Results of job interviews. How to conduct an interview: question templates and tests for candidates

Both parties, both the employer and the future employee, are equally interested in the interview (or interview) procedure. The main tasks and goals during an interview for an employer are: determination of personal characteristics and identification of professional knowledge, skills and abilities of the applicant. The candidate is interested in obtaining answers on working conditions and pay in this organization.

At the first stage - the conversation is conducted by an employee of the personnel management service upon prior notification of the candidate about the place and time of the interview. What's important? Before meeting with the applicant, the manager should have general information about him in the form of his resume or completed questionnaire.

Concept

A job interview takes place as an interview.

Interview - method of collecting information about a candidate through conversation, in order to obtain the necessary data to identify professional skills.

Target

The purpose of the interview with a candidate for a vacant position is aimed at obtaining complete information about a potential employee, in order to identify his professional suitability in the organization. And also to select the best candidate from a possible number of applicants.

Pros and cons

Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of interviewing a candidate. The positive side of the interview procedure is that you get a complete picture of the candidate. Using a variety of techniques, during a job interview you should evaluate and identify his personal and professional qualities. Determine his reaction in unusual situations using tricky questions. Reveal his communication skills.

Disadvantages on the part of the employer: subjective assessment candidate for an interview for some personal reasons. Comparison of the applicant with a certain standard employee.

The candidate, in turn, can answer interview questions inaccurately, trying to extol their qualities and skills.

Species

By the number of candidates. Maybe single. As a rule, a group is carried out with a large number of applicants, in order to preliminarily screen out unqualified or unsuitable personnel.
By interview type:

structured or standardized interview(also evaluative) - includes a certain sequence of standard questions that require a detailed answer;
situational interview, in which the interviewer offers various situations for the subjects to solve. Aimed at revealing the candidate’s personal qualities;
– includes tricky and provocative questions to develop hostility in the candidate towards the interviewers. Helps to identify the level of stress resistance of the prospective employee.

Stages

From the moment you submit your resume to the organization until the final decision on employment, there are several interview stages.

Let's look at the stages of a job interview:

Telephone conversation(personnel interview). When a recruiter contacts a prospective candidate by telephone and, through follow-up questions, verifies the information provided by the candidate in the resume. Next, a date and time for the next interview is set.
Group training- This is the second stage of the interview aimed at weeding out unsuitable candidates. Candidates are provided with general information about the organization, including its main goals and development paths. Then, at the 2nd stage of the interview, each candidate must present himself to the others, prove that he is worthy of this job. The second job interview is a qualifying interview based on the results of this stage, the selected candidates are sent to the next interview.
Conversation with the head of the HR service. At this stage, the interview takes place between the applicant and the manager one on one. This is a method of personnel selection by interview, which takes place in the form of an interview, based on the results of which one or two prospective candidates are selected. An HR employee provides information about working conditions, wages, and career opportunities.
Interview with the head of the company(final). In most cases, it takes place in the form of a free conversation, where the selected candidate presents himself to the manager. This stage is the main one when applying for a job; as a rule, after a conversation with the manager, the final decision is made.
Conversation with the immediate supervisor. At this stage, a positive decision has already been made to obtain the position, and the manager introduces the employee to all the intricacies of the company regarding his responsibilities.

Structure

It is impossible to provide what a clear structure of the interview looks like, since it directly depends on the answers of the subject and the individual methods of the employer.

The overall picture might look something like this:

Communication starts with a greeting, and clarify specific questions regarding basic information about the candidate.

Then, general questions are asked - about previous activities, about his merits and achievements, which smoothly turn into expectations from the new place of work. Next, the employee provides the applicant with general information about the company regarding the organization of working conditions.

The further course of the interview depends on the type of interview that the employer chooses. This could be involving the candidate in a role-playing game, or creating a stressful situation in which the employee must somehow prove himself.

How is it going?

Let's look at an example of a dialogue during a job interview.

Standardized interview:

Good afternoon, (first name, patronymic), please tell us about yourself.
Tell us about your previous place of work. Why did you decide to change jobs?
Why did you choose our company? What do you expect from your new job? What salary level are you considering?
Talk about your strengths and weaknesses. About your achievements. About your hobbies and interests.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with us. We will contact you in the next 2-3 days and arrange the next meeting.

Situational questions:

Sell me the moon (plane, world).
You have received several job offers at once, which one will you choose for yourself?
Answer the objection: “This vacuum cleaner has fewer features than that one, so why should I buy this one at a higher price?”

Results

Based on the results of collecting information, during an interview with the employer, candidates are assessed according to the following criteria:

Personal qualities(communication skills, stress resistance, ability to work with objections).
Professional qualities(availability of special education, experience in this type of activity, competence in matters related to the position received).
Merits and achievements in previous places of work.

The candidate's assessment is determined taking into account the opinion of each manager.

In addition to interviews, personal and professional aptitude questionnaires are used during the interview, which help to obtain more detailed information about the applicant.

The choice of methods for conducting an interview with a candidate is chosen by each recruiter independently.

There I talked more about the big picture - from making the decision to hire an employee to the candidate entering the job. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend starting there.

