Video interviewing has revolutionized traditional recruitment processes, helping hiring managers better understand job applicants all over the world, while saving time and money.

Once upon a time recruiters relied on one-dimensional, text-based resumes and CVs to start refining their candidate pool. As technology has evolved, so too have hiring processes, helping recruiters make more genuine connections with job applicants and more informed decisions—even at a distance.

Before Skype came along in 2003, few people were comfortable using video teleconferencing. I remember the first time I tried communicating with my parents this way; my mother needlessly shouted so I could hear. “It has to go all the way to the moon and back,” she’d explain while I rolled my eyes. A lot has changed since then, including the sophistication of video communication software (and, thankfully, the volume of my mother’s voice during video calls).

Nowadays, even those with limited tech skills can easily navigate a video call. That’s just one of the many reasons why video interviewing is becoming an increasingly popular tool for recruiters and hiring managers around the globe.

From Words to Phone to Video: The Evolution of the Interview

Video interviewing helps recruiters understand much more about an applicant’s fit for a job than a resume/CV or even a telephone interview. Why? Because video interviews allow candidates to showcase their personality and skill sets in ways other methods simply cannot. Video interviews also allow recruiters to detect hesitancy or pain points when applicants answer questions, and help assess an individual’s overall confidence and excitement for the position.

For example, when I send my parents snail mail or emails, I sometimes worry the message might be misconstrued. Chatting with them on the phone allows us to hear tone and inflection in our voices, lessening the chances of misunderstanding. Still, nothing compares to when we can see each other through a video call. It’s the next best thing to being together in person—and the same is true with job interviews.

The Many Benefits of Video Interviewing

Some of the benefits of implementing video interviewing as part of your recruitment process include the ability to:

• Better qualify job applicants, especially for “soft skills” (read facial expressions, tone of voice, etc.)
• Connect with qualified candidates all over the world (perfect for hiring remote workers)
• Save as much as 67% in travel costs
• Reduce hiring velocity by up to 80%
• Improve and personalize the candidate experience
• Establish your brand as a progressive company that keeps pace with the latest hiring best practices

Pre-recorded Versus Live Video Interviewing

While Skype, Zoom and FaceTime are all great tools to stay connected with friends and family, recruiters need a more sophisticated, multi-dimensional video conferencing software to do their jobs well. There are a variety of professional video interviewing platform on the market, but make sure to invest in one that offers both pre-recorded and live video interviewing options.

What’s the difference? Pre-recorded video interviews are a huge timesaver, especially in the early screening stages. Recruiters do not need to be present; candidates are sent standardized questions, they record their answers via webcam, and then recruiters can review these at their convenience. Pre-recorded interviews are especially useful when evaluating candidates in different time zones as the recruiter, or when hiring teams are dispersed.

Live video interviews mimic tools like Skype in that they’re real-time video calls for those who are not physically in the same space. However, professional video interviewing software provides recruiters with many features like basic, free software, including automation, customization and evaluation. The right video interviewing platform allows everyone involved in hiring decisions to evaluate candidates fairly, minimizing hiring bias and expensive legal consequences of unfair recruitment processes.

Red Flags in Video Interviews

Video interviewing is extremely effective in pre-qualifying job applicants, giving recruiters a more complete picture of candidates in a fraction of the time. Watch for these red flags:

• Candidate appears very nervous or defensive when asked certain questions
• Candidate is not dressed professionally. People should dress for the job they want in a video interview, just as they would in an in-person interview.
• Candidate lacks eye contact, does not smile or uses closed body language. None of these things exactly scream confidence or approachability.
• Background is cluttered. A pile of clothes on the floor or a messy desk may be a sign that the applicant is unorganized.

Video interviewing is helping recruiters find better candidates faster and with more ease, all the while minimizing costs. They’re making the lives of both recruiters and job applicants more pleasant and effective by modernizing and simplifying the hiring process for all. There’s no question video interviewing is the future of recruiting.

In the fight against unconscious bias, Sweden experiments with AI – but will robotic interviewers really catch on?

Meet your interviewer, Tengai: she’s friendly, observant, and did we mention she’s a robot?

Tengai’s 16-inch glowing face sits on a table at eye level with the candidate. She smiles and blinks forming empathetic facial expressions as she asks “have you ever been interviewed by a robot?”

For most people today, the answer would be ‘no’, but that might not be the case in five years. For that, we have to thank Furhat Robotics, creators of Tengai. The AI and social robotics company that has spent the past four years building a human-esque computer interface that can replicate our speech and subtle facial expressions. The idea being, a human-like robot is much less scary than machine-like one.

