Whether you’re the one conducting the interview or on the other side and being interviewed, sitting across the table for one another can be nerve-wracking. Even if you’ve done many interviews over the years, at some point, you would have likely been nervous for your first one.
As a business grows, it will need more employees to help keep the doors open. The manager wouldn’t simply hire someone without talking to them and ensuring they are qualified for the job. That is why you interview potential candidates.
Here at Corporate Business Solutions, we know just how important an interview is. Here are five tips to help you conduct the best interview.
Be Prepared
No one likes it when people enter a meeting not prepared. The same goes for an interview. You should have a list of questions prepared for the candidate to help you stay on track.
Make sure you spend some time going through the persons resume. If you end up asking questions that are easily answered on the resume, for starters, it shows you’re not prepared. Not only that, it could give off a wrong first impression to the candidate.
Start Slow and Safe
If you go with your hardest questions right out of the gate, be prepared to intimidate your candidate and make him or her nervous. Instead, start off with simple personable questions. Ask where he or she grew up. Get to know what their schooling was like. Think of questions that are easy to answer and will help relax the candidate. You may be surprised what you learn.
Incorporate Open-Ended Questions
To get some of the best answers, rather than a simple yes, no, or one-word answer, ask open-ended questions. These are the ones that the candidate has to elaborate one. For starters, it gets the candidate talking. It also leads to valuable information that you can use later on.
You may find the answers could wander and lead the interview to get off topic a little bit. Allow the interviewee to wonder when talking, but not too much. If you find the conversation is completely irrelevant, start to steer it back to where you want it.
Ask Questions Related to the Resume
The resume is a quick snapshot of what the interviewee is like and has accomplished throughout life. Use that to your advantage when trying to form questions. You can ask them about their time at a particular job, school, or an award they’ve won. These questions help you get a better insight into what the candidate is like.
Avoid Cliché Questions
How often have you gone to an interview and been asked what you’re good at and what your weaknesses are? Those can be tough to answer, and you never know how truthful of an answer you’ll get.
Instead of asking what someone’s weaknesses are, present an issue and see how they would handle a real-life situation. Ask them for examples of previous issues in the workplace and how they resolved them. That way, you get a glimpse of their problem-solving techniques and what they are like under pressure.
These are only a few interviewing techniques you can bring with you when you start to look for employees. Keeping the interview like a conversation and personable will help keep everyone involved relaxed. Trying to talk and be on your top game while highly stressed is never a good combination.