For me, as a manager, interviews are one of the most difficult and energy-intensive tasks. (I think for you too, right?) The requirements for a manager’s effectiveness during an interview are among the highest. The cost of a mistake can’t be higher, because the most important thing a leader has is his team. And you need in just an hour (and sometimes even faster) not only to get to know a person, but also to decide whether you are ready to trust him in the future.

In this article, I will share with you my own experience and give you some tips on how to make an interview effective.

1. Don’t blame HR

In some companies, it is customary for a preliminary interview with employees to be conducted by a member of the HR department. There is nothing wrong with this; after all, candidates are passed through a preliminary sieve, and you no longer have to weed out clearly unsuitable specimens during interviews, illustrating all the possible diversity of human nature.

However, it may be tempting to rely entirely on the opinion of HR and not conduct an interview with the candidate yourself or greatly shorten it.

This is a big mistake and should not be made for the following reasons:

No HR person will ever understand 100% who you are looking for. 80%, 85% - maybe still, but no more.
An interview is that long, frank conversation that you may never have a chance to have with an employee (“The person is working, well, that’s good, why distract him with conversations?”)
As I already wrote, the most important thing you have is your team. Accordingly, recruiting it is your most important task. And the most important and responsible tasks, as you know, are not delegated.

2. Never show up for an interview without a job description.

If you have not set a goal for yourself, then it is impossible to achieve it. If you have not formulated who you are looking for, then you will not be able to find the one you need.

I wrote about how to write a job description, with examples of such a description.

The purpose of this interview document is to be your cheat sheet, which you can use to consistently check the candidate's experience, competence and motivation.

3. Put the stick aside for later and use the carrot

First of all, be a person, not a boss. An interview is a huge stress for any candidate. Your task is to relieve this stress and allow the candidate to open up. How to do this? Very simple.

Smile, joke, ask questions, try to understand. Don't criticize or ridicule bad decisions. Sometimes you can even help with the answer (only within reason - you’re not interviewing yourself).

4. Follow a clear interview structure

An interview is stressful not only for the candidate, but also for the manager. You must not only listen, but also evaluate the answer, record it in writing, pay attention to the non-verbal signs that the candidate gives, compare the next answer with the previous ones and think about what next question to ask.

In order not to overload yourself, it is important to bring automaticity to following the established structure of the interview. Do you remember how you got from home to work today? I bet not—everything was on autopilot. It’s the same during an interview - you need to free your head from all unnecessary activities and focus on the candidate.

When you have learned to follow a proven procedure, you can be sure in advance that your interview tasks will be solved.

Optimal interview structure

Introductory part (3 min)
1. Introduce yourself.
2. Find out how much time the candidate has. Do you remember what I wrote above about gingerbread? Be a good boy - respect other people's time. Plan your interview time so that you leave the candidate on time.
3. Tell us about the structure of the upcoming interview. Let the candidate know that there will be time for his questions a little later.
Candidate self-presentation (10 min)
1. "Who I Am"
2. "What have I achieved"
3. "What am I aiming for"
Your questions and his answers (35 min)
1. Reveal your skills through exercises
2. Reveal your motivation and values
3. Clarify compensation expectations
His questions and your answers (10 min)
1. Tell us about the vacancy
2. Answer the candidate's questions
Completion of the interview. Next steps (2 min)
1. How will you choose the candidate who makes the decision?
2. When will you give an answer?
3. Who to contact and how to contact in case of unexpected changes

Total: 60 minutes. (Why only an hour? Because the fatigue of longer interviews makes them ineffective).

5. Let the candidate present himself

Although for experienced candidates this part will be a performance of an already well-rehearsed number, the candidate’s self-presentation is still very important.

Ask the candidate to briefly answer three questions within 10 minutes:

Who are you now?
What are you aiming for?

Why short?

The time for self-presentation of the candidate must be limited:

You don't need a long, unguided story - you need to leave time for exercises and your questions.
You will understand how much he values other people’s time and whether he can meet the designated deadlines.
You will understand how much he can generalize and simply talk about complex things.

Who are you now?

Listening to the answer to this question, you will understand:

How much does the candidate understand his purpose? Has he thought about this? This is important because reflection is an important element of the ability to improve yourself.
Does the candidate understand (and therefore be able to use them purposefully) his or her strengths?

What are your achievements and what numbers can you describe them with?

What we check:

Does the person think in results or in process? “I did” is bad. “I participated” is even worse. “We wanted” is completely out of whack. “I did”, “I achieved” - good. “I can proudly say that I personally achieved” - a solid “five”.
Are you focused on numbers? If a person freely operates with numbers for his former activities, this means that he is able to improve the area given to him. After all, as Drucker wrote, only what is measured improves.

When describing achievements, always ask what the candidate's role was. The excessive use of the pronoun “we” is a red flag. But even if the candidate doesn’t say it, it always makes sense to ask: “The accomplishments you describe are the result of what size team? What exactly was your role in achieving this?”

What are you aiming for?

The final part of self-presentation. It is fashionable to consider it as a seed for discussing motivation. You will clarify your motivation in more detail in the next part of the interview.

