H. Planning and Conducting The Interview

Prepare for the Interview

Interviewing and selecting the right person is an important responsibility of hiring authorities in ensuring the University reaches its goals. When interviewers rely on their intuition as a basis for making employment recommendations, the results may generate unreliable information, lead to poor selection decisions, and establish grounds for a legal challenge for discrimination. In contrast, a well-planned interview process provides evidence about the applicant's ability to perform a job.

To conduct interviews that can predict job performance, hiring authorities should preplan for the interview by conducting a thorough review of job requirements, create a series of job-related interview questions, and seek job-related work examples in the interview. The sample interview questions in can be tailored and used in any situation. This list of questions is not exhaustive. The set of questions and anticipated answers should be written and reviewed by the hiring authorities in preparation for the interviews. Although all applicants are asked the same set of questions, the hiring authorities may ask more specific questions based on responses to initial questions or to clarify relevant work experience and education identified on the applicant's resume/vita.

If the hiring authorities plan to use team or panel interviews, the same team or panel should be present during each interview to ensure consistent treatment of all applicants and consistent interpretation of the information obtained during the interview. In the case of faculty and staff at the director level and above, this team should be composed of a diverse group of individuals from both inside and outside the department.

General Interview Guidelines

Sample Interview Questions

The hiring authorities should do the following:  

1. Prepare interview questions and expected answers based on job duties and requirements. The entire committee or all hiring personnel should review the questions prior to the first interview. Additional interview questions are available at the Office of Human Resources. Do not ask illegal questions.
2. Arrange for an appropriate interviewing environment that is free from interruption and is comfortable.
3. Explain the purpose to the applicant and set the agenda. This will reduce applicant stress by letting the candidate know what to expect. It also enables the search committee or hiring personnel to control the interview by providing a "road map".
4. Gather measurable, predictive information based on the essential job duties.

Controlling the interview is dependent upon careful listening combined with key questions.

Hiring authorities need to encourage and guide the applicant's responses concerning work history. A common error of ineffective interviewers is to concentrate exclusively on the questions they intend to ask and neglect to listen to the applicant. Ideally interviewers should not talk more than 20 percent of the time. Ask open ended questions to encourage thorough, job-related answers, then listen and evaluate.  

1. Take notes regarding the applicant's responses.
2. Taking notes helps ensure accuracy and often reassures applicants that the interviewer is interested. Prior to the interview, the interviewer should explain to the applicants that notes will be taken and why. Notes should be job-related and should not contain discriminatory information (e.g., comments on age, sex, race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, or arrest and court records unless based on bona fide occupational qualifications).
3. Describe the job and organization to the interviewee. A detailed description of the job should be given at the close of the interview. Describing the job earlier in the process may inadvertently coach applicants on how they should answer questions.
4. When describing the job, the interviewer should provide sufficient positive and negative facts about the position, department, promotional opportunities, etc., to enable the applicant to make an intelligent decision about the job. However, the interviewer should avoid comments that might mislead the interviewee into misinterpreting the information as a promise of employment.
5. Give applicants a chance to ask questions about the job and performance expectations.
6. Close the interview. Let applicants know what to anticipate as the next step. For example, "We still have several more interviews to conduct, which we anticipate completing next week. We will make a recommendation in about 2 weeks or less."