How Do You Conduct An Interview

Learn More About The Person Youre Interviewing

In many cases, you can do a little online research about the person youre interviewing. By knowing more about the person, you can ask more in-depth and relevant questions .

For instance, if youre interviewing the CEO, her bio may be listed on the website. Thus, theres no reason to ask questions about where she went to college or when she became CEO of the company.

Instead, you might ask how it felt to be the first female CEO of a corporation that has been in business since 1934.

Explain The Interview Process

Setting the expectations for the interview and providing candidates with an overview of the interview process can help them feel more comfortable and allow them to prepare for the interview format. Setting the agenda at the start of the interview can also help you stay on track, as both you and the candidate can follow the direction of the interview as it progresses. If there are any additional assessments, such as presentations or timed activities, inform candidates of this when you invite them to the interview so that they can adequately prepare.

Scope Out Their Professional Goals

With all interviews, youre looking to hire for a specific role right now to fill an organizational gap. But for this interview, are you looking for someone who wants to grow with your company and move into a more senior position in your organization in the future? Being clear on this will help you know if you should hire with retention in mind. Regardless, you should find out where the candidate sees this role fitting into the larger vision of their career trajectory. A useful question for starting this conversation is: If you were successful at this job, what would come next?

The interviewee may not have thought of this beforehand, so give them some time to answer. If youre interested in an employee making a contribution to your company for a long time, but discover the interviewee is in graduate school for another field, it will help you ask the right follow-up questions and make an informed decision, reducing the possibility of unwanted employee retention surprises six months or a year down the line.

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Dealing With Problems In Interviews

Here are some of the possible problems which can occur in interviews and suggestions as to how to respond to them:

The interview gets onto sensitive areasIf the interview has to deal with sensitive issues, or if the participant has a strong emotional reaction, it is especially important to stay calm, to be empathic without getting drawn in to a counselling situation. Acknowledge the difficulty of the topic, and if the participant breaks down, invite a break and switch off the tape recorder. If the interviewee becomes angry, don’t take it personally: try and get them to share their feelings.

The interviewee appears very anxiousSpend more time putting them at their ease, and on introductory and general questions.

The interviewee tries to dominate the agenda by for example answering questions of their choice, or repeatedly coming back to particular pointsAcknowledge the importance of the points they are making, but try and gently bring them back to the topic.

The interviewee ramblesGently interrupt, bringing them back to the point with another, perhaps more direct, question.

The interviewee is silentDon’t be put off by silences: the participant may need the silence to come up with a deeper response. On the other hand, it’s important to keep the discussion going, and to make sure that it doesn’t peter out.

How To Conduct An Effective Job Interview

The virtual stack of resumes in your inbox is winnowed and certain candidates have passed the phone screen. Next step: in-person interviews. How should you use the relatively brief time to get to know and assess a near stranger? How many people at your firm should be involved? How can you tell if a candidate will be a good fit? And finally, should you really ask questions like: Whats your greatest weakness?

What the Experts Say As the employment market improves and candidates have more options, hiring the right person for the job has become increasingly difficult. Pipelines are depleted and more companies are competing for top talent, says Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, a senior adviser at global executive search firm Egon Zehnder and author of Its Not the How or the What but the Who: Succeed by Surrounding Yourself with the Best. Applicants also have more information about each companys selection process than ever before. Career websites like Glassdoor have taken the mystique and mystery out of interviews, says John Sullivan, an HR expert, professor of management at San Francisco State University, and author of 1000 Ways to Recruit Top Talent. If your organizations interview process turns candidates off, they will roll their eyes and find other opportunities, he warns. Your job is to assess candidates but also to convince the best ones to stay. Heres how to make the interview process work for you and for them.

Further Reading

Dont:

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Types Of Topics In Questions

Note that the above questions can be asked in terms of past,present or future.

Every Interview Question You Need To Ask

There are hundreds of questions you could ask job candidates during an interview. Choosing the best questions, however, is imperative to an interviews success. From behavioral questions to tough questions to fun questions, here is everything youll need to ask to find the best candidate.

Questions to Ask When Youre Strapped for Time

When youre trying to fill a role, you dont always get as much time as youd like to find and vet prospective hires. Instead of a warm and unhurried half-hour conversation, sometimes youll need to find out if an applicant is a good fit with five interview questions or even less.