6. Become a human x-ray. Questions from a manager during an interview.

7. Take your time with the next question.

Each time the candidate appears to have finished his answer, take a 5 second break. At this moment, look at him carefully and shake your head knowingly.

For what? Because after you have heard the first “on-duty”, superficial answer, the candidate’s thought process is still ongoing. At this moment, he is still critical of what he said to himself and after a pause he can begin to speak again, complementing what has already been said.

And then you will hear a real, deep answer that much more fully reflects the candidate’s worldview.

8. Keep and save records

When you really want to hire a quality candidate, there will be a lot of interviews.

From my own experience, I can say that after interviewing five or two candidates, it is impossible to remember all the details about each one. Accordingly, making the right decision about choosing a finalist will be very difficult if you do not take notes during each interview.

For each interview, I print out the candidate's resume.
During the conversation with the candidate, I write notes that are important to me in the margins in those places where the career stages that I am commenting on are described.
When it’s time to analyze cases or talk about the candidate’s motivation, I turn the resume sheet over to the reverse side and there I write the candidate’s main answers very briefly.

The result is that for each candidate I have interview notes that I keep until the vacancy is filled, that is, until the ideal candidate comes to work. You can use these records yourself when making decisions, or you can show them to colleagues and managers if necessary.

9. Agree on secret signs with your colleague

If several people are involved on the employer’s side (for example, you and your recruiter or you and your manager), then you need to agree in advance on how to coordinate your actions. I have often had situations where, in an attempt to save overall time, the lead interviewer ended the interview early, mistakenly believing that another team member had lost interest in the candidate.

A simple way to avoid this is agree in advance on two signs that will mean “continue” or “finish”. For example, I use a triangle with its apex pointing up (“continue”) or down (“finish”). During the interview process, keep an eye on what your colleague is drawing on the piece of paper in front of him. If you see that you both have a sign “we are folding”, then stop questioning and let the candidate go. If the signs you draw diverge, then one of you must be patient and wait until the other satisfies his curiosity.

10. Don't miss a chance to learn something

It is clear that at an interview you, logically, meet people who know or can do less than you. However, at every interview I had opportunity to learn something new:

How competitors work
How is your function managed in other companies?
What's happening in the market
How can you solve your problems differently?
And sometimes - to get another confirmation that the problems you have cannot be solved by others (it happens!)

11. Let the applicant open up through his questions

When you're done with your questions, be sure to give the candidate the opportunity to ask questions of you. (This is the last part of our optimal interview structure, remember?)

It's amazing how much a person can tell about themselves just by asking questions. First of all, about his priorities and motivation - where will he start asking his questions when the time comes? When a person declares that the main thing for him in work is interesting tasks, and the first question from him is about working hours or sick pay, I would think about it.

12. Eat the elephant in parts

When I needed to recruit a head of marketing for our company, I understood that it simply wouldn’t happen:

Not only did the candidate have to be a broad-minded professional and a thought leader.
He also had to be a good manager with a desire to win and result orientation.
He needed to have basic knowledge of the products to be promoted.
He would have to do a lot of explaining difficult concepts to non-professionals and convincing them that he was right, so he would have to have structured thinking and be a talented negotiator.

In this situation, I did not have a single chance to make a decision on the candidate in the hour allotted for the interview.

The solution was splitting interviews into two parts: the first was self-presentation and answering the candidate’s questions, and the second, which was held on another day with the candidates I was interested in, was devoted to my questions and problem solving.

Conclusion

Remember that the most important thing you have as a leader is your team. And interviewing skills are the key to recruiting a team of champions. Ask yourself - Which of the above can you apply at your next interview??

Did you read to the end? I'm glad you liked it!

As a return favor, answer one question in the comments:

What is the most common mistake managers make during interviews?

Every manager sooner or later faces the question of how to conduct an interview and first needs to decide appropriate type of interview.

Structured interview. During such an interview, a structured template with pre-prepared questions and precise wording is followed. Most respondents choose this interview option.

Stressful interviews. In this case, appropriate stressful conditions are deliberately created for the candidate. For example, they resort to personal questions, do not give time to think when answering, etc.

Situational interviews. Applicants are offered a work or similar situation where they need to demonstrate their qualities and find solutions.

Interview to identify competencies. Quite an effective interview if used correctly. The interviewer draws up a list of competencies that the candidate must have - and the interview is aimed at assessing each of them on a 5-point scale.

Skype interview. As a rule, it is chosen for remote hiring of employees. It is also common for the first visual interview with a candidate for a position.

Project interview. It is a rather cunning tool that asks questions not about the applicant. More general questions are asked here. For example, what motivates an employee to stay at work longer than expected? The question is asked in general, but usually candidates talk to themselves and don’t even realize it.

Speed interview

Body language. Look at your interlocutor's behavior during the interview. It allows you to judge his sincerity - whether he is telling the truth. For example, when the interlocutor is disingenuous, he hides the palms of his hands (puts them on the table or presses them between his knees), scratches his ears, and does not look into the eyes.

