In today’s world, every interviewer demands to know a candidate on a professional level before introducing a peer-to-peer workplace network with such a candidate. Thus, for the first-time human resource professionals, the question, how to conduct an effective interview? arises many times. How do you know when the interview is not effective? Well! There are various signs of ineffective interview such as:
- Outside-the-line time frame
- Communication barriers
- Hesitation among the participants
- No outcome
A bad interview can lead to a waste of time, money, and resources for both the participants. What’s the solution? Today in this through reading, we are presenting a beginner’s guide on how to conduct interview questions? In this guide, the reader’s will be willing to understand the main concept of Interview, types of interviews and how to conduct an interview?
Let’s begin with a brief introduction to the Interview. What is it?
What is an Interview?
Interview stands for an official stationed conversion between interviewer and interviewee. It includes a motive to settle on the outcome of whether or not to make an official commitment with each other. For example, a job interview decides whether the candidate is qualified for a job position or not. On the other hand, through a job interview, an interviewee finds out whether or not the interview’s organization offers a satisfying job position. An interview often involves two or more than two participants.
What are the types of Interviews?
Check out the list of types of interviews below. To the reader’s surprise, these are the most common types of interviews. In other countries, there are various other types of interviews. These include task-oriented interviews, on-site interviews, and behavioral-based interviews.
Face-to-face interview
It is also known as individual interviews. A face-to-face interview can also be a job interview or an interview for an internship. This type of interview includes the candidate and the interviewer who is authorized to make the final decision. The time frame for this interview is 30 minutes to 90 minutes at maximum. If you are looking for conducting a face-to-face interview, you will find how to conduct an interview for a job? helpful.
Telephonic interview
In the modern century, this form of the interview has become quite prominent. It comes under the category of “how to conduct an effective interview?” It is because telephonic interviews are quick, with no conveyance involved, no personal meeting and a time frame less than 30 minutes. In the first stage of job interviews these days, telephone conversation to the candidate is processed. This mainly includes HR only. If the HR finds the candidate suitable, he/she conducts an interview with the senior authorities.
Interview for students
Student interviews are also very common in this modern age. Do you know? During students’ admission, every student sits in an interview with the panel of school or college authorities. Based on this interview, the panel decides whether or not the student will bring productivity to the premises and course he/she applied for.
One of the most difficult tasks remains “how to conduct an interview for students?” It is because students are considerably less experienced in this context. Furthermore, first-time interviewees may feel anxious or nervous. Thus, the outcome of a student interview does not simply depend on the interview experience but also on merit and skills.
Training interview
Training interviews or paid/unpaid internship interviews are the directives of the business industry these days. From an engineering graduate to a literature graduate, every student goes for a training interview to apply for an internship. An internship helps students to attain working experience in the workplace surrounding. It also helps them to learn the company’s ethics. Some of the most common training interview questions are:
- Discuss recent training program
- What productivity level will you bring in 3 months?
- How do you plan to learn during this training period?
- Are you available for unpaid training?
- What can we expect from you?
- Why did you choose our training program?
- How are your skills fit for our training program requirements?
Thus, as an interviewer before you sit across an interviewee, it is recommendable to follow how to conduct an interview ppt? guide.
Panel Interview
Panel Interview is a form of job interview. In this, a single candidate sits across multiple interviewers and converse accordingly. A panel interview seems quite effective when a company holds multiple senior managers. Therefore, this type of interview helps to gain the perspective of every hiring manager. Thus, they all can come to a mutual decision.
However, too many interviewees, a panel interview can be stressful as they face more than a single person who enquires about his/her skills, experience, qualifications and personal interest. Therefore, it is important to read and pursue “how to conduct an interview in the panel?” for making it more professional and less anxious for the interviewee.
Group discussion
A Group discussion is also a form of the interview where more than two participants are there. However, unlike in panel interviews, in a group discussion, there is a single interviewer and multiple interviewees. A group discussion can or cannot be a job interview.
For example, in various universities, shortlisted students sit in a group discussion or GD where their passion to communicate, confidence, and attitude is measured. Based on all the factors, a few candidates pass the GD and go for the next round, i.e. panel interview.
In a group interview, an interviewer either asks a single question to every candidate. But, in some group discussion, an interviewer may ask the interviewees to discuss with each other on a given topic. An interviewer must learn how to conduct an interview in a group? It is because a single interviewer can find it difficult to track down the significant outcomes of every interviewee at a time. Hence, the experience remains an element of significance in this case as well.
Video graphics Interview
Interview on video is another form of modern age interviews. This type of interview is suitable when the candidate is overseas and cannot be available on the same premises. This interview majorly proceeds through Skype that is a very common social video calling application for laptops and mobile phones.
