All this preparation is irrelevant if you cannot communicate with the candidate due to their being on edge, nervous, and uncomfortable. This section will show you how to prepare the candidate.
You remember how it feels. You are brought into the room and sit in front of several stern interviewers. Your blood is pounding so hard in your ears you can barely hear what they are saying! It is a waste of everyone's time if you can't settle the candidate.
An interview is an exchange of information. You need to manage the candidate's (as well as the interviewers') nerves and composure for best communication to ensure you get the best out of them and have all the information you need to make the right decision at the end of the process.
This is the start of your management career, and your manager expects you to perform. Your ability to select the right employee(s) will carry your ambition forward and be reflected in your department's performance. This is why working through this book is so important. It is never too early to set yourself apart as different from the rest.
Believe it or not, you have an advantage as a new manager that other interviewers may not have—you have very recently been interviewed for a new position yourself! Use this experience to improve your own interview technique. Make a list of what was good and bad about your interviews as a candidate.
Think about the following points:
Use your own list of good and bad experiences and discuss them with HR to agree ways to improve the interview experience you're about to give to your candidates. For HR, this is just another interview in a long series of interviews. For you, this is an early opportunity to show who you are, and why you were given the manager's job.
To settle the candidate in the interview, you need to build rapport to put them at ease. The next section shows you how.
On first greeting the candidate, ask a few rapport building questions such as the following:
This normally takes a minute or two as the candidate is settling in the interview room.
Everyone tends to be nervous at first. The careful, thorough preparation you are doing will allow you to be confident, relaxed, and in control, so this conversation will be natural and welcoming. Be sure to make eye contact and use the normal nods and murmurs to demonstrate agreement in any normal conversation. Don't make the candidate feel you are just pretending to be interested in them. Use the conversation to relax them so they are able to answer the questions readily. Don't let the time run away though!
Make your own list of simple questions to build rapport and use them. You may find something in common with the candidate through their application: a college, children, or hobby perhaps.
We have now covered the basic preparation for interviewing. Before going on to the next chapter and learning some techniques of interviewing, please review the preparatory actions you need to complete in the following checklist.
Before you proceed to the next chapter, ensure you have carried out all the tasks specified in this chapter. You need to be able to answer yes to the following:
Be sure you are competent in the first 19 points mentioned previously. Tick them off one after another as you achieve them. Before you tick number 20, ask yourself if you feel fully prepared to delve into the technique of interviewing.