tips for interviews

If you have never interviewed anyone and you are going solo it is not easy, so do a bit of preparation. Even if you meet someone who is not right for the job you want that person to walk away wanting to work for your company, word of mouth is a powerful tool.

• Prior to the interview familiarise yourself with their CV highlighting relevant skills and knowledge which are specific to your role (let us know if you need extra copies for sending to other people in the company).
• When they arrive ask low order questions - did you find us okay? or How was your journey? You need them to relax and be open with you, if they are overly nervous you won’t get their best performance and you could potentially miss out on a suitable candidate.
• Talk through their experience in a logical order, this way you can identify any gaps and explore them.
• Ask open questions “tell me about…” and “ outline your experience in…..” you will get more information this way.
• Avoid fantasy questions – “ if you could be anyone in the world who would you be?” they don’t really tell you anything
• Give them a chance to ask questions at the end.
• Ask them what their current salary is and what they are looking for, even though we give you this information it’s good to check it face to face with the candidate.
• Give yourself time afterwards to write a few notes – this helps if you are seeing a few candidates that day OR call you consultant and feedback so they can keep a record for you.
• If you want your candidates to do a test or be with you longer than an hour let us know so we can brief them.