Max Kolysh’s Post

⚡ Interviewer tip: **This is especially true when interviewing recent graduates and those who are re-entering the workforce!** Take the time to make your candidate feel welcome and at ease before diving into the meat of the interview. No one performs as well as they may have when they're stressed out, and interviewing is stressful, so don't miss out on a great candidate because they felt overwhelmed and uneasy the whole time. Here are a few ways I like to start an interview: ✔ Be genuinely excited and happy to meet them! I get it, we speak to so many candidates in a day, and sometimes another conversation about a position we've just spent the last 8 hours talking about feels robotic. But remember, your smile and excitement conveys a feeling of belonging to the candidate. ✔ Explain the interview process. I like to start all of my interviews by telling candidates what they can expect from this interview. It helps them mentally prepare for what's to come, and even though I've already told them about this interview when I spoke with them to schedule it, a nice recap at the top of our meeting goes a long way. ✔ Ask them if they have any immediate questions for you. I know this is a little backwards from how we as recruiters typically handle questions -- questions are usually reserved for the end. But I conduct a pretty lengthy screening interview with all of my candidates, and during that call, I tell them a lot about the position they're interviewing for. Naturally, questions pop up for them after our call has ended and they've had time to process. I find it helps candidates a) gets used to a question/answer format with a bit less pressure and b) helps ensure their important questions are answered and not forgotten along the way. ✔ Non-traditional interview settings. Zoom interviews are challenging, since there isn't a lot of wiggle room, but I prefer to conduct in-person interviews in a non-traditional setting. Maybe its outside, maybe we're walking and talking through one of our work buildings, maybe I treat them to coffee while we discuss the role. I find breaking away from the office setting really helps break down a barrier with candidates and puts them more at ease. Recruiters, what are your go-to tips to help candidates feel more relaxed and perform their best during an interview? #recruitment #recruiter #interviewingtips #interviewing

In today's edition of "candidate advice, that should actually be advice for interviewers..." Interviewer: "Do you have any questions for me?" Now, insert millions of articles and posts about questions candidates can ask to "get the job every time." BUT are you as an interviewer (or your interviewing teams) ready to actually answer these questions? 🤔 Here are just a few of the "candidate advised" questions I've seen: ➡ What were some qualities that the previous employee in this role brought to the job that you would like to see carried forward? ➡ When you were interviewing here, what would you have liked to know before you joined? ➡ What is the biggest problem I should focus on in the first 6 months with the company? ➡ In a year, what kind of metrics would let me know I've done a good job before we go into my review? ➡ (My personal favorite) What are some areas of your management techniques you're trying to improve? How is the company supporting that improvement? ➡ Why is this position open? Do your hiring teams know how to answer these? I've shadowed hundreds of interviews, and am continuously shocked 😲 by how underprepared interviewers are to answer these questions. (OR even worse, some interviewers are offended by these questions because they are used to the out-dated and traditional power dynamics of interviewing. ❌ ) Interviewing is not just evaluating the candidate; it's also being able to sell the opportunity if it aligns with their abilities and motivators. 💥 Your answers to these questions could make or break your ability to get top talent. 💡If you are an interviewer, practice your response to these questions. 💡If you have an interview team, ask them these types questions before you assign them the huge responsibility of hiring. Or even better, ask Expert Interviewers to audit your interviewing process. Happy Interviewing, folks! #interview #hiring #interviewquestions

Showing initiative is one of the greatest interview skills you can master. Most people assume that initiative isn't assessed until you're on the job. But they're wrong. During the interview process, initiative looks like: > 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. ↳ Craft your answers based on what you know the interviewer needs to uncover. ↳ Rather than answering "tell me about yourself" with details about your personal life, share a run-down of your career so far and mention what drew you towards this company. > 𝗔𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. ↳ At the end of each interview, ask well-researched, thoughtful questions that highlight your interest in the role. ↳ Avoid questions about vacation days - ask your recruiter instead. > 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗽. ↳ Send your recruiter a brief follow-up email that they can pass to the hiring manager after each interview. You'd be surprised how few candidates do this! > 𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻. ↳ Accept any pre-interview prep call and advice your recruiter has to offer. No one is "too good" to listen to insights from someone who knows the hiring manager well. > 𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁. ↳ Share your honest thoughts and feedback with your recruiter after each round. ↳ Let them know about other interview processes you're involved in so they can manage the process and be your advocate. Every hiring manager wants to make hiring AND onboarding as smooth and easy as possible. So, if they're confident you can use your initiative through your interview performance and interactions with your recruiter, you're FAR more likely to be hired 🙂 Where else could you use your initiative during the interview process? 🤔 #InterviewAdvice #CandidateAdvice #InterviewTips

