Preparing to Give a Job Interview

The first step is to review the job description that you are hiring for. This will allow you to write down all the specific skills, knowledge and abilities needed for the job. List everything you can think of and refer to previous job descriptions. It is extremely important that everything is included on the list for the rest of the steps to be effective. It can be extremely helpful to ask questions of supervisors over the job and employees currently working in the position you are hiring for. They can provide information not on the job description that could prove invaluable.

Next, review all of the candidate's resumes. Your first list combined with the resumes will help you weed out the applicants who do not have the skills or experience for the job. It will also help you build a foundation for your interview. Look for gaps in information that you can fill in your interview. Many times you won't be able to tell if the candidate has all of the skills and knowledge needed for the job based on the resume alone. Your interview questions will need to be written to find out this information.

Lastly, you will develop a list of interview questions. The first two steps will be the basis of these questions. These questions will answer whether your candidate has the skills, abilities and knowledge to excel at the job you are hiring for. These questions should be behavior based in nature. Don't simply ask the candidate how they would handle a situation, but ask them to describe a specific situation from their past experience and how they handled it. This will give you a more realistic picture of how they will handle the same situation in the future. You should also develop informational questions and questions that will make your candidate feel at ease.

Proper preparation for job interviews will help you hire a better employee. Make sure that you spend the time to fully review the job description you will be hiring for, review the resumes for information and questions to ask in the interview, and lastly to prepare a list of interview questions that are behavior-based. This preparation will pay off and make your workplace a more productive one and make your job as a manager much easier.