A few companies, like the Swedish recruitment firm TNG currently trialing Tengai, are experimenting with the use of robots in their early interviews, and many more companies already use some form of AI in their selection process.

Many people have reservations about using AI to make hiring judgments. ‘How much should we trust these droids?’ they wonder. Indeed, the question has its merits.

Proponents of the technology point out humans aren’t great judges of character or ability because we are all affected by unconscious bias, which impedes our ability to assess fairly. And what’s more, this bias is hard to shake – numerous studies have shown that trainings which aim to minimize unconscious bias’ influence in the workplace has little to no effect on future behavior.  

On the other side, decriers of recruiting’s new reliance on AI-driven judgments point out that the underlying algorithms of these technologies can also be biased and given the homogeny of the tech and data-science field, we must be careful.

Let’s dive in…

Understanding Unconscious Bias

To grasp the argument for using robots in interviews, it’s first important to understand what unconscious bias is and how it occurs. As it has become a workplace buzzword, there’s often confusion around the actual defintion.  

Dolly Chugh is an award-winning psychologist and Professor at New York University. She specializes in the psychology of human bias. Speaking on the 10% Happier podcast, she offered a very helpful example which frames unconscious bias in a way that’s easy to understand:

“When I say ‘Twinkle, twinkle’ your mind probably automatically jumps to ‘…little star’. Somehow, ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’ became an association in your mind. And there are many other associations we’ve all internalized.

We may associate certain groups of people with certain attributes. But we probably don’t remember when that became part of how we think. This is because it’s all part of the flow of our unconscious mind. The unconscious mind represents the vast majority of our brain’s work. Unconscious mental processing is absolutely essential for us to function as human beings, but sometimes it can lead us away from being the person we’d like to be in certain situations.”  

Reining in biases, as a recruiter, can be tough. First impressions and gut feelings count for so much during interviews. But left unchecked, unconscious bias can result in unfair judgments, overlooked talent, and ultimately, discrimination.

Enter The Robots

Robots designed specifically for recruitment purposes are generally much better than humans at making unbiased decisions about a candidate. This has already proven to be true through a recruitment experiment conducted in Sweden.

Since late 2018, Swedish recruitment agency TNG have been using an AI-driven robot head called Tengai to conduct first stage interviews in place of human recruiters. The results have shown an encouraging example of AI eliminating discrimination rather than amplifying it.

New Technology, Same Process

Tengai was built by Furhat Robotics. At first glance, it’s appearance is a bit disconcerting. It’s a disembodied robotic head with a friendly-looking human face. It’s placed on a table where it sits about eye level to the candidate. All this to ensure the interview proceeds in a way which most closely candidates are accustomed.

Unlike a typical interview, Tengai doesn’t engage in small talk. This ensures all recorded responses are work-related. Each candidate is asked the same questions, in the same order, with the same tone of voice. Tengai standardizes the process to a degree that even the most methodical human recruiters can’t match.

Crucially, Tengai knows absolutely nothing about a candidate’s race, religion, gender, appearance, or other visual/auditory factors that commonly give rise to unconscious bias. Once the interview is complete, human recruiters then receive a transcript of the answers. It’s then up to them to decide whether or not to move that person forward.

By replacing human recruiters with Tengai, TNG and Furhat feel they are creating a fairer hiring process that still retains a ‘human’ touch. But it’s important to keep in mind that robot interviewers bring their own set of limitations and challenges.

Hiring Involves More than Interviews

Research shows unconscious bias often influences whether or not someone advances to the interview stage. Tengai and other robotic interviewers offer zero benefits when it comes to creating fairer resume selection processes. So, unless such robots are accompanied by other bias-tackling measures throughout all other stages of the hiring process, they are an incomplete solution to the problem.

Key Information may Go Unrecorded

Robots like Tengai create an extremely rigid interview process. And while standardization offers some benefits, it isn’t perfect. It prevents the natural ebb and flow of a typical human conversation. For example, a candidate may mention something in passing that grabs an interviewer’s attention. If they feel the information is highly relevant to the role, they can ask the candidate to elaborate or clarify. This helps prevent great candidates slipping through the net due to unintended omissions in their answers.

