Conducting an interview is like any skill, the more that you do it the better that you will become. However, as the majority of managers interview occasionally and on an ad hoc basis, it is common place for these skills to need refreshing. We have prepared a list of five things to do in the interview to help you get the most out of them.
The purpose of an interview is for the employer to learn as much about the candidate as possible and understand their ability, experiences as well as their personality to ensure that the person is a good fit for the role and the organisation. A good interview will offer the candidate the opportunity to showcase their personality and skills, but unfortunately more often than not, the candidate will feel anxious and they won’t always perform to their best.
Our list of the top five things to do when interviewing should help you get the best out of the candidate:
1. Understand the role on offer
The first thing to do is to make sure that you fully understand the details of the role as it is quite common for the interviewer not to be the person who wrote the job description. Therefore if you haven’t written the job specification take time to fully understand the role and speak to the relevant line manager to make sure you have got a clear understanding of the role responsibilities.
2. Pre-screen the candidate
Before the interview, make sure that you pre-screen the candidate to check on their qualifications, their right to work in the country and their accreditations. This can save time for you and the candidate in the long run. We, at Amoria Bond, will screen the candidates for you against these criteria but it is always useful for you to familiarise yourself with the details.
3. Prepare ahead of the interview
This might seem a very straightforward tip and common sense, however you would be surprised just how many managers don’t do this before the interview. Take time to review the candidate’s CV, cover letter or application form before the interview and make sure that you have these details to hand during the interview.
4. Explain the interview process to the candidate
The tips so far have been all about preparing ahead of the interview itself, but one of the key things to do at the beginning of the interview is to explain the overall process and structure of the interview. Giving the candidate details of the format of the interview will help set the expectations and help make the interview run more smoothly. Also if there is more than one person conducting the interview, then everyone should introduce themselves along with their job title and interest in the interview.
5. Open-ended questions
The final tip is to make sure that you ask open ended questions during the interview. These types of questions allow the candidate to talk about their experiences in other roles and how they achieved their results. These types of questions can often give you a clearer understanding of the candidates suitability for the role in terms of experiences and skills, but also their personality fit for your team.
