This is How to Fall Back in Love with Your Interview Process

Think back to when you conducted your very first job interview. Recall the amount of relief you felt, sitting at the opposite side of the interview table; the joy you experienced as you met different people from a variety of backgrounds; and the sense of accomplishment you felt when your first-choice candidate turned out to be a rockstar employee.

Now, look at your current interview process. If you’re like many experienced hiring professionals, those feelings of relief, joy, and accomplishment are probably few and far between. Many years and countless interviews later, it’s only natural to go on autopilot. Fortunately, the thrill of giving that first interview doesn’t have to be a thing of the past.

Here are three ways some of today’s hiring professionals bring fun, efficiency, and effectiveness back into the interview:

1. Change your point of view.

I enjoy being able to interact with the brightest and best minds of our time. I love meeting with people who understand that they have a gift to offer and wish to utilize my company as the means to do it.

I am not interested in people who are looking for a job. I could hire anyone through that vehicle. I am looking for people who want to accomplish something. Someone who has the drive and presence of mind to understand their own brand. I look at the interview process as the opportunity to meet with other professionals in my business and build something with them.

Because I view the process in this manner, it shapes the interview and gives it purpose. I have no compunction about cutting an interview with a “job seeker” short. Why waste their time and mine? They need to get on with the process of finding a job and I need to move on with the process of finding an innovator.

This is your opportunity to find the professional who will grow your business — the needed key part that your team is missing. An exchange is going on here: their expertise for the chance to further their career with a wonderful opportunity. When you look at it that way, it should bring the passion that you possess for your business back into the interview process.

Stephanie Taylor-Dillard, CEO, Pathways LLC

2. Seek to uncover hidden value.

What I love most about the interview process is uncovering hidden value in others and showing it to them, as we build long-term mutually beneficial/profitable relationships. To do this, I establish humor and credibility during the interview. I ask permission to ask personal questions, to which they always say “yes.”

As an employer, you must be trustworthy, so this is serious stuff. You must secure their confident permission — and that’s a blog post in itself in this litigious age. The goal is to identify if we are bad fits for each other. But I also believe in helping them find a job, regardless.

By really getting to know the other person and genuinely wanting to show them they are better than they know, you uncover value for them, for the client who may hire them, and for yourself. Looking for as many wins as possible is exhilarating, exciting, and rewarding.

It’s also profitable and makes life worthwhile. Trust and courtesy are so rare in the world today that they have become very valuable. To earn trust, be trustworthy. To find courtesy, be courteous. This prevents the nightmare of bad hires.

Shannon McGurk, Founder and Senior Coach, Authentic Masculinity

3. Embrace informality.

I love investigating the uniqueness of each person’s talents; discovering what makes them tick and creating an immediate connection with them based on their interests, aspirations, and dreams. I love to ask questions that immediately cause them to let their guard down and be as authentic, raw, and real as possible during the interview process. All of the non-verbal communication is essential to a successful interview.

Interviewing should be fun for all involved! If candidates receive a warm welcome to participate fully and allow their true talents to shine, that creates a connection in which everyone is fully engaged. I want to make the applicant feel as if this is not a competition, but rather a discovery process in which their true talents are revealed and we can decipher how their unique talents align to the role.

Elisa Hillman, Management Consultant, Talent Plus, Inc.

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What are some other ways to fall back in love with interviewing? Let us know in the comments below!