Interviewing is one of the most important aspects of the hiring process. The candidates that you interview will shape the future of your organization and it is important to make sure that you have an effective interviewing process in order to select the best candidate for the job. As a recruiter, there are certain things that you can do to ensure that you get the most out of every interview.

In this article, we're going to talk about some tips and tricks for recruiters and then cover some skills to master and we'll end with questions that you can ask to ensure that you create the best hiring decision. The most important part of interviewing is making sure that you get a complete understanding of the candidate's skills and qualifications.

Here are some interview tips for recruiters:

1. Have a clear understanding of the job description and what you're looking for in a candidate before you conduct an interview. This will help you ask meaningful questions that elicit relevant information about the candidate.

2. Set clear expectations on the role and what past experience or skills the candidate must possess to be a top performer in it.

3. Make sure to ask semi-structured, open-ended questions that will reveal more about the candidate’s personality and ability to fit in with your team or organization.

4. Take notes during the interview process so you can refer back to them later when making a hiring decision (Pillar's interview intelligence software makes this easy, but we'll cover this more in a minute).

5. Allow ample time for candidates to answer questions and explain why they are the right fit for the job.

6. Avoid leading questions or ones that can be answered with a “yes” or “no” – this will limit your ability to understand the candidate's actual qualifications and capabilities.

7. Ensure candidates have enough information about the job and company before they arrive for their interview, so they can ask meaningful questions as well.

To interview well, interview skills training is a must. Interviewing is a skill and it takes practice. To acquire the skills necessary to be a successful interviewer, consider taking courses or workshops on interviewing techniques. Additionally, here are some interviewer tips for managers:

1. Begin with Care and Curiosity. A successful interviewer will approach the process with care and curiosity. This means being respectful to the candidate, listening actively, and paying attention to body language.

2. Be Prepared. An effective interviewer is one who has prepared ahead of time for the interview. Review any social profiles, resume, portfolio, and other notes you have on the candidate prior to starting, and make sure that your set of questions is ready in advance

3. Focus on the “why” not just the “what.” A good interviewer will use questions to understand why a candidate did or said something, not just what they did. This is key to getting an accurate picture of the candidate's skills and capabilities.

Remember that a candidate will feel far more comfortable with an interviewer if they feel that they're having a great conversation with someone who cares rather than being under scrutiny and investigated. This is a primary skill to master and should be incorporated into any interview training for hiring managers.

‍Interview Intelligence Software by Pillar can also help you sharpen your interviewing skills. Our interviewer coaching solutions provide feedback on your interview style, any biases that show up in the interview, and the quality of your questions, so you can improve over time.

Interviewing Tips for Interviewers

Interviewing 101 (for interviewers) isn't a class most of us took in school, but maybe it should've been. Finding the right team members for your organization is a key part of any hiring strategy, and it takes practice to ask the right questions, gather the information you need from candidates, and make sure that you have an effective interviewing process that qualifies the right people for the job.

How to improve your interview skills:

Interviewing Tips for Interviewers are vast and cover everything from listening skills to effective candidate scoring. Interviewing tips for hiring managers all follow similar lines- listen well, care, set clear expectations, and never leave a candidate in the cold (in other words always follow up whether they got the role or not).

But is that all there is to interviewing? Of course not! There are so many factors to consider from the tech stack you choose to the interview intelligence you use, every single aspect should be well thought out, from the phone screen to onboarding.

1. Take a holistic approach when interviewing candidates. While technical skills are important, take the time to explore their personality, experience, and cultural fit with your organization as well - this will pay dividends in the future as you'll end up hiring people that you actually like, not just the ones that have skills to perform the role.

2. Give each candidate the same level of respect regardless of who they are or what they bring to the table. If they're not a good fit, tell them. But do it kindly with compassion- this is their livelihood after all.

3. Active listening. This is one of the most important skills I wish I learned early on in my career. Active listening is really the key to successful interviewing. Ask a question, listen carefully to the answer, and then ask a follow-up question that partially summarizes their answer in a couple of words and requests further information. There are many resources out there to help you master this skill

4. Be organized and prepared for each interview. Have a clear agenda with specific questions, and ensure that the same questions are asked to every candidate for consistency

5. Make sure to ask open-ended questions that will spark an in-depth conversation with a potential candidate instead of ones that can be answered easily with a “yes” or “no”.

6. After each interview, take the time to jot down your thoughts and impressions on a particular candidate- this will help you make better decisions in the future when it comes to who you hire.

7. Finally, use data and technology to give yourself an edge when it comes to interviewing candidates- Interview Intelligence software like Pillar can help streamline this entire process and even prompt you to ask the same questions of each candidate from our library of 1000+ role-specific interview questions.

Interview Questions For HR Recruiter

As an HR recruiter, you will be responsible for interviewing and screening a variety of candidates- some of which will be your next round of HR, hiring managers, and recruiters. As such, it's important to have a set of effective and targeted interview questions that you can use to assess the abilities of each candidate. Interview questions for HR, recruiters, and hiring managers will be a bit different than hiring for other roles because they have compliance and legal implications.

For example, you can’t ask a candidate about their age or background in an interview, but you might consider questions like “What do you think is the most important quality for an HR professional to have?” and “How have your experiences prepared you to be successful as a recruiter?” These types of interview questions for a recruiter position will give you insight into the candidate’s knowledge of the industry, as well as their experience and ability to work with others.

In addition to asking questions about the role, don't forget to ask questions that can provide some insight into a candidate's personal strengths and weaknesses. Such questions might include “What challenges do you feel most comfortable tackling?” or “Tell me about a time you overcame an obstacle”. Asking these types of questions can give you an indication of how the candidate works under pressure, their communication skills, and if they are a good fit for the team.

Finally, be sure to ask behavioral questions such as “Describe a situation in which you had to handle a difficult customer or colleague”, and “How would you go about resolving a conflict between two team members?” These types of questions are great for understanding how the candidate dealt with conflicts in the past and can be used as an indicator of their problem-solving skills.

Overall, when it comes to Interview Tips For Recruiters, it’s important to be prepared, ask relevant and targeted questions, actively listen, and always follow up with candidates. With the right questions, you can ensure that your organization is hiring the best talent for the job - and that will make all the difference in the quality of your organization as it grows.

We understand how difficult it can be to recruit top talent- especially with today's workforce shortages. If you'd like to see how Pillar has helped other organizations to improve their interview process by implementing our interview intelligence software and interviewer coaching tools, saving them money, and time, and helping them make better hiring decisions, book your demo today!