3 Tips for a Stellar Interview

Conducting interviews can be overwhelming, especially if it's your first time. Here are some tips on how to prepare so you can set yourself (and your interviewee) up for success.

1. Come Prepared and Be Present

It’s so easy to go into an interview and focus on your own personal experience because you want to convey competence and professionalism. While your candidate is answering a question, you may already be in your head planning the next one… I’ve been there! This is an easy mistake to make.

In order to make sure you’re present and actively listening in an interview (which can be difficult to do), it’s important to come prepared. Come ready with questions based on specific traits, qualities, and goals in mind. For example, if you’re hoping to get more information about a candidate being a team player, ask something like, “Tell me about a time when you went out of your way to help a co-worker. What was the situation? What was your involvement, and what was the outcome?”

Have your questions prepared on a piece of paper and avoid bringing your computer to the interview. Not only can computers be distracting, but it may also come off like you’re not giving the candidate your full attention. Plus, having set questions on paper communicates that you’ve come organized and prepared.

Get familiar with your prepared questions prior to the interview so you can fully engage when the candidate is answering a question. If you’re comfortable with those, you can dig into answers instead of feeling pressured to move on to the next question, which brings me to my next tip…

2) Go Off Script

Yes, you have these prepared questions, and while it’s important to have them, don’t be afraid to go off script. If your candidate has an interesting answer you want to dig into or get clarification on, go for it! Chances are, the most interesting and useful information you’ll discover in an interview will not be a direct answer to one of your questions. Here are some examples of this:

Interviewer - What was something your last manager did really well?

Candidate - They set me up for success.

Interviewer - How specifically did they set you up for success? Define that.

Candidate - My manager would consistently challenge me to come up with my own goals, then helped me figure out a game plan and encouraged me to accomplish those goals by providing me with the resources to get there. I consistently felt supported and challenged.

Interviewer - What specifically about this company makes you feel like it’s the right place for you?

Candidate - The open and inviting office culture.

Interviewer - What does an inviting office culture look like to you, and why is that the right environment for you?

Candidate - I thrive in a collaborative environment where people aren’t divided by cubicles or office walls. I am more efficient when working on a team than alone.

3) Be Transparent

This may seem like a no-brainer, but when people feel a sense of urgency to backfill a spot, it’s easy to sell only the great parts of a job to get someone in the door quickly. (I’ve made that mistake before, so much so where we decided to change the job title being advertised to be more transparent.) In order to make sure you’re hiring the right person for the job who will stick around for a while, it’s important that you’re honest about all aspects of a role, positive and negative.

One way I do this is by including a quick shadowing session after our initial in-person interview so the candidate can get a quick glimpse into what the day-to-day looks like for someone already in the role. It’s one thing to explain in a conference room what the job is, but to see it first-hand is completely different. There’s nothing worse than having someone get hired for a role and then find out the job is something drastically different than what they expected.

Morale of the story: Even though it may feel great to fill a role when you’re in a time crunch, know that it’s likely going to be more time-consuming and destructive down the line if that initial hire is not the right hire. Take the time to find the right person, not just any person.