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Discussion on: Tips to Become a Better Interviewer

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Alex Sarafian • Edited

I've had my fare share of bad interviews and all are attributed to 2 main causes.

  • Irrelevance with the topic
  • Not being prepared which fuels irrelevance

The following are not advice but my approach into this process and you can extract the good or the bad.

As an interviewer I do the following though not always very professionally:

  • Preparation
    • Print out the candidate's CV and mark the things that strike out and could be interesting
    • Prepare a list of questions/topics that I would like to talk about
  • Interview
    • When the candidate mentions anything interesting, add it to the above list
    • Write any interesting comment or answer to any of my previous highlighted topics
    • Before the end, run through my list and see if there is still something worthwhile asking

In general I let the candidate tell their story. When I feel that the candidate struggles to tell a story then I try to help him and guide him with the story telling. If the candidate lacks enough story because of inexperience, then try to drive the story and figure out his skill by discussing other aspects of life.

I don't hesitate to go off script. I don't approach skills as a checklist and with questions like how many years etc. If you have read the CV and hear his story then you know the basic levels.

I go after evaluating the potential of the person and not if he has a 100% match. I let the candidate asks questions to let him evaluate my side as well and help him understand better.

I don't think why doing interviews could be stressful. It's an exchange of stories between two people. As long as both sides are relevant then it is as easy as having an informal discussion. The information should flow normally.