Managing The Interview

A well-managed interview benefits both you and the candidate. You are able to cover all your assigned dimensions in depth in the time allocated and the candidate has an opportunity to share his or her skills and experiences fully. Good interview management skills will enable you to:

• Control the pace of the interview by managing the amount of detail candidates provide.
• Direct the discussion into and through areas you want to cover.
• Prevent confusion, misunderstanding and the need to go back and clarify details.
• Manage time so you can cover each section of the interview completely.

Make Procedural Suggestions

Procedural suggestions say how you’d like to conduct the interview, how you’d like the candidate to respond or what areas you’d like to cover.

When explaining the Interview plan in the opening: I’d like to spend the first five minutes or so getting some background information on your education and work experience. Then I’ll ask some questions to get specific examples of things you’ve done in your jobs and how you went about doing them. How does that sound?

In setting up the planned behavioural questions section: Now I’d like to shift gears and ask you about specific situations in your jobs. And when you describe these situations, I’d like you to tell me specifically what your actions were and also the results. Okay?

After the candidate provides a concise response: Thanks. That’s just the kind of information I’m looking for. If you can keep giving succinct examples like that, we’ll be able to cover a lot of ground.

After the candidate provides too much detail: Jane, so that we can discuss all your important areas, could you try to make your answers more concise?

To redirect the discussion to a specific area: Excuse me for interrupting, Jim, but you mentioned operating office equipment. I’d like to spend some time talking about that, it that’s okay?

Don’t be afraid to suggest a procedure, even if you have to interrupt the candidate to do it. Most people will understand that you need to manage the interview to collect information and to give them an opportunity to discuss their most important experiences. However, many new interviewers feel uncomfortable taking such an active role in managing the interview, especially interrupting candidates.

To become more comfortable, make procedural suggestions, combine them with a Key Principle. Showing empathy or complimenting the candidate takes the edge off the suggestion for both you and the candidate. For example:

I hate to interrupt – you have accomplished so much in this area. If we don’t move on, though, I’m afraid we’ll run out of time. Okay?

Sounds like you made the best if a tough situation. How about we move on to a new area?

Check For Understanding

Checking for understanding is a simple way to confirm or clarify your understanding of what is being said in the interview. Checks are helpful anytime you’re unclear about something the candidate has said or when the candidate has provided a good deal of information and you want to make sure you understand all of it.

To check your understanding, restate or summarise the information you want to check, and then ask for confirmation of what you’re checking. The candidate will let you know if your understanding is on target. If it isn’t, the candidate can clarify as needed, for example:

So, you’re saying that you double-checked with Engineering before you made the recommendation. Is that right?

Let me see if I understood correctly: they both agreed with you at first, but then both of them changed their minds – correct?

This technique is often used with a procedural suggestion to move from one topic to the next. The check summarises the candidate’s response and provides a smooth transition to the next topic. Combining these techniques is helpful, especially when you need to interrupt and redirect a candidate whose answers are too long or detailed. The check interrupts and concludes the candidates’ response and sets up the procedural suggestion to move to a new topic. For example:

So, you were responsible for all account activity in the region - correct? I’d like to talk about that in depth later. Now I’d like to get an overview of all your major responsibilities.

Except for that one case, then, the feedback was very positive, right? Good example, thanks, if we could, now I’d like to go back to something you mentioned earlier.