As HRM (human resources management) technology has reached levels of adoption and sophistication we've never seen before in the workplace. As a result, interviewers and recruiters of all types have had to learn rapidly on top of the latest trends and techniques. But, even for experienced interviewers, learning how to maximize their time and get the most out of every interview and every candidate can be a challenge.

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Interviewing techniques for interviewers vary from person to person and will depend on the type of interview you are conducting, the questions being asked, and the skillsets of the candidates being considered. With that said, there are some common tips to help with your interviewing process.

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First, have a plan and process in place. Before jumping into any conversation with a candidate, it’s essential to have a clearly defined process that will help you maximize your interviewing time and ensure you get the answers you need. In, "The Ultimate Checklist for Hiring Teams," we outline the 6 steps to conducting an interview. You can use this as a template and include the checklist in any internal "how to conduct an interview" resources for your team.

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Second, make sure you understand the needs of the job and that your questions reflect these requirements. Avoid generic questions and instead focus on those tailored to uncover whether or not a candidate has the skills needed for a particular role. Knowing what skills are required from a successful candidate will also help you better assess each applicant's strengths and weaknesses.

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Third, be an active listener. Interviewing is not just about asking questions—it’s also about listening to the answers, hearing the nuances, and engaging with candidates in meaningful dialogue. During an interview, you should actively listen for clues as to what drives a candidate and whether or not they are a good fit for the job.

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If you've been looking for interview questions to help you assess candidates during your interview process, Pillar has 1000+ in our database specific to each role that you'll be hiring for. Our interview intelligence software will let you choose which questions are vital to your hiring process, candidate qualifications, company culture, and necessary skills to use as prompts during the interview.

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Interviewing Tips for Managers

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The internet is full of tips for hiring managers, but the principles for identifying the best talent remain the same. Here are 6 interviewing tips for managers:

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1. Prepare: Proper preparation is essential for any successful interview. It’s important to clearly understand the position and what qualifications you are looking for in a candidate. It would help if you also created an outline of the topics you want to cover during the interview, create semi-structured questions to ask each candidate to get measurable responses from them, and have a list of icebreakers handy to open the conversation and create rapport.

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2. Research: Before the interview, take the time to research the candidate. Take into account their experiences, interests, educational background, and skillset. Doing so will help you create relevant questions for the position and get a better understanding of how they can fit into your team and organization.

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3. Ask Semi-structured, Open-Ended Questions: Asking the right questions will be instrumental in helping you understand if a candidate is a right fit for a position. Avoid yes or no questions and instead, focus on open-ended probing questions such as “What were some of the greatest successes in your previous role?” or “Tell me about a time when you faced a challenging situation at work, how did you overcome it?"

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4. Listen: Listening is an essential skill for any successful interviewer. Take the time to listen and understand what a candidate has to say in response to your questions. Active listening is the process of fully understanding what a candidate is saying and will help you formulate your next questions based on the response. This type of

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5. Assess: After each question, take a moment to assess the answer and evaluate if it meets the qualifications of the role or team. This assessment will help you understand which candidates are truly qualified to fill a role and who can bring

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6. Provide Feedback: After the interview, provide feedback to each candidate on how they did during the process. This helps them understand what areas they need to improve upon and it builds trust with your organization for future applicants. Feedback includes follow-up. Always follow up with any candidates - never leave a candidate hanging.

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When you consider the interviewing tips for interviewers that remain constant across the entire hiring process, it's clear that preparation is the key to success. With a well-crafted plan and with the right questions and techniques, you can ensure that your next interview will be conducted effectively and efficiently.

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Interviewing Training For Hiring Managers

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Effectively assessing candidates begins with a deep understanding of what you truly need from the employee. If you're trying to hit world-class revenue growth, and you're hiring a team of AEs to accomplish this goal, they must have the right blend of competitiveness, energy, enthusiasm, brevity, and the skills to actually make it happen. But how do you identify those traits in an interview?

