How to run an interview (part 1)
without wanting the ground to swallow you up whole
There comes a time in every designer’s career where you’re asked to ‘just step in on an interview’, normally when one of the usual suspects is conveniently unavailable. Unfortunately, it’s normal to get little to no training before going into running your first interview - which sucks for you as well as the candidate!
Since transitioning from management to being an IC designer, I’ve had to run far fewer interviews. Which is great! Interviews suck on both sides - running one is almost as stressful as being the subject.
Luckily for you, I still have plenty of wisdom to impart on the running of interviews, and how to make them not hellish for you, or for the candidate. And potentially even make them better for your team and more useful to the hiring process!
Investigate the process (if you have one at all)
Most companies have a defined interview process- what interviews are run, in what order, with which people, evaluating which skill set.
However… This doesn’t mean it’s any good.
Ideally your interview process should be reviewed and tweaked annually - but you’re unlikely to have this power when running your first interviews. You should still investigate what process you do have - via HR, or whoever got you into this mess in the first place.
How many interviews are there?
What is the candidate being evaluated on at each stage?
How is information passed between interviewers?
Figuring out the main thing you need to evaluate the candidate on and if your business has any defined ways of identifying this will do half of the work for you. This context will give you the confidence to do your part!
What does good look like?
Sounds like a simple question to ask. But you need to know what good looks like, realistically, for the role you’re hiring for, before you can evaluate someone else!
You have probably been given a job description, but often these are more a smörgåsbord of ideal traits, not a realistic, prioritised list of expectations of what is needed to do the job.
As an example, I would love if my Junior UX Designer had experience, say, implementing native designs. But few juniors have this experience, and the ones that do might be looking beyond a junior role!
Though something may be listed in the job description, you should consider if it’s a hard requirement, or something that can be taught on the job and could be evaluated in different ways.
You simply need to make a list of what you would want to see in this person. Think of who in your team excels in their role, and what traits, skills and attitudes stand out in helping them do so. This should be as specific to the role as you can- not ‘teamwork’, say, but ‘excited by working with engineers’. Then figure out what questions to ask to evaluate that competence, and the sort of answers that would demonstrate that. Simple!
For example
I want to see… excited by working with engineers
I could ask…
talk me through the teamwork involved in creating [portfolio project]?
Have you worked with engineers before? How did you find that?
What would your perfect team structure look like?
What parts of the design process excite you?
I would want to see…
They talk about collaborating directly with engineers in the past
They have opinions about the best way design and engineering teams can work together
They have understanding of the technical complexities and pitfalls of the design-engineering relationship.
As you are asking those questions, you can steer the conversation towards the area you are evaluating. The great thing with targeted questions you have tailored to the role, is that it becomes rapidly obvious if the person is not suited for the role- or if they’re mega passionate about it!
Pre-work is 90% of the work
Your goal before running an interview is to make it as easy as possible for you to do a good job and figure out if the candidate is any good.
With your targeted questions laid out, and having investigated the process and expectations of you by your business, you’ve done most of the work (woo!). Indeed by reading a post like this, you’re probably thinking about interviews more than your average interviewer.
Here are some other things you should do before starting an interview to help set yourself, and the candidate, up for success.
Catch up with your other interviewer (hopefully you have one!) Decide who’s gonna be leading, and who’s going to be mainly taking notes. Note taker is the role I’d recommend for your first few interviews, as it forces you to focus on a manual task and not get as caught up in the stress of evaluating someone else.
As the note taker, you can and should still interject with questions!
Make a scratch sheet with the candidate’s name, a link to their CV and folio, and any questions that have already come up from reading those both (you have read their CV before the interview, right?)
A list of all your questions you made above, plus any expected by your business’ defined processes. I also like to write myself a list of timings- I expect intros to last until x, etc.
Test your mic and video. It’s always interviews when these things break. I recommend turning off filters and backgrounds, as it helps the candidate feel at ease. Try to be well-lit with a normal camera angle (no up-nose shots please). Join the call 2-3 mins before. The candidate should never be alone in the room.
Have a glass of water, and pen and paper to hand. Nerves dry up the throat, and better to have water to hand than awkwardly spluttering your way through introductions (I have done this.)
Now what about the interview itself? Well, this ended up being way too bloody long. We’ve covered the basics of good interviewing and how to prep. Part 2 will focus on the nitty gritty of running one, and improving your interview skills for the future. And it’s coming next week! Promise. I’ve even written it!
Notes from the editor
2024 has certainly not been the year of the blog. My other dilettantisms have captured me too completely. However the ideas are starting to spill out of containment, and I do hope you enjoy them. I’ll be releasing a little ‘dilettante’s digest’ later this week to show off some ‘not design leadership’ stuff that’s been going on in the world of Cait. Have an amazing Wednesday from me!