Ask a question“What were you paid for at your previous job?” Or another option - “What is the product of your work?” Any employee, from a full-time employee to a general director, produces a certain product, for which a salary is calculated. Some compose documents, others produce components. But it is important to understand that such a piece of paper or detail will not be enough to complete the case, because they still have to be exchanged for something important for the company. Only in this case is the employee’s work completed.

Ideally, you should receive a detailed answer and understanding of the essence of your activity from the applicant.

The formation of a view of the company occurs in the first 3-5 minutes, so try not to disappoint the candidate during this time.

To do this:

1. Prepare the meeting room. Clean up, ventilate the room, place the candidate’s resume in front of you.

2. It is necessary to avoid tension at the beginning of communication. To make your interlocutor feel comfortable, you need to eliminate the barrier of mistrust. Ask if the candidate found you quickly and if it was easy to get there. Or you can tell an entertaining story to “break the ice” from the very beginning.

3.The interview must start on time. The interview cannot start late - after all, you are a leader who your subordinates will look up to.

4.The initial stage of the interview is the self-presentation of the applicant. During this time, you need to have an open conversation, including assessing his communication skills. For example, you can start a conversation “Sergey, tell us a little about yourself: what is your educational experience, where did you study, what company did you work for before, and then I will tell you in detail about our vacancy, okay”?

When free communication has improved, you can move on to questions.

It should be taken into account that interview questions must be asked to the candidate in a certain sequence:

1. Tell us about yourself. When answering a candidate, you need to take into account a number of important nuances:

The interlocutor’s speech is clear, concise and precise;

The interlocutor mumbles or does not express his thoughts clearly at all.

2. What are your views on life? How do you overcome the difficulties that arise? Thanks to the answer to this question, it will be possible to understand who a person is by nature. Some people claim that life is too complicated and there are many problems. Others report positive opinions about life. They recognize that there may be certain problems in life, but all of them can be overcome.

3. What interested you in this work? Many answers are based on templates, claiming excellent working conditions and excellent career prospects. Valuable specialists will try to note as specifically as possible.

4. Tell us about your advantages? Why do you consider yourself worthy of this job? I consider this question to be one of the key ones during an interview. Thanks to this question, the candidate will be able to convey information about his main advantages. The manager needs to take into account how the interlocutor conveys information about his advantages. Some limit themselves to abstract concepts, while others provide reasoned facts. Of course, people who come up with real facts and figures (realistic evidence of their advantages) may deserve more respect and attention from the employer.

5. What are your weaknesses? A competent specialist is unlikely to repent of his weak sins. He will try to present his answer in a way that improves his chances of getting hired. For example, he will note his excessive “demandingness towards himself and others”, “many people often call me a workaholic”, etc.

6. Why did you leave your previous job? Why did you decide to change jobs? How did management evaluate you? The first question is intended for candidates who have already left work, and the second - for those who are just planning such a step in their lives. You should consider how the interlocutor talks about his previous work. A high degree of conflict and negativity towards people will still affect the relationship and work of the specialist and in the new place. You need to be careful when hiring such employees to join your company. A competent specialist will mainly focus on the positive aspects of past work, but will emphasize that he made the decision to change jobs because he strives for more. Although let's not forget - sometimes managers are also quite conflictual and “difficult” for employees.

7. Have you had any other job offers? A competent specialist was also expected to receive other offers, which he would talk about during the interview. But at the same time, he will emphasize his interest in working in your company.

8. How do you imagine yourself in 5-10 years? For the most part, people do not tend to plan their lives for such a period; they prefer to go with the flow. Your company hardly needs such specialists. Other applicants prefer to answer rather abstractly - for example, they report their plans to become specialists in a certain industry. However, we need much more specificity. Only a small part of candidates are focused on their personal success, willingly talking about plans for their professional growth in the future.

9. What changes would you decide to make at your new place of work? It is optimal when the candidate suggests certain ways to improve the company’s performance, based on his own experience. Although it is quite difficult to do this at the first meeting, since the employee does not yet know enough about the nuances and problems of your company’s activities. But you need to get gradual initiative from the applicant.

10. Who can you get feedback from about your previous work? Quite an important and useful question, since it calls into question all the information received from the applicant during the interview. The optimal situation is when an applicant for a position confidently provides a telephone number, or better yet, several contacts of previous employers. But usually candidates cannot offer even one number. Such doubts become a sign of a lack of work experience or good recommendations.

11. What salary does the employee expect? A competent specialist always knows the value of his activities. There may be situations when a company simply cannot offer an employee the requested salary if he is significantly stronger than other specialists in the organization. However, in the event of a bluff on the part of the employee, the expected pay or benefits can be sharply reduced in order to throw the applicant off balance.

12. Do you have any hobbies, what hobbies do you prefer in your free time? At the end of the conversation, ask about the applicant’s hobbies. Perhaps you can find a like-minded person in some hobbies. And you yourself will be able to leave a good impression on him, there will be additional information for consideration.

It is necessary to understand how the applicant thinks, what principles the person adheres to, what priorities exist in life, and whether this matches your company. And it is not unimportant whether a person knows how to admit his mistakes, and whether he knows how to draw appropriate conclusions and make adjustments to his work.

