Con­duct­ing an interview - the right way to do it

The job interview is the decisive moment in the ap­pli­ca­tion process. Now the rel­a­tive­ly im­per­son­al data from the resume is standing in human form right in front of you. While you were able to make a pre-selection based on the candidate’s hard skills such as education, qual­i­fi­ca­tions, and spe­cial­ized knowledge, it is now down to the candidate’s per­son­al­i­ty, level of mo­ti­va­tion, com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, and general ap­pear­ance - i.e. soft skills.

If you have no ex­pe­ri­ence in con­duct­ing pro­fes­sion­al in­ter­views, you’re likely to make some mistakes. This includes, for example, being in­flu­enced by niceties and sym­pa­thiz­ing with the applicant, for­get­ting crucial questions to ask them, or having no proper structure to the interview so that it’s difficult to compare the can­di­dates at the end.

Our interview guide is designed to help you avoid these mistakes and shows you how to conduct pro­fes­sion­al in­ter­views so that you end up finding the candidate who best fits your company.

An interview is intended to help you as an employer to find the best can­di­dates for vacant positions in the company. You should never lose sight of this goal during the interview. This includes not only judging can­di­dates neutrally and asking the right questions, but also creating a pleasant at­mos­phere in which can­di­dates feel com­fort­able. The most important pre­req­ui­sites for this are, above all, good prepa­ra­tion and a clearly struc­tured interview process.

It is also helpful if you consider a time frame in advance, which you should keep in mind while con­duct­ing the interview. This way, you avoid spending too long on less important parts and then rushing more important points at the end because the next applicant has already arrived. In total, the interview should last a maximum of one hour, but 45 minutes is better. This helps not only the candidate who is no doubt very nervous, but also you, es­pe­cial­ly if you have to conduct several in­ter­views one after the other.

The optimal interview process should look something like this:

• Greeting and in­tro­duc­ing all par­tic­i­pants (5 minutes)
• In­ter­view­ing the applicant (15 to 20 minutes)
• Pre­sent­ing the company (5 to 10 minutes)
• Questions (10 minutes)
• Con­clu­sion (5 minutes)

If you conduct a job interview without any prepa­ra­tion, the applicant will im­me­di­ate­ly notice this, e.g. because you’re asking questions that you should already know from reading the candidate’s documents. This not only puts you in an un­com­fort­able position, but also, in the worst case, damages your company’s rep­u­ta­tion; namely when highly qualified can­di­dates bail because they don’t see them­selves or their skills suf­fi­cient­ly valued.

Poor or­ga­ni­za­tion and chaotic pro­ce­dures also put you in a bad light as an employer. Be sure to avoid or­ga­ni­za­tion­al errors such as:

• The reception staff not being informed about the interview.
• The applicant having to wait a long time before the interview begins.
• The ap­pli­ca­tion documents not being available to all in­ter­view­ers.
• The meeting room already being assigned to someone else so you waste time finding another place.

So make sure you take the time to prepare. Read the candidate’s ap­pli­ca­tion documents carefully in full and take notes so that you have the most important in­for­ma­tion ready for the interview. This also applies to in­con­sis­tent points such as gaps in the resume or topics that interest you, e.g. why the applicant has decided on a par­tic­u­lar job, degree programme, etc. All this shows that you fa­mil­iar­ized yourself with the candidate’s history and are honestly in­ter­est­ed in them.

A few hours before the interview you should check the or­ga­ni­za­tion­al aspects again. This includes reminding all col­leagues involved about the interview, preparing the meeting room if necessary and making sure that the reception staff know what to do so that they can greet the applicant (ideally by their name).

As an employer, there’s no need to be nervous during job in­ter­views. Even if you have limited ex­pe­ri­ence, you can hide it from the can­di­dates by preparing well and appearing confident. But beware: being confident does not mean treating the applicant as if they’re lower than you. On the contrary, treating them equally shows respect, pro­fes­sion­al­ism, and ex­pe­ri­ence in dealing with (future) employees.

It also helps if you think back to job in­ter­views you’ve had in the past, remember your ner­vous­ness, and consider which person in­ter­view­ing you made you feel the most com­fort­able. If you take this into account in all parts of the interview, the candidate will notice that it is not just an automated selection process, but that you want to make the situation as pleasant as possible for them.

Greet the candidate in an open, friendly manner and give them a bit of time to get settled in the room before you begin the actual interview. To avoid any awkward silences, it is best to bridge this time with small talk, e.g. with questions about their journey, what they think of the city (if they have traveled from another place), or remarks about the weather. This will help them to ac­cli­ma­tize and breathe a bit before you get down to the nitty gritty.

You should then introduce any other par­tic­i­pants by saying their names and which positions they hold in the company. At this point, it is good to briefly explain why the person is taking part in the interview and what em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship they may have with the candidate if they get the job.

Keep calm and relaxed in this situation so that it helps calm the applicant’s nerves.

Now it’s time for the actual interview to begin. As an employer, you naturally want to find out why the applicant is in­ter­est­ed in the position and what skills they can bring to the table to benefit the company. But don’t forget to ask them about how they imagine their future work and a good employer to be. After all, it is about both sides getting to know each other equally. It is better to find out now that the mutual ex­pec­ta­tions can’t be fulfilled rather than be annoyed later that the wrong decision was made.

This part can quickly end up being a pure question-answer game (or a cross-ex­am­i­na­tion if there are several par­tic­i­pants). Try to create as natural a flow as possible by focusing on the candidate’s answers after you’ve asked one or two in­tro­duc­to­ry questions, and steering the interview in the desired direction with specific, more in-depth questions.

Now it is your turn to introduce the company in more detail and to give the applicant an im­pres­sion of how their future job could look. Don’t lose yourself in an overly-detailed monologue of the company’s history or repeat in­for­ma­tion that can easily be found on the company’s website.

Consider in advance which in­for­ma­tion is important for an applicant to know and focus on the im­por­tance of the position you’re trying to fill. Briefly explain the role in the team, col­lab­o­ra­tion with other de­part­ments, and possible de­vel­op­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties for this position as well as the im­por­tance for the company’s overall future goals, if possible.

At this point, try to give the applicant as realistic a picture as possible of everyday company life. This is so you avoid dis­ap­point­ment and dis­sat­is­fac­tion from the get-go, which could po­ten­tial­ly bring down the team’s morale later on.

Now is the time that the applicant can ask questions that may relate to general processes in the company or specif­i­cal­ly to their future role. Here, it is important to answer openly and honestly as well, but just make sure you don’t reveal any company secrets.

Be aware that an applicant’s questions could also unearth some of the company’s problems. Prepare yourself for this by con­sult­ing with col­leagues and superiors be­fore­hand on how to react to these issues and possibly avoid answering them without lying to the applicant.

After all the candidate’s questions have been answered, it is normal to briefly outline what will happen next. Mention when you plan to get back to the candidate and clarify the most important con­di­tions for the em­ploy­ment contract. These include the earliest possible start date, salary ex­pec­ta­tions, vacation days, and contract type (fixed or unlimited).

You then thank the candidate for the interview and walk them to the door.

When a job vacancy needs filling, you’ll probably conduct more than just the one interview; you’ll no doubt invite a large number of potential can­di­dates for in­ter­views. If the selection process lasts several weeks, your memory of the first few in­ter­views could become foggy or you could forget important details.

So that you can still make an informed choice after some time, you should prepare some notes after each interview and, if possible, transfer them to a stan­dard­ized eval­u­a­tion sheet to make it easier to compare all the can­di­dates.