How should a hiring manager prepare for the interview process?
The interview process is, by its nature, unbalanced. Dozens (if not hundreds) of candidates are vying for the hiring manager’s attention, fighting over a single open role.
Many hiring managers feel like they’re swimming in great options. A flood of people want to come work for you? Your email is blowing up with potential candidates? And with each round you down-select to only the very best and brightest of the many qualified candidates.
But then something shifts.
Once you’ve chosen a candidate and extended an offer, the power shifts back. The hiring manager is now waiting with bated breath to hear if their chosen candidate will accept. They’re now invested in their choice, not wanting to lose them. What if the candidate turns them down? Or — even more painful — accepts an offer from someone else instead?
The good news is, smart hiring managers will not wait until the point of offer to begin selling the candidate. Smart hiring managers will prepare before they even post the job description.
How can a hiring manager set themselves up for success?
- Know what you want
- Prepare your interview panel
- Always be closing
Know what you want
This may seem obvious: Of course I know what I want. I want to hire a person who can do XYZ projects that are ready to go. I want a smart and talented new team member.
But to truly find the right person who will be the right fit for your team and the role, you need to get more specific:
- What are your expectations of someone for this role? What skills, both technical and soft, are important for success?
- What differentiates good from great in this role?
- What is your team culture, and what are the characteristics of a good culture fit?
- Think about who has been most successful on your team, and who has struggled or not been a good fit. What qualities made the difference?
Clearly defining what a great candidate looks like is fundamental to the rest of the process.
Ensure that the job description truly emphasizes those key success factors. Include some context and realistic examples where possible, so that the profile of the ideal candidate jumps off the page when you read the job description.
Here’s an example of a job description I wrote previously — we gave examples of past projects, and how you’re expected to work within the team:
Prepare your interview panel
The people on your interview panel are your ambassadors. They represent the role and your company to the candidate. The panelists will be the candidate’s main impression of the types of people they are working with.
Where possible, try to get a cross-section of people on your interview panel — different teams, different levels of seniority. And certainly be conscious of the diversity of your panel. (I once interviewed with a panel of 7 white men, and was left wondering if I’d be interacting with any women in this role.)
Your panelists are busy and likely doing this as a favor to you, so make their job easier and guarantee better results by preparing them:
- Define success. Provide the list of qualities you created for what an ideal candidate looks like. Be specific about what you are looking for in a candidate. Let them know if any skills are nice-to-have or not required. Give examples of what you see this person working on.
- Provide questions. A common mistake is to define what you’re looking for, and then leave each interviewer to their own devices to assess the candidate. I recommend asking each panelist to be responsible for assessing one or two specific qualities you’re looking for, and then giving them a set of questions they can choose from that illustrate those qualities (see below screenshot example). This helps focus their assessment and can avoid repeat questions.
- Provide answers. Candidates do extensive research and preparation for interviews; you should too. I was once embarrassed when a candidate asked what our company’s training budget for the year was, and I couldn’t remember. After that mistake, I drafted up a cheat sheet for all of my panelists. It included key bullet points about the company, our team, and expectations for the role. No one was required to read from a script, but it helped to make sure we were at least as prepared as our candidates.
- Outline evaluation criteria. This is particularly important if you are doing a case presentation as part of your interview process. Without guidance, people might just say “I liked it” or “I wasn’t that impressed.” Be clear in advance what they should be looking for. For my case interview round, I outlined 3 categories for panelists to evaluate: content of the candidate’s response, presentation style, and handling of Q&A. Ask panelists to be specific when they are documenting their feedback.
This may sound like a lot of content to prepare. But most, if not all, of it is reusable as you hire in the future. And providing clear guidance really pays off! My team created a simple Hiring Toolkit that all of our panelists could refer to.
Always be closing
Most importantly, never forget that interviews are a sales pitch — in both directions! And even if you don’t hire a candidate, you want them to speak positively about their experience to others.
A few ways you can increase your chances of landing a great candidate:
- Be warm. Treat the candidate like a member of your team from the very beginning. Encourage your panelists to be friendly and informal. Often people want to be very serious and stoic during interviews, but that leaves the candidate feeling nervous and uncertain — not comfortable and engaged.
- Leave ample space for their questions. The candidate’s questions typically come at the end of the interview, when time is running short. But if someone is going to make the big decision to come work for you, they need to have all of their lingering questions addressed. In the final round of interviews, I always scheduled a 30-minute block with the candidate where I asked only one question: “What questions do you have about the role, the team, or anything else, that you would need answered before you’d be ready to accept an offer from us?” Make additional time if needed. Getting the candidate’s questions answered has to be a priority.
- Offer true-to-life connecting opportunities. Let’s face it, interviews can feel artificial. Authentic connections are always best. If the candidate is asked to prepare a take-home case assignment, offer them a chance to meet with you to ask questions about the case — this will give you both a chance to test how you would work together. Allow the candidate to meet with peers or direct reports to get more of a 360 view of the team. Give them a feel for what it’s actually like to work within your team.
When the time comes for the candidate to make a decision on the offer, remember this: While they will of course weigh the salary, benefits, etc, they will also be considering whether your team is one they can see themselves being a part of. If they feel like they can grow and thrive within your team, that could tip the scales — so don’t hesitate to pull out all the stops!