You can also use the technique of figurative questions.

1.If you could become any superhero, who would you choose? The answer will allow you to understand what qualities a person considers the most important and valuable.

2. Describe your ideal job: if you were allowed to do anything, work anywhere, for any person... The answer will allow you to learn about the interests of the applicant and his life principles, evaluate his honesty and desire to work.

3.Instead of asking about the candidate’s weaknesses, draw a square and explain that this is a “professional field” and that a person who has mastered a profession 100% usually shades the entire square. Ask to shade the portion of the square that corresponds to the candidate’s professionalism. Usually no one shades the square completely. Then you can ask why the unpainted part remains, and the person will tell you about his shortcomings.

4.If you had to work with a new boss from another city while your previous boss is on vacation, what shortcomings would he find? This is another variation of the weaknesses question that requires the candidate to look at himself through someone else's eyes.

5.Name the most important reason why you now want change. When changing jobs, a person wants to change something - perhaps in his life, and perhaps in his work environment or relationships. You can find out what his priorities and motivation are.

6.If I call your last-place manager, what will he say about you? In answering this question, the candidate also needs to look at himself from the outside, and also name the reason for changing jobs.

7.How will you become part of our team? A new employee requires special attention because he still does not know much about the technology of working in the company. To do everything right, he will have to interact with many people who will explain something, give advice or help. The answer to such a question will let you understand whether the candidate thinks about this, whether he understands how his behavior in the first months will affect future relationships.

8. In three sentences, explain to your eight-year-old nephew what a database is. Instead of “database,” you can take any other term related to the candidate’s field of activity. How clearly and quickly a person explains the essence of his work to the uninitiated will help evaluate his professionalism.

You can also invite the candidate to prioritize in descending order when choosing a job - money (benefits), career, independence, location to home, opportunity to gain knowledge and experience, friendly team, complexity of the tasks, etc. Ask the applicant about his interests in life.

If possible, then walk the candidate around the company so that you can see the applicant’s reaction, and you can also decide whether this person is right for you or not.

At the end of the interview, ask the candidate one tricky question.

When you invite an employee to a position, you are advised to ask a non-standard question: “What three facts that you can confirm have become the main reasons for your pride over the past three years?” Despite the simplicity of such a question, it allows you to determine a whole set of important data about the applicant for the position.

During the interview process, you should develop an understanding of the candidate on the following issues:

Priority system. It is unlikely that you need a specialist whose main reasons for pride do not relate to professional activities, achievements and skill development.

Sanity of a potential employee. Can this applicant do exactly what he was asked to do, or will the conversation go to “another harbor.”

Employee achievement level. What will the applicant tell you? Will these be mega-projects or will it be something ordinary. For example, did you win the school or Russian championship? When people talk about some of their achievements, as a rule, they talk about their peak results. If you hire such an employee, then his work will be assessed approximately at the level of his achievements, and most likely - somewhat lower.

Process or result? Whether the applicant talks about what he did or did are completely different things.

Really facts or just words. When talking about his achievements, does the candidate simply speak in general terms or provide specific facts and details? If you hire an employee to get results, and not “to sit and smile,” then it is better to hire “measurable-specific” ones, because “in general” answers usually indicate that actual achievements have been quite modest, so there is nothing to boast about in any specific way.

Does the applicant answer the question or try to avoid it? If a job applicant asks counter questions or tries to evade the question, I can say with confidence that he will behave in the same way during work. Do you need such an employee? It's up to you to decide.

Assessment of the degree of competence. The minimum level is when you have to literally chew everything out to your employees “go to this street, to the fifth building and to the third floor - office 314, Sergei Igorevich is sitting there, who needs to hand over these documents personally”). The next level of competence is that you don’t have to describe the task in detail, just limit yourself to the address, room number and name. However, the work of our company requires people who, upon receiving a task, will be able to independently determine intermediate goals, forming an action plan. To identify the degree of competence of an applicant, you can choose a fairly simple method - people who are ready to make decisions are more advanced.

Analysis of the applicant’s ability to think outside the box and whether he is ready for new knowledge. A person should not be ashamed to admit that he lacks knowledge on a certain issue if he plans to solve this problem in the future. For example, look for literature on this issue. To understand whether a candidate has such qualities, ask about his most interesting tasks in his previous activities, how competent he was at the time they appeared, what plan of action he then chose - was additional training needed? The essence of the tasks and the approach to solving them will make it possible to clearly understand whether a person has the ability to creatively solve each problem.

How enthusiastic is the person? Here it is interesting what activities the applicant devotes his free time to, whether he has any hobbies.

After the applicant answers the questions posed, the manager should present the position in his company, informing the employee about his prospects and opportunities.

Firstly, It is necessary to understand that at the time of the interview the applicant may have other job offers. Based on the results of several interviews, he will compare different vacancies currently available.

Secondly, Prepare for the presentation in advance. After all, if the information stated is not true or you start to stammer, the employee will immediately be able to guess that some data is being hidden from him. It is necessary to tell about the new employee’s field of activity, the peculiarities of the company’s work, advantages and position in the market.

