Interviewer training
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This document provides guidance on conducting effective interviews to evaluate candidates for roles at Craftsvilla. It outlines steps to design an interview process, prepare for interviews, conduct interviews without bias, probe candidates for past performance and future potential, ask follow-up questions, and wrap up interviews. The goal is to determine fit, allow candidates to evaluate the company, and make Craftsvilla a great recruitment experience through a structured, evidence-based interview process.
Interviewer training
- 2. Our success is directly attributable to our people. As an interviewer, you hold the key for continued success as we scale. Be ready to spend 20% of your time on interviewing.
- 3. Interview Objective • Evaluate if the candidate is the right fit for us • Let the candidate evaluate if Craftsvilla is the right fit for him/her Make the candidate a brand ambassador of Craftsvilla by ensuring a great recruitment experience (Even if a candidate is not hired, he/she should talk to the whole world about us!)
- 4. Step 1: Designing the Interview Loop Interview Rounds Topics to Cover (Focal Area) Recruiting Screen Technical Phone Screen Interviewer 1 Interviewer 2 Interviewer (n) HR Function Lead Hiring Manager and Recruiter will agree on the skills and competencies required for the role and will assign each interviewer with specific areas they need to evaluate candidates on. It starts with a JD.
- 5. • Take 10 minutes to go through the candidate’s resume and LinkedIn profile. Never walk into an interview cold. • Review job description, your interview focal areas and prepare questions. • Be ready with the selling message. Step 2: Pre Interview
- 6. • Leader in Ethnic space • Flat org, approachable leadership team. • Freedom to fail. Fail fast. But learn fast. • We love Chaos • ……….. • ………… Sell : Pitch Samples Write down and practice your pitch! (like sales team)
- 7. Bias • Tendency to give positive feedback to candidates who are similar to oneself. • Seek out information that supports a pre-conceived belief. • Quick and superficial evaluations. • Forming an overall favorable impression of a candidate based on responses to only one or two questions. 63% of hiring decisions are made within the first 4.3 minutes of an interview (SHRM)
- 8. Common Biases • My Type: She has similar company / school / cultural background like me, so she must be good. He loves to ski and wind surf like me! • Confirmation Bias: Seek out information that supports a pre- conceived belief about the candidate that has been formed prior to the interview (from the resume) or during the interview (looks/dressing/soft skills). He rated himself expert on Cassandra, and worked with XYZ company, so he must be good. • Affective Heuristic: Quick and superficial evaluations - the level of attractiveness of a candidate, race, gender, personal background. She is from a premier school, prestigious company. • Halo Effect: He gave the perfect answer to first qn. Impression already formed, rest of the interview becomes a formality.
- 9. How To Avoid Bias • A structured interview leads to a more accurate evaluation. • Look for proven track record and demonstrated behaviors during the interview. • Write down your observations, review notes to draw final conclusions. • Support your hiring recommendations with evidence.
- 10. Prepare Questions in your Focal Areas Be prepared with 3-5 questions in your focal area which you would ask all candidates being interviewed for that role. Complexity of the questions to be based on the experience level of the candidate. Avoid using competencies in the questions, competencies should be demonstrated by candidate while answering.
- 11. YOU Control The Interview • Do NOT use resume to guide your interview This will put the candidate in control of the interview, you will hear only about the topics they want you to hear. Use the resume only for initial screening. • When YOU select the topics, YOU are in control of the interview By covering a variety of topics in your focal area, you control the pace of the interview and can identify trends in behavior.
- 12. • Be on time. Break the ice. Connect. Tell them why you are excited to be here. Be genuine. • Let the candidate know you would be taking notes. Switch off your cell phone and laptop. Listen. • If they get stuck, bring the interview back on track by giving leads. Step 3: Interview Process This is no ego test! A conducive environment needs to be created by Interviewer to ensure the candidate shows their true potential.
- 13. Ice Breaker Samples • Greet the candidate with first name and offer a firm handshake. Thank candidate for showing interest for interview. • Ask if he/she is comfortable and would like to have coffee/tea/water. Ask if it was difficult to find the way to office in case you are the first interviewer, otherwise ask how the previous interviews were. • Note down a fact that stands out (an award, scholarship, side projects) from the resume or LI and start your conversation around that.
