How To Interview Someone For A Job
Interviews are an integral part of the hiring process. Hiring managers and interviewers should take the time to truly understand the interview process as well as the components that go into an effective interview. Asking the right questions during a job interview can significantly increase your chances of hiring the right person as well as reducing wasted time and money. In this article, we discuss why interviews are important as well as the steps you can take to conduct a successful interview.
Bonus Tip: Work On Your Answers
You know you can do the job make sure the interviewer believes you can, too. One way to do this is by preparing well-thought-out answers to questions they’re most likely to ask. Need some help with that? Join Monster for free today. As a member, you’ll get interview tips, career advice, and job search insights sent directly to your inbox so you can come across as a strong, viable candidate. From ice breakers to the nitty-gritty , Monster’s expert advice can help you craft answers that highlight your skills and eagerness to get the job.
How Did You Hear About This Position
Another seemingly innocuous interview question, this is actually a perfect opportunity to stand out and show your passion for and connection to the company. For example, if you found out about the gig through a friend or professional contact, name-drop that person, then share why you were so excited about the job. If you discovered the company through an event or article, share that. Even if you found the listing through a random job board, share what, specifically, caught your eye about the role.
Also Check: How To Crack Amazon Data Scientist Interview
Are You Planning On Having Children
Questions about your family status, gender , nationality , religion, or age are illegalbut they still get asked . Of course, not always with ill intentthe interviewer might just be trying to make conversation and might not realize these are off-limitsbut you should definitely tie any questions about your personal life back to the job at hand. For this question, think: You know, Im not quite there yet. But I am very interested in the career paths at your company. Can you tell me more about that?
Decide What Format To Use
When you are done with your interview notes, decide on what format your interview paper will be. If your instructor assigned you the format to use, you can skip this step. However, if they havent specified a format to use or told you that any format will do, you need to do some decision making. You can choose any of these two formats the question & answer format or the narrative format. This will affect how you organize your report.
- Question and Answer Format
In the question and answer format , you should begin with a paragraph about the interviewee as an introduction. Write a brief background about the interview, the place where you conducted the interview and the subject or themes of your interview. After, the interview itself will be written out.
Use your two initials as an interviewer, and two for your interviewee after the first question and answer. The initials of the person speaking are written first then followed by what the person answers. Theres no need for quotation marks. A brief concluding paragraph may also use to wrap things up at the end of the report. This is an easier and fun format to use if your interviewee was talkative and gathered lots of great quotes you can use.
Example:
The Interviewee: When you were a child, were you already interested in acting?
T. I.: Did it occur to you that you want to be a stage actress to?
- Narrative Format
Example:
Recommended Reading: What Answers To Give In A Job Interview
Directions On How To Get To The Interview
After all your careful preparation, dont let a late arrival undermine your chances of getting the job. You should plan to arrive 1015 minutes early, and you should study your route to the interview beforehand. If youre using public transportation, add extra time to account for delays or unexpected interruptions. If youre driving, be sure you have information about parkingif youre working with a recruiter, you can ask them to provide these details.
If after all this preparation you are still running late, call the office or recruiter you are working with and let them know. More often than not they will be understanding, but it is important to be respectful of their time.
Make Physical Copies Of Your Resume
While the majority of companies request digital copies of your resume as part of the application process, they can not have easy access to them during the interview. Having several versions to offer to various interviewers demonstrates that you are organized and prepared. You should have at least three copies available to provide to several interviewers, as well as one for yourself to use as a reference.
While you’re preparing, go through your resume and practice explaining any gaps or other anomalies that can arise. For instance, you can have taken time from work to care for a kid or family member, changed fields, or experienced other acceptable job breaks. Employers can be concerned about these, so it’s wise to provide an answer that demonstrates you’re not a risk.
Additionally, you can confront embarrassing queries regarding your résumé. It is critical to be candid but polite while dealing with them. For instance, you can have left a job due to a disagreement with your supervisor or manager or with company rules, but you do not wish to talk badly about your previous employer. Consider the following probable questions and prepare your responses in advance to avoid saying anything you’ll regret.
As with the rest of the interview, it’s ideal to prepare for these questions in advance by taking notes and rehearsing your responses aloud numerous times.
Recommended Reading: How To Ace Your Job Interview
Get To Know The Star Method
The STAR Method is a classic approach to answering behavioral interview questions. It allows you to turn a generic response into a compelling story. Thats why, when youre trying to figure out how to prepare for a job interview, learning the STAR Method is a must.
While we took a deep dive into the STAR Method before, heres an overview. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Results. Its an approach for outlining how an event arose and played out, making it ideal for structuring how you discuss an accomplishment.
With the STAR Method, you can make sure the hiring manager has every critical detail. Youre showing them how you put your skills to work, giving them important context about how you perform on the job.
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.
Read Also: How To Pass A Phone Interview
Your Chance To Interview The Employer
While the main goal of the interview is for an employer to evaluate you as a candidate, it is also one of your few chances to learn more about them. There are many aspects of a job that you can only uncover by speaking with the employer.
- Identify questions that can help you determine if this is the right position for you. Consider asking questions about the role, division, organization, and industry.
Being Prepared To Evaluate The Candidate
You May Like: What To Ask A Cfo In An Interview
How To Interview Candidates
Effective interviews expose potential red flags, reveal strengths, ensure that expectations fit with salary, compensation, and personality, and verify qualifications, skills, and abilities. They’re an essential part of the hiring process.
- Completely free trial, no card required.
- Reach over 250 million candidates.
