Effective Interviewing Techniques

From Employee Recruitment Professionals

Find the ideal candidates for your company with ease. Learn more about effective interviewing techniques from the employee recruitment professionals at Search One Solutions in San Francisco and Carmel, CA. Check out the interviewing process we have sworn by for decades.

Contact Us

Invalid Form properties detected

Please enter information...

Become a Great Interviewer

Over the years, many of our clients have asked us for suggestions on the best way to interview job candidates. While effective interviewing is something of an art as well as a science, there are some easy-to-follow techniques and procedures you can use to improve your interviewing skills. Here are some of them, which we've culled from our experience and the questions our clients most frequently ask.

HOW TO USE YOUR TIME MOST EFFECTIVELY

Let’s face it. Hiring is disruptive, time-consuming and stressful. Interviews invariably throw you off schedule. Worse, if the process gets stretched out over a period of weeks, your recollections of the first people you interviewed are vague, and the best candidate may have taken another job.

Try this: Block out time—an afternoon or whole day—to conduct initial screening interviews of several candidates. Shut out all interruptions and limit your interviews to 45 minutes. That way you can make immediate comparisons and save the lengthy "Cook's Tour" for the one or two finalists.

HOW TO TELL WHICH IS THE BEST CANDIDATE

Interviewing is an inexact art because judging the talents and abilities of people is very subjective. And when you add personal chemistry, value matching and motivation to the formula for finding the right person, the selection process can become downright intimidating.

Approach the process without too many preconceived ideas of the "successful candidate." There is no magic in "a minimum of 5 years’ experience" or a certain kind of degree. They are only artificial benchmarks that serve to complicate the process with criteria that may not be necessary or even relevant.

Try this: Focus on the job duties and the find someone who can perform them. Sounds too easy? Follow these simple steps:

Make a list of all the duties of the job.
Select the three duties with the highest priorities.
Ask each candidate the same questions to identify the person who can perform those duties most effectively, based on their experience.

Achieve Your Interview Objectives

Sell Your Company and the Job Opportunity

Decision Time

There is no such thing as the “perfect candidate.” That's why it's so vital to remain focused on the critical job duties throughout the interviewing process. As soon as the interview is concluded, while the meeting is fresh in your mind, summarize and write down your thoughts about the candidate.

Try this: Prepare a simple balance sheet to record your reactions. Headline the left side "Reasons for Hiring" and the right side "Reasons for Concern." Don't be surprised if the person you like best doesn't seem to fit your original idea of what you wanted. In fact, that kind of conclusion may indicate that you successfully established your real needs and made the best use of the interviewing process.

A final word of caution. The best candidates have several options – only one of which is joining your company. When you find a person you like, cut the red tape to accelerate the hiring process. Unnecessary delays often send the wrong signal to a candidate. If your best prospect becomes disenchanted and loses interest, then your screening time and skilled interview techniques have been wasted. Then it's back to "Become A Great Interviewer!"

PDF Links

Column

Interviewing Questions for an Engineer
Questions a Hiring Authority Might Ask
The Difficult Questions in an Interview

Column

Typical Questions that an Employer Will Ask
How to Have an Effective Interview

San Francisco Skyline as seen from a Boat

Trust Our Employee Search Firm

You and your company deserve to have competent, reliable employees who will work to achieve the goals of your business. Make smart recruitment decisions by partnering with Search One Solutions. If you have questions about our search firm, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You may reach us by phone, mobile, or email.

Search One Solutions

Ellen Williams, Managing Partner

Column

Phone:

415-567-2446 /

831-624-7019

Mobile:

415-672-2865

Email: ellen@searchonesolutions.com

Hours of Operation

24 Hours

Column

Location 1

220 Montgomery Street, Suite 415

San Francisco, CA 94104

Column

Location 2

Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA 93921