Candidate Experience And Employer Brand

Even when the rationale for using robots is clearly presented, some candidates are not going to like being interviewed by a robot. It’s easy to see how the process may be perceived as cold and clinical by some candidates. As a result, this may cause significant damage to the employer brand. Others will welcome the change, but introducing robot interviewers will undoubtedly polarise candidate opinion. So it’s important to weigh up the risk/benefit ratio, which will vary widely from business to business.

Not All Technology Is Similar

When selecting any new technology for a hiring process it’s important to consider what it actually does. Some robots are made to standardize the initial interview process to root out bias, while other tools use algorithms to evaluate the candidate’s facial expressions or speech. With the latter example, especially, organizations need to rigorously question the way the AI is making judgments and track if those judgments are leading to a homogeneous talent pool.

Need some inspiration? These Talent Acquisition resources are chock-full of knowledge and personality!

In the last five years, the recruitment industry found itself undergoing an exciting renaissance. A profession no one ever wrote books about is now smack dab in the zeitgeist, directly affected by both cultural movements (like #metoo) and technological advancements (such as AI and social media trends).

The human capital management (HCM) market is projected to grow to $22.2 billion by 2023, up from $13 billion in 2016. All this growth means the tools and practice of recruitment and HR will evolve at a rapid pace, and practitioners can’t rely on the grapevine to keep abreast of the latest news.

Fortunately, there are a plethora of recruiting podcasts, blogs, newsletters, online communities that keep pace with the industry goings-on. The following list is just a few of our favorites – seriously, there’s so many out there! We chose these because they are engaging and keep us coming back every day!

Feel free to tag us @smartrecruiters with ideas for our next edition.

1. Recruiting Brainfood

Longtime recruiter and industry influencer Hung Lee created the weekly TA newsletter, Recruiting Brainfood, back in October of 2016. Over 127 editions later (and 10,000+ subscribers), Recruiting Brainfood is now a community for hiring practitioners worldwide, with the largest concentration in the UK, but quickly spreading. (US folks can gain workplace street-cred by introducing this resource to colleagues.)

Subscribe to the newsletter for a manually curated collection of articles, interactive polls, and jobs relevant to the talent industry; or, join the Facebook group for community chats, live stream Q&As, and video interviews.

What makes this community special is how active the audience is in polls and conversations. This may have something to do with the host, Hung Lee, who has made a concerted effort to break the fourth wall, acknowledging new members and never letting a comment disappear into the internet void. A personal example, when I joined the Facebook group I was prompted to fill out a survey about the newsletter. I jotted down some thoughts (largely positive), and a couple of days later Hung followed up on my minor layout suggestion. Now, that’s engagement!

2. Recruiting Subreddit

Reddit is mainly known for memes and casual trolling, but it’s so much more than that! The annals of Reddit unpack practically every subject known to humanity. Whatever interests you, there’s likely a subreddit of people who care about it just as much (or more), and recruiting is no exception.

The Recruiting subreddit is a great forum to get feedback or ask questions. One newbie crowdsourced goals for their first quarter on the job, another for tips on no-show candidates. These – and generally all inquiries – were met with many specific and encouraging answers – proving that the internet can be a nice place sometimes!

3. HR Open Source

HR Open Source is kinda what it sounds like. In its own words, they are “a global community of practitioners who believe collaboration is the key to preparing their organizations for the future of work. Simply put, [they] make it easier to access peers and resources needed to thrive. at zero cost.” Practically, this means you join the community via their website or Facebook, and then you can share/read case studies or ‘Sparks’ (the site’s adorable name for abridged case studies), participate in surveys, talk to your peers, and even buy some cool merch.

Founded in 2015, the people behind #HROS (that’s how you should search their posts on Twitter) are two impressive recruiters you may have seen on the conference circuit: Lars Schmidt, founder of Amplify Talent, and Ambrosia Vertesi, VP of people at Duo Security. One great asset from this resource is their latest Future of Work Report. The data they collected from actual practitioners about how their teams are interacting with tech and allocating budget was extremely enlightening, and unique in that it wasn’t just spectator commentary.

4. HR Girlfriend

HR Girlfriend is a professional network for women working in HR, where members can find professional development and certifications, events, and industry job postings. Anyone can peruse the website and learn from their Real Talk Blog. For those folks in the US, HR Girlfriend regularly hosts and attends events, so you can catch up with the Girlfriends in person.

The Q&A section of their blog is a personal favorite. The questions are real and relatable, and the answers are super detailed without being long-winded. I should also mention that the advice comes from real HR practitioners. Last week’s question tackled how to handle a scenario where an employee complains about a coworker showing them an inappropriate photo. The reply included a step-by-step procedure as well as additional resources.

