Choose Your Interview Questions Carefully
Make sure your list of questions matches up with the role youre interviewing for, including the skills and knowledge needed for the job. In addition to direct inquiries about qualifications, include some questions about personality, work ethic, and attitude. You can also address those topics through situational questions, but avoid questions that could be viewed as discriminatory.
Refresh Your Knowledge Of The Companys Mission Structure And Benefits
Even if you have worked at your current company for a long time, a quick briefing of the purpose, goals, and mission can help keep you on task. Familiarize yourself with the language used to describe the company and what it does. Become adept at explaining how it is organized and what each location or department contributes to the overall purpose.
Additionally, be prepared to discuss company benefits, vacation policies, and other commonly asked candidate questions.
Be In A Good Location: Podcast Guest Tip #3
This is the final basic pre-flight check. WHERE you record.
Rule #1, for the love of all the microphone gods, do not record in a public place. Background noise is the worst, and YES, that coffee grinder in the background at Starbucks is ruining your interview.
Even quieter sounds, like passing cars, or clinking plates, come across much louder in a recording that it does to your ears.
Next, choose the softest room you can. A glass-walled, tile-floored office is about as bad as it gets for reverb and echo. Look for carpets, sofas and curtains. Any room with a bit of cosiness. This is why people genuinely record inside their wardrobe, or under a duvet.
In an ideal world, youll have a regular spot, which is always set up, and which is treated in at least a basic way. For example, your home office, with some sound tiles stuck up on either side of your desk.
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A Note On Why This Matters
Everyone you interview is an opportunity, whether they are hired or not.
Interviews open a window into your companyone that carries much more authority than your marketing campaigns. Dont let what people see through that window be ugly. Talented engineers arent an exclusive club they have friends at every level of talent and you certainly wouldnt want to scare them away by mistreating their peers. Additionally, someone who doesnt meet your hiring bar today may very well meet it tomorrow, and when that happens you wouldnt want them to turn elsewhere because you made them feel unimportant.
The bottom line is that bad interviewers scare away good candidates.
With that in mind, here are a few tips you can start using to become a better technical interviewer.
Top 10 Characteristics Every Good Interviewer Has
Discover which top 10 characteristics separate the good interviewers apart from the bad ones. Dont worry if you dont recognize all of them in yourself – most of them can be easily learned and trained. All you need are my pro tips and tricks and a little bit of practice!
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Look Outside The Resume
I think the best way to actually learn about a candidate is to turn their resume over and simply ask, ‘ What’s the most interesting thing about you that’s not on your resume?’ Once you get away from talking through work history and experience and start talking about their aspirations and motivations, you’ll be infinitely more successful in interviewing and get real insight into the candidate and whether or not they’re going to be a fit.
Characteristic #: A Good Interviewer Understands The Hiring Need
A good interviewer really understands the hiring need. One of the most important characteristics of good interviewers is that they understand both the job position that needs to be filled and the company they are hiring for.
By combining customized job description templates and their knowledge of a company, good interviewers create a profile of their ideal candidate – so-called candidate persona.
Creating a candidate persona helps them get a wholesome picture of the person they are looking for – beyond mere job requirements.
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Take Care To Answer The Questions
When interviewers ask for an example of a time when you did something, they are asking behavioral interview questions, which are designed to elicit a sample of your past behavior. If you fail to relate a specific example, you not only don’t answer the question, but you also miss an opportunity to prove your ability and talk about your skills.
Decide On A Structure To Follow For Each Interview
You can outline the structure you want to follow before you go into the interview and refer to the outline during the meeting to ensure you cover all of the topics. Consider organizing the interview based on the time you want to dedicate to major topics, such as their professional background, their interest in the role and company and how they approach workplace conflicts.
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Stay Up To Date With The Latest Employer Insights & Events
The following interviewer tips will help you to conduct the perfect interview.
1. Understand what you are looking for
Before the job interview starts, its important that you know what youre looking for in a candidate. You need more than a well-written job description.
Think about how your ideal employee would behave in the role. As the interviewer, you need to ask interview questions that test your interviewee against your expectations.
Writing a checklist of these expectations will help you compare interviewees and make it easier for you to make a decision on who to hire.
2. Know what questions to ask
Its essential you prepare a list of questions when running a job interview. The balance of question types is equally important.
You should include competency questions to see how the interviewee would approach the role. Character questions test how the candidate will fit with your team. Asking about career goals lets you learn what motivates your interviewee. Remember to ask open questions that cant be answered yes or no to encourage the candidate to talk in more detail.
