How to Interview Someone for a Job
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Why Structured Interviewing Matters
- Foundation: Prepare Like a Hiring Strategist
- Designing an Effective Interview Structure
- Crafting and Delivering Interview Questions
- Practical 6-Step Interview Process (List 1)
- Eliminating Bias and Improving Interviewer Effectiveness
- Legal Considerations and Inclusive Practices
- Remote and Hybrid Interview Best Practices
- Interview Scoring and Decision-Making
- Compensation Conversations and Offers
- Onboarding Handover: From Hire to Performance
- Common Interview Mistakes and How to Fix Them
- Practical Tools and Templates
- When to Bring in Coaching or External Support
- Integrating Hiring with Career Mobility and Global Talent Strategies
- Two Key Checklists (List 2)
- Conclusion
Introduction
Hiring is one of the highest-leverage activities a leader or HR partner performs: the right hire accelerates performance, culture, and your team’s ability to deliver. Yet most interviews miss the mark because they focus on impressions instead of outcomes. If you feel stuck, stressed, or uncertain about how to interview someone for a job, you’re not alone—and you can learn a systematic approach that delivers predictably better hires.
Short answer: Interviewing someone for a job is a structured conversation with a clear outcome: determine whether the candidate has the capability, fit, and potential to perform in the role. You prepare by defining the role’s must-have outcomes and behaviours, design questions that reveal those competencies, use a consistent evaluation method, and remove bias through calibration and evidence-based scoring. If you prefer guided support to build a repeatable process for your team, you can book a free discovery call with me to map a hiring roadmap tailored to your organisation.
This article teaches a practical, coach-led approach to interviewing that blends HR best practice with hands-on interviewer skills. You’ll get a repeatable interview blueprint, question frameworks, scoring templates, remote interview adjustments, legal considerations, and ways to connect hiring decisions to longer-term career mobility—especially for global professionals. My perspective comes from work as an Author, HR and L&D Specialist, and Career Coach; the frameworks below are meant to be operational, not theoretical, and to help you hire with clarity and confidence.
Why Structured Interviewing Matters
Hiring as a strategic lever
Hiring affects productivity, culture, and retention. A single mis-hire costs time, money, and morale. When interviews are ad hoc, they privilege charm and similarity over evidence of capability. Structured interviews change that by converting subjective impressions into measurable signals linked to job outcomes.
Structured interviewing also creates fairness. When every candidate faces the same evaluation criteria and the same types of questions, you reduce unconscious bias and improve the defensibility of hiring decisions. For teams expanding globally or hiring expatriate candidates, structured processes ensure consistent assessment across locations and legal contexts.
Outcomes over impressions
The core objective of any interview is to answer three clear questions: Can they do the job? Will they do the job? Do they belong on the team? Answering these requires evidence: examples of past behavior, demonstration of skill (live or simulated), and signals of motivation and cultural fit. If you treat interviews as conversations that collect evidence against predefined criteria, you will make higher-confidence decisions.
Foundation: Prepare Like a Hiring Strategist
Define role outcomes and success indicators
Before you schedule the first interview, get granular about what success looks like at 30, 90, and 180 days. Translate responsibilities into outcomes and observable behaviours. Instead of “good communicator,” define what that means: “delivers clear weekly project updates that reduce stakeholder questions by 50%” or “runs client calls where next steps are agreed and documented within 24 hours.”
This outcome-oriented language becomes the basis for interview questions and the scorecard. It keeps interviews focused on what matters and helps later define onboarding and early performance metrics.
Build a competency model specific to the role
Develop a short list (3–6) of competencies that predict success in the role. Blend technical skills (e.g., SQL, project management) with behavioural competencies (e.g., stakeholder management, experimentation) and contextual competencies (e.g., comfort with ambiguity in international assignments).
Each competency should include examples of what great, satisfactory, and insufficient performance look like. This makes it easier to judge candidate answers consistently.
Assemble the interview team deliberately
Select interviewers based on what they’ll evaluate. A hiring manager should assess role fit and potential, a peer should evaluate team dynamics, and an L&D or HR partner should validate culture fit and compensation expectations. When hiring for an international assignment, include someone familiar with relocation logistics or local labour law.
Assign clear roles: who will lead the interview, who will focus on technical evaluation, and who will observe communication and behaviour. Share the role outcomes and competency model with all interviewers in advance.
Prepare candidate materials and logistics
Send candidates a clear brief: role summary, interview agenda, expected duration, and whether a skill assessment or case study is required. Provide practical details about remote interviews (platform links, time zones) and set expectations if the role includes relocation or specific work permits.
Give interviewers the candidate’s resume, portfolio, and any pre-work at least 48 hours in advance. Use a standard scorecard template so notes are collected against the same competencies.