Sana’ Rasul, Chief Girlfriend, HR consultant, and cybersecurity expert, says of the group, “If I could sum up why I’m committed to the HR Girlfriends community it would come down to because we are ‘….in this together.’”

5. Evil HR Lady

The title in and of itself makes this blog worth reading. The eponymous ‘Evil HR Lady’, Suzanne Lucas picked the name to challenge the prevailing stereotype that HR folks are rigid and spitefull corporate goons. Her blog seeks to “demystify” HR, revealing there’s usually a lot more going on behind the scenes than the employee general population, or even management, know.

Susanne posts a mixture of relevant articles from around the web, original content, and other resources, like webinars. Visit her blog or subscribe for the latest in your inbox.

6. Ask a Manager

You will get sucked into this Q&A blog! The questions range from ‘what should I do when I hit a coworker’s car in the staff parking lot?’ to ‘how do I handle misuse of sick leave?’, and much more. Every time I visit Aks a Manager, we can’t stop scrolling.

Alison Green started this website in 2007, and since then has written a book and launched a podcast covering all things management. The blog isn’t specific to HR and Recruiting, yet many of the questions cover relevant material. And, with three or more posts a day, there’s always something new to read.

7. The Lorne Epstein Show

Lorne Epstein is a recruiter and author in Washington DC, where he’s hosted his weekly radio show/podcast since 2016. The Lorne Epstein Show covers a diverse array of HR and Recruitment topics, from in-depth interviews with industry thought leaders like Lou Adler, to nuts and bolts how-tos of salary laws, to expounding the world’s most adventurous jobs – don’t you want to know what it’s like to be an FBI bomb investigator?

This podcast definitely has an ‘inside baseball’ feel, which is great for those of us who care about the proverbial baseball (in this case, HR and recruitment). So, if you get excited about the latest developments in the industry but are sick of the glazed-over look in your friends/partner’s eyes when you start on a future of work rant, this is the place for you!

8. Constangy, Brooks, Smith Prophete LLP Blog

Learn from experts with real employment litigation experience. Everyone has an opinion, but these are the opinions that really matter when it comes to legal issues at work. Of course, reading a blog does not count as actual legal counsel, it’s a place to stay abreast of the latest legislation and best practice.

The Constangy Blog focuses on US workplace law, though some subjects will be internationally relevant. That’s not to say that it’s all dry legalese – that couldn’t be further from the truth. Their contributors also offer editorials on topical issues like the movement for a $15 minimum wage and think pieces on historical work practice, like Radio Corporation of America’s HR guidelines for supervising female employees written during WWII.

9. The Chad & Cheese Podcast

To quote the hosts, Chad & Cheese is “HR’s most dangerous podcast. Lock your doors and hide your kids. Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman are here to punch the recruiting industry right in the face!”

The latest industry news with a healthy dose of snark – what’s not to love? The show listens like classic morning radio with irreverent attitudes and frequent sound effects, which is a nice change of pace for an industry known for buttoning up. Enjoy, but headphones a must if you are at work or around kids.

10. Hiring Success Journal

Forgive the shameless self-promotion, but we couldn’t resist. You already know about the Hiring Success Journal if you are reading this, but did you know that we have a weekly curated newsletter that delivers our latest articles straight to your inbox. Signup here for the latest recruiting stories, industry deep dives, and how-tos that will level up your TA practice.

These are the 10 most common topics to lie about in a job interview:

Compensation: Of course when you want to move to a new job you’re looking to get yourself to the next step and that means compensation wise too. To make sure you don’t get duped into paying someone way more than they deserve check the industry salary averages in your location, or the candidate’s previous area. When the number requested is 200K and your research is telling you 70K is the cap, you may have yourself a liar.

Accomplishments: There’s a lot of pressure in the interview process to set yourself above the rest, because of this some candidates will lie about their achievements from their previous work place. Making a suggestion for new software features may turn into being the team leader on the project. These exaggerations can be a huge problem after you hire the candidate and are expecting them to be able to lead a team of developers. To avoid this mistake, don’t ask for a laundry list of the candidate’s accomplishments, instead ask about their process of getting there. If the candidate can tell you details- great, if they can’t – red flag.

Reason for Leaving: If a candidate had a difficult exit with their previous employer, they may experience some anxiety when telling their next potential employer. That’s only normal. You can’t contact their old boss or coworkers? That’s one thing if they’re job searching while having a full time job, but another if they’ve left and explained to you it was amicable.