Thirdly, tell us about the job responsibilities of the future employee, his working conditions, salary, probationary period, benefits, bonuses, social package and other important nuances of cooperation.

After you've presented the company and job opening, ask the candidate for feedback on what they heard. Most likely, if a person is interested in your vacancy, he will have some clarifying questions related to the content of the work, the level of specifics of the business, and relationships in the team.

Also, at the end of the interview, you can ask the candidate questions that arose during the process. As a rule, questions will be associated with some inaccuracies or inconsistencies. In this case, you can ask both fundamental and tough questions.

At the end of the interview, thank the candidate and tell him how he can find out the results of the interview and what further actions will be if the result is positive.

The final process during the interview. Most managers completely forget about it. After the interview, write down briefly why you liked/disliked this or that candidate, since there may be many such candidates and you won’t remember them all.

If you understand that you have found the candidate you need, then do not hesitate to make a decision, because tomorrow he may become an employee of another company.

Constantly looking for new personnel, and applicants, in turn, are looking for suitable employers. Therefore, people often have a question: how to conduct a job interview?

Hiring an employee is a responsible undertaking for both the employer and the employee. The beginning of this difficult process is an interview with an applicant for a vacant position. The effectiveness of its implementation largely determines which candidate will take a place on the team. Therefore, both parties need to carefully prepare for the interview.

How can an employer effectively interview a candidate?

Many employers wonder how to conduct an interview when hiring a new employee. We will try to answer this question in as much detail as possible.

Be on an equal footing with the applicant

It is necessary to keep the conversation with the candidate simple and natural. Try to be an interesting conversationalist, open and attentive. These recommendations will help to reveal a person completely, as he will be as relaxed as possible when communicating. During a confidential conversation, it is easy to see the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate.

Establish contact with the candidate

To defuse the situation, you should talk with the applicant about general topics. This will help relieve the stress that a person experiences when going for a job interview. It is necessary to wait until the moment when he begins to feel comfortable and can relax.

Story about the company's activities

Next, you need to talk a little about the company’s activities, about the specifics of the job for the position for which the candidate is applying. This approach is necessary in order to bring the interlocutor to an important conversation about his professional and personal qualities. In addition, you can immediately understand whether the person understood that you expected him to tell a story about himself. If he understood, then this speaks of his attentiveness. Accordingly, it becomes immediately clear that the candidate has the ability to learn.

Observation of the candidate

You should carefully consider the personal qualities of the applicant for the position. It is important to understand whether you can work well with this person. To do this, the employer needs to create a portrait of the person with whom he would like to work in advance. To get the full picture, you need to find out what qualities the applicant has. Perhaps, for you as an employer, these should be fundamentally experience, organization, the ability to work in a team, a certain education, etc. To specifically identify such desired qualities, it is necessary to draw up a list of them.

The head of the organization does not always conduct interviews independently. Most likely, this is done by professional interviewers who work in recruitment agencies, or by recruiting managers. It should be understood that the requirements for how to conduct an interview effectively are the same for everyone.

How should an employer prepare questions for an applicant?

After meeting the employer and the candidate, you need to move on to the main part of the interview - the questions. The employer should prepare them in advance. All the interviewee’s answers must be recorded on paper so that in the future it will be easy to remember the dialogue and analyze it. Interview questions are asked by the employer following stories about the company.

First of all, you need to ask the person to tell about themselves. This step will prove to the applicant that you are interested in him. Next, you should ask what exactly attracts him to the company and the vacant position. Then you need to find out whether the applicant is satisfied with his career and the pace of its development. Finally, find out his opinion about his previous place of work and why he was not satisfied with it.

You should ask leading questions during the interview. Offer to analyze this or that situation, while listening carefully and writing down. Let the candidate describe in detail how he can get out of trouble with honor and dignity.

Sample questions

What are your strengths?

What are the weaknesses?

What difficult situation do you remember at your last job and how did you overcome it?

Reason for leaving your previous job?

Why should you work for us?

Do you think it's okay to lie sometimes? If so, in what situations?

What are the methods of stimulating employees necessary to increase productivity?

It is important to be able and know how to interview a candidate. This will greatly help identify the qualities of an applicant desired by the employer.

Testing

After successful interviews with applicants, as a rule, the employer prepares testing. They can be roughly divided into three categories.

Personality test. Necessary for assessing the qualities and character traits that contribute to the effective performance of work. Shows whether the candidate has the ability for official and professional growth.

Intelligence test. This source of information reveals the skills and professional abilities of the employee. Helps the employer find out in which area the candidate has work experience.

Interpersonal test. Reveals the employee’s communication style in a team, his ability to make compromises, and come to the aid of other employees in a difficult situation. Tests a person for conflict. The employer will carefully analyze this character trait, because conflicts in the team affect performance. If such a trait is present, he will probably refuse to accept such an employee. This test also reveals whether the candidate is a leader.

Tests during a job interview further help the employer form an opinion about the characteristics of the employee’s individual style of activity and the specifics of his motivation. After testing, the most suitable candidate for the vacant position is selected.

