Recruitment is a two-way street – and interviewers are on trial too. So are you impressing job candidates or putting them off with these silly mistakes?

1. Huge Mistakes
Interviewers
Make

2. 1. Spontaneity
(or lack of preparation)?

3. If you don’t at the very least
read your candidate’s CV
and cover letter, it will be so
obvious in an interview and
it gives an awful impression
of you and the company.

4. It’s so frustrating – especially when the
candidate has spent loads of time
preparing.
Recruitment is a two-way street.

5. 3 tips for preparing
(properly) for
interviews…

6. 1. Prior to interview, identify the
key skills and competencies that
the perfect candidate will possess.
Create a checklist and tick off
each point when a candidate
evidences it.

7. 2. Come up with a list of
questions you’d like to ask
(see our
10 essential interview questions
for some more ideas)

8. 3. Research questions that the
candidate may ask you and
consider how you will answer
them
(we recently wrote a blog about
some interesting questions they
could use to impress you).

9. 2. Anxiety

10. Every recruiter will have to
face their at
some point and are bound
to be a little anxious.

11. The problem is that nerves,
if not kept ,
can easily filter into the
and could
be transferred to the
(already ) candidate.

12. 4 tips for being (or
just looking) more
confident…

13. 1. Practice your interviewing
skills.
You could ask a colleague to
give you a hand, or even a
friend or family member
outside of work.

14. 2. Take back-up.
If you are nervous it might be
worth shadowing an
experienced manager (or
getting them to shadow you)
before going it alone.

15. 3. Start with an ice-breaker, to
ease into the interview in a
friendlier way.

16. 4. Sit up straight and try not
to fidget.
These are tell-tale signs that
you’re feeling nervous!

17. 3. Indifference.

18. Being in an interview
is a …
Coming across
and definitely
isn’t!

19. 3 tips for showing your
candidate you’re genuinely
interested in what they have to
say…

20. 1. Ask follow up questions
and
sound genuinely interested in
the candidate
(without cutting them off).

21. 2. Don’t doodle, yawn or
seem too overly relaxed
(swinging on your chair,
tapping your thumbs).

22. 3. Never get distracted by
other tasks and people (or by
the telephone).

23. 4. Inappropriateness.

24. You must never ever ask
questions or make
comments that could even
remotely be
.

25. No matter how well you
get on with a candidate,
such topics could
and have

26. Topics to avoid…
• Age
• Sexual orientation
• Marital status
• Cultural issues
• Disabilities and illness
• Previous criminal convictions
• Inappropriate jokes, innuendos and anecdotes

27. 5. Overzealousness.

28. You’ll never be able to suss
out
for the job and your business, if
you spend the entirety of the
interview (or even
worse, on).

29. Make sure you ask plenty of
(who,
how, why, what, where,
when) and let them
they would be to
your business.

30. 3 tips to avoid droning on…

31. STOP!
1. Just stop and give them a
chance to speak!

32. 2. When you think you’re
going on, revisit the list of
questions you came up with
prior to the interview and ask
the candidate something
relevant.

33. 3. Make an effort to get them
involved in the conversation.
‘How does that sound to you?’
‘Is that what you expected?’

34. 6. Too Quiet.

35. and just asking
questions once in a while will
make it for you to get
all of the
It will also give off an
vibe to your
candidate.

36. 3 tips to make sure you’re
talking enough…

37. 1. Be polite and ask follow up
questions to keep the
conversation going.

38. 2. If you need to dig further do
so in a friendly way…
‘it sounds like you know where
you’d like to be in life, but why
choose this job in particular?”

39. 3. If there is an awkward
silence at any point, fill it.
Ask your next question!

40. 7. Unfair.

41. Some interviewers will
purposely ask a question they
don’t expect the job candidate
to know
to see
whether they try and blag it
under the pressure.

42. This technique will simply make
your candidate feel
, and stop them
from showing off their
.

43. Stress interviews won’t work for
your nervous, shy or confidence-
lacking candidates (but that
doesn’t necessarily mean they’re
not right for the job!)

44. Make a real effort to ease your
candidate into the interview before
bombarding them with difficult
questions.

45. 8. Over-Friendliness.

46. Often
will
(subconsciously) attempt to
make a connection with their
candidate, bonding over
experiences,
and .

47. .
Saying anything about
your role, colleagues, manager,
the business or industry, is
bound to leave your candidate
feeling .

48. Don’t overshare, mentioning
personal or professional problems
and issues.

49. Never badmouth your manager,
the business owner, colleagues,
ex-colleagues or competitors.

50. You should also be wary of any
candidate who badmouths their
previous employer.

51. 9. Dishonesty.

52. It is pretty that
you’re prepared to answer most
(if not all) questions.
If a candidate has that
you don’t manage to confront and
quell, then they’re much more
likely to your offer.

53. It’s also really important to
in an interview.

54. to get
someone to accept a job you
offer them; it will
bite you on the
backside at a later date.

55. 4 ways to keep your
candidates engaged and
interested…

56. 1. Always ask the candidate
‘do you have any questions’?
at some point in the interview
(usually the end).

57. 2. Take relevant moments
throughout the interview to bring
up the company, explaining how
things do (and don’t) work.

58. 3. You could show the candidate
around your office, introducing
them to their potential line
manager and colleagues.

59. 4. Be honest.
There really isn’t any point taking
someone on if they have an
unreliable view of the business.

60. 10. Bias

61. If you interview someone
that you get on
with, then you’re
likely to feel a in
their favour.

62. This of course means that your
next interviewee will find it
to impress you so
to find the for the
job, you’ll need to
as much as humanly possible.

63. 3 tips for beating the
bias…

64. 1. Go in with a clear and open
mind.
This next candidate really could be
better than the last!

65. 2. Try not to run interviews one
after the other, in swift
succession.
The chances are that your brain
will still be focusing on the
previous candidate.

66. 3. It’s always a great idea to host a panel
interview, especially in the later stages of
recruitment.
Different people have different opinions,
making it easier to pinpoint the positives and
negatives of an individual.

67. So there you have it… 10 of the
most common mistakes
interviewers make!
Are you one of them?

68. If you’d like to read more
articles about recruitment
and HR in general – check
out the rest of our blog
here.