You could go mano e mano and take them on yourself, you could go panel style and invite a number of work fellow workers to sit in and grill the applicant. You have access to all the candidates together in a room and mass evaluate them. You could interview all the candidates once and then short list the best one or two and then re-interview those.
The most popular for senior vacancies is to bring the best candidate(s) in three times for three different job interviews in three different places using three Automated skills testing different interview styles. I find this gives which you true sense of the person you’re finding, their abilities and their commitment.
Whatever interview style and method you choose, make it relevant to the positioning and your company. Run it on a pre-conceived agenda and evaluate it according to pre-defined criteria. This allows you to objectively compare “apples with apples” and ensure each candidate has had equal fair treatment.
During the interview mix in the questions, loosen up by asking some sel-explanatory questions to verify their qualifications, recommendations and memberships. Follow up by asking some probing questions to test their capacity to problem solve and some open ended questions to see how they respond.
Don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions and never fear silence. Give the candidate sufficient time to consentrate, frame and present their answers — you can learn the maximum amount of from their silence and thinking process as you can from their voiced words.
I am often asked about the sorts of questions you should ask and my answer is it depends on what answers you’re looking for, but here are some I prepared earlier:
If you wanted to test their capacity to analyze, you might ask the candidate for an example of a painful situation they were able to resolve. Was it resolved to the satisfaction of their boss? Did they find it coming and what skills did they use to overcome any obstacles in how to its resolution. My analysis of this answer is to look for whether or not they have a dependence on fact or feelings and whether this aligns with the clients working style and needs.
To discover their command style, I might ask around an event that caused the candidate to re-evaluate how they led or managed their team, was it a permanent change or a one off. My take would be to look at whether the candidate understands their own management style, whether they are able to flex to other situation-appropriate styles and of course if that style is going to advance my consumer’s company.
Planning and organization is huge part of any prospective job and questions like: Describe a re-organization that has significantly affected your job and what was your part in it? This gives me information into their capacity to forward think, map out and manage situations and time.
Process and continuous improvement is the ability to follow the set company technique, but also just as important is their capacity to innovate within the process where necessary. Questions like: “Tell me about a good process that you made even better”, or “tell me about a time when a pre-existing process just didn’t work inch, will give you the clues you need to see whether or not they can “think beyond the square”.