Each organization’s hiring process is a little different, but the one-on-one interview will always play a pivotal role. It’s often your best opportunity for digging deeper, confirming behavioral traits, and generally gaining reassurance about a candidate.
The job interview alone isn’t your only tool in hiring top talent; good job descriptions and a streamlined system for attracting talent are just as important. But when it does come time for the one-to-one interview (or interviews), you’ll want to narrow your focus with the interviewee.
That means knowing what behavioral traits you’re looking for in the role, what questions to prioritize, and how to read the body language of the job seeker in a face-to-face interview. It’s no silver bullet, by any means, but the one-to-one dynamic can help you break candidate ties and make a habit of nailing the hire—if you have your system down.
In this post, we’ll walk through the little things that can help you nail this critical stage in the interview process.
What are your advantages and disadvantages? – How to Answer Interview Questions
Resume-based Questions
These questions often start by reviewing a candidate’s resume or application and comparing it to a job description for specific skills or experience. At best, a set of questions is prepared ahead of time-based on a clear set of expectations. But too often, questions are constructed on the fly, during a phone screen or interview.
Example resume-based question: I see you did X for Company Y. Can you tell me more about that?
Taking a closer look, there are some pros and cons to using these types of questions in your interview process:
Pros: Resume-based questions encourage the candidate to give examples that confirm they are familiar with the job or position. It can document their technical knowledge or demonstrate the past experiences they bring to your school or organization at the screening level.
Cons: Unless you have a clear purpose or strategy with your questions, what you learn may not add much clarity to the candidate’s value. Without clear guidelines, it will be difficult to decide if an applicant’s response was good compared to the next person. A very talented but inexperienced applicant can be overlooked without a way to screen on talent as well.
Resumes are helpful to screen applicants on a KSA checklist (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) to see if they are qualified for the position. They can help identify a specific area to clarify in a screening call and confirm if the applicant is worth interviewing as a candidate. Once fully screened, it is helpful to focus on actual performance and professional qualities that go beyond a resume’s filtered past experiences.
Skills-based Questions
More detailed questions about a candidate’s skills can help you decide if they have the abilities necessary for their success in a role. While this might start with their resume or with your job description, it should go beyond that to give you a deeper look at how they apply their technical knowledge.
These questions can be helpful to understand whether or not the candidate meets the specifications of the role and has the core skills and knowledge to become a top performer in your organization.
Example skills-based question: An employee provides the HR department with a PFA document. What steps would you take to protect this employee?
Pros: These questions help you go deeper and listen for specific evidence that they possess the professional understanding you want and how it will influence their day-to-day work.
Cons: If you hire solely based on technical skills and experience, you might hire a candidate who knows what to do but doesn’t possess the necessary personal attributes to succeed in your organization. While it’s important to hire someone who has the skills to do the job well, ensure you consider additional factors like the candidate’s motivations and values.
Skills-based questions are especially important if you want to hire a candidate who can step in and do the job with limited training required beyond learning normal details unique to the job. It will be important to go past what you know about a candidate’s skills to a deeper understanding of what it’s like to work with them every day.
What is a one-on-one interview?
The one-on-one interview is specifically designed to evaluate a candidate’s demeanor, behavioral traits, and potential fit within a team or alongside a particular person. As a form of qualitative research, one-on-one interviews are most effective when they’re conducted by someone who will work directly with the candidate, and, ideally, when applying strategic interview questions.
There are a number of reasons you might prefer the one-on-one format, but the most common is simple: You tend to get more information out of the conversation, and it’s easier to stay on track. A group interview might keep a candidate on their toes, but it’s also more prone to tangents and questions that don’t prompt the responses you need. In other words, one-on-one interviews can be more efficient—when done right.
To get the most out of the exercise, it’s on the interviewer to be economical with the questions they ask, and to offer follow-up questions at the correct intervals. Otherwise, the efficiency advantage is negated.
One-on-one interview questions to ask
The role the interviewee is vying for will dictate much of your interviewing technique. But as a skilled interviewer, there are still some fallbacks you can employ with any candidate, as well as behavioral questions you can use when you’re seeking a particular profile for a role.
Let’s start with a few general questions you’ll want to hear most any candidate answer:
Each of these questions lends itself to organic follow-ups, unlike generic yet often-employed standbys like, “What would you say is your biggest weakness?”
Let’s say you’re looking for a candidate who aligns with a certain behavioral profile. You need someone with a high patience drive—a steadying presence who can stay even-keeled amid shifting priorities, and balance some innovative but freewheeling teammates.
To probe for these behavioral traits, you might ask:
The candidate can’t necessarily prepare canned responses when your interview questions are more behavioral (and sequential) like the above. You’ll also see how well their answers align with the ideal behavioral traits needed for the role and team.
The onus is on the interviewer to be both flexible and keenly observant in a one-one-one scenario. You can’t divvy up responsibilities the way you might in a panel interview. It’s important hiring managers, recruiters, and anyone else involved know how to conduct a remote interview, too. The two-on-one video interview dynamic is much different from the one-to-one.
No matter the medium or type of interview, interviewers need to practice active listening while both probing for follow-up questions and evaluating non-verbal cues, like eye contact and body language. It’s not easy, but the best hiring managers become adept with practice.
There are a few cheat codes you can employ, too:
Some interviewees will lead you in the direction of your follow-ups better than others. Whether this makes them more viable candidates is a matter of alignment. Do their answers mirror the behavioral tendencies outlined in your job description? You only know the answer if you’ve done your prep work.
FAQ
What are pros and cons in interview?
How do you answer if the job interviewer asks about your pros and cons?
- You focus too much on the details.
- You have a difficult time letting go of a project.
- You have trouble saying no.
- You get impatient when projects run beyond the deadline.
- You lack confidence.
- You have trouble asking for help.
How do I say cons in an interview?
- Tell Me About Yourself. …
- Why Are You the Best Person for the Job? …
- Why Do You Want This Job? …
- How Has Your Experience Prepared You for This Role? …
- Why Are You Leaving (or Have Left) Your Job? …
- What Is Your Greatest Strength? …
- What Is Your Greatest Weakness?
What are 10 good interview questions?
- Tell Me About Yourself. …
- Why Are You the Best Person for the Job? …
- Why Do You Want This Job? …
- How Has Your Experience Prepared You for This Role? …
- Why Are You Leaving (or Have Left) Your Job? …
- What Is Your Greatest Strength? …
- What Is Your Greatest Weakness?
