When you're interviewing candidates for your startup, whether it's your first hire or as part of a team expansion, it’s important to get it right. After all, there is a real talent shortage at the moment, with more and more competition between companies seeking to recruit new talent.
As a result, candidates have lots more options. Therefore you don’t want to be in the position of being rejected by candidates because they didn’t either enjoy their interview experience or didn’t quite appreciate the amazing opportunity that you were offering. Instead, you ought to do all you can to ensure you’re in the position of choosing who you want to hire - and getting the interview right is a major part of that. It’s such an important part of the recruitment process yet it’s one where many founders and hiring managers unfortunately can let themselves down.
Of course, there are all sorts of reasons for this - from not having the skills to be an effective interviewer in the first place, to making the assumption that it’s only the candidate who has to put the effort in at an interview, or to just being complacent.
In a bid to help, we’ve put together some of the most common mistakes that interviewers make and which you ought to do your utmost to avoid!
Having an arrogant and ignorant mindset
It’s all very well to be proud of your startup, its achievements to date, and the fab company culture you’ve created. However, if that pride leads you to display a somewhat arrogant attitude during the interview, you’ll be making a huge mistake. Rather than impressing the candidates, you are meeting, your behaviour might actually prove to be a warning sign, a deterrent, and ultimately a deciding factor in them choosing not to accept a potential job offer.
Also, never assume that a candidate will definitely want to work with you or that they ought to be simply grateful for the opportunity to even meet you! Candidates will pick up on this narcissistic attitude quite easily and feel that no matter how amazing the opportunity you are offering is, they
wouldn’t want to work in a team with someone displaying those traits. And remember, great candidates know their own worth and value too!
Turning up late
Let’s face it, if a candidate was to turn up late for an interview with you, you wouldn’t be impressed. So why should it be any different when you’re on the other side of the table. It's not only disrespectful and unprofessional, it also sets a pretty bad example for interviewees and those all-important first impressions will certainly not be positive.
It’s also important to remember that when you are a candidate waiting to go into an interview, you may already be feeling a tad anxious. By being late, you are inadvertently increasing that anxiety. As a result, you may not see your candidates at their best. No matter what else you've got going on, make sure you get to the interview on time and are settled and ready to face your prospective new employees.
Thinking you can wing it
Perhaps you’ve done lots of interviews or you know the job being recruited for inside out. You may feel that you don't really need to prepare for the interview - you can just show up - you know what you’re doing! Whether you realise it or not though, if you haven’t taken the time to prepare for the interview, it will actually be pretty obvious to all!
Prepping isn't simply something that candidates have to do. Familiarise yourself with the CVs for each of the interviewees you will be meeting, and make a note of any particular areas of interest or things you would like to question them about. If you act surprised when a candidate mentions something that they’ve highlighted on their CV - whether that’s a previous employer they’ve worked for or a particular achievement, it will be glaringly apparent that you haven’t looked at the CV at all or have simply skimmed through it.
The same applies to the job spec. Make sure you are familiar with it, that you are fully aware of the key skills and experience you are looking for in your interviewees, and that you know exactly what the duties are and how this role fits into the overall organisation. And remember that if you are giving the candidate the opportunity to ask questions, they are likely to ask some specific things about the job itself, so make sure you can answer them!
Omitting to put candidates at ease
It should really be a given that an interviewer tries to put a candidate at ease immediately, however unfortunately it’s something that many fail to do. Getting straight into the questions with no general chat or social niceties won’t help your interviewees relax at all. In fact it’s likely to add to any anxiety they may already be feeling.
So whether you talk about something mundane like the weather, their journey to the interview or whatever, it will simply help to put them at ease and they are then more inclined to perform better and let you properly see what they are all about. Also, don't forget to give the candidates a bit of a rundown on what to expect during the interview. Don’t simply assume they ought to know! By giving a quick overview of the format, an intro to the interviewing panel and mentioning the fact that the candidate will be able to ask questions too, you’ll be eliminating that fear of the unknown!
Being distracted
Whether you're part of an interview panel or you're interviewing alone, there can be no excuse for being distracted. You might have all manner of things going on in either your work or personal life, but this is not the time to be thinking about them. Candidates will pick up on this quite quickly and it will be a distraction to them too! In fact, your disinterest could prove to put them off entirely and will be a huge dent in their confidence.
If you're not really listening because your mind is on other things, you're also more likely to miss out on some of the key points a candidate may make. Then, rather than asking a relevant follow-up question or exploring something a little further, you’re liable to simply move on to the next question on your list. An opportunity wasted - for you and your interviewee!
Appearing disinterested
It's important to remember that during the interview, the candidate is assessing you too. They will be looking at your body language and if it's evident that you're not really interested in what they have to say, they'll probably not put the effort in with their answers.
So whether it’s by having poor or minimal eye contact or failing to nod your head at relevant times, you'll convey the impression that you don't really care about this interviewee or anything they could potentially offer. Likewise, if you don't take any notes, you're clearly showing your disinterest and you certainly won't get the best out of the candidates you are meeting.
And even if you believe that you have already interviewed the perfect candidate for the role and feel that you are simply going through the motions with the rest of the interviewees, that should never be apparent to a candidate. After all, they have spent time preparing for this interview, so you ought to respect that, at the very least!
Sharing too much
An interview is supposed to be a two-way thing - it’s not an opportunity for you to get on your soapbox and get carried away talking about yourself and your achievements. Forget the monologues! You are there to find out as much as possible about the candidates so that you can make an informed decision about who will be the best fit for the role and your startup. If you are doing most of the talking, you’ll certainly not be able to do that.
Regular etiquette matters too so don't interrupt the candidate when they're speaking. Not only is it rude, your interjection might also put them off somewhat - they could lose their train of thought entirely and miss out on the opportunity to tell you something of real value and importance.
Not sharing enough
Until this point, the candidate’s knowledge of your startup and the role they have applied for is likely to have come from the usual sources - your website, social channels, or the job spec. Many interviewers make the mistake of assuming that is all a candidate needs to know, however that is of course not the case at all. The interview should be seen as an opportunity to go into a lot more detail about the company, its vision and its plans for the future.
If you really want to get a candidate enthused about a role and what the company is doing, this is the time to do it. Sell your startup! Convey that passion! Make them want to be a part of what you are building! However, it’s also important not to oversell the role or the company. Never mislead them. By being open and honest, you’ll be helping any employer/employee relationship get off on a much more positive footing.
Catching candidates out (or trying to)
Some interviewers like to put candidates on the spot and to an extent, that is all well and good. However, if they do this by trying to catch a candidate out, all this will do is make a candidate feel uncomfortable. A good interviewer will not ask trick questions, with the deliberate aim of tripping up an interviewee. Instead, they will ask probing questions, each designed to dig a little deeper than the CV, in order to fully identify and assess if a candidate will be the right fit for a role.
Also, by trying (and most probably failing) to catch a candidate out, you will also be creating a pretty poor first impression. And, as good candidates may have lots of offers on the table when they are making a choice about which one to accept, behaviour like this could be the deciding factor!
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Offering personalised, consultative service, at TableCrowd Talent we’re a specialist recruitment agency with our finger on the pulse of the startup and scaleup scene. We are committed to matching graduates, professionals and C-level executives to exciting startup and scaleup jobs across London, the UK and Europe.
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