4 Tips to Improve your Interview Performance as a Hiring Manager
Posted On: Wednesday, July 20, 2016
The market for IT and software sales talent is getting increasingly competitive. Putting in the extra effort to ensure candidates are having a great experience, while interviewing with your company is essential for keeping candidates interested and to strengthen your company’s brand. You want your candidates to be just as excited about joining your company, as you are, about adding new talent to it. Below are four tips that will improve your interviewing skills and help you hire the best candidate for the position.
- Phone-Screening= It is important to screen candidates over the phone to narrow down your search and also save precious time. If you need clarification on something listed on a candidate’s resume, a phone screening is a perfect way to get the answers you’re looking for in a timely manner. Also, you want to avoid bringing unqualified candidates for an in-person interview because it wastes time and resources. If you are not seriously considering a candidate, they too would appreciate it and find it beneficial to find that out over the phone. If you are interested in a candidate, a phone screening is a great way to set up a narrative for when you meet with them in person. Talking on the phone before hand, will most likely make the conversation flow easier, making it more comfortable for the both of you when you eventually meet in person.
- Be Prepared= Before you start interviewing your candidates, brainstorm on what’s the most important criteria that you need to know in order to make your decision. After that, construct a list of questions based on the information you came up with in your brainstorm. This will ensure that you ask the right questions, so that you pick the best candidate for the position. It also can serve as a cheat sheet that you can refer to in the interview to make sure you do not forget to ask the interviewee any important questions. Other questions can be added naturally throughout the interview, but having a prepared list of questions can help you to keep the conversation on track.
- Be Consistent= Preparing a list of questions promotes consistency throughout your various interviews. You want to ask your interviewees the same questions, so that you are able to accurately compare them to one another. It will be easier to find the one that answered your question the best if everyone had the same ones. This strategy also evens out the playing field, so that the interview process stays honest and fair. Keeping consistency shows that your company is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate against anyone. Depending on the interviewee there will of course be modified question when learning about their work experience. If your interviewees have similar work experience then how well they answer your prepared list of questions could be the determiner for which candidate receives a job offer.
- Always Give 110%= The job market is competitive so not only does the candidate need to impress you, but you need to impress the candidate. Most likely the candidate is interviewing with other companies as well. Therefore, it is important to make sure yours stands out. If you are not at your best, candidates could leave the interview with a bad experience and decide to share their negative experience with other professionals. If you are engaging, prepared, and speak highly of your company, the candidate will leave the interview with a good impression of you and the company as a whole.
Sources
“Interview Tips for the Interviewer | Monster.com.” Monster Hiring Resource Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 July 2016.
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The Hiring Manager’S Complete Interviewing Gu. The Hiring Manager’s Complete Interviewing GuideTABLE OF CONTENTS (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
“Conducting Interviews? 11 Tips for Inexperienced Hiring Managers – ZipRecruiter.” ZipRecruiter. N.p., 22 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 July 2016.
“Tips for Hiring Managers.” Tips for Hiring Managers. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 July 2016.
Amanda is receiving her BA in public relations, from the S.I. Newhouse School of public communications at Syracuse University. She started as a business development specialist in 2014 and transitioned as a content writer in 2016. Feel free to reach out to her by email and LinkedIn.