If youre strapped for time or simply want to weed out less qualified candidates quickly youll want to ask strategic questions to help you find the best candidates as fast as possible.

Here are five questions to ask when you need to find the best candidates, fast:

• Whats your availability for this job?
• What attracts you most about this position?
• What was the best thing about your last job?
• What was the worst thing about your former job?
• How would you solve this problem?

Behavioral Questions

Behavioral-based interview questions rarely come in the form of questions. Instead, they are usually statements that guide candidates into sharing a situation from their past experience.

Here are 17 behavioral interview questions you may want to ask:

Situational Questions

Here are eight situational questions you may want to ask:

Quality-Control Questions

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Prepare The Relevant Interview Questions

Its handy to prepare a list of interview questions that are relevant to the position you are hiring for. Deciding on the interview questions you intend to ask candidates takes up a significant part of the preparation process. Consider using the tips below to come up with practical questions:

• Pay attention to behavioral and situational questions.
• Avoid cliché questions since they provide canned answers.
• Focus on candidates who can bring different perspectives to your company, rather than just being a cultural fit.
• Tie the questions to the job requirements. Consider tailoring the questions to match specific skills that you are interested in.

Additionally, ensure that you prepare follow-up questions to help get details beyond canned responses. In practice, follow-up questions are guaranteed to provide more revealing answers as compared to standard questions. Listen to the candidates response then follow up with why, when, how, who or what questions.

Conduct The Perfect Job Interview In Twelve Simple Steps

Speaker, Inc. Magazine contributing editor, author of THE MOTIVATION MYTH, ghostwriter.

Your goal is to hire the best people you possibly can.

That means your interview should be the best it possibly can. The stakes are simply too high to do otherwise.

Here are 12 steps to help you conduct the perfect job interview:

1. Truly understand what you need.

Experience, qualifications, and credentials are all important. But great employees don’t just perform a job they solve at least one critical business need.

Identify that critical need, determine how you measure success in the position, assess the common attributes of your top performers, determine what qualities mesh with your culture… and tailor everything in your selection process finding the perfect person to solve that critical business need.

Otherwise youre just going through the motions.

2. Determine how you will find the perfect person to fill need that need.

Say you need an outstanding programmer. Great: Now determine how you will identify “outstanding.” That may include certifications, specific accomplishments, the right references, or even an on-the-spot test.

Then consider your culture. Skills are important, but attitude is often more important. Determine how you will identify the person with the right personality, interpersonal skills, and interests. That may involve a few lunches with key team members, or a day on the golf course, or an evening at a ball game.

You’re actually listening — and engaged.

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Welcome The Candidate And Introduce Yourself

Greet the candidate with a friendly opener and thank them for coming to the interview. You may wish to offer them a beverage and make small talk to help them feel more comfortable. As candidates may be nervous, easing into the interview process can help them relax. Once you’re both settled, formally introduce yourself and provide candidates with a brief introduction to the company, what the company does and what your role is within the organisation.

Properly Introduce Yourself & Your Co

Whether its in person or over a video call, start the interview by introducing everyone to each other. Put the candidate at ease by explaining who you are, what your role is, and a little about the company.

You should also lay out what the interview process will look like. Showing you have a plan will reflect positively on your organization and it will keep the interviewee relaxed.

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Looking For Compatibility Not Just Likeability

We all tend to hire in our own image, but when it comes to how to conduct an interview, you need to look beyond immediate chemistry by asking questions such as:

• How many hours a day do you find it necessary to work in order to get your job done?
• How sensitive are you to accepting constructive criticism?
• Describe the pace that you typically work in the office moderate, fast, or hair-on-fire?
• How much structure, direction, and feedback do you generally prefer on a day-to-day basis?
• Do you generally ask for permission or forgiveness when making decisions?

Some natural follow-ups to these types of questions would be to inquire about specific examples. So, for example, a natural follow-up to the last question above would be:

• Tell me about a time when you may not have erred on the side of caution when you should have.

These types of questions help you to better match an individuals personal style to your departments corporate culture. Without rounding out these questions, you could end up with someone who can do the job technically but whos totally out of sync with the rest of your team.

Reflect On The Interview And Involve Others

While the interview is still fresh in your mind, go over your notes to reflect on what was said and write down anything that comes to your mind.