Did you hire the best candidate, or the candidate that was best at interviewing?(Part II) How do you account for, and differentiate between, the engineer (for example) who’s recently interviewed at 5+ companies, and the engineer where this is their first interview in the past 3-5 years? Interviewing is stressful, and the more you do it, the more comfortable you become. Are you able to differentiate between the two? There’s no silver bullet that will completely eliminate the risk when hiring. However, there are several steps / processes that reduce the risk of hiring a ‘false positive’. Transparency. Set proper expectations and provide a detailed overview of the interview process, what each conversation consists of, what you’re evaluating (for each interview), as well as an overview of the types of questions that will be asked (better yet, a few example questions that are similar to those the candidate should expect). This helps level the playing field and mitigates the ‘professional interviewer’ bias. The first 5 minutes. Provide an overview/framework for the interview (here’s what we’ll discuss, we’ll leave time at the end for your questions, etc.), thank the candidate for spending the time to meet with you today, encourage them to ask for clarification if there’s any confusion over a question, and use an icebreaker to set the candidate at ease. Interviewing is stressful, try and make your process as welcoming as possible. Coach/train your interviewers to assess strengths instead of solely identifying weaknesses. This requires a more experienced interview team, as well as flexibility/adaptability. Each interview must have a goal/purpose. What are you evaluating, and how? Don’t waste time having multiple people ask the same set of questions. Presentations. Consider a panel presentation-style interview. Have the candidate come prepared to talk about a work project they’re proud of (20-25 minute presentation followed by 20-25 minutes of q&a). This is a great way to get an understanding of what the candidate is proud of (and passionate about), the complexity/scope of their work, as well as an opportunity to deep-dive on why, and how, certain decisions were made. Interviews are stressful! A well designed, thoughtful interview process is a strong differentiator and leads to hiring confidence / success. #hiring #interviews #recruiting #candidateexperience

Take some time to reflect on your interview questions. What you ask and how it's delivered can really impact the outcome - even it's not as obvious. Good interview questions should: Promote meaningful conversations I'll say this a thousand times and it'll never be enough - interviews are two-way. Don't make it a tick-box exercise of information. Well-structured questions will improve interview flow and allow for candidates to shine and ask questions back. Reveal cultural add Uncover whether the candidate aligns with the company culture and values. Also let them show their motivations, how they respond to various situations, learn their goals. It should shed light on how well the candidate may fit into the organization and your team. Enhance candidate experience Asking thoughtful and relevant questions can open up a candidate in a short time. If they feel engaged, and listened to, and confident they were able to share, they'll be less likely they'll drop out. Evaluate skills More important for certain roles - both hard and soft skills. Gain an understanding of the candidate's thought process and approach to problem-solving. Determine how they handle feedback and coaching. Determine their current skill set and where development is required. Bad Interview Questions (other than resulting in the opposite) can also create bias. Poorly formulated questions can be discriminatory or irrelevant to the job requirements. It may even lead to a very different line of questioning for candidates at the same stage, meaning unfair evaluations of candidates. With Screenloop you can see what questions are being asked in every interview, determine talk time, and make the most of your hiring decisions and interview experience. Our training platform can also help your interviewers get up to speed and upskilled. #interviews #talentacquisition

A GREAT PERSONAL TIP TO HELP YOU ACE BEHAVIORAL INTERVIEWS!! I spent the last few weeks interviewing candidates for various open positions at Gartner And like most advisory and #consulting recruitment rounds, Gartner relies on behavioral interviewing techniques in some parts of its selection process. While behavioral interviews are not new, I still see that candidates (freshers or even experienced professionals) do not adequately deploy the simple tactics that can help them ace such interviews. My biggest observation is about how to concisely frame responses and follow a logical and structured approach to describe situations. Where do most candidates go WRONG? By thinking that that they can ‘wing it’ for the behavioural interview rounds. Preparing for behavioural interviews is just as important as preparing for case rounds or other technical rounds. MY PERSONAL TIP: A crucial step is to deep dive into your own experiences and categorize them into themes like #leadership, #teamwork or #collaboration etc and then start to frame them as answers using the STAR or CAR techniques. This will help you gather your thoughts in advance, keep your best experiences top of mind during the interview and memorize multiple scenarios that you can tailor based on the question asked. If we don’t do this and PRACTICE the answers enough, we resort to providing half-baked answers that are not structured or concise and most importantly we fail to support them with enough details when the interviewer probes into it further. Building this repository of experiences for yourself will be an INVALUABLE asset for every interview that you appear for. You can get some more tips here: https://lnkd.in/dyTwVgdb #BehavioralInterviews #HiringTrends #RecruitmentInsights #careersatgartner #lifeatgartner #gartner #hiring #interviewtips #interviewpreparation #hiringtrends

