1.12 Sample Interview Questions
Skyview Junior High School English 9
Choose at least ten questions to prepare for your interview. Remember to make these questions your own,
revise and edit as needed. During your interview, follow-up by responding to the interviewee’s answers. You
may or may not ask all questions in order.
Tips:
- Record your interview. It will make it easier to type the transcript, as well as engage in the interview.
- If possible, send the questions you have prepared to the interviewee prior to the interview.
- Write a Thank-You following the interview.
Background Questions (Ask at least FIVE of these background questions)
 What is your name?
 What is your date of birth?
 What is your place of birth?
 What is your ethnicity?
 What are your parents, brothers, and sister names? Where were they born?
 Where have you lived? Where did you live as a child?
 Were there any “coming of age” ceremonies or significant events?
 Where did you go to college and what did you study?
 What are your hobbies? What were your hobbies growing up? What was social life like?
 What language(s) do you speak?
 What is your citizenship?
 Have you served in the military?
 Describe your neighborhood when you were in high school. What music, clothing, and food were
popular during your teenage years?
(You may expand on any of the above topics)
Open-Ended Questions (Prepare at least FIVE of these questions)
Introductory “Coming of Age” Questions
 Describe the first time you really felt like an adult.
o What emotions did you feel at that time?
o Would you do it again?
o Did this affect the people around you?
o What were yours or others reaction to this moment?
o How did the experience change how you see [things]?
o How did this experience develop your adulthood?
o Who helped you through this time? How?
 At what ages do you feel that you matured the most and how?
 Who were the influential people in your life that helped your transition from childhood to adulthood?
 What is a major mistake that you have learned from?
 When did you first feel the responsibility of being an adult?
Childhood to Adulthood
 Describe a moment in your life where you felt most in control.
 Describe your biggest challenge. How did you overcome it?
 What was your fondest memory in high school or childhood?
 When you were in High School, what kind of friends did you have? As an adult, looking back, what
kinds of friends would you have liked to have or wished to have?
 When you were growing up, what was the roles of boys and girls in the family?
 Were there any “coming of age” ceremonies or significant events? Please describe.
 Did you have any dangerous and/or life threatening experiences? If so, what happened?
 Do you feel as if your education affected your personal character? What life lessons did you learn
from your education experience? Why or why not?
 What was the first day of college like? Describe the first day of college.
Reflective Questions
 If you could relive any teenage year, what would it be and why?
 Would you be paid to go to college again and why?
 What are some of the positives/negatives of being an adult?
 When you were 15…
o Where did you think you would be today?
 If you had the chance to go back to when you were 15, would you do anything differently?
 What would you tell your 15-year-old self looking back?
 How did you know you made it to where you wanted to be, looking back at your career development?
 When was the most challenging part of your childhood-adulthood transition?