Here's how you can prioritize which skills to learn first in interviewing.

Job Requirements/Industry Standards: Identify the most critical skills needed for successful interviewing in your specific industry. Focus on the skills that are frequently mentioned in job descriptions and valued by employers. Evaluate Personal Strengths/Weaknesses: Conduct a self-assessment to determine your current skill levels and identify gaps. Prioritize learning skills where you have the greatest room for improvement or those that will have the most significant impact on your interviewing. Feedback/Guidance: Ask for feedback from colleagues or supervisors about areas where you can improve. Use their insights to prioritize skills that will enhance your performance and address any recurring challenges you face during interviews.

You can blow your competition out of the water by developing a deeper understanding of the specific problems, issues, or missed opportunities that your next employer is facing. Too many individuals go out and try to prove their worthiness for a role based on years of experience, accumulated skill sets, or formal education. However, none of these features really matter unless your potential employer fully understands how they can be applied to their problems and what specific outcomes you can deliver. In summary, you shouldn't approach researching your next job as a regular candidate would. Instead, you should conduct research as a problem solver looking for the right problem to solve.

Prioritizing which skills to learn first in interviewing involves assessing your current strengths and weaknesses, as well as the specific requirements of the role you're targeting. Start by identifying the key competencies needed for successful interviewing, such as active listening, communication, and critical thinking. Then, prioritize the skills based on their relevance to the role and your proficiency level. Focus on honing one skill at a time, dedicating time for practice and feedback. Additionally, leverage resources such as online courses, mock interviews, and peer coaching to accelerate your learning process. Finally, regularly evaluate your progress and adjust your learning plans :))

When you are learning to interview, prioritise shadowing colleagues who are tenured interviewers. You will learn a lot from observing different styles of questioning and engagement - and can decide what you want to replicate in your interviewing (and what you don't). Ask you colleagues to reverse shadow your interviewing, has having direct feedback early on will help you ramp up quickly. Even if you're an experienced interviewer, occasional shadowing/reverse shadowing can be very insightful (especially if you change organisations). Continual learning will keep your interviewing skills in good shape.

One of the biggest pitfalls for inexperienced interviewers is being swayed by style over substance. You can craft good questions, communicate clearly, use emotional intelligence, and practice regularly - however, don't forget *why* you are interviewing! You also need to consider how you will evaluate the answers you receive: 1) Review the questions to identify the key skill or attribute each one is trying to assess; 2) Create a rubric for what a great, good, average, poor, or very poor answer would look like; 3) Use this to evaluate each candidate consistently and factually after the interview. This will help to avoid being distracted by candidates' charisma and personality, and overlooking important criteria for the role.