My First Interview (Not for Work)

This was my first time interviewing someone, not for work, not for a client, just for myself.

A while ago, I decided to start something new. I’ve had this desire for a long time to write more regularly. Anything, really. Children’s books, educational texts, articles, research, maybe even scientific papers someday. And recently, I started trying to materialize a long standing dream of mine, creating my own magazine.

As soon as I decided to do it, I ran into what felt like the hardest part. Starting a conversation with someone I did not know at all and asking them for a favor, an interview. I consider myself really introvert, so this was especially difficult. But as people say, practice makes the master.

The magazine I am building will focus on technology, which meant I needed to start meeting people in that space. People whose work I genuinely admired and had been following for a long time through social media and their projects.

Still, reaching out was intimidating but if I am being honest,I spent much more time overthinking the message than I did waiting for a response. In reality, the fear lived mostly in my head. When I finally sent the messages, they said yes.

Once the interviews were confirmed, everything started to feel more real. We set a date, more people joined than I expected, and suddenly I was excited and extremely nervous at the same time.

Before the interview, I prepared carefully. I took time to really get to know my interviewees, what they had worked on, the content they shared, things they had said before, and previous interviews they had given. I wanted to ask different questions, not just repeat what was already out there. I created a list based on what I was genuinely curious about and structured it for a 45 minute conversation.

When the day came, I joined the call on time. We started casually, talking about how our day was going, what we had eaten, what we had been doing. That small talk helped ease the tension, and slowly the conversation began to flow.

I realized that not everything is about following a script. Listening mattered more. Sometimes the most interesting insights appeared when I let go of the plan and allowed myself to improvise.

I also learned to make peace with silence. Silence is not necessarily awkward. Sometimes people just need a moment to find the right words. Waiting a few seconds can give them space to add something meaningful, and if not, it is okay to move on.

To keep things clear, I structured the interview in sections, grouping related questions by topic. This helped the conversation feel more organized and allowed us to cover more ground without overwhelming anyone. Jumping back and forth between topics too much can confuse the person being interviewed and break their train of thought, so having a clear flow made a big difference.

By the end, it went really well. Not perfectly. But well enough to remind me that doing is the best way to learn.

This interview did not just give me material for my magazine. It gave me confidence. And more importantly, it reminded me that most of the things we want to do feel much scarier in our head than they are in real life.