The job interviewing is a hard work for both candidates and hiring teams.

Many crucial parts must come together to finalise a great hire:

  • having the right job description,
  • knowing why do you want to hire this person,
  • understanding what aspects to assess and the qualities to look for, and eventually,
  • establishing a well-structured onboarding process.

I will mention a few general points to make the experience of your interview process better.

If you have these, it wouldn’t hurt - people will ignore the parts they don’t need. But if you miss some - you may be loosing good candidates.

Be quick

Prompt communication demonstrates respect for everyones time. The quicker the turnaround, the higher the chance to leave a positive impression, the higher the chance to secure a candidate.

Over-communicate

Set expectations upfront at each step of the process. Ideally iterating your message multiple times. Creating a transparent setting for each stage.

During the hiring process

Give as much information upfront as you have now. Even if you’re unsure about the exact number of steps, or the exact ordering, or what are the steps themselves. That way candidates know what to expect, stress less and prepare better.

Some information is better than none, as long as it is accurate.

For phone calls

Introductory phone call is usually expected (either with a recruiter or hiring manager). But if you have more than one - explain that no preparation is needed, and that’s a conversation to explain about business and to ask about past experience.

For interviews

Explain the interview format and what preparations the candidate should undertake.

For example, mention that this will be a conversation about their technical knowledge in the areas that mentioned in the job description. Or an interview to ask behavioural questions to see how answers help to demonstrate values aligned with the values of your company or the team.

For coding tasks

Outline the required setup upfront, if any. Offer a choice of programming languages (as candidate’s setup may require adjustments).

Explain what is expected as a result. Sometimes final solution has to work (therefore testing and runtime environments should be part of the setup). Sometimes it is the coding without really running the code (e.g., whiteboard excercises).

Be polite

Even if a candidate looks like a terrible fit right now, it easily can be that circumstances affected their ability to demonstrate the real level of their performance. We may hear from them again, or they will be a great fit for other role.

Even if the fit seems less than ideal, we are all humans - be supportive. If you need to finish interview early - be graceful, allow candidates to ask questions and cover any areas they had in mind.

Expect missteps

Hiccups can occur on both sides - the fire alarm rang during the meeting, a participant got sick, services you use for the interview got down.

Have a backup plan when possible to ensure a smooth process.

And good luck in your search!