An unstructured interview (winging it) is a very poor way of gathering information for a hiring decision. You should approach this talk with a strategy. What are you hoping to get out of the meeting and how are you going to get it?
It starts at the moment you and your team decided to hire someone. That's the point you come up with a solid profile, with both hard, concrete as soft and abstract requirements. This profile should lead your questioning.
Keep in mind that an interview is not the best predictor for future succes and not the best way to see if someone is actually good at their job. That's why we do assignments and pair sessions. With that knowledge you can focus on the more abstract and soft stuff which is impossible to measure with an assignment.
Here's a basic structure that could help you and cover the basics, but make sure to actually prepare your interviews, don't wing it. You're wasting someone's time if you do.
Here's an outline, you can shuffle the blocks of course. At Blendle we like a pretty loose style of interviewing, so freewheel within the structure, just make sure you tick the most important boxes. It's a compass, not a GPS.
→ Create relaxed atmosphere. Chitchat, but don't overdo it.
→ Sell your company story, and answer questions.
→ Keep it short, ask if someone can give you a 1 minute pitch about their resume (since you already read it). This is a nice start because people expect this, so they can get in their flow before you really dig in.
→ Explain the role, the position, the responsibilities, and the challenges and answer questions. Check if someone really understands and is still interested.
→ Check work (is someone capable of doing the job? Does he/she have the right skills, knowledge, expertise and experience)
→ Check drive (is someone eager, ambitious and willing? Is someone motivated to work for Blendle?)
→ Check fit (would someone fit in the current team and company? DNA/culture match?)
More on how to get answers on this in the block below (ask good questions).
→ Make sure there are no practical roadblocks like travel time, availability, money or working hours.
→ Check if there are any more questions and tell candidate about the further process.
PREV: → CEO - Interviewing Playbook
NEXT: → Ask good questions (and listen)
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