Interviews

Welcome! I'm really looking forward to helping you master the art of interviewing. Before we map out our journey, I'd love to know what's driving your interest so I can make this as practical as possible for you.

Are you preparing to hire someone for a team, conducting research or journalistic interviews, or getting ready to navigate the process as an applicant?

I am preparing to hire someone

It is great to have you here! Hiring the right person is one of the most significant investments you will make in your business, but doing it well is a true skill.

Your path

Structuring the Interview Process

Evaluating Candidates and Finalizing

What is the True Goal of an Interview?

To kick things off, let's look at the foundational purpose of a job interview. It seems obvious—you want to find someone to fill a role—but a truly effective interview is a precise, two-way informational exchange. Your primary goal as a hiring manager is to gather accurate, objective data about a candidate's skills and behaviors to make an informed decision. At the same time, according to the , the financial cost of making a bad hire can easily equal up to 30% of that employee's first-year earnings. This is why we treat interviewing as a systematic evaluation process, rather than just a casual chat.

Shall we explore how to prepare before the candidate even walks through the door?

Interviews

Step 1: Preparation is Your Superpower

Before you ever sit down across from a candidate, the interview has already begun. Great interviewing is 80% preparation and 20% execution. If you wing it, you end up relying on —which is highly susceptible to unconscious bias—rather than hard evidence of a candidate's abilities.

To prepare effectively, you need to align your search with the actual needs of the role. This begins with three quick steps:

Deconstruct the Job Description: Identify the top 3-5 core competencies (like technical troubleshooting, project management, or customer empathy) actually required for daily success.
Review the Candidate's Material: Spend 15 minutes before the interview reviewing their resume to highlight specific projects you want them to unpack.
Set the Stage: Prepare a quiet environment, gather your scorecards, and make sure your internal team is aligned on who is asking what.

Now, let's look at how we translate those core competencies into a structured flow. Shall we move on to how structuring your format beats unstructured 'chats' every single time?