IS YOUR INTERVIEW PROCESS LIKE A CIA INTERROGATION? Even seasoned candidates often feel pre-interview jitters, especially when faced with an interrogation-style interview. The traditional barrage of questions often leads to rehearsed answers, offering little insight into a candidate's true character. Here's an alternative approach: 1. Dig Deeper: Instead of rapid-fire questions, opt for thoughtful follow-ups that encourage candidates to expand on their responses:  👉 Ask for Elaboration: "Could you share more about that?"  👉 Explore Emotions: "How did you feel during that experience?"  👉 Explore Scenarios: "If you were in charge of the project, how would you tackle it?" By maintaining open body language and genuine curiosity, you can coax candidates into revealing their work approach and interpersonal skills, providing valuable insights into their mindset and personality. 2. Empower Candidates to Ask Questions: Remember, interviews should be a two-way street. Allocate ample time for candidates to ask questions, signaling your interest in their concerns: 👉 Prompt Clarification: “Is there anything you'd like more detail on?” 👉 Prompt Inquiry: "Is there any aspect of the project, team, or culture would you like to know more about?" Transitioning to this Information Exchange Interview Approach fosters in-depth dialogue, leading to more accurate decision-making data. It demonstrates your organization's genuine interest in understanding candidates and improves the interview experience for all involved. I’m JANET WEBB   ☑️ I Help CEOs and busy Human Resource leaders fix their hiring problems and significantly reduce hiring costs.   ☑️ WHEN YOU’RE READY: Message me to learn more about my HIRING FOR FIT© In-House Hiring Method to attract and assess top leaders. #hiringstrategy #interviewing #candidateexperience

*Hiring Managers* Interview preparation is a BEST practice for ALL. Often when we think about interview preparation - we think about the work the candidate needs to do to prepare for their side of the conversation. - Did they research the organization? Interviewees? Industry? - Are they ready to share specific and relevant examples of their past work - successes, failures, impacts- with some data to back it up? - Do they have a point of view on the marketing, creative, communications, product, or branding work you're currently doing? AND, an interview is more than just an opportunity for you to assess the skills, experience, and aptitude of candidates. It's an opportunity for connection - for conversation- for two-way sharing. And for the candidate to assess YOUR skills as a manager, leader, mentor, collaborator, innovator. So are you prepared to share? - Your understanding of the candidate's background as expressed in their resume, portfolio, and LinkedIn profile. - A few examples of campaigns, products, experiences you've lead or managed for your clients and your employees. What are the successes you're most proud of? Failures you've learned from? - The people you follow - read- listen - learn from? I promise - that the time you spend now preparing for your candidate interviews will be WELL worth it - in the quality of conversation, the efficacy of your assessment, and ultimately the success of your next hire. #interviewpreparation #hiringmanagers #hiringsuccess

Would love to get people's thoughts on a subject that isn't spoken about enough 🗣 Interview Skills vs Actual Skills 🤔 We've all been there, interviewing for a job where we know we have the experience and passion for the role, but somehow the interview doesn't go as planned. So who's in the wrong? 🤷♂️ There is an argument for both sides - it's not easy to fit an entire career into a one-hour video interview, but there are steps candidates can take to tell their story better. On the flip side, companies can also put actions in place to ensure a more rounded view of the candidate takes place. 🕵♂️ For candidates, preparation is key. Thoroughly research the company, its values, and the role you're interviewing for. Anticipate common questions and craft thoughtful responses that highlight both your technical skills and your ability to contribute to the team. Practice with a friend or mentor to refine your responses and become more comfortable in the interview setting. And don't forget to tell compelling stories that illustrate your impact - stories are memorable and help create a connection between you and the interviewer. For companies, structured interviews bring a systematic and consistent framework to the hiring process, offering a fair evaluation, data-driven decisions, and an enhanced candidate experience. Make people feel comfortable by having a conversation instead of a grilling - interviews should not be stressful, but rather an opportunity to get to know the candidate. And ahead of time, give them an idea of the interview process and structure. Amazon does a great job of this by listing their values and interview structure ahead of time and asking candidates to prepare answers around these in a structured format. So, what are your thoughts? Would love to see some examples of an interview process done well to ensure great hires based off more than an interview. Share your insights in the comments. ✌ #interviewing #talentacquisition #hiring #interviewtips #advice