Designing an Effective Interview Structure
Build a staged interview flow
A predictable, staged process reduces noise and respects candidates’ time. Typical stages include: initial phone screen, technical or task-based assessment, behavioural interviews, and final cultural/leadership interviews. For senior roles add an executive interview and stakeholder panel. For internationally mobile roles, add a conversation about visa, relocation readiness, and cross-cultural expectations early enough to avoid surprises.
Each stage should have a clear objective and exit criteria. For example, the phone screen confirms basic qualifications and motivation; if those are absent, stop the process. This prevents wasted time for both sides.
Balance question types to gather evidence
Use a balanced mix of behavioural, situational, technical, and value-based questions. Behavioural questions ask about past actions (“Tell me about a time when…”); situational questions ask how the candidate would act in a future scenario (“How would you handle…”); technical questions test domain knowledge or practical skill; value-based questions assess alignment with culture and mission.
Behavioural evidence carries the most predictive value for performance. When you hear a compelling behavioral example, probe granularly—ask for the specific actions they took, the timeline, the result, and what they learned.
Use a consistent scoring rubric
Design a scorecard mapping each competency to a 1–5 scale where each number is defined (1 = does not meet; 3 = meets expectations; 5 = exceeds in measurable ways). During the interview, assign scores and write evidence—one-liners won’t cut it. After interviews, compare scores across interviewers and discuss discrepancies with evidence rather than impressions.
Calibration meetings with all interviewers are crucial. They ensure everyone interprets the rubric the same way and reduce individual biases.
Crafting and Delivering Interview Questions
Behavioral questions: get specific, get measurable
Behavioral questions surface past behaviour, which predicts future results. Instead of asking “Are you a team player?” ask “Tell me about a time you had to align conflicting stakeholders on a project. What did you do and what happened?” Then use follow-ups to get concrete: “What specific words did you use? How often did you check in? What metric improved?”
Record the STAR elements in the candidate’s response: Situation, Task, Action, Result. But don’t make candidates recite STAR—use it as your listening tool.
Situational questions: test judgement and role-readiness
Situational questions evaluate decision-making and problem-solving in hypothetical but realistic scenarios. For example: “If you inherited a project that’s two months behind schedule with an uneasy client, what would be your first three steps?” Good situational responses reveal priorities, stakeholder management approach, and trade-off thinking.
Make your situational scenarios role-relevant and time-bound. Avoid abstract hypotheticals that don’t map to the day-to-day work.
Technical and task-based assessments: observe skills in action
For roles that require technical proficiency, ask for live demonstrations or provide take-home tasks that simulate real work. Design assessments that reflect actual challenges the hire will face. Time-box take-home work to respect candidates’ time and provide clear grading criteria.
When scoring technical tasks, consider both correctness and approach—how the candidate documents assumptions, communicates trade-offs, and arrives at an answer. Those process signals often matter more than a perfect final output.
Cultural-fit questions that focus on adaptation and values
Instead of vague cultural fit questions, ask about work preferences and real behaviours: “Describe a company practice you relied on that you wish your last employer had changed.” This reveals the conditions a candidate thrives in, which helps predict fit.
For global roles ask about cross-cultural experience, working across time zones, and language preferences. Probe for examples of adapting communication style or managing stakeholders from different national cultures.
Probing and follow-ups: the interviewer’s craft
Great interviews are driven by curiosity. When a candidate gives a promising example, ask for clarifying details. Useful follow-ups include: “What happened next?” “Who else was involved?” “What would you do differently now?” These micro-questions separate rehearsed answers from real experience.
Avoid multiple questions at once and allow silence—candidates often provide richer detail when given room.
Practical 6-Step Interview Process (List 1)
- Define outcomes and competencies; create a role scorecard.
- Screen for baseline qualifications and motivation.
- Conduct structured behavioural interviews using the scorecard.
- Administer role-relevant tasks or assessments with grading criteria.
- Calibrate interviewers and compare evidence-based scores.
- Make the decision, check references, and align an onboarding plan.
This sequence keeps interviews efficient and oriented toward measurable evidence.
Eliminating Bias and Improving Interviewer Effectiveness
Recognize common bias patterns
Interviewers can be influenced by similarity bias (preferring people like themselves), confirmation bias (seeking information that confirms first impressions), halo effect (one strong trait coloring the whole evaluation), and contrast effects (evaluating someone relative to the previous candidate rather than role criteria). Awareness is the first step; structured questions and scorecards are the second.
Use blind-review techniques where possible
Remove elements that aren’t relevant to job performance during initial screening—educational institution, photo, or personal hobbies—if they introduce bias. For many roles, skills-based assessments and work samples are the most predictive and less prone to bias than resumes alone.
