Break Through to Candidates During Interviews

When you’re interviewing someone for a position in your company, you’re looking for someone who has the skills needed to tackle the challenges of the job. However, the candidates you interview will likely have come prepared with a set of responses they think will land them the job but may not be a genuine reflection of their abilities. If you’re looking to get authentic responses from your candidates, you’ll have to structure your interview process in such a way that encourages candidates to have a real conversation with you,  that goes beyond rehearsed responses. 

If a candidate can answer a question very quickly, they’ve most likely rehearsed their response. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Most people will have prepared for standard interview questions such as, “walk me through your CV,” and indeed it would be concerning if they don’t seem prepared to answer these typical questions. So while you should dig deeper in order to get to their authentic selves, you should expect a rehearsed response from most candidates for many initial prompts. It shows that they care about the role and have done the work to showcase their various experiences in the best light. 

A nervous candidate won’t be able to show their best selves. One way to reduce nervousness is to set expectations for your time together. I start interviews by introducing myself. I then explain the flow of the process, including the approximate number of questions I’ll be asking, how long the interview will last, and if there will be time for them to ask questions afterwards. If I’ll be taking notes I let the candidate know, especially if it’s a virtual interview and I’ll be typing. At this point I pause and ask the candidate if they have any questions before  the interview. By giving candidates an understanding of what they can expect, you will naturally make them feel more comfortable. 

To warm a candidate up, I tend to begin with a question that they’ll likely have prepared for, such as “why are you interested in this role”. Since they’ll be able to respond with relative ease, you’re setting them up to proceed through the interview with confidence. Diving straight into a complex question might make a candidate more nervous and less likely to bring their best to the table. 

Once you’ve worked through one or two basic questions with the candidate feeling confident, you can move into different types of questions that allow you to dig deeper into their professional experiences. 

I typically ask between three and four main questions in a 45 minute interview. Each question will consist of several follow up questions that probe into the candidate’s responses. When you’re looking to break through to a candidate, asking hypothetical and probing follow up questions is a great way to understand how they approach various situations, what their values are, and what their thought process is. These types of questions generally cannot be prepared for, the candidate will have to think on the spot, and as a result their responses will naturally be more genuine. The intention is not to try to trick a candidate when you’re having them think on the spot. Your aim is to evaluate a candidate’s true abilities for the role rather than how well prepared they are which can advantage candidates who have access to more resources. 

As you frame your questions, standardise the main questions you will ask. This will help you gauge the strength of a candidate’s answer and allow you to evaluate everyone fairly. Your initial prompt questions and hypothetical questions can, for instance, be standardised across all candidates, but the follow up questions could be built around their individual answers. I recommend avoiding questions where there’s one clear “right” answer. Instead, build your questions around what the candidate is sharing in order to evaluate whether they’re a good fit for the role.

Probing Questions

During interviews, most people will say what they think the interviewer wants to hear. Probing questions are a useful tool you can use to move past scripted answers and get a better understanding of a candidate’s thinking process. Probing questions allow you to turn the interview into more of a conversation and gives you a chance to dig deeper into what the candidate shares. 

Candidates typically prepare for behavioural questions such as “what’s an area of development you’re working on?” You can then ask follow up questions that probe into what they’ve shared. For example, if their response is “I work too hard,” you could ask probing questions such as “tell me about how that has hindered you,” or “how are you working on improving in this area?” While you can start off with more open-ended questions, your follow up questions can be used to ask for more details and spend time exploring their responses. 

Hypothetical Questions

Scenario-based or hypothetical questions can’t be answered with scripted responses, so they’re a great way to evaluate a candidate’s abilities. These hypothetical questions should reflect the kinds of situations that the candidate is likely to encounter on the job, and from their responses, you’ll be able to gauge whether they’re able to work through the problem in a structured way. 

For instance, if you’re hiring for a marketing or product role, you could ask, “Suppose you need to launch our company’s product in a country where we’ve never sold our product before, how would you approach this? Explain how you’d think through the problem, and what factors you’d take into account?” These types of questions allow you to evaluate the depth of a candidate’s knowledge as well as their understanding of your business. 

Interview Don’ts

An interview should feel like a conversation, and your role is to give every candidate an equal opportunity to showcase their skills. Being aware of the common missteps listed below will help you do just that. 

• Letting the candidate drive the conversation

Some candidates who are particularly skilled at interviewing might try to control the flow of the conversation. They will shift the focus from your questions to their experiences and carefully crafted stories. If you’re not being attentive, you can easily get sidetracked. Be diligent about how the conversation is going, and stick to the structure you planned out. If a candidate is speaking for too long, you can politely interject to make sure the interview remains standardised. 

• Evaluating based on emotion

The purpose of an interview is to find the person with the relevant skills to succeed in a particular position. Avoid evaluating based on emotion and whether or not you liked someone’s personality. Be objective and evaluate candidates based on the strength of their responses rather than over indexing on whether you feel like you “clicked”. Make sure you’re not letting the interview veer too far off from the questions you’ve planned and that you’ve standardised your questions so that you can evaluate every candidate’s responses fairly. 

• Not being mindful of time

Make sure you’re pacing yourself so that you get through all the questions you need to ask. If a candidate has clearly misunderstood the question, jump in and clarify what you meant. This will help you make the best use of time and give them the chance to share a more relevant response with you. Leave a few minutes at the end of the interview for any questions the candidate may have for you. 

1 Start Off on the Right Foot

To encourage a candidate to feel less nervous, preface the interview with an overview of how many questions you’ll ask and let them know if you’ll be taking notes. Begin with a question that they’ll likely have prepared for to give them an initial confidence boost and ease their nervousness. 

2 Spend time on Probing and Hypothetical Questions 

These questions allow you to move past rehearsed answers and towards genuine ones. Listen to what the candidate is sharing and use their responses to craft follow up questions. Use scenarios that reflect a problem they’d face on the job to see if they’re able to think through role-related challenges in a structured way. 

3 Structure  the Interview

Stay in control of the interview. If a candidate is avoiding your questions, step in and shift the focus back to the topic. Be intentional about getting through the list of questions you had planned so that you’re able to evaluate everyone fairly.