The Art of Interviewing

In my career as a recruiting leader, I've always enjoyed guiding companies in finding the right mix of interviewing techniques that not only help them to assess the candidates' skills and fit for the role, but are also aligned with bringing out the candidate's natural skills. Gone are the days of the traditional approach of asking a candidate to reiterate what we can already read from a LinkedIn profile or resume. There are a number of different interviewing techniques being used today that can help companies achieve the ideal outcome result and can also assess the candidate's emotional intelligence. Here are some of the techniques that have gained popularity in recent years:

1. Behavioral interviewing: This involves asking candidates about their past experiences and behaviors in certain hypothetical scenarios to predict how they might act in the future. To gather specific examples, these questions often begin with "Give me an example about a time when you...".
2. Video interviewing: This isn't so much of a technique as it is a mode of interviewing that has increased exponentially with the advent of the Covid pandemic. With the increase in remote work, video interviewing has become more popular. Contrasted with the traditional in-person interview, this brings new challenges to interviewing. On one hand, it is the closest alternative to in-person (IRL) interviews, however, it also opened up the idea that, in contrast with a phone interview, it may bring up bias in the interview (which would be the same for an IRL interview, wouldn't it?).
3. Cultural fit assessments: These can be a little controversial. Companies are almost always looking for candidates who will "fit well" with their organizational culture. (But, how do you reconcile "fit" with the company's "culture" and diversity/inclusion initiatives?) This may involve assessing a candidate's personality, values, and work style to determine whether they would be a good fit for the team.
4. Personality assessments: These can be DISC, Strengthsfinder, MBTI, or other personality assessments. One company I know used the DISC model to assess every candidate for a particular role. They were looking for someone for that role with a more decisive, assertive style that seemed to be in contrast with what others might consider to be qualities of a good "team collaborator." So the recruiter assumed that all of the candidates who scored high on the "team collaboration" aspect were viable but, in reality, the opposite was true. When they finally happened upon a candidate who scored "low" in that aspect - that person was the winner! So the thing to keep in mind is, with any of these assessments, develop a rubric prior to interviewing to ensure that the hiring team is in sync with understanding the factors that make up the ideal candidate.
5. Skills testing: In modern high-tech companies, this is more often used to assess the technical abilities of software engineers in the form of a "technical interview" or "coding challenge". These can also be used to test a candidate's skills for other jobs when there is a level proficiency required for a set of well-defined non-subjective skills.
6. Panel interviews: With these kinds of interviews, often there are 2 or more people interviewing the candidate at the same time. The panel interviews make sense when you have a panel consisting of members of the same team (engineers, sales, etc) or you have a diversity of interviewers who work closely together with the person in the job they are interviewing the candidate for.
7. Mock session/pitches: I really like the mock scenario type of interview. These can be used for sales, customer success, implementation, etc types of roles - any job where the employee may be interacting with external constituents (customers, partners, etc), or even for product management or project manager jobs. The candidate often will walk the interviewer(s) through their thought process and proposed solution. This type of interview involves giving the candidate a mock scenario (ahead of time or in real-time) and asking them to show how they would handle it. For a sales role, it may be a more simple "give us a sales pitch". The most valuable sessions were those in which the interview team participated and acted in the part of the customer (taking on various roles as if they were the customer). A former client company of mine used this method very successfully in hiring for the customer success team and it was always fun for both the hiring team and the candidates, especially when everyone was "in character." Mock sessions can also be adapted into a take-home, case study test.

Successful interviews result in hiring ideal candidates. Regardless of the interview techniques used, prior to interviewing, it's essential to communicate clearly to the interview team about the various aspects of the role and what an ideal candidate would demonstrate for each of those aspects. It's also important to remember that using a range of interview styles rather than a one-size-fits-all approach will lead to a more well-rounded view of a candidate's skills and experience and likely produce better results.

DM me on LinkedIn if you'd like to know more about any of these interviewing techniques or for a free 30 minute consult!

Christine Kull is a multi-faceted recruiting and talent acquisition leader based in Austin, TX. As founder of Austin Search Partners, she not only provides recruiting power to fill seats quickly and efficiently but also provides strategic consult to early stage companies in growth mode to help build a staffing and recruiting strategy that doesn't break the bank. In her 17 year career in executive retained search and in-house recruiting, she has over 500 successful placements for hundreds of brands and high-tech companies.