How to be a good interviewer? Whether you're new at interviewing or not having a great track record, you're at the right place to know about how to be a good interviewer. It's a very common question but not hard enough to adopt the quality to be good at this. 

Interviewers hold the authority of asking questions during an interview. So, you need to keep a few key pointers in mind. With that being said, here are 10 tips and tricks for interviewers. 

How to be a good interviewer?

A good interviewer isn't rude and welcomes interviewees with smile and should be conversational as well. Break the ice and make them feel that you care. Let's know the qualities of a good interviewer in our detail guide. 

1. Always prepare beforehand 

During an interview you’ll be asking all the questions and keeping notes on the prime candidates you find suitable for the position you’re offering. But it’s not just the candidates that need to prepare their answers.

You’ll also have to prepare a standard questionnaire on the fundamentals of what you’re looking for in your candidates. The questions need to be precise and on topic.

And you’ll also have to interview them with a straight face. So, you should always prepare what to ask and what you’re looking for beforehand. 

Besides, there's an easy solution to dimisnih your stress before calling up for an interview. You can use any recruiting software to automate process including screening, shortlisting, sending proposals for interview and other corresponding staff. 

2. Be sure about what you’re looking for

The line between what you’re looking for in your candidates and what a candidate can offer can often be quite blurry. So, it’s always a good workout to know exactly what you’re looking for.

By having a clear image of your perfect candidate, you can also design your questions accordingly, making your overall experience much easier on both you and the candidate.

And worst-case scenario, even if the candidates don’t check all your boxes, you still have the option to compromise on the essentials and pick the candidate that comes closest.

3. Separate the essential and optional skills you’re looking for

It’s always a good idea to separate the essential skills and the optional skills list ahead of time while preparing for your interview. By doing so you can avoid certain predicaments that often pop up during interviews.

For instance, if two candidates both check all the essentials you can then make the final choice based on the optional list. This makes interviews a lot less stressful while also making the selection process a lot easier.

4. Ask follow-up questions

Just because you have to follow the questionnaire doesn’t mean you can’t ask questions outside it. A good interviewer always asks follow-up questions.

This gives the candidates the confidence to express themselves while simultaneously painting a clearer picture of the candidate’s attributes and abilities to the interviewer.

Follow-up questions could also be asked to clarify something the interviewer doesn’t understand or finds unorthodox.

5. Seeing the candidates in action

It’s one thing to do something and a very different thing to do it perfectly. Candidates will always have long elaborate CVs and recommendations.

But hiring someone without seeing their skills in action can only be considered a subpar process at best. That’s why you should always ask candidates to show you what they can do.

For example, if the position requires one to do a lot of analogies, you can give the candidates an article or a spreadsheet and ask them to summarize it for you.

The good candidates will always mention the details in their summary while the average ones will only give you a brief description. 

6. Make sure the applicant is relaxed

Interviews are very stressful for the candidates since they’re all fighting for the same seats. So it’s very common for people to stress themselves out during the interview as well.

Studies have proven that it is extremely difficult to perform even at an average level during stress. So a good interviewer will always try to calm the stressed-out candidates down.

A select few words of encouragement, maybe a little small talk before the real questions can often come off as very helpful for the candidates to perform up to their potential.

7. Don’t ask silly questions

The idea of follow-up questions brings with it, a certain drawback that often occurs amongst many interviewers. That is to ask silly, disassociated questions that don’t bring any valuable information to the table.

This can range from asking random questions to asking mundane questions that have no value to the answers. These questions not only waste valuable time but also bring in confusion during the final selection process.

So, these must be avoided, both in the questionnaire and the actual interview.

8. Work against bias

As human beings we often let our emotions cloud our judgments. An interviewer may find a candidate very friendly or approachable.

This may lead to clouding his judgment into selecting him as a top candidate even though he’s probably mediocre at best. This should be avoided at all costs.

It’s the interviewer’s job to find the prime candidate. The selection process has to be tedious and calculative. But that’s exactly what he’s paid to do.

9. Advertising

The candidates need to know what kind of company you are representing. The company motto, the fundamentals of working there, etc.

Similarly, it’s also important that your candidates find interest in what your company is offering. So, advertising your company is a great way to help them understand what they’re signing up for.

A good interviewer will always show off the good aspects of his/her company. S/he won’t downplay any jobs no matter how tedious the actual work is. It doesn’t mean that you’re hiding the demerits of the job.

It should also be disclosed professionally and not overplayed so that the candidate doesn’t feel misled. 

10. The candidate is assessing you just as much as you are assessing them

Some interviewers often act like they hold all the power in the interview when in truth, the candidate is free to choose or leave the interview as s/he sees fit.

So, an interviewer should always be professional. It should always be noted that s/he is representing his/her company during the interviews.

Therefore, he should always act unbiased and professional to the best of his ability. However, the guide for interviewers can be effective to adopt the qualities to be good at this. 

Conclusion

These are some fundemental things to memorize if you’re an interviewer. Our interview guidelines for an interviewer guides you to enhance your quality.

Whether you’re new at interviewing or just trying to be better, it’s always best to exercise these pointers for every interview you will take in the future. So, how to be a good interviewer isn't a headache at all. 

Happy intervieweing.