For the most part, there are few cons of video graphics interview such as:
- Communication barriers
- Unwillingness to examine body language
- No source to inspect a person’s personality or attitude
How to conduct an interview?
Follow the stepwise instructions given below to conduct an interview effectively:
The motive of the Interview
As an interviewer, you must define the motive of an interview. For example, if you are conducting a job interview, the motive will be ‘finding the right candidate for a recently open job position in the organization.’ If you are conducting a behavioral-based interview, the motive will be ‘finding how a candidate will react to different employment-related scenarios.’
On how to conduct an interview PDF? It is significant that you define at least two possible outcomes of the interview. For example, in a job interview, the possible outcomes are: the candidate is selected or the candidate is rejected. Similarly, in a behavioral-based interview, the possible outcomes are: the candidate reacts positively to an employment crisis, or the candidate reacts negatively.
Select the form of Interview
In this step of how to conduct an interview for research? You must select the type of interview that you are going to conduct. Check out the various types of interviews defined above in this reading. Here’s a tip on how to conduct an interview based on type? Shortlist your number of candidate requirements in the organization, staffing budget, time frame per candidate, and decision-making authorities.
For example, if the staffing budget is fewer, you can conduct a telephonic interview. On the other hand, if the candidate requirement is high, you can conduct a group interview. Similarly, if the decision-making authorities are multiple, you can conduct a panel interview.
Sources of Recruitment
Today, times are gone when a candidate goes to a walk-in interview by reading the board at the window. In this modern era, HR communicates with hundreds of candidates online. Some of the very famous sources of recruitment nowadays are Naukri.com, Indeed.com, and LinkedIn.
Thus, an interviewer must choose between these sources of recruitment and invite candidates for the interview. In some companies, HR holds the authority to connect with eligible candidates online, invite for an interview, confirm interview details and take the first round of the interview.
Select the category of Candidates
This step is severely important in the conduct of an interview because it allows you to make a list of skills, qualifications and years of experience that you demand in the candidate. For example, if the open job position is for a content strategist, you will need a candidate with a degree in literature, communication and writing skills, and at least 2-5 years of experience in the field of copywriting.
While following up the guide on how to conduct an interview? Few interviewers go the extra mile and construct a candidate profile for the job vacancy. This strategy allows the candidates to inspect whether or not they are fit for the job role. Thus, this helps in inviting candidates who come from the given study background, hold similar skills and experience. For the most part, this step subtracts the possibility of unlimited candidate applications for a single job role.
How to conduct interview questions?
This step allows you to communicate with the candidates and get enough information to make the final decision. Some most common interview questions are:
- Tell us about yourself
- Why should we hire you?
- What are your salary expectations?
- Why do you want this job?
- What other offers do you have?
- Why is there an employment gap in your resume?
- Are you willing to travel?
- Are you a team player?
- Can you work under pressure?
- How do you handle the employment crisis?
- How do you manage work during an economic crisis?
- What is your motivating factor?
- How do you define success?
- Why did you leave your previous employer?
- What do you like about our organization?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
All these questions allow the interviewer to gain a better perspective of the candidate’s work ethic, attitude, personal crisis, reaction to different scenarios, and financial expectations.
Recruitment structure
Once you have selected the type of interview and invited candidates as per their skills, qualification, and experience, it is time to conduct the recruitment process. For example, if you are conducting a face-to-face interview, what will be the time, how you will inform the candidate, confirm the interview, postpone the interview, and send the job offer (if selected).
In many cases, interviewers prefer to select candidates on the spot and offer a job position. This helps to fill in job positions that are in urgency. However, in other cases, a recruitment structure is set.
For example, first the HR interviews all candidates, then shortlist some of them. Second, the panel interviews shortlisted candidates and shortlist some of them. In the third and final round, the main hiring manager or CEO interviews the candidates and selects one of them.
Further, the selected candidate receives a job offer via email. Then, the candidate responds whether or not he/she accepts the job letter. Furthermore, the candidate receives a joining date. He then confirms whether or not he is joining on such a date. This is called the recruitment structure. To begin with, some companies send paperwork job offers by postal mail if the budget allows.
Conclusion on How to conduct an interview?
In this reading of how to conduct an interview? We have brought you a complete guide that fits both small and large scale companies. With this interview conducting strategies, you can easily cover all the important aspects of the interview process. As an HR, you can rely on this guide to find out recruitment sources, shortlist candidates and write confirmation emails. It is noteworthy to mention that for all the given types of interviews in the blog, there are many more out there. Thus, you can connect with us in the comment section for additional queries.
“We wish you effective staffing!”
