I want, for me, for example, I'll oftentimes have available jokes that I could work in. I will have great stories. I'll available jokes that I can work in. I will have great stories. I'll have facts that I can work in. Oh, facts is another good thing, by the way. There's something that you get asked a lot,

and you don't know off the top of your head. It's a good idea to, ahead of time, go and find out the information. So you can either answer it and get the information or work it in if it's not asked of you. Okay, the next big thing. So, you want to be educational. You want to be entertaining. The next thing to be aware of is that your interviewer, you are working with your interviewer to give you the best questions possible. Because it's the goal between you and the interviewer to create the best interview.

interviewer to create the best interview. Sometimes though, either there's not ability to prep them or the interviewer will just go off sometimes and ask questions that aren't quite what you want to say. So one of the skills that you need to be good at, and this is what in media training they work at all the time, is figuring out how to seamlessly answer the questions being asked of you and work in what you want to say. Like one of the things I spend a lot of time and energy on is, let's say I want to say something about the new set and I'm not directly asked about it. Hopefully I've talked to the interviewer ahead of time and told them I have something interesting to say about this topic so they know to work it in.

But let's say, for example, sometimes some interviewers don't want to, you know, talk ahead of time and want it all to be spontaneous. One of the things that's an important skill to figure out is how to convey things. A common trick they'll teach you is where they'll ask you a question, you have a nice, quick, simple, succinct answer for the question they ask you. And then you transition to what you want to talk about. And one of the tricks, one of the things that you work a lot with is figuring out how to do what they call segues, which is how do I take my answer and work in the answer I want to give in a way that feels clean.

What you don't want to do is just not answer them. And you don't want to sort of just jump randomly to a new topic but if you can find ways to sort of bend and get to the new topic that will help you sort of sometimes say the things you want to say the other thing by the way is that you also can do what is called leading the interview from time to time which is a technique where let's say for example I am talking and I know I'm going to talk for a while what is called leading the interview from time to time, which is a technique where,

let's say, for example, I am talking, and I know I'm going to talk for a while. I have a lengthy story. What I will do is I will say something that I know my interviewer can jump in on, that I will sort of give a, I will give a carrot to the interviewer to go, oh. So sometimes what you want to do,

instead of just giving the answer in a long chunk is allow opportunities where the interviewer can jump back in and ask questions that help refine what you're saying, but then it'll feel more give and take. And that's another big thing, I guess, as you do more interviews is understanding sort of what your interview is and isn't capable of so that you're able to sort of help them. A really good interviewer will, A, do a lot of prep work and will be working with you to sort of hit the points that you both know you need to get. Someone that's a little

less experienced in interviewing will have a preset of questions and will just go through the questions and will not deviate based on what your answers are. So for example, a common thing you'll get sometimes with less experienced interviewers is they'll ask you a question one, you answer it, and then when they ask question four, you've answered it already because you happen to work that in in a previous answer. Usually if someone asks you a question you've already answered, what I try to do is refer back to your earlier question and then try to add extra information. Well, as I said earlier, blah, blah, blah and then add in extra information.

Be aware that you should always come with an interview with more material than you need for the interview because you never know what they're going to ask you and you want to make sure, like they're not always going to exactly ask exactly what you have to say. So you want to prepare a little more information than is necessary.

Not too far from my daughter's school, so I'm going to start wrapping this up. So in general, the key things to being a good interviewee is you want to do your homework. You want to understand what it is you want. You want to know what is the educational port you want to provide. What is the entertainment port you want to provide, what is the entertainment port you want to provide. And note, those can overlap. In fact, some of the best interviews are people who are able to take educational things and entertaining things and weave them together.

Now, be aware, sometimes information can be both entertaining and informational. That can also be both. But you want to make sure that while you're being educational, you have enough entertainment. So make sure you think about what you want to make sure that while you're being educational, you have enough entertainment. So make sure you think about what you want to say. Be aware of what your interviewer knows and doesn't know. And if you can, get the questions ahead of time. Do prep with the interviewer. Like I said, one of my major points today is remember that for most interviews,

you and the interviewer are on the same side. Your goal is to create a good interview. It is advantageous for you to have a good interview. It is advantageous for them to have a good interview. So a lot of interviewers are more than happy to, you could talk with them, explain, figure out from them what they want. If you're not really up on the technicalities, I talked a lot today about how video interviews are different from audio interviews, which are different from written interviews. One of the things is to understand what kind of interview it is. And then it's fine to ask the interviewer, are there certain things that work for them?

Like in a video interview, usually what I will ask them is how short a response is they like. Usually video interviews go much, I mean, not all of of them but the majority of them can be faster cut meaning they actually like shorter pieces shorter answers the other thing to keep in mind by the way and this is another good trick, sort of advanced trick is making sure that when you talk

that you talk in segments so that don't tie your this is a video thing but when you're doing a long interview, don't tie your this is a video thing, but when you're doing a long interview don't necessarily tie every paragraph to each other meaning make it such that they can take a single paragraph and use it if that's what you want. If you have an answer that's very complex

and you want to intertie, connect them together and the way you do that is you can say things like, as I said, or you can refer to something you said before. So out of context, it would be a little more confusing. So like I said, understand your medium. There's times when you want to make sure your answers are all tied together. There's time when you want your answers to be bite-sized. Usually, usually, by the way, what you want to do is you want to make sure that you give flexibility to your interviewer where flexibility is what you,

like, if being flexible helps get a better interview, you want to give them flexibility. If there's things that are really important you get across sometimes and it's important that they're in conjunction with each other, then you can interweave them together to sort of force their hand to use them together. But once again, just make sure that the information you need to get across is in the interview.

And make sure that you're presenting it in the way the interviewer needs so they get the interview they want. That you want to provide them the things that they need. And a lot of that is learning the mediums and asking questions. As you'll see, hopefully as you get across today, there's a lot of, I'm trying to do broad answers today, but I keep giving a lot of little specific technical advice. I've just been doing this a long time.

There's just a lot of things that you learn as you do interviews. Interviews are like any skill. The more you do them, the better you'll get at them. And so that's another great thing, by the way, is don't be afraid to practice your interview. That have somebody else ask the kind of questions you expect and practice it if you're not used to doing interviews. That is perfectly fine. Doing a good interview requires a lot of prep work. And so that's one of my major themes today is do your prep work.

You want good interviews? Do your prep work. Understand your interviewer. Understand what they want. Understand what you have to say and how to say it. Do all that, and you will provide a very good interview. But with that, I'm here to drop off my daughter. So we all know what that means. This is the end of my drive to work. Instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic.

Okay, guys, I'll see you next time.