Here's how you master interviews with candidates as a manager

Before being asked to interview candidates for your team, set yourself up for success by asking HR or Leadership to provide an interviewer training course.

Why is this so important?

With over 8 years of experience as an in-house tech recruitment lead—where I successfully hired over 80 professionals for a US startup in Berlin and Budapest—an executive search expert for a 3D printing recruitment agency in Berlin, and as Managing Director overseeing two agencies in Germany and Hungary, I’ve accumulated thousands of hours interviewing for a wide range of roles, from individual contributors to C-level executives. I’m excited to share some of the best practices I’ve honed throughout my career.

One of the key challenges managers face when interviewing candidates is balancing the assessment of technical skills with evaluating cultural fit and potential for growth.

While it’s relatively straightforward to assess a candidate's qualifications through their resume and technical questions, understanding how they will integrate with the existing team, handle pressure, and contribute to a positive work environment requires deeper insight and experience.

Managers must also guard against biases, both conscious and unconscious, that can cloud judgment, leading to hiring decisions based on personal affinities rather than the candidate's true potential to excel in the role.

This multifaceted evaluation process demands a high level of awareness and a structured approach to interviewing, which can be particularly challenging for those who are new to management.

If you're a manager who's team is growing, here's what you should pay attention to:

1. Conduct efficient interviews with candidates

2. Understand the changes in team dynamics (we will speak about this subject in next week's newsletter)

Conduct efficient interviews with candidates

A. Bring your humanistic mindset

1. Recap what is the vision and the mission of the company you decided to join already.

2. What are those values that you experience in our work every day and which you consider precious and you’d like to keep alive in the organisation?

3. Once you know the answer to these two, ask people in interviews to talk about themselves and after that about what they do. For example: “are you a person who thrives in such and such an environment? “ Tell them why you thrive in this environment and let them tell you their story. 

4. A CV is good as a base for speaking about the past, but we equally should speak about what is right now and where the candidate is heading, because that serves as a base for their place in your team long-term.

5. If we’d like people to speak honestly about their past challenges in an interview, the first step is to establish trust with them, to build a bridge. How do you do that in 45 minutes - 1 hour? The easiest is if we tell them a story about how we dealt with past challenges and how that impacted us. This enables the person to share more openly. 

6. Make it a conversation instead of an interview. The reason behind this is that when people are comfortable in our presence, they will share more information openly. This is not a way to trick them into spilling the beans, but rather to use this time to honestly figure out if the business, the vision, the job and the person are in sync. 

7. You want a team of people who are motivated about their jobs at your company, who gladly belong to this team. This type of energy is felt in meetings, in the office, at team events etc. 

8. Work with the obvious. Be candid, but honest if something is not clicking right. For example: if you notice that the person you are speaking with doesn’t really answer your questions (for whatever reason) and you’re wondering how you’d summarize this interview, then express this concern. Ex. “ I notice on myself that I’m concerned about not being able to get to know you and understand if our work here is a match with what you are looking for. How do you see this?” In an interviewer training we would do role-play situations to practice this type of scenarios.

9. Treat people like you would love to be treated. For example if we have to reject a candidate, call every person who invested time in the interview process and worked on a case study/hiring project. I know it takes time, but that's part of being fair with people and treating them how you would like to be treated. Employer branding is how we behave with the people who get in contact with us, not what we post on LinkedIn.

B. Prepare like a Pro

1. Book a 1 -1,5 hour meeting for the job briefing and invite anyone who should provide input about what type of person would be ideal for the role. This step saves a lot of time and confusion down the road.

2. Create a job description which is as specific as possible. This will attract people, who resonate with our description and won’t attract those who aren’t. Oftentimes a large number of applications doesn’t equal great candidates, but it’s a lot of work for recruiters.

3. Define where the recruiters will source potential candidates based on the specifics defined in the job briefing.

4. Define the goal of each interview stage (please don't be the person who repeats the HR interview by going through the CV of the candidate).

