How to Prepare for an Interview as an Interviewer

21 of November, 2022

Not only do candidates need to prepare for an interview. As an interviewer, it is your job to vet each job applicant and determine which ones among the multitude are the proverbial needle in the haystack.

Your job isn’t just to interview each applicant and choose who gets the job, it is to assess each applicant and determine who best fits the position.

This is no easy task. It is one that requires preparation, but this article will help you in this important process of recruitment.

How to Prepare for an Interview as an Interviewer

Preparing for an interview as an interviewer is an important part of the job. A good interviewer spends an ample amount of time and effort preparing for each interview as this makes it easier to identify the right candidates for any job. 

While there are several ways to prepare for an interview, here are a few steps that a recruiter can take to help to prepare for an interview.

Step 1 – Study the Job Description Thoroughly

The no.1 thing you do not want to do while doing an interview as an interviewer is to not be familiar with the position you are interviewing candidates for. How would you be able to tell who the best candidate is without being familiar with the job they are all applying for in the first place?

The job description is the best place to get all the information you need concerning the job posting. It is also what the candidates have access to. 

Go through the description thoroughly and take in every detail about the position. This would help you with identifying who’s fit for the job and who is not.

Step 2 – Define the Ideal Candidate

Next, you would want to answer the question “who is the ideal candidate”. The answer you provide to this question would help you know what to look out for in candidates. Doing this makes it easier to spot the ideal person for the job.

Conversely, when defining who the ideal candidate is, you would also want to define the polar opposite. This is the person you absolutely do not want on the job because it would be the worst possible fit. Defining such a person makes finding the right person for the job much easier.

Sometimes, finding the ideal candidate can be more work than anticipated. Knowing who is the polar opposite of the ideal candidate makes it easier to weed out the undesirables and focus on what’s left. 

Step 3 – Set Your Interview as an Interviewer Questions

Once you know who the ideal candidate (and the polar opposite) is, it’s time for you to start setting up questions that can help you identify these characters. These would be your interview questions.

It is important to keep in mind that whatever questions would be used here need to be questions ideal for the position your clients are looking to fill. Good interview questions for certain positions could be irrelevant for other positions.

Step 4 – Create Your Rating System

Interview questions are, more often than not, questions with no straightforward answers. This means there can often be multiple wrong and right answers all at once.

In fact, sometimes there are no real wrong or right answers at all, and the answers to these questions would be scored solely on how the examiner chooses to interpret them. 

This is why it is important that you create a rating system. By deciding on your rating system, you know the precise criteria for which each candidate would be scored and this will help you more accurately find the right candidate.

Step 5 – Research Your Candidates

You always want to do some more research on your candidates before the actual research. Sure, you must have done some research already before inviting them for the interview, but that shouldn’t change anything. 

You want to thoroughly research each and every candidate. Go through their resume and cover letter thoroughly. Scrutinize their portfolios, work samples, and any tests/assignments they had to complete in the process of applying for the job.

Doing this would often help you identify interesting things to discuss when interviewing individual candidates. It could also help you spot any red flags.

Whatever you find here might come in handy during the interview as an interviewer. It is what puts that individual touch on each interview. 

Step 6 – Decide on Your Approach

There are about a thousand and one different ways to host an interview. Decide on which one you will go for.

Will you start with pleasantries and small talk or would you go straight to the questions? Will your candidates be introducing themselves or would you be going straight into their CVs and cover letters to ask them questions from there?

You also need to decide on things like which questions to ask first, where to start asking personal questions, and so on.

Step 7 – Set a Timeline

No job position is open forever. In fact, there are times when the position needs to be filled urgently or within a certain time frame. Of what use would the ideal candidate be if the position is no longer available?

This is why setting a timeline for your interviews is important. You want to set a time period in which you would have interviewed all candidates and chosen the best choice.

Step 8 – Prepare Your Pitch

Here is where most inexperienced interviewers mess up. You see, an interview is a two-way thing. In the same way, you are evaluating candidates to tell if they are a good fit for the job, any candidate worth their salt would also be evaluating you and your company.

When you ask if they have any questions at the end of the interview, these candidates would more often than not ask you questions about your company. You need to have a compelling pitch prepared to sell your company, the position, and the benefits of working with you.

Not sure how to do this? You might find this article on how to create a recruitment pitch for candidates helpful.

Step 9 – Complete Your Preparation

Once all of this is done, it’s time to start putting the finishing touches on the preparation. Here is where you start contacting each candidate and scheduling interviews, choosing your interview venue (whether online or in person), and so on. 

Do all of these and you’d be ready for any interview.

Most Common Job Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

Not sure what job interview questions to ask? Here are some of the most common interview questions to ask candidates:

• Why do you want this job?
• What relevant work experience do you have?
• What do you have to offer our company/the team?
• Why are you leaving your current job/why did you leave the previous job?
• What interests you the most about this position?
• What fact about you is not mentioned in your CV, cover letter, or portfolio?

Doing all this preparation can often be a lot to handle, especially when you have hundreds of candidates to interview. Keeping track of your notes for each and every candidate can be vigorous work too.

Our task management solution is designed to help you in managing this issue, helping you properly organize your notes and keep track of each individual candidate. 

With Sesame HR you are always up to date with human resources news and aided with everything you need to get full control of your company with our HR software solutions.