Previously, we wrote about how to write a job ad to attract the sort of people you are after. Hopefully you’ll now have a pile of potential employees – but how do you go about choosing the one you’ll want to employ? Interviews are incredibly important however they can be very daunting if you have had little or no experience.

The Shortlist
The first thing to do is produce a shortlist of candidates. With any luck, there should be a good handful of applicants who’s CVs look good and you would like to invite to interview. At this stage, it is also worth reading the cover letters as well as the CVs so that you can pick the top candidates – remember that it is sometimes better to go for someone with passion and drive who can learn quickly, than someone who has all the right qualifications but won’t be able to pick up your business processes easily.

If you have a large pile of candidates, or you are recruiting for a particularly technical job, it may be worth arranging a test so that you can see how well the candidates react to pressure and so they have a chance to demonstrate their skills. Eventually, you should be left with five or six people.

Set aside a day or two for the interviews – it is best to keep all the interviews close together so that you can directly compare the interviewees and you can also give them a timely response – if your six interviews are spread out over a month, you may find it hard to remember the first couple of candidates clearly. When contacting the prospective candidates, provide clear instructions for them including:

- Where the interview will take place
- Who will be present during the interview and who they should ask for
- How long the interview should take
- Whether they will be reimbursed for travel expenses

The Interview
When it comes to the interview, there are two main stages – first, candidate information, and secondly, the actual interview questions.

Firstly, let the candidate know a little bit about the job – how many holidays they should expect and any restrictions on the holidays, sickness benefits and procedures, start date (if this has been decided), hours of work, and salary including things such as bonuses, commissions and benefits.

Now, you are ready for the interview questions. The interview should not only test the candidate’s knowledge, but also give you a good feel for whether they will fit into your company well or not. The questions you ask will depend on what sort of person you are looking for and the job spec, however some questions you might like to ask are:
- What is the worst and best bit of your current job?
- Describe your ideal boss
- Where would you like to be in 10 years from now?
- What would you say is your greatest success and why?
- What made you choose to apply for his job?
- What is your biggest strength? And weakness?

You may also like to ask some industry or company specific questions, as well as asking them more technical questions about their role. You may also like to ask them about some of their previous jobs, or about their extra curricular activities.

Remember to take notes on their CV as they talk as this will help you remember them when you come to review all the candidates. Also remember to be polite and attentive throughout (unless there is a particular reason for being difficult) as this is also a chance for the candidate to decide whether they want to work for you or not.

If you are looking for the candidate to expand on any of their answers, try using silence as a way of getting them to expand. If this does not work, try a probing question or two. Try not to have a rigid script – although there are particular points you may want to cover, try to develop what your candidate is saying and go with the flow. Keep control of the interview but try not to talk too much – the candidate should really do 60% or more of the talking.

At the end of the interview, ask the candidate if they have any questions. Try to give them a date for when they will hear about the outcome of the decision.

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