- 14. What do you look for? • Past Performance as a Predictor - Focuses on how the candidate performed in past situations. • Projective Behavior - how they will perform in future scenarios. • Conceptual Knowledge of the required skills (theoretical or practical).
- 15. Past Performance Future Performance Job Performance Predictor • Focuses on the technical or functional nuances of the role • Experience measured by projects led, knowledge used, results met or exceeded • Forms of the basis of “has the candidate done the job?” • Harder to quantify – identified by discussing work-related scenarios • Focuses on behaviors exhibited when doing the role • Experience measured by individual and team interactions, emotional experiences, success thru adversity • Forms the basis of “can the candidate do the job ?” • Interview questions knowledge, skills and abilities • Interview questions scenarios, relationships and behaviors
- 16. Probing: What / How / Why / When / Where? What have they done? Ask about a Specific Situation or Problem What did you do to resolve the customer escalation? What principles of good code development were particularly relevant to solve this? Reveals facts and accomplishments from the past Why did they do it? Reasoning / Result / Learning / Application What was the result? Will you do it differently? When? Why? What have you learned? Where else have you applied this learning? Repeated evidence to competency and future repeatability How have they done it? Approach / Action How did you go about implementing it? What are the alternate solutions you considered? Reveals individual competencies
- 17. Probing the situations – best practices Probing the Situations is the method of gathering the applicant's specific past experiences. You will spend the majority of your time on this section during the interview. • Discuss past project experience • Probe in to most relevant or recent experience • Start with understanding roles and responsibilities • Probe specific activity or role • Cover full depth ensuring sufficient breadth • Ask questions related to skill sets as required for delivery of job; refer JD if required • Try to elicit behaviors from the questions, behaviors should be demonstrated by candidate while answering • Its preferred if the behaviors you are trying to check are tied up with skill sets – for ex. , if your are checking a behavior of attitude for a Customer Success role, ask questions on how to handle situations during breakout stage rather than asking question on football game. • Ask open ended questions • Check for past experience, conceptual knowledge and demonstrated behavior.
- 18. Example • A candidate has mentioned in resume about testing a banking app • Pick this experience and ask “explain in details on your approach on bank app testing, entire process and any significant issue catch” • Candidate mentions “ I realized that the server query time was slow” • Probe further “what made you realize that the sqt was slow” • Candidate explains “ the algorithm was repetitive which could have been reduced” • Probe further “what is key learning from this finding” • Candidate explains “keep algorithms to min no. of steps using number theory” • Probe further “where else you have used this learning”
- 19. Avoid drawing conclusions/leading questions. I am assuming at that point you rechecked the code to make sure the system wouldn't crash again. So at the point when the system crashed, what did you do? Avoid asking for "usual" behavior. How do you typically handle conflicts? Tell me about a time you had conflict with someone in your organization? Avoid questions which will result in yes-no answer unless specifically warranted Have you worked with tough customers? (Questions starting Have you..? Did you..? Can you..?) Tell me about your toughest customer. Probing Questions to Avoid
- 20. Follow Up Questions Self Appraisal Questions • What is it about you, that enabled you to develop that solution? • Why did YOU get promoted to lead the Sales organization? • How did you manage to get such a high GPA in college? Third Party Self Appraisal Questions • If I contacted your Manager (Direct Reports / Co-workers), what would they say why you were promoted so quickly to lead the Sales organization? Self Appraisal – reveals the self awareness of the candidate Third party – reveals more data about working relationships, any issues with the team etc.
- 21. Company Questions The purpose of this part is two-fold: • To determine the applicant's interest in and understanding Craftsvilla. For example, you would want to ask questions like: What challenges are you looking for in this position? How will Craftsvilla fit in your career goals? What concerns or issues do you have about working at Craftsvilla? • To sell the organization & role ; clarify any doubts candidate is having
- 22. Wrapping up the Interview What else should I know about you that we haven’t covered? • Help you collect additional information about the candidate What questions do you have for me? • Leave at least 10 minutes to answer their questions. • The kind of questions a candidate asks can reveal a lot about the candidate. • Are they thoughtful? Have they done their homework?
