Ep. 14: Interviewing candidates is a skill – don’t wing it

For today’s episode, Asim Razzaq stresses the importance of interviewing as a skill, especially when you're interviewing software engineering candidates. If you've never been taught how to interview someone, now is the time to invest in training. Companies that invest in interview training ultimately end up onboarding skilled employees who are a better cultural fit and contribute to greater organizational success. 

[01:01] Interviewing as a Skill

[01:58] Beneficial Strategies of Interviewing

[02:21] Approaching as a Collaborator

[03:31] Ensuring a Skilled Interviewer and Bar Raisers

[05:10] Structured and Written Feedbacks Pre-Interview

[05:59] Informal Settings With The Candidates

[07:06] Ensure Back Channel References

[08:04] Check Their 90-Day Plan

[08:57] Feedbacks on Interview Skills

[09:35] Situation: Declined Offer

[10:40] Attention to Candidate’s Behavior

[12:55] Being Human to Candidates

[13:33] Schedule Interview Briefing Earlier

[14:30] Summary

Knowing Your Candidate

Many companies from all over the world make the error of interviewing a candidate for the sake of just checking if they qualify for the job. While yes, having the proper skillset is an alluring factor to hiring an individual, but there’s more to the interview process than just knowing what the candidate can do. It’s also important to know who your candidate is. While you can be good at your work, attitude will go a long way. There are other non-traditional ways to get to know your candidate, which some companies are trying for nowadays. This allows employers to be immersed with their respective candidate and finally gets a full character profile on who they really are and how they will behave as a worker.

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