What Should I Know Thats Not On Your Resume
Its a good sign if a recruiter or hiring manager is interested in more than just whats on your resume. It probably means they looked at your resume, think you might be a good fit for the role, and want to know more about you. To make this wide-open question a little more manageable, try talking about a positive trait, a story or detail that reveals a little more about you and your experience, or a mission or goal that makes you excited about this role or company.
Read More:The Right Way to Answer What Should I Know Thats Not on Your Resume?
Also Check: What Are Some Good Responses To Interview Questions
Assessing The Candidates Desire Factor
Theres no excuse for candidates not having researched your company, its achievements, competitors, and challenges prior to an interview. Still, some will go out of their way to articulate their understanding of who you are and why theyre so excited about joining your firm.
What youre really trying to get to here is whether the candidate wants a job or whether they want this job. Try questions like these to isolate those who are hungriest for the opportunity that you offer:
- What do you know about our organization?
- Why would you want to work here?
- In your mind, what makes us stand out from our competitors?
- If you were to accept this position with us today, how would you explain that to a prospective employer five years from now?
- How would this role with our company provide a link to your future career progression?
Ask The Right Questions
A major component of a successful job interview is knowing which questions to ask. There are several different types of interview questions you can use however, the specific questions you ask should be based on the job and the information you wish to learn about your candidate. The following are a few of the most common types of interview questions:
- Situational/hypothetical questions
Don’t Miss: How To Get Ready For Interview Questions
Questions About Your Work History
The meat of any job interview is your track record at work: what you accomplished, how you succeeded or failed , and how you behaved in real time in actual work environments. If you prep a few versatile stories to tell about your work history and practice answering behavioral interview questions, youll be ready to go.
Follow Up With A Thank You Note
Follow up a job interview with a thank-you note or email reiterating your interest in the job.
Consider your thank-you letter as a follow-up “sales” letter. Restate why you want the job, what your qualifications are, how you might make significant contributions, and so on.
This thank-you letter is also the perfect opportunity to discuss anything of importance that your interviewer neglected to ask or that you neglected to answer as thoroughly, or as well, as you would have liked. Good luck!
Don’t Miss: How To Interview For A Promotion
How Attention To Detail Affects Success
Attention to detail increases efficiency and improves time management and customer service. Employees often lose track of this valuable skill when it is not emphasized within a company. Making attention to detail an essential part of your daily work helps you maintain a higher level of effectiveness.
What Are Your Greatest Strengths
Heres an opening to talk about something that makes you greatand a great fit for this role. When youre answering this question, think quality, not quantity. In other words, dont rattle off a list of adjectives. Instead, pick one or a few specific qualities that are relevant to this position and illustrate them with examples. Stories are always more memorable than generalizations. And if theres something you were hoping to mention because it makes you a great candidate, but you havent had a chance yet, this would be the perfect time.
Don’t Miss: What To Write After An Interview
Introduce Yourself And Respond To Tell Me About Yourself
Typically youll be seated in a room to wait until your interviewer comes to meet you. You may want to use this time to get out your pen and paper for notes, take a drink of water and a couple of deep breaths to relax your body. When your interviewer enters the room, greet them confidently by standing up, extending your hand to shake theirs, stating your name and smiling.
Its likely that your interviewer knows the role you are applying for and has seen your resume. Still, you should prepare a short statement to make sure youre they know who you are and what role youre applying for. Something like,
Its great to meet with you to talk about the associate role on your events team.
Once introductions have been made, you can give them a hard copy of your resume, if they dont already have one. You will likely exchange a few pleasantries and get into the interview questionsespecially if theyve got a busy day. If they begin the conversation, let them take the lead.
If theres a bit of silence, dont be afraid to lead with your own elevator pitch that quickly summarizes your professional background and interest in the job. Heres an example that someone applying for a graphic design position might use:
Im a graphic designer with over five years of experience specializing in creating beautiful, unique website experiences that make users time with a brand more enjoyable. Im looking forward to growing my management skills to hopefully develop and inspire a team of my own.
Create A Great Job Description
Create a job description listing the essential skills and experience.
If you want to hire the perfect person for a position, you need to have a really good description of the position. Don’t get caught up with lots of bullet points, like “Office Experience,” and “Computer Skills.”
A good description shouldn’t over-describe. It should focus on what is absolutely necessary for someone to be successful in the position, and describe what success looks like over specific periods of time typically 30, 90, 180 days, and 1 year.
Use the job description as a roadmap for creating questions.
For example, if you’ve determined that customer service skills are essential, you’ll want to create questions related directly to that. How do they define customer service? What is the best customer service experience they’ve ever had? Review all your essentials in the description and build questions directly related to them.
Write out your questions beforehand.
You might think you can remember all of your interview questions, but the reality is that the greatest weakness of most interviewers is exposed when they try flying blind. Write down your questions, and be sure to give yourself enough blank space to jot down notes.
Jot down notes during the interview.
Get specific details and come back to them.
Make sure you’re on the same page with salary expectations.
Ask detailed questions about roles that lasted less than two years.
Don’t Miss: What Are Questions That Are Asked In Interviews
Resist Adding A Virtual Background
Although you might be tempted, it’s best to not use this feature during a video interviews. You’ll want to stay as professional as possible, and the focus should be on you and the interviewer not whatever’s in the background. If your background is incredibly cluttered and you have no other option, look for a simple Zoom background, like a classic bookcase or a tidy office.
If you plan to use this feature, make sure you create a Zoom account and enable the virtual background set-up on your profile. Practice with it so you know it’ll look good.
