How to Interview

We all want to be sure that the person we hire can do the job well, and that we’ll enjoy having that person as part of our team. We also need to be sure that we can afford to hire and retain the person, and that he or she will be able to move up in the company over time.

Absent a crystal ball, the best way to hire well is to conduct a good interview: You ask questions, really listen to the answers (including what is not being said) and share your own information and insights with the candidate. 

But still, despite our best efforts, we sometimes fail in our quest. Even after multiple rounds of costly interviews, you can end up with someone incompetent. Or someone who jumps ship almost immediately after hire. Or someone who’s just a poor fit. 

I believe that most of these problems can be avoided through better interviewing—which is probably a more in-depth and candid process than you’re used to. What does it entail?

1. It means asking the right questions and listening for the right answers. For example, there are far better questions than the all-too-common, “Tell me about your weaknesses,” which every candidate rehearses for. (There sure are a lot of self-flagellating perfectionists out there)

2. It means assigning specific questions to each person on your interview team—questions designed to delve into one specific area of the candidate’s background. For example, you might have one of your employees go deep into the candidate’s motivation, and another flesh out the candidate’s accomplishments and his or her specific role in them. This helps you avoid having your interviewers ask the same rote questions over and over again, which can get tedious and also fails to uncover any new information. 

3. It means disclosing more information than you’re used to disclosing, regardless of what questions the candidate asks. This includes talking openly about the problems the candidate will face, the reason(s) why the previous person left, why your turnover might be higher than it should be, and the amount of authority and autonomy the candidate will be given. This might seem like oversharing, but it’s actually necessary to build trust and encourage the candidate to opt further into your hiring process—or opt out of it if your culture, job and/or management style aren’t a good fit. 

The goal of the interview process is to clarify what you want and need from your new hire so that both sides—you and the candidate—can evaluate whether he or she is the best person to deliver those results. This requires warts-and-all honesty. 

I’ll explore this area more in future posts.