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Kyle Lacy, CMO of Jellyfish and Pavilion Chapter Founder says constantly, "...hire someone who's already done it..." If you want a person to help you grow from $2.5- 5M, hire someone who's been the driving force behind achieving this goal in another organization.

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The key is interviewing training for hiring managers - If you start with the end result in mind, once the executive team and board have defined goals for the next fiscal year, exactly what must be done for the company to achieve these goals? Using the same AE example, if you're at $2.5M in revenue and need to hit $5M by EOY (end of the year), does this person (or an equivalent team you're hiring) have the skills and bandwidth to double the current workload and achieve those goals?

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Designing customized behavioral interviewing training for hiring managers helps them identify the essential competencies required for successful hires. These pieces of training include topics like, "How to conduct an interview as an interviewer," "How to start an interview as an interviewer," and "How to assess candidate/ role fit as an interviewer." This training should also include a combination of case studies or scenario-based questions to assess the candidate's ability to perform essential tasks at a high level.

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Ultimately, hiring managers need to know how to effectively assess a candidate and their suitability for the role. With comprehensive training in place, interviewing will become a smoother process, leading to better quality hires that fit within your organization's unique needs.  And when done properly, interviewing can also be an incredibly rewarding experience.

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If you're looking for a video interview platform that includes coaching and interviewer training resources, reach out to someone on our team, we'd love to show you how our suite of interviewing tools can help you find the best talent, faster.

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Interview Preparation Tips

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Job interviews can be intimidating and stressful for candidates. Especially if they're unsure of what to expect and how to prepare for them. One of the biggest interview preparation tips I can give you is to send a quick video or email to the candidate and tell them what to expect. Once you've done this, have an interview preparation checklist that you follow before each interview. It should include items like:

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1. Log in and check all software you'll be using to ensure functionality.
2. Connect headphones.
3. Open the candidate's LinkedIn profile, resume, and portfolio on your computer.
4. Look for 2-3 Icebreakers to open the conversation.
5. Set the agenda for the call.
6. Ask semi-structured questions and qualifiers.
7. Score the candidate based on their responses.
8. Let them know what to expect as the next steps.
9. Follow-up with feedback.

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Interview tips like these can help reduce the stress and uncertainty associated with interviewing, making for smoother and more successful interviews. Additionally, consider investing in interview intelligence software that can automate many of these steps for you.

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Interview Questions

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Common interview questions are often focused on the candidate's experience and technical skills. But to truly get to know a candidate, you need to go beyond the traditional interview question-and-answer format and ask more creative, thought-provoking interview questions. Here are 10 thought-provoking interview questions to ask:

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1) What is the most enjoyable project you've ever worked on, and why?

2) Describe a scenario where you had to think outside the box to solve a problem because the normal methods of problem-solving weren't working.

3) Talk about an example of a time when you faced an ethical dilemma on your team or with a customer and how you handled it.

4) How do you stay organized and on-task balancing several projects or during times of stress?

5) What's the biggest challenge you've faced in your career so far and how did you overcome it?

6) What do you think makes a team successful?

7) What do you think makes a leader successful?

8) Tell me about a time when you had to work with someone who was difficult, on your team or otherwise. How did you handle it?

9) Describe a situation when your problem-solving skills didn't work. What did you do?

10) What kind of feedback have you received from colleagues or customers in the past that has helped you grow personally and professionally?

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Asking these types of questions is a great way to get an understanding of each candidate's skills and abilities, as well as their attitude and motivation. With the right interviewing techniques and questions, you can ensure that you're selecting the ideal candidate for your organization.

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To view more job interview questions, check out our blog. We have articles full of helpful questions to ask in the interview process - and if you're currently looking to build a better recruitment process, schedule a demo with someone on our team. We'd love to share how we've helped our customers find great talent and lower employee turnover by more than 50% in the last 12 months!