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Tactically, make sure that you are not distracted when you arrive. Take care of your food, drink, and restroom needs in advance. When I meet up with colleagues who are coming to the interview from a different location, we pick an easy location (such as a Starbucks) for a pre-interview briefing. It gives us time to acclimate into interview mode, review the participant’s profile, catch up on what’s been happening in the field to date, and address our personal needs. If your brain is chattering, “Lord, am I famished! When’s lunch?” you are at a disadvantage when it comes to tuning into what’s going on in the interview.

Needless to say, silence your mobile phone and don’t plan on taking calls or checking texts or emails during the interview. I say “needless,” but I met a team that took a different approach. Sensitive to the commitment their internal clients were making in leaving the office for fieldwork, they allowed mobile device usage during the interview, within limits. Although they were inspired by one colleague who had the stealth-check-below-the-table move down cold, most people weren’t able to handle it quite so deftly. It was a good lesson to learn; they won’t be allowing cell phones in the future. Mind you, even if one were successfully stealthy, that’s beside the point. Figure 2.4 is an evocative depiction of the multitasking potential of technology, but during an interview (and probably during a date), you should be fully engaged with the other person.

FIGURE 2.4 Just because you can multitask doesn’t mean you should.