If other people were conducting the interview with you, take the time now to share your thoughts. This will also help you with reducing the interview bias.

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Avoid Common Interview Questions Instead Ask For Usable Solutions

Especially for those whove attended countless interviews, theyll find the usual questions boring.

In turn, they might have the same assessment of your company.

These days, you shouldnt stick with just asking the common questions during job interviews. Inquiries about strengths and weaknesses are no longer enough to help you find the right people.

The problem with most of these questions is that theyre inquiries that candidates can easily lie about.

They know that they have to impress you and so theyll provide you with generic responses as well.

Do you really think you can find the right hire with responses such as Im a hard worker or I am a team player?

Ask the kinds of questions that will give you an idea as to how a potential hire will address a real scenario if you decide to hire him or her.

Provide a situation and ask them to walk you through their thought process and plan of action.

Ask for potential pain points.

Also, ask for their insights on where the company can capitalize on opportunities.

Using this information, you can then determine how much of an asset they can be to your company.

Youll also be able to see whether or not theyll be a fit for the position youre trying to fill.

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Sell The Company And The Position

Take a few minutes to explain a bit about the company and its background. Inform them what you do, what your job entails, and the position that needs filling.

Try to deliver a good description of the business, company culture, and role. This will be your chance to draw in the candidate and develop their interest in the role even more.

Ask For A Second Opinion

The hiring process is a risky endeavor for the company. How sure are you, as the hiring manager, that you have selected the right candidate? What criteria did you use to choose the right candidate? Moreover, is there another alternative you could have used to ensure the person you hire is the ideal fit for the role? The answers to these questions are in consulting. Hiring a new employee is a big decision and shouldnt be decided upon alone.

Consider seeking a second opinion from other people in the organization such as your boss, HR representatives, other hiring managers or even supervisors. Remember the goal is to ensure that you hire somebody whose goals align with the plans of the company. Consider asking for advice concerning the following aspects:

• Establishing and implementing your interviewing checklist
• How to build rapport with candidates
• Reviewing the interview questions
• Giving feedback and sending rejection emails to candidates
• Conducting mock interviews to enhance your interviewing skills

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Discuss The Next Steps Of The Hiring Process

To conclude the interview, set candidates’ expectations around when they can expect to hear from the company regarding the interview outcome. You may have further interviews to conduct, so be transparent about the timeline of when you’re going to make a decision. If there are additional steps in the recruitment process, such as a second interview, let them know so that they can prepare for the next stage if they are successful.

Why You Should Make Interviews More Difficult

What does the difficulty of a job interview have to do with employee satisfaction? According to a Glassdoor Economic Research study, more difficult job interviews are statistically linked to higher employee satisfaction across six countries examined: U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, and France. In fact, in examining more than 150,000 interview and company reviews submitted to Glassdoor by the same person, for the same company, we found that 10% more difficult job interview process is associated with 2.6% higher employee satisfaction later on and that on a scale of one to five, with five being the most difficult, job candidates prefer an interview that scores a four. In other words, candidates want an interview thats a little tough.

Candidates who go through a rigorous but not too rigorous interview process can perceive that the company places a high value on finding employees who are a good match for both the position and the company culture. By meeting with multiple team members and sharing their skills in a presentation or assignment, candidates get a comprehensive picture of the culture and job, and team members get a sense of the contribution the candidate will make as an employee.

Here are four ways to make your interview process more difficult:

1. Employ creative interviewing

Candidates with a speech-related disabilities

Candidates with a physical disabilities

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Conducting The Interview: Your Roadmap

Use the following as a basic roadmap to steer you through the interview:

• Start the interview on time
• Introduce yourself and panel members and explain your role
• Offer the candidate water to drink and establish a rapport
• Give a high-level overview of the interview process and the job
• Begin the interview questions and keep track of relevant information
• Use open-ended questions
• Ask the candidate if they have any questions or comments about the job or organization
• Explain the follow-up process, including reference checks and the timing of any job offer and start date

Dont Be Too Quick To Judge

During your preparation for the interview, be mindful not to form any preconceived ideas or opinions about the candidates suitability for the role. Perhaps, after reading their CV, you are concerned about a possible skills gap or career decision that they made. While these concerns may well be justified, dont rule any candidate out or make any snap judgements before or while interviewing them. Keep an open mind and give the candidate a fair chance.

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