The following is an article I wrote for another platform and re-used internally at two different companies with some modifications. All too often I find front-line managers thrust team members into the interview room without the proper preparations. And why would highly technical people with no experience understand how to conduct an interview and what makes for an effective interview process? These interview best practices aren’t a substitute for coaching but will serve as an introduction for those individual contributors and a reminder for those of us who could use the refresher.
While the primary goal of the interview process is unmistakably to identify and hire the best people for the job, there’s more to it than just that. It’s crucial to remember that your organization and the open role, too, must be the right fit for their career trajectory. It’s a two-way street. Moreover, an often overlooked aspect is ensuring that even those not selected for the role are left with a positive impression of your organization, such that they’d eagerly consider reapplying for future opportunities. A search process for an open role is about more than filling a vacant position, it’s a reflection on how your team conducts themselves.
Creating a Comfortable Atmosphere
During an interview, fostering an environment that encourages open communication is of paramount importance. In fact, it’s more than just a nicety; it’s a crucial part of gleaning insight into a candidate’s potential. Remember, an interview is not an interrogation – it’s a conversation.
First off, put yourself in the candidate’s shoes. Consider the nervousness that often accompanies interviews and find ways to alleviate it. Start the interview with some casual small talk to help the candidate relax. Ask about their day or something related to the current situation that is light-hearted. This can help put them at ease and promote a more genuine conversation.
Encourage candidates to express their thoughts fully, even if it takes a bit of time. Prompt them to think out loud when solving problems, so you can follow their thought process, even if they don’t arrive at the correct answer. In many ways, how they approach a problem can be more revealing than the answer itself.
Maintain an engaged and friendly demeanor throughout. When conducting interviews remotely, always do so with your webcam on. Non-verbal cues matter – keep eye contact (with the person or looking towards the camera), nod in acknowledgment of their points, and display open body language. This signals to the candidate that you’re not just present, but actively interested in what they’re sharing. Don’t have your phone out. Don’t be looking at another monitor half-engaged. During the interview, they are the most important person.
Remember to provide positive reinforcement. For instance, if a candidate shares an idea or experience that resonates with the role or organization, acknowledge it and express your appreciation of their insight. This will not only boost their confidence but can also encourage them to share more.
Lastly, make sure to allow space for silence. It’s natural to want to fill in gaps in conversation, but sometimes, giving the candidate a moment to collect their thoughts can lead to more thoughtful and complete responses. It’s about creating a balance between guiding the conversation and allowing it to flow organically.
By nurturing a comfortable atmosphere during the interview, you can ensure that everyone walks away with a deeper understanding of each other, making it easier to identify if there’s a good fit.
The Goal of Asking Questions
The essential goal of asking questions during an interview goes beyond the baseline assessment of whether a candidate possesses the needed technical skills or experience. Indeed, ensuring a candidate has the right skill set forms a critical part of the evaluation process. However, the questions you pose provide an opportunity for a more profound exploration. They allow us to delve deeper, to probe into the candidate’s potential, ambition, and compatibility with your team and company culture. Through well-posed questions, you build a bridge that connects you with the candidate, offering you a window into their problem-solving prowess, their adaptability, their collaborative ethos, and the alignment of their career aspirations with your company’s trajectory. Hence, each question is not merely an inquiry, but a gateway into a wealth of insights about the candidate’s capacity for growth and their potential contributions to your team.
Types of Questions
Technical Competency Questions
Technical competency questions assess a candidate’s ability to perform the tasks needed for the role. They often relate directly to the responsibilities listed in the job description.
Good Question: “Can you discuss a project where you implemented a solution using [a specific technology relevant to the role]?” This question invites candidates to showcase their practical application of the technology and provides an opportunity to discuss their problem-solving process.
Poor Question: “Do you know how to use [a specific technology]?” This yes/no question fails to provide insight into the depth of the candidate’s knowledge or their practical experience.
Problem-Solving Questions
Problem-solving questions examine a candidate’s approach to challenges. They provide insights into their analytical skills, creativity, and persistence.
Good Question: “Can you describe a situation where you faced a significant challenge or problem in your project? How did you handle it?” This question gives candidates a chance to show their problem-solving skills and adaptability.
Poor Question: “How many uses can you think of for a pencil?” While this might seem like a creative problem-solving question, it’s too unrelated to the work context to provide useful insights.
Behavioral Questions
Behavioral questions are designed to understand a candidate’s soft skills, like teamwork, leadership, and communication. They’re often presented as hypothetical situations or queries about past experiences.
Good Question: “Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a team member. How did you handle the situation?” This question encourages the candidate to demonstrate their communication skills and conflict resolution abilities.
Poor Question: “If you were an animal, what would you be?” While this question might be interesting, it does not provide concrete information about a candidate’s behaviors or skills.
Culture Fit Questions
Culture fit questions help assess whether a candidate’s values align with those of the company. These questions should be open-ended, inviting the candidate to share personal values and experiences.
Good Question: “How do you handle feedback, and could you share an example where you used constructive criticism for improvement?” This question provides insights into the candidate’s attitude towards growth and improvement—a key cultural aspect in most organizations.