Preparation is key: from greetings to the final question, make sure you have all bases covered.
3. Prepare beyond the job interview
Dont underestimate the importance of little details in the job interview. You want your interviewee to be comfortable enough to get their true personality across.
4. Practice makes perfect
5. Make it a conversation
6. Listen more
7. Be aware of unconscious bias
Characteristic #: A Good Interviewer Makes A Conversation
A third most important characteristic of a good interviewer is that he or she is a good communicator. A good interviewer leads a conversation, not an interrogation!
Good interviewers have a list of questions they ask all candidates. However, they do it in a way that seems like a free-flowing conversation. This a skill that takes some practice.
How to hone this skill? Listen more. Have a true two-way conversation. Ask follow up questions. Allow and even encourage candidates to ask questions. This will make them feel like youre leading a conversation with them, not cross-examining them.
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When To Get To A Job Interview
It’s important to arrive a few minutes early, or on time, at the latest, for a job interview. Know where you’re going, how much travel time you need, and how to get to the interview location. Check out the logistics ahead of time, so you ensure that you’re not late.
You also may want to confirm the interview ahead of time, so you’re sure about where and when you need to arrive.
Giving yourself a bit of extra time will provide you with an opportunity to stop in the restroom and freshen up, if need be, to make sure you don’t have any hair, makeup, or wardrobe malfunctions.
A few extra minutes will also give you an opportunity to catch your breath and stay calm. An interview is even more stressful than normal if you’re rushing to get there on time.
Qualities Of A Good Interviewer
A good interviewer often possesses qualities youd associate with any high performer. Theyre organized, poring over cover letters and preparing a relevant list of questions. Theyre diligent, and can take notes while practicing active listening. And theyre amicable they give positive body language, maintain eye contact, and bring an open mind to interviews.
But being just a good interviewer doesnt guarantee success. A great interviewer goes a level deeper in their preparation, tailoring the interview experience to assess both the needs of the job and the specialities of the candidate. This requires a clear understanding of the roles requirements and an ability to gauge the fit of those job characteristics to your candidate.
Here are some steps on how to prepare properly:
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Characteristic #: A Good Interviewer Is Kind
Another very important, but often underestimated characteristics of a good interviewer is a kindness.
Kindness is a characteristic of being friendly and considerate, with a pleasant disposition. A good interviewer is considerate and always treats candidates with respect.
By making an effort to make a job interview pleasant, a good interviewer significantly improves candidates’ experience. A good interviewer knows the importance of treating candidates professionally and respectfully.
Use External Platforms And Your Own Site
To increase your reach and improve the chances of your application getting noticed by the kind of people youâre looking for, share your opening across different platforms.
A few notable ones include:
- Monster
- ZipRecruiter
You can also send out a quick post on your social media channels to let people know youâre hiring. That way relevant people in your companyâs network who may not be looking for work will see it and share it with their contacts.
You might even create a quick landing page for the role, embed a resume upload form onto your website, which makes the submission process a breeze.
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Make It Your Job To Bring Shy Candidates Out Of Their Shells
Some otherwise great candidates just don’t interview well. They’re hesitant or anxious or nervous, and don’t make a great first impression.
But an awkward interview doesn’t mean a candidate can’t excel at the job. While some positions do require the ability to establish immediate rapport , in many others a lack of conversational skills in no way signals a lack of expertise.
It’s easy to help a nervous candidate relax, especially if you’ve done your homework. Compliment a few of his accomplishments. Ask a question about her hobbies or outside interests. Ask him a few softball questions you know he can hit out of the park. Take a few minutes to help her gain confidence and settle in.
Most interviewers feel it’s the candidate’s responsibility to be “on.” Remarkable interviewers feel it’s their responsibility to get the best from every candidate, even those who at first might seem out of their depth.
Characteristic #: A Good Interviewer Asks The Right Questions
The fourth characteristic of a good interviewer is that good interviewers know how to choose the best questions to ask job candidates.
A good interviewer carefully chooses the right interview questions. A good interviewer has a specific goal they want to achieve by asking every single question. They use questions to learn about candidates skills, their motivation and to assess their cultural fit.
That way, they are able to choose the best person not only for the job, but also for the team and the company.
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Tip#: Keep An Open Mind
Be mindful and honest about your potential biases. Good interviewers avoid getting swayed by the first impression and spending the rest of interview looking for an evidence to support it. Give candidates a chance to surprise you! Instead of jumping to conclusions, rephrase your candidates answer and check if you understood them correctly.
