The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Better Interviewer

The job market has been growing increasingly unstable: with 4.4 million workers quitting their jobs in April 2022, the Great Resignation continues to impact businesses. Additionally, many jobs are being cut due to the fear of a looming recession. More than 19,000 workers were laid off in the tech sector alone in the first few months of 2022.

This volatility in the job market can prove to be costly for your firm. Resignations and layoffs result in losing a qualified and skilled workforce, affecting business growth. Devising a well-rounded hiring process to hire the right talent can help tackle this issue.

Interviewing is a vital part of the hiring process for recruiters as it helps them assess a candidate’s skills, evaluate their experience, and analyze whether they are a right fit for the firm. The interview experience also allows the candidate to understand your firm’s needs and assess whether their aspirations align with the job role. 

However, interviewing is a skill that can be difficult to master. From lack of preparation and social confirmation bias to jumping to conclusions and not following up, it’s essential to sidestep common hiring problems that recruiters face. Additionally, it’s important to identify the typical mistakes bad interviewers make, such as asking close-ended questions, not understanding the job description, and not following an interview structure. 

A bad interview can cost you a great candidate, which few firms can afford in today’s job market. This article will give a detailed breakdown of becoming a successful interviewer and securing top talent for your organization.

What interview techniques and strategies can you implement?

Recruiters must make an excellent impression on candidates as they are often the first point of contact between potential employees and the organization. A robust interview strategy can help create a positive recruitment experience for both parties.

While structuring an interview can be challenging, there are time-tested techniques and strategies to help you ask the right questions in the best possible way. You can also learn from the world’s top firms and implement some of FAANG’s hiring strategies in your business. 

Here’s a list of three interview tips to keep in mind during your next interview:

1. Build Rapport 

Establishing rapport and creating a friendly environment for the candidate will help them feel at ease. This will help them answer honestly and confidently, giving you authentic insights into their background and experience. You don’t have to go all out; exchanging pleasantries and using simple verbal and non-verbal cues will suffice.

2. Listen to Candidates Answers

While a good interviewer has good speaking skills, they have even better listening skills. If a recruiter does not actively listen to their candidate’s answers, they will not be able to respond adequately or ask relevant follow-up questions. Additionally, if the recruiter appears disinterested or disengaged, it might leave a negative impression on the candidate. 

As an interviewer, you must master the art of active listening and put it into practice.

3. Get Multiple Perspectives

Panel interviewing is a valuable tool in the hiring process. It allows interviewers to use multiple perspectives to understand the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses better. A diverse panel will also help mitigate any individual hiring bias and help your firm select the best candidate based on talent alone. 

What are the different interview formats and styles?

Interview styles

Choosing an interview style largely depends on the role you are hiring for and how you want to present your firm to the candidate. There are four main interview styles, each with its benefits:

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• Conversational Interview: While a conversational style allows the candidate to feel comfortable and be more open about their motivations and expectations, it cannot be used as a reliable predictive tool. However, you can use this interview style while hiring candidates for internships or entry-level positions.

• Behavioral Interview: Behavioral interviewing can predict a candidate’s future behavior based on past conduct and give you great insight into the candidate’s skills and aptitude.

• Direct Interview: A direct interview involves asking a pre-prepared set of questions. While this helps keep candidates on-topic and focused, it can also negatively affect their responses by making them nervous.

• Structured Interview: In a structured interview, the hiring manager asks questions from a pre-determined question bank. A structured interview has multiple advantages, including maintaining objectivity and increasing the chances of a beneficial hire. You can formulate questions for a structured interview by analyzing the role, clearly defining the job requirements, customizing questions according to the requirements, and devising a standard grading scale.

Interview formats

There are multiple interview formats, and using a suitable interview format in your hiring process is crucial to hiring the right candidates. Some of the most commonly used interview formats are:

• Technical: A subset of structured interviews, technical interviews assess and analyze a candidate’s technical expertise. Questions in technical interviews differ between different industries and businesses. Technical interviews are unbiased and most effective when conducted appropriately.

• Informational: Informational interviews are discussions where the candidate asks professionals questions about the industry, company, requirements, and other elements to receive information and advice.

• Face-to-face interview: Face-to-face interviews help establish a rapport with the candidate, which can be difficult over a phone or via video call. These are also useful for candidates who are not comfortable being on camera. 

• Group interview: When many candidates apply for the same position, group interviews can help recruiters evaluate multiple candidates simultaneously and save time and effort. This type of interviewing also helps gauge candidates’ teamwork and communication skills. 

• Panel interview: Panel interviews help gain multiple perspectives on a candidate’s prowess, making the hiring process easier and less prone to personal biases.

• Remote Interview: Remote interviews can be conducted via phone or video call. 94% of candidates say they like video interviews as they are convenient and save travel time and costs

• Asynchronous interviews: In this type of interview, the candidates are given a set of recorded or written questions, and they record their responses for the hiring manager’s evaluation. Asynchronous interviewing has advantages and disadvantages: while it shortens the hiring process and resolves factors like time differences, it does not give the hiring manager a chance to build rapport with the candidate.

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The hiring process allows you to give your candidate an idea of your company’s culture and values. A positive interview experience increases a candidate’s chances of accepting a job offer by 38%, making it an effective tool in the recruitment process.