Train interviewers to ask better questions
Interviewers need training on how to probe, how to avoid leading questions, and how to capture evidence. Regular calibration sessions where interviewers practice rating the same candidate responses help create shared standards. If you want a focused way to build team interviewer capability, consider a targeted learning intervention to build confidence and consistency—teams often benefit from structured upskilling to reduce hiring errors and accelerate selection. You can also build stronger interview skills with a focused career course designed to strengthen decision-making and presence during interviews.
Turn evaluation into a behavior-based conversation
After interviews, require each interviewer to present the evidence that led to their score: the specific example, the metric or outcome, and whether it aligns to the role success criteria. Decisions grounded in observed behaviours are easier to defend and produce better hiring outcomes.
Legal Considerations and Inclusive Practices
Know what not to ask
Avoid questions about age, marital status, family plans, religion, health, or nationality. If personal information about the candidate’s background is relevant (for example, right to work or willingness to relocate internationally), use neutral phrasing and ask consistently across candidates.
Document the business rationale for unique role requirements (e.g., “must be authorized to work in X country”) so you can explain why the requirement is job-related and necessary.
Accommodations and accessibility
Ask candidates if they require accommodations for the interview and be prepared to provide them. For remote interviews check captioning or alternative assessment options. Inclusive hiring practices improve candidate experience and widen the talent pool.
When mobility and visas matter
If hiring someone who requires relocation or visa sponsorship, involve HR early. Clarify timelines, cost responsibilities, and expectations about start dates. For international hires, create a pre-screening conversation specifically about mobility to ensure the candidate understands constraints and possesses realistic expectations.
Remote and Hybrid Interview Best Practices
Design interviews for the medium
Remote interviewing requires tighter rhythms and clearer signals. Send an agenda in advance, test technology, and set expectations for camera, lighting, and environment. Start with a brief check-in to humanize the interaction, then move into structured questions.
If multiple interviewers join a remote interview, assign one person to manage logistics and timekeeping. Use chat features for observers to add notes without interrupting.
Compensate for limited non-verbal cues
Ask clarifying questions more frequently than you would in person. Use brief pauses to allow reflection and avoid talking over the candidate. Rely more heavily on concrete examples and work samples since remote interactions can obscure some non-verbal information.
Standardize remote assessments
When using take-home tasks, provide the same instructions, time limits, and evaluation rubric for all candidates. For live coding or simulations, ensure the test environment is set up in advance and that candidates have been given guidelines about expected tools and formats.
Interview Scoring and Decision-Making
Evidence-based scorecards drive consistent decisions
A robust scorecard captures competency scores, supporting evidence, red flags, and role-specific outcomes. After interviews, collect scores and compute an average or weighted score depending on competency priority. But numbers alone aren’t enough—discuss discrepancies in a decision meeting where interviewers present the evidence behind their scores.
How to weigh different interview stages
Assign weights based on what matters most. For example, for a project manager role, stakeholder management and delivery may be weighted higher than deep technical skills that can be learned. Share the weighting system with interviewers so scoring aligns with hiring priorities.
Reference checks as confirmation, not discovery
Reference checks should validate specific claims: ask about the candidate’s role in a project they discussed, confirm timelines, and ask how the referee would describe the candidate’s development areas. Use references to corroborate evidence and identify any concerns not revealed during interviews.
Compensation Conversations and Offers
Prepare the offer strategy
Set the offer range before candidate interviews conclude. Be clear about fixed salary, bonus opportunities, and any relocation or mobility support. For international hires, factor in tax implications, relocation packages, visa sponsorship costs, and benefits alignment across jurisdictions.
Close with clarity and dignity
When extending an offer, communicate clearly: role, reporting line, start date, core responsibilities, compensation, and contingency conditions (e.g., background check, visa approval). Provide written documentation and a single point of contact for questions. If a candidate declines, ask for feedback to improve your process.
Onboarding Handover: From Hire to Performance
Document what the hire needs to succeed
Turn the role outcomes and interview scorecard into a 30-60-90 day onboarding plan. Include critical stakeholders, immediate priorities, and early wins the new hire should achieve. When hiring internationally, include logistics and cultural induction: local norms, regulatory compliance, and expectations for cross-border collaboration.
Keep early feedback loops tight
Schedule check-ins at 7, 30, 60, and 90 days. Use the same competencies and outcomes to measure progress. Early coaching for new hires often prevents misalignment and accelerates impact.
Common Interview Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Mistake: Relying on intuition rather than evidence
Fix: Use behaviorally anchored scorecards and require evidence for each rating. Insist that interviewers capture direct quotes or concrete outcomes.
Mistake: Asking leading or irrelevant questions
Fix: Stick to competency-based questions tied to the scorecard. Train interviewers to avoid leading prompts and to use open follow-ups.
