Interviewing: How to Find the Best of the Best

Hello, I’m happy to see you made it back this week for my take on Interviewing!

Now that you have lots of potential candidates applying from the job posting you wrote last week, it is time to think about how your interview process will go (Read here if you missed it..)

To be sure you are hiring the best candidate, you need to be intentional about your interviewing process, and it all starts with the right questions. The right questions will empower you to dig down deep into the candidates’ experiences and knowledge for the position.

When designing questions for the interview, using multiple styles of questioning can be very helpful to gain knowledge of the candidates:

Did you know🤔 that there are different styles of questioning in an interview process?

Here are the top 5 questioning styles I have found helpful

1.  General: these questions are designed for the candidate to learn more about the company and for the company to learn if the candidate would fit into the culture.

2. Interest: these types of questions can demonstrate the candidate’s personality, confidence level, and even uncover skills they may have.

3. Goal based: these types of questions help determine where the candidate would like to grow in their career, and if the company can meet that expectation.

4. Situational: these types of questions will help give you a vision of skills they acquired or encountered such as problem solving, communication, organization, self-starter, self-awareness, and being able to ask for help.

5. Closing: asking the candidate if they have questions will help you see if they have researched your company and put thought in ahead of time what they are looking for.

After you designed your questions, the next step is to decided what your interview process will look like.

Through many years of interviewing, this is the structure I use during my interview process:

You have the questions ready, the final step is to prepare your environment for the interview process! First impressions work both ways! A few quick things I do are:

• Designate a quiet space to meet the candidate, that is clean and organized

• Communicate with your team to let them know there is an interview

• Be prepared— have their resume, your questions accessible, and a copy of the job description!

• Be on-time— Set an alarm to give yourself time to delegate tasks before the candidate walks in!

As you go through your interview process, it is important to stay focused on the candidates’ skills, and experience that can grow and elevate your early childhood program.

Till Next Time,

Jen💛

P.S. If you need sample questions or want help writing some of your own, send me an email: [email protected]

P.P.S Questions you NEVER ask in an interview!