All of the above will help the employer find a worthy candidate for a vacant position in the company. Now let's look at the question from the applicant's point of view. After all, they are also interested, for their part, in the question of how to successfully pass a job interview. Let's take the banking sector as an example.

How to successfully pass an interview for a job at a bank?

The stage of preparing and distributing resumes to various banks is over. The long-awaited call comes with an invitation to an interview. This means that they are interested in your candidacy. At this stage, the applicant’s goal is to attract the employer’s attention, so you need to carefully prepare for the upcoming interview. Below we will describe in detail how to conduct a job interview effectively.

Neat appearance

To feel confident and look respectable in the eyes of others, you need to think about your outfit in which you will go to an interview. This should definitely be a business suit. For men: shirt, tie, suit consisting of a jacket and trousers. For women: a shirt or blouse, a skirt is required, it must be below the knee, beige tights only, a jacket or vest. Accessories should not overload the image. You can take a watch with you and wear no more than one ring. You need to hide all your gold chains and stuff. Hair should be washed and combed. Women need to put them in their hair. It is not acceptable to show up to an interview with your hair down. It is not recommended to wear too much makeup, wear provocative jewelry, or splash a lot of cologne.

Tell us about yourself at an interview, example - a credit specialist

After a short exchange of greetings that usually begin an interview, such as “How did you get there?”, “Was it easy to find our company?”, “What’s the weather like outside?” and so on, you need to start telling a story about yourself: about your professional activities, strengths and weaknesses of character, and so on. You should try to tell everything to the point, briefly and clearly, focusing more attention on those facts of your work history that may be most interesting to the employer.

Let's consider the option of telling about yourself at an interview, an example is a credit specialist.

You need to highlight your most important accomplishment in your entire career as a loan officer. You need a vivid story about yourself that is best able to remain in the memory of the employer. The purpose of telling about yourself is to fulfill the employer's request to stand out from the crowd of candidates.

For example, tell us what the maximum loan amount you issued, what low percentage of defaulters was in your loan portfolio, how you can work as a team to achieve the overall plan of the bank office, what additional services you offer most successfully to your clients, etc.

Remember that the employer does not need your biography, but information containing a couple of interesting facts about your career is a good place to start. Answers during a job interview should be brief, so your story about yourself should not exceed one minute.

Question - answer

After telling about yourself, the employer will undoubtedly take the main role in the further conversation. You need to listen carefully to his questions. They are usually standard and have been described above. Your interview answers should be truthful and thought out in advance. If you do not have enough experience or had a slightly different specificity of work, then say that you will need time to get up to speed on the new business.

One of the employer's favorite questions is to talk about strengths and weaknesses. You should carefully choose the words of what to say at the interview. Strengths include responsibility, willingness to help (this is important when working in a team), punctuality, efficiency, etc. Weaknesses must be interpreted into positive qualities. For example, you don't know how to say “no.” In everyday life, of course, this interferes with you, but professionally it makes you an indispensable worker who is always ready to help and perform important urgent work. This quality is valuable for a loan officer because he is a performer and works under management. These recommendations will help answer the question of how to conduct a job interview correctly from the employer’s point of view.

Another question that will definitely not be ignored is why you are leaving your previous place of work. Do not under any circumstances mention during the interview that you did not have a good relationship with your superiors, problems communicating with colleagues, or that you did not cope with your job responsibilities. The answer to the question should be something like this: there were no prospects for growth, low salaries, lack of opportunities for advanced training. These are quite compelling and objective reasons for a person to start looking for a job.

An important issue for a future employee is wages. The employer may ask what salary you are applying for. So that this question does not take you by surprise, you should familiarize yourself with the approximate salary in this vacant position, and also consider the income from your previous place of work, how adequately you were paid there because of your extensive experience in this field, and so on.

There are many question options. You should answer them sincerely and not be overconfident.

Final stage of the interview

At the end of the interview, the applicant must thank the employer for his time and agree on a time frame for making a decision. An active candidate must independently take the initiative to obtain a final decision on hiring, and not languish in anticipation.

At the end of the interview, the employer needs to summarize what issues mutual understanding was reached between the parties. He must clearly indicate what the candidate can expect and when the final decision will be made. If it is said that he will be notified by phone, then if the decision is positive, as well as negative, he should call and be sure to inform him of the result, because the person will wait.

As a result of each interview, the employer must conduct an in-depth analysis based on his notes on each candidate individually. How can an employer conduct a job interview effectively so that the candidate ultimately gets the job he wants? The answer to this question is revealed as much as possible in this article.

How to properly interview a candidate when applying for a job is one of the main questions for recruiters.

Is there a step by step algorithm for this? Let's try to figure it out.

On the eve of the meeting, the interviewer should review the applicant's resume and create a written list of questions based on it.

It is also necessary to draw up a position profile (professiogram) in order to assess during the interview whether the skills and personal qualities of the applicant correspond to those required for this job.

Such a profile usually consists of a description of general requirements (gender, age, education, length of work experience in this field), as well as special requirements (professional skills and personality traits, such as responsibility, manageability, teamwork, diligence, systematic thinking and etc.).

