Do you have a room full of shy people on your hands? The Interview Game is a great icebreaker game to get everyone talking and showing more interest in one another. Before you know it, you will have a room full of new friends.
Features of Interview Game
| ★ Game Name | Interview Game |
| ★ Group size | small and medium |
| ★ Age | teens and adults |
| ★ Type | stationary |
| ★ Skill | memory and attention |
| ★ Place | indoor and outdoor |
| ★ Time | up to 10 – 15 min |
| ★ Preparation | no |
| ★ Materials | no |
Aim of The Game
Each person will spend 3 minutes interviewing their partner to find out some fun and interesting facts to share with the group. They will ask specific questions to get their partner talking more about their interests and hobbies.
The purpose is to spark conversation among a group of people who may be too shy to initiate the conversation.
Group Size and Appropriate Ages
The Interview Game is intended for groups of 4-10 people. Younger children don’t enjoy the game very much and find it difficult to come up with appropriate questions. The game works better when it is played by people over the age of 10.
Preparation and Materials
You probably already have the materials you need to play the Interview Game at home. You need the following supplies:
- Paper (each pair will need some for jotting down notes)
- Pen or Pencil (one for each player)
- Stopwatch
If it is hard to come up with questions you can download and print 75 FREE Interview Questions.
It is also important to make sure each pair has a place to sit down and speak where they won’t be distracted by other players’ conversations.
How to Play the Interview Game
The first thing you need to do is to separate the group into pairs. If there is an odd number of players there can be one group of three. If there is a group leader the extra player can also team up with them.
Once everyone is paired off, they can sit together away from other pairs so it’s easier to focus on one another. Now that you are paired up a decision needs to be made.
- One person is going to be an Interviewer and the other person is the Subject. You will end up playing both roles at some point, so you just need to decide which one to play first.
- Each Interviewer is to ask their Interviewee 5-10 questions. They will have 1-3 minutes to do this. Make sure you ask your subject-specific questions to know more about them.
For example, a good question would be something like “What was the last concert you attended?” or “What has been the best book you’ve read this year?” - Once the time is up, get your group back together. Each Interviewer will tell the group about some of the interesting facts they just learned about their Interviewee. This will help the group get to know a little bit more about the person as well. It can actually help them remember Interviewee’s name and initiate future conversations.
Now that everyone has shared what they learned, it’s time for the pairs to get back together and switch roles. One thing you should watch out for is interview times.
Now that your partners are more comfortable with each other they could get into longer conversations about their interests. Make sure they know that their facts should be delivered in one interesting sentence as opposed to a detailed paragraph.
Alternative Versions – Cross-Interview Game
This is a more dynamic version of the game and, personally, my favorite. This time you will need to download and print 75 FREE Interview Questions.
Every asked question can potentially give 1 point. After every question, players also switch roles. Their goal is to ask as many questions to each other as possible during the round (3-5 minutes) based on the questions on the list.
Test time.
To receive the points from the questions, they have to remember the answer!
They read aloud questions they asked and try to remember the answers they get. If players cannot remember the answer, they don’t get the point.
Every remembered answer gives the player one point. At the end of all rounds, the player with the most points wins.