How to run a recruitment interview

TL;DR

Summary

A 1h30 interview with 3 twenty-minute workshops chosen by the candidate.

Goals

Offer an in-depth candidate experience by treating the candidate as a “client”, and have an interview template that’s reusable across the product team

Introduction

First of all, I’d like to thank Julien Vignolles, who shared this way of running interviews with me.

This way of running interviews is built on 2 key concepts:

• offer an in-depth candidate experience by guiding them through a process, which is particularly reassuring for them. It’s what comes back almost systematically in their feedback.
• structure the interview as workshops. It takes preparation but lets you focus tightly on specific topics.

After applying it dozens of times, it’s particularly effective both for recruiters and for candidates, regardless of the role. It works especially well for product team roles (PM, PO, UX, dev), where soft skills and ways of working matter as much as technical skills.

How a workshop-based interview unfolds

0. Pre-interview

Reading the resume at the recruiter’s convenience

Offering the candidate 3 two-hour slots (just like for a client): calend.ly works well for scheduling.

1. Ice-breaker (10 min)

Greet and introduce yourself: at least 2 people on the recruiter side.

Explain that the interview will last 1h30

Start an ice-breaker

Example - the drawing:

• Each person draws themselves (3 min)
• Each person introduces themselves (1-3 min each)

2. Interview kickoff (5 min)

State your expectations out loud

Write the expectations on a board

Announce the agenda:

• 3 workshops of 20 min
• Mutual feedback at the end (10 min)

Example expectations:

• Share things
• Learn things
• See if there’s a “fit” with the company
• Have a good time

If the candidate has expectations that are out of scope, say this isn’t the moment for them and we’ll see what can be done afterwards.

3. Choosing the workshops (5 min)

• Make it clear: “This is your interview, you build it the way you want. You need to choose and prioritize 3 workshops of 20 min from the list provided”
• Walk through the workshop list
• The candidate picks and prioritizes 3 workshops
• E.g.: “I’d like you to do at least one case study please”

Workshop list (non-exhaustive)

Review of the current role

Tell us what’s going well and what’s going badly in your current role.

What actions have you taken as a result?

Vision for the next 3 years

Tell us your vision on your area of expertise / your offering. View on the market, big trends…

Sharing a proud moment / a painful one

Tell us about a proud moment or a painful one in your career.

How did it shape you?

Presenting a deliverable

Walk us through a deliverable you produced (document, design…).

How did you arrive at that result?

The last talk you watched / book you read / film / series

Tell us about the last talk you watched or the last book you read.

What stood out to you in particular?

Passion / hobby

If you have a passion or a hobby, tell us how you got into it.

What has it brought you in life?

Case study

For a UX role: “A salesperson from Atecna comes to you and offers a UX/UI engagement for Sephora. They ask you what approach you’d like to take with this client. What do you do?”

For a product manager / PO: “You’ve just been brought into a struggling product team. The product is shipping features but adoption is flat. What do you do in your first 30 days?”

For a consultant: “You won an engagement that you scoped in the proposal yourself. The client’s need was to improve the performance of their website. What approach did you propose?”

For a developer: “You’re the tech lead of a product, and the CEO walks in to tell you we’re going to be on the prime-time news tomorrow. You know you’ll get a traffic spike but the system can’t handle the load. What do you do?”

For a sales profile: “You join the company and you have to meet a client right away. They’re new to the company and one of your colleagues tells you she knows them and they’re really demanding. What do you do?”

The previous employer

Tell us how your previous employer sees you.

If we called your previous employer, what points would they emphasize?

Internal team project

In our team, we have time allocated for internal projects, around 4 pillars: HR, external communication, business, and team life.

What project would you like to lead in one of these 4 pillars, and why?

Code review

Show and walk us through a piece of code you developed.

What are you most or least proud of?

4. During the workshops (3 x 20 min)

One recruiter leads the interview, the other takes a more passive posture but jumps in when they want to. The second one is usually the timekeeper, signaling 10 min and 2 min remaining.

The lead recruiter should adopt an active listening posture and let the candidate talk. They don’t interrupt and don’t show judgment. On the contrary, they rephrase what the candidate says and build on it.

5. Discussion and feedback (10 min)

The 2 recruiters step out and make a decision: GO or NO GO. When they come back into the room they should be aligned.

They announce the decision right away: “We talked it through and we’re moving forward. You’ll have another interview / you’re hired!” or “We’ve decided not to continue together”.

Then there’s mutual feedback and a debrief.

6. Spend time together

The recruiters can offer to continue the discussion elsewhere, give an office tour, hand out swag…

Hence offering 2-hour slots and not 1h30 :)

Going further

• Active listening: an essential skill for running an interview
• Feedback: to give constructive feedback to the candidate
• How to ask the right questions: questioning techniques