Education: Candidates may feel the need to lie about education based on the societal pressures to come from a good school with a strong academic background. Combat education fraud by getting a background check, this can easily tell you whether or not the candidate received the degree from the school they did or not.

Previous Job Experience and Rolls: Candidates may stretch the truth to prove that their job history is the perfect stepping-stone to the job they are trying to get now. The truth is no two jobs are going be perfectly aligned, especially if you’re moving to a new company. Instead of asking what the responsibilities were, ask what about their previous experience they will be able to contribute to the qualifications of the new job.

Investment in the Company: The labor market is tough, everyone is looking for a job so that means they’re probably not exclusively seeking work with your company. Candidates will most likely be applying to tons of different positions across different companies. In the interview a candidate will tell you, “this is the job they are meant for,” and how they think your company is changing the world. It’s probably not true. Don’t take it personally.

Covering up an Employment Gap: Employment gaps tend to leave people with a raised eyebrow, knowing this, candidates may try and to fabricate what was going on during the employment gap. Just because candidates weren’t in a professional setting doesn’t mean they weren’t developing skills for a professional environment. Focus on the potential positive things from an employment gap instead of approaching it as a negative, which will leave a candidate feeling like the have to lie.

False References: Poor performance or a bad experience with a past employer will lead to a poor reference. Friends and family are much more reliable if a candidate is worried their old employers will have less than positive things to say about them. When talking about references checks ask for specifics regarding the capacity of how the two worked together. If all the numbers start or end with the same few digits odds are you’re initiating the family phone tree.

Marital status: I was surprised by this one. Why would candidates feel like they have to lie about martial status? Most likely because of benefits and perks. Be such an awesome work place that you don’t pressure candidates into lying for benefits. If this doesn’t sound like your company, you’re probably in the stone age.

General Skills: This is similar to exaggeration of previous job experience. This lie will come from the candidate’s desire to have preferable qualifications for the job. A beginner’s understanding of Excel and Photoshop might come across as advanced understanding of the programs if they are necessary to get the job. This problem can be combated with questions that ask for details about how the program is used and passed projects. Another why to fight this fraud, skills assessments.

At the end of the day, they are lots of reasons why people lie. Particularly when they are under a lot of pressure to find another job. A poll by HigherScores.com indicated that 92% of people interviewed have lied in a previous job interview.  As the employer there is absolutely no reason as to why you shouldn’t be able to catch this. You may not be able to read every single signal in the interview that indicates a lie. Like covering the mouth with they speak, shifting positions, etc. But by using assessments you’ll be able to figure out what in the interview was true and what wasn’t.

SmartRecruiters is the hiring platform with everything you need to source talent, manage candidates, and make the right hires. Modified Image Credit PursuitMag.

“Don’t forget your ghost mask,” the corporation told me when they let me go eight months ago. My face is a ghost.

I sent out resumes. I hounded job boards. I called. And called. And emailed. And emailed. No one would look me in the eye and say “Hello. Welcome. Take a seat and tell me about yourself.”

Then I finally got a hiring manager to meet me for coffee. I bought the coffee. “So are you … ah,” the hiring manager mumbles to the sound of rustling paper. “Currently … doing … wait where are you currently working?”

“I’m unemployed.” (dun, dun, Dun!) Hiring manager screamed thoughts, “The Horror! The Horror!” Then politely drank coffee, didn’t listen to the details, told me, “we’ll be in touch,” only to never contact me again.

Don’t mask the faces of the unemployed. The unemployed are not ghosts. Listen to their voice. Then evaluate the skills in the their experience.

It is about more than ghost costumes. Halloween is said to have emerged from the fears of Celtic Tribes. Legend said, when the season of life (the fall) meets the season of death (the winter), the malevolent ghosts would manifest from the wind to walk among the living. This practice in the hiring process – of seeing the unemployed as ghosts – its not just one day, it is all year.

This scenario need not be real. The unwritten rule for those hiring is to not even consider the unemployed. This is a practice we can change. Businesses should interview at least one unemployed person for every job opening.

A recent SmartRecruiters Survey of stakeholders within hiring decisions, found that 82% confirm the existence of discrimination against the unemployment, 55% have “personally experienced resistance when presenting qualified yet unemployed candidates,” and 53% believe the unemployed job seekers are “unemployed for a reason” or “probably not qualified.” That is scary.