Poor Question: “What’s your favorite book?” While this can be an engaging question, it doesn’t necessarily relate to how well a candidate would fit into the company’s culture.
Career Aspiration Questions
Career aspiration questions assess whether the candidate’s future plans align with the opportunities your company can offer.
Good Question: “Where do you see your career in the next five years, and how does this role align with your career goals?” This question gives you insight into the candidate’s career ambitions and whether they view your company as part of their career journey.
Poor Question: “Can you commit to staying with us for five years?” This question places candidates in an uncomfortable position where they may feel pressured to make a commitment without knowing the full context of the role, team, and company culture.
Asking the right questions and taking time to listen to and understand the candidate’s responses plays a crucial role in identifying the best person for your team. Remember that the goal of the interview is not merely to fill a role but to bring in a team member who can contribute meaningfully to the company’s mission.
Moving Beyond Yes/No Questions
The use of open-ended questions in an interview setting is a crucial tool for gaining a deeper understanding of a candidate’s competencies and potential fit. Unlike yes/no questions, which tend to box responses into binary categories, open-ended questions spark dialogue, allowing candidates to provide nuanced responses that reveal their thought processes, skills, experiences, and personal qualities.
Imagine asking a candidate, “Do you work well in teams?” Most candidates, aware of the importance of teamwork in the majority of roles, will predictably answer, “Yes”. However, this yes/no question doesn’t give any insights into their experiences with team dynamics, their communication skills, or their ability to navigate group challenges.
Now, consider rephrasing this to, “Can you describe a project where you had to collaborate with a team? What was your role, and how did you navigate any challenges that arose?” This open-ended format encourages candidates to share more detailed experiences and showcases their problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and capacity for teamwork.
That being said, yes/no questions aren’t entirely off-limits. They can serve as useful follow-ups to open-ended questions or be used to confirm specific qualifications. However, they should comprise only a small minority of your interview questions if you want to gain substantial insights into your candidates.
Effective interviewing requires active listening and intentional questioning. It’s about going beyond the surface level to understand who the candidates are, what they can bring to the table, and how well they align with the role and company culture. Open-ended questions play a significant role in facilitating this deeper level of understanding.
Importance of Follow-up Questions
So far, we’ve delved into the art of asking open-ended, situational, and potential-assessing questions to spark meaningful conversations with candidates. Equally important, if not more so, is the skill of asking insightful follow-up questions. Follow-up questions are your navigational compass in the exploration of a candidate’s mind, guiding you deeper into their thought process, capabilities, and potential.
Take the case of a typical situation-based question like, “Can you tell me about a time when you had to handle a challenging software bug?” It’s a solid question, inviting candidates to showcase their problem-solving abilities. But, it’s your follow-up question that can truly reveal the depth of their skills and character. Ask something like, “Once you discovered the root cause, what steps did you take to ensure similar bugs wouldn’t crop up in the future?” or “How did you communicate this issue and its resolution with your team?” Suddenly, you’re uncovering their proactive approach, learning attitude, and communication skills – aspects that the initial question might not have touched upon.
Follow-up questions signal to candidates that you’re not just going through the motions; you’re actively engaged and genuinely interested in their experiences and insights. They feel heard and valued, which is a key element in fostering a positive candidate experience.
Moreover, follow-up questions also have a practical advantage – they keep the conversation on track. They prevent interviews from drifting into tangents or irrelevant details, ensuring that every minute of your conversation is purposeful and useful.
Remember, while your first question starts a conversation, it’s your follow-up questions that invite you to step inside and explore. When interviewing dig deeper and probe further than the initial question.
Avoiding Biased Questions
We all have our own perspectives and assumptions, shaped by our experiences. These perspectives can subtly influence how we interact with others, including during interviews. Whether we’re aware of it or not, we might lean toward candidates who share our interests or experiences or make judgments based on preconceived notions.
One strategy to ensure fairness is to use a standardized set of opening questions for all your candidates. This approach ensures you’re comparing like with like and helps to keep personal assumptions in check. It also gives every candidate an equal opportunity to demonstrate their abilities.
The language used during an interview is equally important. Strive to use neutral phrasing that doesn’t unintentionally favor or disadvantage certain candidates. For instance, steer clear of personal queries, such as those about a candidate’s family plans or marital status, which are not relevant to job performance.
You must also be mindful of how you interpret responses. A natural tendency can be to attribute a person’s past actions or outcomes to their character, without considering the broader context. For instance, if a candidate left their previous job, it’s more constructive to explore the reasons and circumstances, rather than making snap judgments.
Conducting a fair and balanced interview process is an ongoing learning experience. It requires a degree of self-awareness and a steadfast commitment to treating each candidate based on their merits. By doing so, you’re more likely to uncover those hidden gems - the best talent that could have been missed.
Giving Space for their Questions
Never underestimate the importance of giving space for candidates to pose their questions during an interview. Yes, you’re assessing them, but they’re assessing you and youe team as well. The decision to join a team goes both ways, and their questions are just as revealing as ours, often more so.
