Personally, the interview process fills me with dread, from both sides. In my previous life as a hiring manager and as someone that has gone through dozens of interviews, there’s always something so nerve-wracking about being part of an interview.
Getting headcount is so exciting! You finally have help! But now, you’re faced with the prospect of interviewing candidates…
We’re hosting a stream in the IT Leadership Lab on Tuesday, July 8th, where we’ll be talking with a technical recruiter at NinjaOne to discuss how to conduct a good interview, how to put interviewees at ease, questions to ask, things to note, technical tests, and more! You can RSVP for the event with an account in the IT Leadership Lab: Interviewing Tech Talent: Finding Your Next Team Member | IT Leadership Lab
But I’d love to hear from you – how did you learn how to conduct interviews? Have any tips for those that are new to interviewing?
9 Spice ups
I’ve also been on both sides, and the one thing that makes it easier is practice. The day before, call up one of your co-workers and practice with them, maybe throw in some less serious questions just to keep it light. Then, as you’re preparing for the day-of, call or in-person, make sure you have a list of questions, organized by priority to the company. Start with things you need them to know or do right away, tail off with the ‘nice to have’s’ towards the end, maybe throw a few personality-related questions in the middle to keep things interesting (or let the HR rep handle those…your call). At the end of the interview, be sure to let them ask questions and answer them as best you can, only defer to others if you really must. Remember, they’re looking for a place to fit just as much as you are a fitting teammate. If you have to defer, so be it, but try to ‘know’ your company well enough to handle it yourself…if you’re going to be their eventual supervisor they need to be able to ask you questions!
1 Spice up
I’ve been on both sides as well. As an interviewee I like to present myself professionally, knowledgeable, but equally importantly approachable and empathic. People want to know their staff will work well with other personnel. Use the STAR method to answer questions.
As an interviewer, I want to see knowledge, personality, good work ethics. Have some scenarios that the candidate must breakdown and explain.
2 Spice ups
I did a fake troubleshooting call once, where we played out a problem with the remote office. Turned out it was DNS misconfigured…because, it’s always DNS 
1 Spice up
Put them at ease with some idle chatter about the weather or something then ask general broad questions, then shut up and let them talk. Filter out the BS then start asking more pointed questions about what you’re genuinely concerned about, then shut up and let them talk. Repeat this process a couple of times, you’ll learn a LOT about the potential candidate. You will probably rule out 95% of candidates by just letting the ramble on (or not)…the second interview is where you start to worry about skills tests etc.
3 Spice ups
