Preparing Yourself to Conduct a Job Interview

5 of 11 in Series:
The Essentials of Hiring Employees

When you're to the final interviewing stages of hiring an employee, you need to prepare before you conduct the job interview. How well-prepared you are affects what you can take away from those interviews. Here’s a checklist of things that you should do before you pop the first interview question:

• Thoroughly familiarize yourself with the job description. Especially the hiring criteria.

  
  



• Review everything the candidate has submitted to date. Resumé, cover letter, and so on. Note any areas needing clarification or explanation.

  
  



• Set up a general structure for the interview. Create a basic schedule for the interview so that, as the meeting progresses, you reserve enough time to cover all the key areas you want to address, as well as enough time at the end for the applicant to ask questions of you.

  
  



• Write down the questions you intend to ask. Base your questions on the areas of the candidate’s background that deserve the most attention (based on the job description and your hiring criteria).

  
  



• Make arrangements (if practical) to hold the interview in a room that’s private and reasonably comfortable. Generally speaking, a conference room is a better place to conduct an interview than your office, but if your office is your only option, try to create a reasonably calm environment.

  
  

Try not to schedule job interviews in the middle of the day. You’re not likely to be as relaxed and as focused as you need to be, and you may have a tough time fighting off interruptions and distractions. The ideal time to interview candidates is early morning, before the workday starts. You’re fresher then, and so is the candidate.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/preparing-yourself-to-conduct-a-job-interview.html