5. How to come up with good questions? If you are an interviewer, you know which interview stage is yours. If you know the goal of your interview stage and you have the job briefing, then you will know what specific topics you should address. This serves as a base for creating your questions and fulfilling the goal of your interview stage.

6. Ask similar questions from candidates in the interview process so you can have an objective way to assess. But pay attention also to your subjective experience in the interview with the person. Why is this important? Because if you hire the brilliant asshole - the person who's CV is perfect, but the attitude is the worse - you shouldn't hire them to disrupt your team dynamics.

7. Read the candidate’s CV, LinkedIn in advance!

8. Read the previous interviewer’s evaluations to know what to focus on, especially if they have some open questions which they didn't manage to discuss with the candidate.

C. During the interview

1. How to structure a good interview?

2. How to structure my questions in a more organized way?

3. How to assess a person from a behavioral point of view?

How to structure a good interview?

• Book at least 45 minutes or 1,5 hour, depending on your interview stage.

• Be on time. If you are going to be late, let them know in advance.

• Explain to the candidate the purpose of this interview, what should be discussed in this one hour, what is the goal? Help them understand the bigger picture so you can learn the most information about them.

• Use the first 5-10 minutes to introduce yourself from a professional perspective and maybe also where you come from, what you like about working at your company.

• Use 20-30 minutes to discuss the main subject of your interview and allow the candidate to ask their own questions in the meantime - make is conversational.

• The third and last part of the call or meeting can be used to reflect on this conversation, express any concerns and encourage the candidate to express any concerns of theirs. (could be related to salary, to lacking some understanding about the role, how many days off the company offers, hybrid work etc.)

• Decide about the next step and talk about it with the candidate. Don’t make them wait for days, you already know the answer anyway.

• Ask the recruiter to schedule the next step.

How to structure my questions in a more organized way?

• The base for creating an organized structure is to be clear about:

• What is the purpose of my interview round

• What do I want to assess during this time

• Once you know the answer to these points, you can create your questions (use Chatgpt for inspiration). For additional support see how to structure a good interview or book a coaching session to create the structure together.

How to assess a person from a behavioral point of view?

• The base for assessing behavior is to know what kind of behavior you’d like to know more about. This should be a part of the job briefing (values, personality traits).

• For example: if you want to know how people act when things don’t go their way, ask them to tell you examples of challenges and how they dealt with them. 

• General tip for this type of questions: create an atmosphere of conversation vs. interview and make sure you also share some experiences to build trust during this short time.

• For any specific topics, book a coaching session to create a structure together.

• STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) -> ask what they would do differently today.

• Ask situational questions

• Stress Questions - prepare with how to evaluate the answer and what is the goal of such a stress questions. Inform candidate that there might be stress questions in this round.

PRO TIP: get in touch with me to create a job benchmark and to use a professional assessment tool to ensure the best fit with the role. We use TTI Success Insights for professional assessments.

D. Best Humanistic Practices

1. Always read the evaluations of previous interviewer colleagues, because they might suggest topics to dive in deeper into, or red flags which need additional attention from you.

2. Be on time for the interview. This shows respect. If you are going to be late, inform the candidate in email or ask the recruiter to inform the candidate. 

3. If the interviewer before you already asked the candidate to walk them through their work experience, then avoid asking this question again, because it comes across as unprepared. 

4. You can approach interviews with the mindset of “grilling” someone or with the mindset of creating an atmosphere of conversation where the candidate can openly share with you whatever you need to know to make a grounded decision about an offer or about a rejection. This doesn’t mean that you won’t ask deeper level questions, but the way we do this can make all the difference between an honest reply or saying what they think we want to hear in order to pass this interview round.

Interviewing isn’t just about finding the most qualified candidate; it’s about discovering who will thrive in your team’s culture and contribute to its success.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for joining me in this journey towards becoming a more effective and conscious leader. Stay tuned for more insights, tips, and strategies in the next edition of Managers' Leadership Blueprint.

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Book a call today to learn how we can help you grow your leadership capabilities and achieve your goals. Visit Dragon Coaching House to schedule your consultation.