- 23. • Immediately, flag any areas you want to be double-checked and communicate to the recruiter. • Review notes and make objective decision based on the evaluation, avoid bias. • Your feedback is confidential. Do not discuss with the team or with other interviewers. • Submit formal feedback within the next 15 minutes. Step 5: Post Interview
- 24. • Why should we hire this candidate? Is the candidate adding value? • Will the candidate be a good cultural fit? Does the candidate share our core values? • Are we raising the bar with hiring this candidate? How does he/she compare with the others on the team? Making Great Hiring Decisions
- 25. If You Are The Hiring Manager • Talk to the candidate about current project, team, challenges, technology, innovation. Does the candidate connect with what you are trying to do? • Is the candidate asking you thoughtful questions when you explain the above? • What would you and your team gain from this candidate? • Sell : Why should they join your team?
- 26. Annexure
- 27. 1. Managing Case Studies Offline Problem Solving • Problem bank • Provide the candidate with a couple of problems and give an option to pick. Later on ask why they picked the particular problem • Candidate submits the approach / solution to solving the problem • Review the solution During Interview : • Review the offline problem and add challenges to it • Add further context to the problem and build a use case for further analysis • Discuss related technical projects to reveal impact in current job Decision Making • Grade Problem solving skills • Learnability & Agility • Cultural Fit
- 28. • Never explore Knowledge or skills. Derive them. • Don’t have direct process questions. See whether candidate can apply it for the given problem • Focus on examples and specifics. • You are out to understand the candidate’s thinking process & approach • Your interview should challenge the person • You have to have a problem that can be stretched in ways up or sides • Your job is to help the candidate get to the solution. The level of help determines whether the candidate meets the job or not. Case Study techniques
- 29. 2. Behavior based Interviewing competencies Intellectual Analytical Articulate Conceptual Decisive Detail-Oriented Good Listener Handles Ambiguity Information Seeker Innovative Intuitive Judgment Organized Perceptive Problem Solver Quick Study Strategic Thinker Interpersonal Adaptable Assertive Collaborative Develops Others Diplomatic Empathetic Ethical Independent Inspiring Manages Stress Networking Skills Personable Persuasive Risk-Taker Self-Confident Team Player Motivation Ambitious Committed Continuous Learner Customer Oriented Enterprising Enthusiastic Goal-oriented Hard-working Initiative Optimistic Persistent Quality Commitment Resourceful Results-driven Self-motivated Wants a Challenge
- 30. 3. Elicit underlying Beliefs: Intent based Questions QUESTION INTENT There is a famous quote that says, “This is your life. Do what you love and do it often.” How does this quote apply to your work? People tend to work hard at things they love doing. I want to hear about how ‘hard’ into their work they are. “Most people never scratch the surface of what they’re capable of.” Does this apply to you? I want to hear about what they’ve done, what they have left to do, and what they need to get there. What does the term “customer obsession” mean to you? I want to hear all about the customers they’ve served and the times they’ve put the customer 1st. Would you rather be “right” or “effective”? Caring more about impact than credit. Being effective often requires subordination of ego. I want to hear about this. What’s the hardest thing you’ve done? Things don’t come easily and often require acceptance of defeat today in service of a win tomorrow. I want to hear about the battles they’ve fought and what it took to ultimately prevail.
- 31. 4. How To Tackle Difficult Candidates Tackling difficult candidates who plays the psychology game: • Have a pre-prepared interview plan. • Allow the candidate to speak, but within the boundaries of interview. • Do not encourage candidates if they try to go tangential on a different topic not relevant to the interview. • Ignore compliments from such candidates, however be polite.
- 32. 5.Common Interviewer Mistakes • Fails to build rapport with the candidate • Lacks preparation and uses resume to drive questions • Asks closed-ended / non-job-related / generic questions • Does not probe or follow-up on candidate’s previous answer
- 33. 6. What Not To Do In An Interview • Be rude, exhibit body language that shows dissatisfaction with responses • Appear overly enthusiastic, sit too close • Create familiarity with candidate, prolong the interview unnecessarily • Share detailed interview feedback with the candidate • Ask questions which are not appropriate - Political Ideology, Affiliations to organizations (non professional), etc • Promise a project or a position or salary to the candidate • Maintain Confidentiality - Let the candidate know that you are not able to disclose that information, however will review what you can share with the HR and get back. • NEVER SAY ANYTHING WHICH IS BEYOND YOUR CONTROL Talking Too Much (80/20 rule) Idea is to get to know the candidate, not to talk too much about yourself