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The great news is the companies are still recruiting, such a great thing to hear.

A job interview should be structured and planned thoroughly, you want to get the most out of your limited time with the candidate, either face to face or over zoom. A candidate will know if you have not taken time out to prepare. They may have spent days preparing and for you not to have prepared is disrespectful to them, just think how you would feel.  They may have recently lost their job, so they may be struggling with confidence, so help them too.

Take your time and do not rush it, you may miss something.

You need to ensure that treat everyone the same, they should have the same questions too.  Ensure the candidate actually answers the question, so often they can start and then go off in a tangent.  When you come to write up your notes you realise, they did not answer it. So, tick it off when you feel it answered, if not then use probing questions to find out more.  The candidate may not have understood the question or not used a great example for you.

Here are the areas you need to look for examples of

• Experience: What they need to have done to make them able to do the job.  Their experience gives them the knowledge of how to make decisions for themselves. You do not want someone coming to you with questions all the time.
• Qualifications:  Any specific qualifications they must have.
• Soft skills:  Do they need to manage people? Who do they need to get along with?  Most people need to be able to get along with someone in a working environment be it colleagues, bosses, directors, shareholders, clients or prospects.  Ask yourself what skills they need to do this.
• Practical details:  This includes things like commuting distance, they may say they are happy to commute for an hour, just because the map says it does, this may not happen when they try it. Is there a match between their salary expectations and what you are offering?  You want to know their willingness to travel etc.  These factors are as important as their other skills because any one of these can be a deal breaker.

So please do not rush this, remember an employee is an asset to your company and for some the largest investment. We can help with the interview process, just get in touch to find out how good we are.

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