Tips For Interviewing

An interview calls for preparation, not just on the part of the aspiring candidate, but the interviewer as well. Just as the interviewee does well with practice, so does the interviewer. An interviewer doesn’t have to necessarily prepare questions with the intention of stumping the interviewee, though the candidate should be compelled to analyze the answers before shooting them out. The interviewer should aim to develop respect and awe for the company in the candidate’s mind. In case you are all set to take an interview any time soon, you can help your self with some valuable advice, as given here. Read on to find some helpful interviewing tips.

 

The interviewer should prepare a list of questions based on the skill, education and experience requirements, according to the profile that is being offered to a given candidate. However, he/she should always begin with general questions regarding the background and other things. This will make the candidate comfortable. Then, the job-specific questions can follow. During all this time, encourage the candidate to make eye contact with the interviewer.

The interviewer can hope to get better and elaborate answers, if he/she asks open-ended questions. The candidate should be compelled to give answers in more than a simple yes/no. Open-ended questions can begin with words such as How, What, Why, Describe, Tell me, Explain and When. Some examples of open-ended questions are:

While an interviewer should make sure that he/she doesn’t miss out on the very important topics, which should be included in the questions, there are certain topics that are at best, avoidable. There are some issues, which could hurt the sensibilities of a person. Moreover, certain topics do not even concern the company or the interviewer. If something doesn’t relate to the job, the interviewer should not ask it. Some topics to be avoided are:

The interviewer should ideally follow the 70/30 rule, which lies down that he/she should listen 70% of the time and talk only for the rest 30% of the time. It is important not to sound like you are interrogating the candidate. Give him/her ample time to think, speak and phrase his/her answers. The interviewer should be conversational and try to redirect the candidate when he/she starts straying into different subjects.

If the interviewer is considering someone for the job, it is better to keep checking the references, even as the interview is proceeding. If you don’t want to do it during the interview, you can just tell the candidate that you would be checking the references before giving a final call. Also, when you are checking the reference, make sure that you check with more than one person, before taking a decision.