If there is not enough information in the resume, the candidate can be asked to fill out, which must also be prepared on the eve of the interview. If you need to conduct, you should make a list of questions. It is advisable not to take ready-made tests on the Internet, but to prepare your own. Although, other people's tests can be taken as a basis.

How to ask questions correctly?

When asked, there are a lot of recommendations for recruiting.

For example, before asking, the interviewer should create a favorable atmosphere so that the candidate relaxes and opens up better during the conversation.

To do this, it is better to start a job interview with a short story about the company and the position for which the applicant is applying.

It is better to ask open-ended questions to the candidate during a conversation, rather than those that can be answered with monosyllabic answers “yes” and “no”.

Examples of open questions:

Tell us how you acted in situations when the secretary refused to connect you with his manager - your potential client? How did you get around this barrier?
Give an example of how you successfully overcame a potential client's objection that they already had suppliers and closed the sale.
Why do employees leave the company?

You should not rush to draw categorical conclusions after the applicant’s first answer to a particular question. The information must be double-checked 2-3 times during the interview, asking the same question in different wording at different times.

For example, this is useful in a situation where, when asked about motivation at work, the applicant gives a socially desirable answer that he is motivated by acquiring new knowledge, mastering skills, or the opportunity to participate in the development of the company, but the interviewer suspects that this is not the case.

In this case, the interviewer may after some time ask a projective question: “What motivates people to work more efficiently?”, and even later a situational question: “You have received a job offer from two employers at the same time. What criteria will you use to make your choice?”

By analyzing the candidate's answers to these questions, you can easily determine what really motivates him. During the entire interview, it is useful to alternate the topics of questions so that the applicant cannot pre-calculate the interviewer’s actions and prepare the answer he wants.

You cannot turn an interview into an interrogation, unless, of course, this is an element of a stressful interview. Otherwise, there is a danger of hiring an already demotivated employee.

You can read more about what interview questions exist.

How to choose the type of interview?

There is a high probability that he will have extremely negative impressions of the company. If such a candidate successfully passes all stages of selection and is hired, his loyalty to the company will be low.

What should you avoid?

When communicating with a candidate, one must not show disrespect for his personality or inattention to his questions.

The opposite situation is also common, when the interviewer really likes the candidate, and he tries in every possible way to smooth out his obvious professional shortcomings and bring the applicant he likes up to the requirements of the vacancy, which he does not meet. Often this behavior is demonstrated by women and is associated with the manifestation of maternal instinct.

But the mistaken hiring of an unsuitable candidate poses a serious risk to a business. Therefore, the qualities of an interviewer must include objectivity and sober calculation.

During the interview, you should not be distracted by extraneous matters. All attention should be directed to the candidate. You cannot be absent for a long time and make the candidate wait.

In some companies, a candidate's long wait for an interview is part of a stressful interview. An applicant who arrives on time may be deliberately kept in the waiting room from several minutes to several hours in order to evaluate his resistance to stress, and sometimes his perseverance.

This is not the best practice, since many applicants simply leave without waiting for an interview, believing that the company does not respect their time and qualified employees are not needed here.

How to end an interview correctly?

At the end of the interview, when the employer has received all the answers he is interested in, it is necessary to give the applicant the opportunity to ask his questions about the company and the position.

It is better to answer such questions as honestly as possible, without embellishing the merits of the company, so as not to encourage the candidate.

After all, during the work process, details and features hidden during the interview will one way or another emerge, and the former candidate, and now an employee, will feel deceived.

This can lead to both disloyalty on the part of the employee and dismissal.

In conclusion, you should definitely discuss the algorithm for further interaction with the applicant. Inform when and with whom the next interview will take place, or when and how the answer will be communicated.

Such attentiveness will relieve the candidate of anxiety and will increase the value of the company in his eyes, and as a result, will strengthen the desire to work effectively in it.

How to evaluate a candidate after an interview?

The final stage of selection may be a reference check. Recommendations should only be taken from the candidate's former immediate supervisor. Former colleagues and the HR manager will not provide objective information.

If recommendations from your last place of work did not inspire confidence or did not provide a clear picture, it makes sense to contact previous employers. By collecting recommendations from 2-3 employers, you can create a relatively objective portrait of the applicant.

If a job candidate honestly admitted that the reason for his dismissal was a conflict with his former employer, it is not difficult to guess what the recommendations will be. If the candidate gave neutral reasons, but the recommender described him negatively, this is a reason to think about it.

It is enough to compare it with the requirements of the position profile, evaluate the results of the test (if it was carried out), attach feedback from recommenders, and you can determine with a large degree of objectivity whether the candidate is suitable. If additional questions arise, the candidate can call and clarify them.

An interview conducted in compliance with simple rules will help in a short time to correctly evaluate the candidate and draw a conclusion whether the person fits the existing requirements.

Among all the possible (sometimes quite expensive) methods of personnel assessment, personal interviews are the most effective and cost-effective way to select candidates. Moreover, now you know how to conduct a job interview correctly.

Conducting an interview during the selection of personnel is an example in the video.