Whether the unemployed are victims of the economy or “unemployed for a reason,” they deserve a moment of your time. This Halloween, get to know the person behind the sheet. Create opportunity. Businesses should interview at least one unemployed person for every job opening.

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Photo credit: Frontpagemag.com

• Stress Interview. This form of interview was more common in sales positions and is rare today. Candidates are placed into stressful or confrontation situations where they are asked to perform or answer interview questions under duress. The stress interview is usually a deliberate attempt to see how the candidate handles himself or herself under pressure. The most common format is like a law interrogation room where two interviewers assume the roles of good cop and bad cop. Candidate should calmly answer each question. Ask for clarification if you need it, and never rush into an answer.

• Telephone or Skype Interview. Many organizations will conduct interviews by telephone to narrow a field of candidates as the first stage of the interview and candidate selection process. In the past, I used phone interviews to prescreen all my candidates. Telephone or technology based interviews using tools like Skype and other Internet video technologies can be helpful in lowering the cost of travel expenses for your organization. It’s also a great way to see how your candidate reacts to using technology that may or may not be part of the new position.

• Group Interview. A group interview is usually designed to uncover the leadership potential of prospective managers and employees who will be dealing with customers. The front-runner candidates are gathered together in an informal, discussion type interview. A subject is introduced and the interviewer will start off the discussion. These situations are great for mass hire situations like warehouse or retail positions. For job seekers, the goal of the group interview is to see how you interact with others and how you use your knowledge and reasoning to influence others.

• Unstructured Interview. I alluded to a structured interview in Part 1 of this series. A structured interview is standardized interview process that involves a series of interview questions that were pre-selected. The structured interview is the preferred method for hiring managers and interviewers to use because it lessens the likelihood that illegal interview questions will be asked by the interviewer during the course of the interview. An unstructured interview allows for a more casual conversation and discovery with questions flowing based on the feel from the hiring manager.

Be sure to take a look at Part 1 of the Types of Interviews Series, where I discussed four of the common types of employer interviews.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a HR consultant, new media strategist, and author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. Jessica is the host of Job Search Secrets, an internet television show for job seekers.

Photo Credit Society of Women Engineers

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The interview process itself is the single most important part of the candidate selection process. It’s essentially the first date where an employer and candidate meet face to face after they’ve reviewed each other’s profiles, and have mutually opted to learn more about if this relationship could be “the one.”

As if the candidate courting and selection process wasn’t enough for both parties, the actual interview and evaluation process can go a number of different ways. Recruiters, hiring managers, and job seekers should be prepared to get to know one another in a variety of different interview settings and formats. Here are a few of the most common to get you started:

• Informational Interview. This style of interview is exactly what it sounds like, for informational purposes only. Job seekers meet with a prospective employer’s hiring managers and/or recruiters to learn more about the company, their culture, and hiring process before an actual position is available. Take part. These are a great way to pre-interview a candidate, establish a relationship, and build talent pipelines for future company openings.

• Traditional Face-to-Face Interview. Most interviews are face-to-face. The candidate and the company representative get to know one another mono a mono, eyeball to eyeball. As the interviewer, your focus should be on asking prepared interview questions. Also make sure you are prepared to answer the interviewee’s questions about the position and company. Maintain eye contact and be prepared to make the candidate comfortable.

• Panel/Committee Interview. In this boardroom-style format, there is more than one interviewer. Typically, three to ten members of a panel may conduct this part of the selection process. Interviewers will likely ask individual questions and the candidate not only works to answer the question directly but also to engage and develop a rapport with each panel member. Interviewers should have a series of planned interview questions and scoring or interview evaluation process in place prior to the interview. Know the criteria you are looking for before the interview has begun. Incorporating a scoring or consistent interview evaluation system is known as a structured interview.

• Lunch/Dinner Interview. The same rules apply at a restaurant as in the office. The setting may be casual or formal. The interview questions are important but just like the panel interview, the interviewer has placed the job seeker in an environment where they must not only maintain poise, develop relationships, but also answer interview questions effectively in what likely will be a more casual conversational format. As a job seeker, I always recommend that they follow the lead of the interviewers they are dining with. Eat less. Order an entree that is light and easy to eat. Baby back ribs are not an appropriate choice.  Do not drink alcohol at any point in the interview process.

Learn more about the employer candidate selection and interview evaluation process by visiting Part Two of this blog series.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a HR consultant, new media strategist, and author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. Jessica is the host of Job Search Secrets, an internet television show for job seekers.

Photo Credit HRKeyFunctions

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