An (Unofficial) Interviewer’s Handbook — first draft

A few months ago I found myself with a few lighter days on the job and decided to put together some advice for the hiring teams with whom I work.

I’ve put a lot of thought into candidate experience, but I’d never sat down to consider the impact (both negative and positive) that interviewers can have on the hiring process and outcome. I’ve been able to experiment in what I do during my conversations with candidates, but I had never put anything together formally to explain the impact + outcome to my coworkers.

I thought I could send this information in a series of emails to each hiring team before the start of the process, so imagine these as a drip campaign hitting your work inbox over the course of a few days.

Part 1 — Setting the Stage

By conducting interviews you’re trying to make yourself slightly better than flipping a coin. — Richard Fye, Datadog HQ

Why did I create an interviewer’s guidebook?

• Set expectations for the hiring team
• Underline the importance of hiring/interviewing
• Help you have successful interviews

Chances are you’ve seen bits and pieces of our hiring process because you experienced it yourself!

However, if you’ve never been on a hiring team at Customer.io before, you may be missing the whole story. Here’s a summary of how our hiring process works today [links to a Basecamp page about our interview process] — please review it, and post questions as a comment in Basecamp OR reply directly to this email.

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

Part 2 — Repeat after me…

“Hi I’m {{customer.first_name}}, a {{customer.job_title}} at Customer.io, and I’m a biased interviewer.”

Unconscious Bias = “the mental shortcuts our brains take to help us make decisions quickly”

These shortcuts are incredibly valuable when aligned with survival instincts, and making decisions living in a data-saturated world. However, they can be harmful if left unchecked in certain aspects of our work — like hiring.

Here’s a great video made by Google to help explain more about unconscious bias and it’s effects at work.

Once you form an initial impression of someone — which usually happens within the first 60 seconds — you should spend the rest of the interview trying to invalidate that impression.

Our goal, as interviewers, is to limit the influence our unconscious biases have on the decisions made during the hiring process.

Here’s how we do that today…

1. Job requirements reflect necessary skills for the role and are not tied to arbitrary numbers like years of experience. We want our new Ami to be able to take their past experience, apply some of it here, and continue to grow. The skills we require for a role can be learned in many different environments, industries, and teams. We’re also going to check our job descriptions and titles for gender-coded language.
2. Goals, expectations, skills & attributes (for scorecards) are determined prior to the live job post. By staying objective early on, we’ll have a structured framework for each interviewer to follow for each stage of the process.
3. We stick to structured interviews. Again, prior to posting the job live, we’ll have planned out each step of the interview process. Each interviewer or pair of interviewers will be assigned to assess and cover certain skills and core values. This is included in the hiring doc and then replicated in Greenhouse for continuity.
4. We hire by committee. Our top candidates are going to meet People Ops, their future manager, at least one peer on their team, at least one peer on another team, and someone from the leadership team. Each of the interviewers has a voice in the hiring decision. A hiring manager can have the final “no” decision on a candidate, but they alone cannot decide “yes” without having the support of the rest of the hiring team.
5. Blind Feedback! Interviewers don’t discuss their opinions about the candidate until everyone has interviewed them. In fact, they are required to fill out their scorecard in Greenhouse prior to any discussion about a candidate.

Do you have more ideas on how we can help reduce bias in our interview process? I’d love to get your feedback!

Part 3 — Preparing for your interview

If you’re getting ready for your first interview, then your hiring team has already created a Hiring Plan Doc, and you’ve helped both review and edit it.

The Hiring Plan Doc will outline the goals and expectations of the role we’re hiring for and which skills/attributes that you’re responsible for assessing during your portion of the interview.

Remember that the candidate is probably nervous; they want to make sure they leave you with a good impression and are worried about doing just the opposite!