Mistake: Overemphasizing culture fit in a way that narrows diversity
Fix: Focus on cultural contribution—what unique strengths a candidate adds—rather than similarity. Define cultural values as behaviours that drive success and measure against those.
Mistake: Failing to calibrate interviewers
Fix: Run short calibration sessions where interviewers rate the same sample responses and discuss differences. This builds shared standards and reduces bias drift.
Practical Tools and Templates
You don’t need to design everything from scratch. Start with a scorecard template, a structured interview guide, and standardized task descriptions. For hands-on materials that speed up your process—like resume and cover-letter templates and role-based scorecards—you can download free resume and cover letter templates to improve screening consistency and candidate preparation.
When interviewer confidence or assessment skills are a bottleneck, invest in learning. Small, focused training modules on behaviour-based interviewing, unconscious bias, and remote interview facilitation produce noticeable improvements in selection quality. Teams often find that a short structured course accelerates interviewer competence and reduces mis-hires; consider combining skill development with practical practice sessions to embed new habits. A focused program can help interviewers ask better questions, score responses consistently, and make decisions rooted in evidence—you can explore options that strengthen your team’s approach by building stronger interview skills with a targeted career course.
When to Bring in Coaching or External Support
If your organisation struggles with interview consistency, high turnover, or difficulty assessing candidates for mobility-heavy roles, targeted coaching can help. External coaching supports building a hiring playbook, refining competency models, and training interviewers with role-play and calibration. For leaders who want a direct roadmap, book a free discovery call and we can map the specific changes that will reduce hiring time and improve quality for your team.
Integrating Hiring with Career Mobility and Global Talent Strategies
Think beyond hiring: build mobility-aware role designs
When hiring talent who may work across borders, consider how roles will adapt to local regulations, time zones, and compensation norms. Design roles so that deliverables and performance metrics are independent of location when possible. This approach broadens the candidate pool and supports long-term talent mobility.
Assess adaptability and cross-cultural competency
For international roles, include assessments for language proficiency, cross-cultural communication, and previous remote or international collaboration experience. Ask candidates to describe how they adapted in prior cross-border projects and probe for concrete examples.
Connect hiring to development pathways
Hiring should align with career pathways. Define how the role can evolve and what progression looks like—this matters to ambitious professionals who seek both career clarity and global experience. When you communicate development pathways clearly during interviews, you also attract candidates motivated by growth.
Two Key Checklists (List 2)
- Critical red flags to watch for: vague examples without outcomes, inability to accept feedback, inconsistent timelines or contradictions in work history, lack of curiosity about the role or company, and unwillingness to discuss relocation or mobility expectations when relevant.
- Quick interviewer checklist before any interview: review the candidate’s materials, confirm the competency scorecard, prepare at least two behavioural questions per competency, check tech and logistics, and decide who will take notes.
These checklists are brief aids to keep interviews evidence-focused and consistent.
Conclusion
Interviewing someone for a job is a leadership skill you can develop into a repeatable system. The most effective interviews start with outcome-based role definitions, use competency-focused questions, employ consistent scoring, and build calibration into decision-making. When you combine structured interviewing with interviewer training and practical tools, you reduce bias, improve hire quality, and accelerate time-to-performance—especially for teams hiring internationally.
If you want tailored help translating these frameworks into a hiring playbook for your team, book a free discovery call and we will design a roadmap to better interviewing and stronger hires.
FAQ
Q: How long should a standard interview be?
A: A focused behavioural interview for mid-level roles typically runs 45–60 minutes. Shorter 20–30 minute screens work for initial qualification. Technical assessments or role simulations may require separate sessions. Timebox each stage and communicate the agenda to candidates in advance.
Q: Should I use take-home tests or live assessments?
A: Use both selectively. Take-home tests provide candidates time to demonstrate depth and thought process; keep them time-boxed and relevant. Live assessments let you observe problem-solving under time pressure. Choose the format that best mirrors the work and that you can grade consistently across candidates.
Q: How do I assess cultural fit without biasing toward similarity?
A: Define culture as observable behaviours that support your team’s goals (e.g., “shares feedback openly,” “values data-informed decisions”). Ask candidates for examples showing those behaviours rather than subjective impressions. Focus on how candidates contribute to and elevate your culture rather than whether they simply “fit in.”
Q: What should I do when my interviewers disagree?
A: Insist on evidence. During calibration, have each interviewer present the specific examples and outcomes that informed their scores. Discuss differences in interpretation and align on what constitutes “meets” vs. “exceeds.” If disagreement persists, consider weighted competencies or a second assessment focused on the disputed area.
If you’d like help implementing these elements into a practical hiring system or training your interviewers to use evidence-based scoring, you can book a free discovery call to create a tailored plan.
