Six Straightforward Ways to Improve Your Interviewing Skills
To find the right person for a job position, it isn’t only the candidates’ skills that matter. Your interviewing skills matter too. By improving your interviewing methods, you’ll be in a better position to discern who is the right person for the role.
Here are just six straightforward ways in which you can improve your interviewing skills.
Image Source: Pexels
Prepare Yourself by Looking Through Individual Candidates’ Resumes Straight Before the Interviews
Choose Insightful and Relevant Questions to Ask Candidates
Construct an Interview Structure
Improve Your Listening Skills and Take Notes
Be Conversational and Go Off-script When Relevant
Look at Your Subconscious Biases
You’re sure to have looked through candidates’ resumes to select the right people for the interview process but make sure you look through specific candidates’ resumes straight before you interview them.
That way, their skills, attributes, experience, and so on, will be fresh in your mind and you can adapt your interview questions and techniques accordingly instead of using generic questions and techniques.
And speaking of candidates’ experience, check out why candidate experience affects your company’s reputation.
Always take a few minutes to look through a resume before interviewing a candidate and make sure you have a copy of the resume to look through during the interview process.
You can look up generic questions to ask candidates. But if you want to find the ideal person for the role, it’s important that you spend time prior to conducting interviews in order to choose insightful and relevant questions that are tailored for your specific industry and company.
For instance, if you run a brewery, ask the right industry-related question to help you find competent staff.
You could ask things like, “How much do you know about brewing processes?” and “What is your favorite beer on our tap list?”
By choosing questions that are tailored to the role, and including situational and behavioral questions, you’ll be in a better position to find which candidates are most suited to the position on offer.
Spend time preparing your list of questions sometime before the interview process to ensure you ask the right questions.
Also, you should ask all candidates the same questions in order to compare their responses. But, at the same time, don’t be afraid to ask other unplanned questions in response to candidates’ answers.
You can also improve your interviewing skills by ensuring you come up with an interview structure that will work well. If you don’t have a firm structure in place, you could lose track of the interview and end up focusing on the wrong things.
It’s a good idea to begin an interview with a brief introduction and description of the company and the role before moving on to asking questions.
Also, make sure you give candidates the opportunity to ask their own questions at the end. With a formal structure in place, you can ensure you get the most out of your candidates and, in turn, you’ll be better positioned to find the right person for the job.
When candidates can tell that you’re listening attentively, they’re more likely to be at ease and provide you with the relevant information you need to know.
On the other hand, if a candidate feels that you’re not listening and gets the impression you’re thinking about something else, such as the previous candidate’s performance, it can be off-putting and you won’t get the most out of the person you’re interviewing.
So, make sure you actively listen during every interview.
You should also take notes so that you can look back on them after you’ve interviewed several candidates and remember what each candidate has said and how they’ve presented themselves.
By staying focused and listening attentively, you can ensure you find the right individual for the position.
We briefly mentioned earlier that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask unscripted questions during the interview process, but it’s worth highlighting that specifically.
The more you can maintain a conversational tone during interviews, and therefore go off-script with your questions, the more you can get to know candidates better. In turn, that allows you to better find the right fit for your company.
The above ways are certainly very useful for improving your interviewing skills and finding the right candidate, but if you want to improve your interviewing skills further, you need to take a good look at yourself.
For instance, you could have biases that you’re not even aware of. A good interviewer never has any biases. He or she simply looks for the person who has the right skills, attributes, and experience to suit the role on offer.
Your subconscious biases can affect the way you judge candidates, so ensure you don’t bring any of your own biases into the interview room. You should be objective with every candidate you interview.
Subscribe to our newsletter