1. Identify an interview you have experienced in the past, or one you will face in the future. The televised “debates” that have preceded every U.S. presidential election since 1960 are really interviews.

Each candidate answers a series of questions—

some by journalists and others by ordinary citizens.

In most business and professional interviews the stakes are more modest and the conditions less public.

Nonetheless, presidential debates provide lessons for more common interviews.

● Prepare for the actual interview setting. Since 1976, candidates have practiced by acting out their entire debates in conditions that precisely match the actual debate setting, with surrogates representing their opponents and the interviewers.

● Identify your overall goals. Beyond answering specific questions, candidates strive to leave voters with an overall impression about themselves. Both Barrack Obama (in 2008) and John F. Kennedy

(in 1960) worked hard to overcome doubts about inexperience. By contrast, 73-year-old candidate Ronald Reagan defused concerns about his advanced age when he joked about his 56-yearold opponent’s “youth and inexperience.”