Improve Interview Techniques

Of course you will never know what it is like to work with someone until they join you, but these techniques may help you gain some greater insights. On the interviewing end, this means that interviewers should:

• Ask Situational Questions. Interviews shouldn’t be treated as due diligence but as a way to determine whether this hire can do the job well, fits in with your culture and preferred way of working and is enjoyable and professional to work with. This comes from asking for specific examples from a person’s professional past. “Tell me about a time when…” will evoke more meaningful responses than the basic “Would you be able to…” or “Can you…” questions. Ask for anecdotes, or a walk-through of old projects to see how candidates think and work.

“Hiring is hard.” 

• Ask Open Ended Questions. An open-ended question is designed to encourage a full, meaningful answer using the subject’s own knowledge and/or feelings. It is the opposite of a closed-ended question, which encourages a short or single-word answer. To successfully ask open-ended questions in conversation, be knowledgeable of their characteristics:
  • They require a person to pause, think, and reflect.
  • Answers will not be facts, but personal feelings, opinions, or ideas about a subject.
  • The control of the conversation switches over to the person being asked the question, which begins an exchange between the people. If the control of the conversation stays with the person asking questions, you are asking closed-ended questions.
  • Avoid questions that have the following characteristics: answers provide facts; they are easy to answer; and answers are given quickly and require little to no thought. Questions that reflect these things are closed-ended.
• Hold a Behavioral Dialogue. During the job interview, help the candidate demonstrate his or her knowledge, skills, and experience. Start with small talk and ask several easy questions until the candidate seems relaxed. Then, hold a behavioral interview. A behavioral interview is the best tool you have to identify candidates who have the behavioral traits and characteristics that you have selected as necessary for success in a particular job. Additionally, behavioral interviews ask the candidate to pinpoint specific instances in which a particular behavior was exhibited in the past. In the best behaviorally-based interviews, the candidate is unaware of the behavior the interviewer is verifying.

Improving these interview techniques will improve your chances of making the most of your ever important early hires.