Are You a Good Interviewer: 5 Tips to Help You Improve Your Interviewing Skills

It is not hard to find information on how to prepare for a job interview. What if you are sitting on the other side of the desk. Asking the questions is just as important as the answers you get.

Great interviewers are made not born. In this article let's look at what makes a great interviewer and whether you think you are one or not.

1. First of all make it fun. Your job is to hire the right person for the job they are interviewing. This is not a police inquisition. You both will do a better job if everyone is relaxed and enjoying themselves.

2. You control the way the conversation goes. When people are nervous they may talk to much or they may not talk at all. It really depends on the person you are interviewing. It is your job to control the conversation and you do that by the type of questions you ask.

When interviewing others the goal is to hire the right people for the job and to reduce turnover. Here are some pointers:

Let them know the point of the interview is to learn about them and in turn to see if they are a fit for this job. Not everyone is! Let them know you are going to ask qualifying questions and their answers are important, but to relax and just answer everything honestly.

3. Do not take the resume at face value.

All too often people use catch phrases or words such as, dedicated, self motivated, hard working, and goal oriented. Some people may think that these words will get them the job.

You should ask them to explain what they are saying about themselves. A couple of questions could be these:

"You state on your resume that you're self motivated. Can you give me an example of how you do this?"

"You claim to be hard working. How were you hard working in your previous job?"

If they put it on their resume they should be able to state examples to back up what they are claiming.

4. Be prepared to wrap up an answer with another question.

You might ask them to describe themselves in 200 words or less and 5 minutes later they are still talking. Politely interrupt them by thanking them for their answer and naturally move into your next question.

5. Do they do the basics. This includes everything from their handshake to do they maintain eye contact when they talk. A person's body language will let you know if they are relaxed or uptight.

How they act is as important as what they are saying. Are they excited. Being nervous is natural, but being boring is being boring and they probably will not be excited when they show up for work either.

To summarize this article your interviewing skills are as important as the candidate themselves. Practice and concentrate on becoming a better interviewer and everyone wins.

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