Have you ever seen people conducting surveys outside of a retail store? How about coming to your door to ask you questions about common household products? Did you know that these people are getting paid to do this and that these jobs are in high demand?

That's right! Interviewing is an exciting way to make money simply by asking people what they think.

Interviewing is an important part of market research. In fact, interviewing is the only way that manufacturers and service providers can find out what the public thinks about or needs from their products. As an interviewer you provide that vital link between consumer and product provider.

While the heart of interviewing is marketing, you do not have to have any marketing training to do these jobs. In fact, you are probably qualified now and do not even know it!

Can you talk to people and ask them questions in a polite and professional manner? If so, you are more than half way there!

Some keys to good interviewing either on the phone or in person are to enunciate clearly, be polite, dress professionally and/or appropriately, and sound interested.

Before you get started though there are some key terms you need to understand in order to complete the interviews. The following is a short glossary of common terms in interviewing.

Analyst
The person most responsible for reviewing, analyzing and summarizing the data from a interview project.

Attempt
Every contact with a potential respondent; whether, or not, anyone is actually reached and whether, or not, a completed interview results.

Attitude Research
A survey conducted to obtain information on how people feel about certain products, ideas or companies.

Base
The required number of interviews requested to be completed.

Bias
In general, any factor that distorts the true nature of an event or observation.

Biased Questions
Questions which are phrased or expressed in such a way that they influence the respondent's opinion.

Biased Sample
A sample that is not representative of the Universe of the targeted audience.

Blind Test
A technique used to evaluate a package or product without benefit or influence of the brand name.

Census
Generally refers to a complete canvas of the population being studied.

Central Location Test (CLT)
A term used to describe a study conducted at a selected test site or sites in an area.

Clarifying or Clarification
A technique used by an interviewer where the interviewer repeats an unclear phrase or word from the respondent's previous statement and then encourages the respondent to expand the answer to make their answer more clear.

Client
Anyone who purchases the services of another. In marketing research, the client typically funds and uses the research data, and may be a full-service research company, an advertising agency, a manufacturer, a newspaper or another data collection company.

Consumer
The ultimate user who purchases a product or service to satisfy their needs.

Deadline
The date when an assignment must be completed.

Door-to-Door Survey
Interviews conducted in pre-selected areas that involve knocking on the doors of homes to find qualified respondents.

Eligible Respondent
A person who meets certain criteria set for a particular study and thus qualifies to be included in the study. Respondents may be qualified on such characteristics as age, income, brand used, etc.

Field
The physical location where the interviewing takes place.

Interviewer
The person conducting the interviewing by asking questions.

Market Research
A process used to define the size, location, and/or makeup of the market for a product or service.

Multiple Choice Questions
Respondents are offered a check list of responses to a question and are asked to choose one or more that seem appropriate. Commonly referred to as closed-end questions in marketing and opinion research.

Open-End (O.E.) Questions
Questions which have no set of anticipated responses listed on the questionnaires. The interviewer records the respondent's verbatim response. When the survey is interviewer-administered, the respondent is encouraged to respond completely and freely with the use of probing and clarifying techniques. These questions may also be self-administered.

Questionnaire
The printed or computer form or instrument used to ask specific questions. Questions are to be asked exactly the same way by all interviewers on a study.

Respondent
The person who is interviewed. No matter what type of survey is being conducted, the person being interviewed is always called the respondent.

Sample Size
The number of interviews to be completed in a study.

Screening
The procedure which involves interviewers asking specified questions to determine if respondents are eligible or qualified for a particular study. Done at the very beginning of the interview.

Skip Patterns
Skip patterns involve the process of skipping particular questions depending on how the respondent answers one or more previous question(s). These skip patterns (directions) will be pre-printed on the questionnaire or programmed into a computer survey.

Validate/Validation
The procedure used to confirm the fact that the interview was conducted according to all specifications and instructions, and with the person indicated by name, address and/or telephone number on the questionnaire. Validation can be performed by the data collection company and/or client in person, by telephone, or by mail.

Verbatim
Word-for-word. Questions on the survey are asked exactly as written and responses to a question are recorded exactly as the respondent says them, in the first person, without any omissions, abbreviations or interpretations by the interviewer.

You are probably thinking "Ok, I know the terms so what do I do now?" To clear up any remaining confusion let's run through the process start to finish.

First you should apply for interviewing jobs. One of the easiest ways to do this is right here at ShadowShopper.. Our employers list hundreds of interviewing jobs everyday. Make sure to read the description carefully. It may contain information about the field, the sample size, as well as the time required to complete the job.

Once you have applied and received the job you will be given instructions from the marketing research company. The instructions will include all things needed to conduct the interviews and will tell you if it will be face to face, on the phone, or some other method as well as the location where the interviews should take place (sometimes directly in or outside a retail outlet or, if going door to door, the location is the respondents home). These locations have been pre-selected in order to find the best possible place to get the best possible information. As you can imagine, places where you will not have a respondent's full attention are not optimal. That is why you will hardly ever see interviews conducted in noisy areas or in places where respondents will not be able to give you their full attention (such as a respondent's place of work).

So now you have the job and the materials. You are ready, right? Wrong! The key to a successful interview is to study all the materials beforehand. Do not just show up and start asking people questions. You must understand all the material before you begin. Once you are familiar with all materials and procedures you are ready to begin. If there are any questions at all, always contact your company for clarification before the job is set to begin.

In interviewing the first impression is key. If you want to get people to respond you must look professional and act appropriately. Many times the instructions will specify the dress code. If the dress code is not specified, you should wear something nice, clean, and professional. You should also maintain yourself in a professional manner. This means being polite, speaking clearly, and acting interested in the work you are doing. A respondent will quickly lose interest if the interviewer appears bored or annoyed. You must smile and be confident and friendly.

Now that you look the part it is time to conduct the interviews. Best practices dictate that you keep your questions on a clipboard and do not show them to the respondent. All interviews will have screening questions. As you read above, these are question designed to verify if a respondent fits the profile required by the research company. You would not want to interview someone without children on what type of baby food they give their child! The screening questions are extremely important and should never be skipped. They should be asked exactly as they are worded on the page (verbatim) to ensure consistent results.

Once the respondents has passed the screening process it is time to ask the real questions. The questions will either be closed ended or opened ended. Closed ended questions are usually used to gather facts (often demographic information) while the opened ended ones are used to delve into a respondent's personal opinion or experiences with a particular product or service. Just like the screening process, it is very important that you ask the questions verbatim. In addition, you should write down the respondent's answers verbatim.

If the answers are vague or unclear it may be necessary to probe the respondent to clarify the question. Remember, you are the link between the product manufacturer or provider and the consumer and the clearer the information you get the better off your client will be.

Once you have all the answers, politely end the interview. Thank the person for their time and their responses. If required by your company, ask them if they would like to take part in any future interviews and make note of their response.

You will then need to repeat the above process until you reach your quota - or the number of interviews required to complete the job. Once you have reached your quota it is time to report your results. You will have most of the information already since you thoroughly recorded all the responses. There may in some cases be additional paper work to fill out. If so, fill out all the information in your packet and submit it back to your company. You have now completed your first interviewing job!

As you can see from the above interviewing is a fun way for any "people" person to earn money while simply talking to people in public! So if you are someone who loves people then interviewing is a great way to make some extra money.