Tips For Being A Good Interviewer
Being a good interviewer isnt about qualities alone. There are things you can do to become a better interviewer.
Prepare questions
Create a list of questions to ask. You might have generic questions, behavioral interview questions, and specific questions about the job.
The list of interview questions will keep you on track. And, itll ensure you ask similar questions to all the candidates.
You might also want to create an interview scorecard. The scorecard lists the interview questions. It also provides room to take notes and rate the responses.
Dont wing the interview. If you do, the interview might get off track, run long, or not be beneficial to you or the candidate.
Review materials
Brush up on the candidate before the interview. Read their resume and cover letter. If they gave you work samples, look at those, too. If youve made any notes about the candidate in your applicant tracking system, review those.
Reread the job description. Make sure you can accurately talk about the role and its requirements.
If your client gave you any other materials about the position, review those. Look over your clients values and goals so you can better evaluate the candidate.
Stay on track
Its good to make candidates feel comfortable. But, its easy to get sidetracked with small talk or unrelated conversation.
Cut out distractions
The candidate should have your full attention during the interview.
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Now Is A Great Time To Recalibrate And Focus On Shifting Your Leadership Style From Reactive To Back To Proactive
Many of us look forward to a fresh start at the beginning of a new year. The past two years have been chaotic, stressful and challenging for most of us, and credit union leaders have not only had to manage employees, but manage the myriad changes caused by the pandemic. Perhaps over the past two years, you have felt more reactive than proactive as a leader. Now is a great time to recalibrate and focus on elevating your leadership.
Starting the year with a plan for your leadership growth will ensure that you are more purposeful throughout the year. This checklist is designed to support your leadership and your team throughout the year so you can retain your best employees, facilitate results and ignite ownership in your team. The checklist isnt meant to be all-encompassing, but rather, provide you with a framework for focusing on exceptional leadership. Leadership is actionthe daily, meaningful interactions are most important for impacting your employees and your team in a positive way.
Below is a checklist of actions you can take to be a purposeful, effective and exceptional leader in 2022:
Understand Your Application Or Resume
Most interviewers come with a copy of your resume and reference it throughout the interview. As such, it’s important that you’re familiar with your resume’s content. You can read your resume beforehand, so you remember every detail. The best way to ensure a seamless experience is complete honesty on your resume, so you can easily answer any questions. Giving answers that align with your resume communicates honesty and improves your chances of making a positive impression on the hiring manager.
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What To Bring To A Job Interview
Coming prepared to a job interview is important. Bring extra copies of your resume along with a list of references to offer the interviewer. Also, bring a list of questions to ask the interviewer.
If you’re interviewing for a tech or web job and you want to show examples of your work, it’s okay to bring your laptop or tablet to show the interviewer what you have accomplished.
What shouldn’t you bring? Don’t walk into a job interview with a coffee cup or bottle of soda or water or anything else to eat or drink. Don’t chew gum.
Your cell phone should be turned off and out of sight. You don’t want to be the applicant whose text messages or calls disrupted the interview.
Interview Advice That Will Help You Get A Job Offer
When you’re interviewing for a job, the little things can make a big difference. Even a small mistake can cost you a job offer. Take the time to prepare so you can make the best possible impression at every job interview you go on.
These interview techniques cover all the basics you need to know polish up your interview technique and ace a job interview. From checking out the company to sending an interview thank you note, make your meeting with the hiring manager a success from beginning to end.
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What Do You Like About Working Here
Use this question to learn positive things about working for the organization that you may not find while researching the company. This may help you consider intangible factors you may not have previously considered or heard about, such as unique company policies, employee rewards, or how employees treat each other. The interviewer’s answer may help you better determine if this company is the right choice for you.
Use A Scorecard To Ensure Consistency
Throughout the interview process, it helps to ensure all parties involved are using the same grading system. For example, you could create a rubric that assesses candidates on a scale of 1 to 10 for each of the following:
- Briefcase
- Culture fit
- Team fit
Using a standardized template helps to create consistency, while reducing the risk of unconscious bias. That way, great candidates can shine, and your team can get clean data to inform the entire hiring process.
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Remember Your Table Manners
Dining with a prospective employee allows employers to review your communication and interpersonal skills, as well as your table manners, in a more casual environment.
Good manners can give you the edge over another candidate, so, take some time to brush up your dining etiquette skills before you go to the interview.