So how do you provide this space? Make it explicit that their questions are welcome and indeed encouraged. This can be as simple as asking, “What questions do you have for me?” Genuine, active listening during this time can offer a glimpse into the candidate’s priorities, concerns, and values.
What do they focus on? Is it company culture? Growth opportunities? Specific technologies or project details? These insights are valuable, helping you understand their career aspirations, what they value in a workplace, and how they see themselves fitting into the team.
Make it a priority to not just squeeze in time for their questions, but to allocate substantial time. It can be a source of valuable insights, and these insights often make the difference between a good hiring decision and a great one. It’s not just about answering their questions, but about appreciating the view they provide into their thinking and their values.
Taking Notes
Every interview is a rich source of information and taking good notes is fundamental to capturing and preserving that information. Notes serve as a reliable reference point when it’s time to evaluate candidates, especially when you’re interviewing several people for one role.
Why Taking Notes is Essential
As an interviewer, your goal isn’t just to ask questions and listen, but also to document the candidate’s responses accurately. Real-time note-taking helps you capture the essence of a candidate’s answers, along with any significant observations about their communication style, demeanor, and problem-solving skills.
This doesn’t mean you should be buried in your notepad or laptop during the interview, though. Be present and maintain eye contact, but make sure to jot down key points as they come up. Don’t rely on memory alone. As a general guideline, capture what was said, not how you felt about it.
Techniques for Effective Note-taking
When note-taking during an interview, try to be as objective and factual as possible. Avoid making interpretive or judgmental comments. Instead, focus on recording key pieces of information about the candidate’s experiences, skills, responses, and professional demeanor.
Try to capture direct quotes that encapsulate the candidate’s thoughts and ideas, especially when they provide insights into their problem-solving capabilities or organizational skills. This will be particularly useful later when comparing candidates or explaining your impressions to other members of the hiring team.
Maintaining a High and Realistic Bar
Maintaining high hiring standards is of course desirable. Yet, it’s crucial to understand what “the best” implies. While striving for excellence, it’s equally important to remain grounded in reality. The perfect candidate, one who ticks every box on the wish list, might not exist.
Balance is the keyword here. Seek individuals who demonstrate a high degree of competence, align with the company values, and show a high potential for growth. An endless cycle of searching for an ideal that doesn’t exist or settling for less to fill a position quickly should be avoided.
As interviews are conducted, maintain vigilance about the set standards and hold yourself accountable for upholding them. At the same time, stay open to candidates who might bring something unexpected to the team.
Turning Candidates Down
For those whose only role is to interview, this may not apply, but it’s such an incredibly important point that I will emphasize it anyway. An unfortunate reality of the hiring process is that not every candidate will be the right fit for the role. While delivering rejection is never easy, it’s imperative to do it with empathy and dignity.
Begin by communicating the decision promptly. Leaving candidates hanging in uncertainty can create unnecessary stress and hinder their job-seeking efforts. It’s a simple matter of respect to inform them of the decision without undue delay.
When communicating the rejection, make sure it’s done in a respectful and compassionate manner. Keep the focus on the fit for the specific role rather than the individual’s worth or skills. Instead of saying, “You didn’t have the skills we were looking for,” consider phrasing it as, “While your skills and experiences are impressive, we felt that they didn’t quite align with the specific needs of this role.”
Remember, today’s rejected candidate could be tomorrow’s key hire for a different role. Leaving them with a positive impression even in rejection can be beneficial in the long term for both parties. Every candidate should leave the search process for a role with an overwhelmingly positive impression of your team and company.
Continuous Improvement and Practice
Interviewing, like any other skill, demands continuous improvement and practice. It is an art that can be honed over time and through conscious effort. Fostering these skills can enhance the interviewing experience and lead to more successful hiring decisions.
Post-interview, take a moment to reflect. How did the conversation flow? Did you manage to delve deeper into the candidate’s skills, values, and potential? Did your questions provoke thoughtful responses or were they too surface-level? Reflection allows you to identify areas of improvement and strategies for future interviews.
Equally important is feedback from peers. If a colleague was part of the interview process, ask for their thoughts on your questioning style and overall approach. Hiring managers please note, most interviews should be conducted with a pair of interviewees for this purpose explicitly. Their perspective will offer valuable insights.
The hiring process is a critical component of any organization’s success. It’s not just about filling vacancies; it’s about strategically growing a team that can drive the company forward. This process requires a delicate balance of assessing technical skills, understanding a candidate’s potential, and ensuring a mutual fit. It’s about creating a positive experience for every candidate, regardless of the outcome, and maintaining high standards without losing sight of reality. As you continue to refine your interviewing skills, you not only improve our hiring decisions but also contribute to shaping your team. Remember, every interview is an opportunity to learn, grow, and make a lasting impact on your team’s future.
Continuing the Conversation
The conversation shouldn’t stop here. Every situation is unique and I value your experiences. I invite you to reach out to me directly, for feedback on this article or to start a dialogue on how we can transform your challenges into opportunities.