7 Great Tips On Interviewing Job Candidates

When a candidate turns up for a job interview, they’re totally focused on making sure they impress enough to convince someone they’re worth taking on as an employee.

However, what they don’t realise is the interviewers themselves are usually just as nervous – and if anything – have to put in just as much effort to persuade the candidate this is a company they’re going to want to work for.

We realise it’s a dual-struggle, so we’ve come up with a useful list of seven different tips on interviewing, which could help any potential interviewers in the future.

1 Keep consistent and focused with your questions

A successful interview is forged between two parties working together to discover more about each other. As such, it’s important you make sure your line of questioning is focused and relevant at all times.

There’s no ‘right and wrong’ when it comes to this – every office and career has different needs and requirements – but once you formulate a set of questions you feel works for the position you’re offering, make sure to use them for every person you see applying for that specific role

 

2 Be yourself – to a point

It’s tempting to want to portray yourself as the ‘big cheese’ of the environment, but the reality is that coming across as abrasive or a little arrogant is only going to turn people off from wanting to work for you.

People have an inane and biological ability to detect fakeness, so heading into an interview with a false persona is never a wise strategy to begin with.

Making a candidate feel as comfortable as possible will help them to open up and give a better performance of their own, so a stern portrayal of yourself is likely to have a hugely detrimental effect, whether they work out you’re putting on a show or not.

 

3 Pay attention to non-verbal signs

Okay, we’re getting a little deeper than usual now – but the reality is that body language can say a lot about a person. This type of physical  assessment is becoming increasingly studied, so there’s an understanding of what each different type of body positioning really means.

Perfect examples of good body language include:

• An open posture – where someone’s arms and legs are not crossed in any way.
• Solid – but not overbearing  eye contact.
• Smiling – which suggests a friendly and amiable nature.
• Postural echoing or mirroring – which is the sub-conscious copying of your movements. This implies like-mindedness.
• A firm handshake – implies a confident personality.

 

4 Plot out how you want the interview to go beforehand

Sticking to an unrelenting and rigid interview structure is never going to work – you have no idea what factors might come up over the course of a discussion which could send proceedings down a totally different path – but having a basic plan in mind heading into every face-to-face can only serve to help things progress more smoothly.

Set out a very basic structure, and try to organise your questions into a set order where they are more likely to smoothly follow one after the other.

 

5 Look for signs of compatibility

It’s all well and good getting on with the interviewee, but does that mean you’re really going to be able to get the best results in a business environment?

For the most part there is no intrinsic link between someone who you might get along with as a friend and someone who could do a good job for you in an office or work sphere. Luckily however, there are key factors you can look for to see whether there is an actual chemistry in the making. These include:

Whether or not the candidate is able to accept constructive criticism.

If they feel they can work at the same pace as the rest of the team (a fast worker in a moderate team is good, but a moderate worker in a fast team less so).

Whether their general attitude to the office hierarchy is in keeping with what you’d want and expect from an employee.

 

6 Don’t do too much talking

t’s good to chat a bit during the course of your interview, but you don’t want to be sitting there the whole time taking up valuable minutes where the candidate could be telling you some useful information.

Remember the whole reason you’re there in the first place is to learn more about them. The only skill of theirs you’ll pick up by ranting at them the whole time is discovering they’re a pretty decent listener.

Dedicate around 20-30 percent of the interview to explaining the role, the duties of the position and asking questions of the candidate – leaving them with the rest of the time to help give you a clearer picture of whether they’re right for you or not.

 

7 Assess if they really want the job

This step might actually be more important than any other when it comes to tips on interviewing, as it will determine whether or not you’ll be bringing someone into the team who actually wants to be there  long-term.

Finding the perfect candidate is all well and good, but if they have no desire to actually get stuck into the profession, in time they’ll eventually begin to falter and produce continually shoddier work.

There’s no guaranteed way to know whether the person you’re looking to bring in will fit that criteria, but you can at least get a better understanding of whether they are, or not by assessing:

What they know about the organisation (background research shows a desire).

Where are they looking to be in five years’ time? Is their future in this industry?

Do they have any sort of passion for this industry, or is it just as a means to make short-term money?

What is it about your company that stands out from competitors?

 

If you approach things from this perspective you’ll have a better understanding of whether the candidates you’re interviewing are right for your company, or if they might just bin it off after a couple of months when they realise it’s “just not for them”.

Posted on December 6, 2017