Introduction
An interview is an essential part of the hiring process. Recruiters and interviewers should understand the interview process and the important components that are needed for an effective interview. An effective interview helps the company find the best candidate with skills, qualifications, personality, salary, and abilities. It depends upon you to ask the right questions, identify the best candidate and provide a good resource to the company.
Importance of an Interview
Hiring managers or interviewers always focus on hiring the best candidate for the open position. An interview is beneficial for the company as well as for the candidate who is being interviewed. It gives an opportunity to both the hiring manager as well as for the candidate to learn, understand and determine the suitability of the job for the candidate.
The interview helps the hiring manager understand the in-depth knowledge of a candidate and helps determine whether the candidate is fit in terms of ability, character, personality, qualification, interests, body language, and communication skills. Most companies go for at least one interview process before they release the offer for the selected candidates. It helps them to prevent the wastage of money and time on a candidate who is not suitable for the position.
Interviews are necessary when you want to gather the information that you cannot find in your resume.
How to interview someone?
A step-by-step process can help an interviewer or hiring manager understand “how to interview someone.”
- Prepare your questions: Before you start an interview, make sure you go through the job description and figure out exactly what qualities and skills you are looking for in a new candidate. You can ask the right questions during the interview and your conversation be on track.
Apart from this, there are different types of questions like an opinion-based, situational-based, skill-based brainteaser, fact-based, hypothetical-based, general question, etc. As an interviewer, it depends upon the job role to understand what kind of questions you need to ask to learn about the candidate and find out whether the candidate would be a good resource for the company.
- Research about the interviewee: Before interviewing the candidate, it is important to know about the interviewee as much as you can. This helps you to understand the candidate and gives you an idea about their personality. You can read and understand about the candidate from the candidate’s resume, portfolio, social media, CV, cover letter, etc. While reading about the candidate, you may get some important keywords or phrases through which you can frame your questions and ask them during the interview. Through this, you can also verify whether their profile’s details are correct or not.
- Make the person comfortable: This is the most important thing as an interviewer before officially starting the interview. Most of the candidates are nervous when they go for an interview. This may be due to unknown reasons, which may lead to making mistakes during the interview. So, it is important to make the candidate comfortable and relax before the interview gets started. This can be done by some small talk, making eye contact with a smile, asking some basic questions, or offering coffee or drink if possible. This will help the candidate to feel comfortable and friendly during the interview. Making them comfortable will help you and the interviewee to have a productive and professional conversation.
- Follow the Interview Structure: For an effective interview, it is important to follow the standard interview structure, it will help you save your time, and you will not diverge from the interview path. For example, you can start the interview with an introduction, then job-specific questions, behavioral questions, general questions, and finally give an opportunity to the interviewee to ask their questions. It will help you to cover every aspect of an interview. You can also choose your format as per your job requirement.
- Take notes: This is an important point when you are interviewing lots of candidates. It is good to make a small note of each candidate during the interview; it will help you sort out the good candidate after the interview based on their performance. These notes will help you find the best candidate, and you will likely remember the details about them. It will also help to make next step easier.
- Ask the right question: Often, the interviewee may talk in detail on a single question to impress an interviewer, which may lead to a wastage of time. You should be polite and stay focus on what you are looking for. You should always ask about their employment, their roles, and responsibility, about their projects and experience. It will help you to know what kind of roles and experience do candidates have and whether it will be a good resource for your company or not.
It is good to know whether you both are on the same page in the terms of salary expectations. You can ask what they are currently making, what they expect from their new job. It will give you an idea of whether they will fit in the company in terms of salary expectations.
- Good Listener: For an effective interview, it is important for an interviewer to carefully listen to candidates’ answers and pay attention to what they’re saying. Listening carefully will help you to get some important keywords or phrases during the conversation, and you can design completely new questions out of them that you haven’t planned for. It will also help you to identify whether a candidate is giving an honest reply to your questions or not.
- Involve Others: Hiring the best candidate for a company is not easy, so it is good to invite a few of your trusted and experienced colleagues. They can help you to identify the best suitable candidate for the open position. Peer interviewer can play an important role in judging the candidate as per the company requirements. In most of the interviews, three people take the candidate interview. Based on the panel feedback, it is decided whether a candidate is suitable for the position or not. Also, you may rate the candidate as per their skills and knowledge, which will help identify the best suitable candidate for the positions. The important thing is to be consistent and follow the same procedure for all the candidates.
Also Read Top 10 Telephone Interview Questions you need to know
Things to Remember :
- Make sure the interviewee is stress-free and comfortable to answers all the questions.
- Sell the position to the candidate if you find the person is best suited for the position.
- Do your pre-interview preparations before you go for an actual interview.
- Never ask candidates regarding their religion, caste, marital status, gender identity, etc.
- Be clear and focus on what kind of candidates you are looking for.
- Follow the interview structure.
- Jot down important points and listen carefully during the interview.
- Prepare with the questions that the interviewee may ask about the organization and responsibilities.
- Have a good knowledge of the company’s goals and work culture.
- Wrap up the interview in a professional manner.
These were some points that an interviewer can follow and understand the effective interview process. As an interviewer, you can start the conversation with light-hearted topics before getting down to the business. It makes candidates comfortable and relaxes them from nervousness. The hiring manager or the interviewer is part of the interview panel before a candidate. Still, they also represent the company before the interviewee, so it is important to be polite and calm throughout the interview process and show professional behaviour while taking the interview. A good interviewer is welcoming, conversational, and considerate.
