How to Conduct an Interview

How to conduct an interview is a topic that most companies leave off their training schedules. The likely reason is that hiring managers often consider themselves experts when it comes to interviewing candidates. Can you pick yourself out of this crowd?

• You're scanning the resume while the candidate is sitting in front of you.
• You're not sure what position the candidate is interviewing for.
• You do most of the talking.
• You run out of questions to ask.
• You're asking only about what's on the resume.
• You like people who are similar to you.
• You want to hire the person you like, rather than the person most qualified for the job.
• You tell the candidate that they'll be coming back for round 2 - and then tell HR that the person was not a good fit.

We can easily expand this list!

Interviewing is not something you can do "on the fly." To be good at it requires discipline, skill and the ability to read between the lines.

Some quick rules of thumb for how to conduct an interview...

• Be prepared. You should be familiar with the candidate's resume and have some notes about areas to probe.
• Be on time. An interview is not only an opportunity for you to evaluate a candidate. The candidate is also making judgments about the organization.
• Make the candidate feel welcomed. If you're interviewing in your office, make sure that your calls are held, your desk is reasonably clear, and the candidate has your full attention.
• Try to put the candidate at ease. A few minutes of small talk will help.
• Give the candidate the floor. The candidate should be doing most of the talking, and you should be listening.
• Don't be shy about directing the interview. If you find the candidate going off on a tangent - or answering a question you didn't ask - interrupt nicely and let the candidate know what you're really trying to find out.
• Allow time for questions from the candidate.
• Allow enough time for the interview. Senior level people should get at least an hour of your time.

Our Interview Guides are specifically mapped to our Job Descriptions. If you're looking for a way to add some discipline to your hiring process, our Interview Guides can help.

Standard Interview Guides - $500

Our Standard Interview Guide will provide you with a roadmap to increase your hiring efficiency. Mapped to our Position Profiles, these Guides will provide you with a basic methodology for how to conduct an interview, the relevant questions to ask your candidates and a guide for scoring responses.

Custom Interview Guides - $1000

Our Custom Interview Guides work in conjunction with our Custom Profiles. They are developed exclusively for your use, based on Position Profiles that are unique to your organization.

These Guides are similar in format to our Standard Guides, with the important distinction that they are based on the specific predictors of success identified in our assessment research crafted for your company.

If you are interested in purchasing an Interview Guide, please Contact Us or call 610.645.4160. We'll be happy to help.

For a less structured approach...

If you're looking for a less structured approach to how to conduct an interview and just need to find some good interview questions to ask, we've got a great collection of questions in our Job Interview Questions section. Tap into this resource and you'll find 100 different questions and what kind of answers they're designed to solicit.

The questions you'll find can be easily tailored for your organization. And, although the advice we provide is really directed to candidates who visit our site, you can learn a great deal about what to look for in the answers your own candidates provide!