A couple of ways to help ease nerves:

1. Don’t forget to introduce yourself and anyone else on the call!
2. Don’t jump straight into your questions — you can thank the interviewee, you might recall your own interviewing experience at our company, or start with a behavioral question like “Tell me about a time when…”
3. Remember to smile, and stay actively engaged when the candidate is talking to you
4. Arrive on time! Being on time sets a tone that you care about your potential future coworker
5. Remind the candidate of the goal of your portion of the interview; if it’s a troubleshooting, technical, or hypothetical exercise, remind the candidate that you’re not expecting one right answer, but want to understand their thought process
6. Be flexible! There may be technical issues on your video call, the candidate may get stuck on an answer, or is having trouble moving forward. You can gently give hints, change the topic, or repeat the question in a different way.
7. Ask back and clarify. You’ll interview with candidates from around the world, many of whom English is not their first language. They could be a misunderstanding on either end of the conversation, if you’re unsure, “ask back” by repeating their question back to them before answering.

To avoid: Asking questions related to any protected class.

What about you? How have interviewers helped you have a good experience when you were a candidate?

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

Part 4 — Your notes and the scorecard

During the interview(s), you’ll be taking notes to that you can fill out a scorecard after the call.

I like to remind the interviewee that I may look down or off-camera when I’m taking notes — but I’m still listening and am engaged in the conversation.

Some folks will take notes directly in the scorecard; others will transfer notes to the scorecard after the interviewer. Either way is fine!

Here’s a couple of things to consider while note-taking:

1. Summarize both the content and delivery of the interviewee’s answers
2. Document their grammar, body language, and other non-verbal cues
3. Your notes will ensure that you stay focused on the most pertinent information during an interview (aka you can’t write down everything!)
4. Your notes serve as documentation to support the employment decision — they, along with your scorecard, will be our only record of events.

#2 asks you to consider the body language of the candidate, but be mindful of your own as well. “An interviewer’s body language such as facial expressions
and body movements (e.g., nodding, raising eyebrows, frowning) communicates a lot to the candidate. For example, the interviewer communicates disinterest by slouching, regularly looking at the clock, leaning back, or doodling with a pen.” (from this interviewer’s guide)

As an interviewer, you have the opportunity to make the biggest positive impact on a future coworker. Don’t be shy to let them know specifically why you like to work here and the type of work you do and how it may relate to their role. Sharing authentic experiences with your interviewee will help them better understand their role, the company, and our culture.

Before your first interview, please review Common Interview Mistakes [links to a Basecamp page of the next email] that will help with your interview delivery, note-taking, and scorecard ratings.

Part 5 — Common Interviewer Mistakes

This relevant, important advice comes from The United States Personnel Management’s Structured Interviews guidebook.

1. Relying on First Impressions: Interviewers tend to make rapid decisions about the qualifications of a candidate within the first few minutes of the interview based on minimal information. Interviewers should reserve their judgment until sufficient information on the candidate has been gathered.
2. Negative Emphasis: Unfavorable information tends to be more influential and memorable than favorable information. Interviewers should avoid focusing on negative information to the exclusion of positive information.
3. Not Knowing the Job: Interviewers who do not have a comprehensive understanding of the skills needed for the job often form their own opinion about what constitutes the best candidate. They use this personal impression to evaluate candidates. Please review the Hiring Plan Doc and ask questions if anything is unclear!!
4. Pressure to Hire: When interviewers believe they need to make a decision quickly, they tend to make decisions based on a limited sample of information, or on a small number of candidate interviews. Interviewers should adhere to the established interview procedure and timeline with each candidate to avoid making erroneous decisions.
5. Contrast Effects: The order in which the candidates are interviewed can affect the ratings given to candidates. While making ratings, interviewers should refrain from comparing and contrasting candidates to those who have been previously interviewed.
6. Nonverbal Behavior: Interviewers should base their evaluation of the candidate on the candidate’s past performance and current behavior as it relates to the competency being evaluated and not just on how the candidate acts during the interview. Questions and probes relating to the competencies of interest will usually direct the interviewer to the important information.

That’s a wrap!…for now. I’d love your feedback on this. What advice do you give your interviewers to help them provide a great experience for candidates (and themselves)?

Psst! People @ Customer.io is hiring and adding new roles soon. We’d love to talk to you!

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