Top Tips for a Successful Interview - Institute of Recruitment ...

INSTITUTE OF R EC R U I T M E N T PROFESSIONALS

Advancing the recruitment profession

IRP Professional Guides | Your Profession Why is it important? Conducting a successful candidate interview will not only enable you to discover the type of role they are interested in, but it will also mean that you are equipped with the essential information you need to present to your client when putting that candidate forward for a role.

77%

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77% of hiring managers claim to know whether they’d hire someone within 90 seconds.

Top Tips for a Successful Interview This Professional Guide has been developed to help recruiters at all levels by providing some great techniques for conducting a successful candidate interview.

Building a successful candidate interview: 1) Be prepared: It may sound obvious, but make sure you spend time before the interview reading over the candidate’s CV and highlight information you want to explore or you want clarity on. Check all the dates line up and note any unexplained gaps in employment. 2) Appreciate that your candidate will be nervous and attempt to put them at ease: Your goal is to get the most out of your candidate and this is much more likely to happen if they feel comfortable with you. This is especially important as you want to continue this relationship post interview. Your candidate must be as confident in you as you need to be in them. 3) Use open questions: These encourage the candidate to talk and elaborate on their own, without being constantly prompted by you. Open questions tend to start with ‘why’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘how’, and you can also get good results by using ‘tell me about…’ 4) Probing questions: These follow on from open questions and tend to be useful later on in the interview, when a candidate is relaxed and comfortable. It is an effective way to really explore a certain area or competency your client is looking for. This is when the ‘tell me about’ opening line comes in handy. 5) Avoid the “horns and halos” effect: This describes two opposing personal bias effects which can influence your judgement about your candidate. They are not based on proven evidence, but are subjective and made without validation. Be aware of the effects and do not let them cloud your judgement.

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INSTITUTE OF R EC R U I T M E N T PROFESSIONALS

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IRP Professional Guides | Your Profession

HOT TIP It is useful to ask your candidate why they are looking to move on in the first place. Aside from discovering more about what they are wanting next, you may find that their current company is being restructured. In this case there may be other potential candidates who are wanting to move on. Likewise, their company may be looking to recruit. Always be on the lookout for new business opportunities. The ultimate goal of a candidate interview: What you really want from a candidate interview is a good understanding of what the candidate has done, and what they would like to do next. You need to understand their strongest core competencies, and on a lighter note, get an idea of their personality. We all know that culture fitFurther is one of the most important resources aspects in placing a candidate. Ifexternal/internal you come out of your interview with thisREC understanding, you’ve yy The Good Recruitment doneCampaign your job-and you should https://www.rec. be welluk.com/news-and-policy/policyplaced to recommend this candidate for roles they will be and-campaigns/the-goodinterested in and appropriate for, and recruitment-campaign you will be able to sell them into your Door clients. yy Glass – where candidates

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6) AVOID leading questions: This is where the phrasing of your question points the candidate towards a particular answer. Instead of ‘this role requires someone with excellent organisation skills….’ ask a more open question focusing on the organisation competency. 7) AVOID closed questions: These are questions where you are only giving the candidate the option of directly answering without being able to elaborate at all. It’s best to only use a closed question when trying to discover exact information such as “Have you completed x degree?” 8) Always make sure you get a thorough understanding of your candidate’s history before discussing a role you want to consider them for. It is very tempting to just pull out the skills and competencies that you know your client is looking for, while brushing over everything else. 9) Remain in control: You will get candidates who don’t stop talking and will take the conversation in all kind of directions. Make sure you reassert control by asking new questions and probing. 10) Don’t forget to ask the technical questions you need to supply to your client. Ask what their current salary is as well as their expected salary - it’s also useful to know the lowest number they would move for. Always ask for their notice period, and it’s good to know their availability for interviewing with clients.

Quick tips: Focus your questions on job related evidence and probe your candidate for specific examples. PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE! There’s nothing more unprofessional than sitting in an interview with a recruiter who clearly hasn’t even read your CV. You’re creating a relationship. Take the time to nurture it.

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IRP Professional Guides 

For more information visit www.rec-irp.uk.com or contact the IRP team on 020 7009 2155.

T 020 7009 2155

E [email protected]

www.rec-irp.uk.com