Preparing for an interview can help avoid common pitfalls, such as wasted time or resources. Not preparing for the interview can set you up for leaning on your impressions of a candidate, which is commonly known as a "gut" decision. If you only listen to your "gut" decision about a candidate, you have a huge risk of not hiring the right person. Applying the following best practices in the interview process will help eliminate the bias or “gut” decision driving the interview process.
Review Quick Guide
The Quick Guide to Preparing for an Interview outlines the best practices that are proven to make the interview process more effective:
- Select a hiring team/committee
- Educate your team about the process
- Select an appropriate assessment method
- Design effective interview questions
- Establish an interview procedure.
Learn about Behavioral Questions
Including behavioral interview questions helps to ensure accurate assessments by giving the candidate a chance to give concrete descriptions of their experiences, avoiding speculation or theorizing. Getting real examples of past behaviors is crucial in assessing a candidate’s job performance and not relying on a "gut" reaction to their performance.
Sample behavioral questions
- What is the biggest error in judgment or failure you have made in a previous job? Why did you make it? How did you correct the problem?
- Describe an experience you had interacting with someone that had a different background than your own. What was the situation? What were the results?
Use the required knowledge, skills, and abilities of the position to pinpoint which behavioral questions would be most useful to include in order to shed light on key behaviors that will be necessary to perform the job well. Refer to the Interview Guide for more examples of questions and how they align with behavioral competencies.
Apply: Prepare for Your Next Interview
Practice and prepare for your next interview - download the Interview Template (MS Word) and copy-paste the interview questions that would help you be ready faster.