Interviewing Across Generational or Cultural Distance
Launch library · evergreen read
Assumptions about what counts as a normal question, an acceptable silence, or an appropriate level of directness vary considerably across different generations and cultural backgrounds, and an interviewer who quietly assumes their own personal norms are simply universal risks misreading a subject's genuine response entirely without ever realising it.
Preparing properly for this distance means learning something meaningful about a subject's own context before the conversation even begins, not in order to perform false familiarity but specifically to avoid basic missteps that could needlessly damage trust before the interview has really had any genuine chance to develop naturally on its own.
When genuinely uncertain about the right approach, asking directly and respectfully about a subject's own preference, rather than simply guessing and hoping for the best, usually serves both parties far better than either one pretending a shared understanding exists when it plainly does not yet exist at all between them.