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Hiring the right employee can make all the difference to the success of your team and the overall culture of your workplace. A strong hire brings fresh ideas, enthusiasm, and applicable skills to the table — while a poor hire can slow progress and disrupt your team’s workflow. That’s why nailing the interview process is so critical, even if you’ve already crafted a solid job description that has attracted a wealth of well-qualified-seeming applicants.
But let’s be honest, even if you’ve streamlined and optimized the rest of your recruiting process, conducting interviews can feel intimidating, especially if you’re not sure where to start. However, if you can vet candidates beyond just what’s written in their resume and cover letter, you’ll set yourself up to land the best talent who fits in with the personality of your business, and ultimately build a team that drives success.
The good news? You can break the process into practical steps using smart hiring tools for employers from sites like ZipRecruiter, such as their job description templates that you can reference when crafting your interview, candidate screening tools to filter through only the most relevant applicants, and interview scheduling tools to avoid bottlenecks in your recruiting process. Below we’ll dig into how their hiring features can help set you up to confidently prepare, conduct, and evaluate interviews with ease.
1. Define the Role and Craft Smart Interview Questions
Before you even start interviewing potential candidates, it’s crucial to get crystal clear on what you’re looking for when you’re crafting the job listing. Think beyond just a title: What are the key responsibilities, essential skills, and qualities that would make someone a successful fit in this role? Consider any technical skills they’ll need (and if that might require a potential test that adds to the application process, such as a coding exam or edit test), but don’t forget to think about how to convey cultural fit and adaptability to your brand.
You can use a tool like ZipRecruiter’s Job Description Templates to jumpstart your process. These pre-built templates help you outline responsibilities, must-have skills, and even the type of work environment your team fosters. This foundation not only attracts the right candidates, but also guides you in crafting interview questions that align with the role’s specific needs.
When you’re ready to start crafting the interview, write down at least 8–10 open-ended interview questions. Focus on behavioral questions that start with phrases like “Tell me about a time when…” or “Can you give an example of how you handled…?”. These questions encourage candidates to share real-world experiences and convey how they would tackle similar situations facing your company instead of relying on rehearsed answers.
2. Screen Resumes Wisely Before You Talk to Potential Candidates
With your job posting now live, it’s time to dive into those resumes. But sorting through hundreds of applications can be overwhelming, and a smart screening process ensures you’re only spending precious interview time on candidates who are the absolute best match for the role. ZipRecruiter’s Candidate Screening Tools leverage AI-powered matching to automatically highlight top candidates based on your job description. This feature saves you from manually combing through resumes, which can be a major time-saver. You can also add custom pre-screening questions to quickly filter out applicants who don’t meet your core requirements before you even talk to any one candidate.
But don’t just focus on the top of the resume — dig deeper into candidates’ past roles, paying close attention to the results they achieved, not just the tasks they performed (you can do this during the actual interview itself, too). Look for performance metrics, key accomplishments that impacted the overall business, and professional growth over time. This gives you a clearer picture of what they might bring to your team.
3. Conduct Effective Phone Screens Prior to In-Person Interviews
Once you’ve identified your top candidates, the next step is a phone screen. This is your chance to get a feel for the candidate’s personality, with data from ZipRecruiter showing that the top three things employers should be looking for in screening calls are relevant work experience and skill, strong work ethic, and enthusiasm for the job. Think of it as a first date — you’re getting to know each other and figuring out if it’s worth moving forward.
Especially if you’ve got a large number of potential applicants you need to screen (and fast), ZipRecruiter’s Messaging and Scheduling Tools make coordinating phone screens a breeze. You can message candidates directly within the platform to suggest times, and they can easily respond and confirm. The built-in scheduling features help you avoid back-and-forth emails, ensuring a smooth process for both you and the candidate.
Just be sure to keep your phone screen short and sweet — remember that this isn’t the final interview, so 15 to 20 minutes is plenty. Ask a mix of questions that cover why they’re interested in the role, what they know about your company, and a brief rundown of their relevant experience. Pay attention to how they communicate: Are they engaged and enthusiastic? Do they listen carefully and respond thoughtfully? These cues should reveal a lot about their fit for the role, and whether you want to follow-up for a second interview.
4. Stay Consistent With Your In-Person (or Virtual) Interviews
This is the main event — the stage where you can dig deeper into the candidate’s skills and personality. Whether you’re conducting the interview in person or virtually, preparation is key. Have your questions ready in advance, but also be prepared to pivot and ask follow-ups that get to the heart of what makes the candidate tick.
Understand too that bottlenecks in scheduling can happen, but you can use ZipIntro, ZipRecruiter’s interview scheduling tool, to simplify this stage of the hiring process. With ZipIntro, candidates can select a time that works for them, and the system automatically updates your calendar. No more double-booking or last-minute changes, and the automated reminders help reduce no-shows and ensure a seamless experience for everyone involved.
If you’ve got multiple candidates scheduled within a tight hiring time frame, it’s more important than ever to structure your interview with consistency in mind. Ask the same set of core questions to every candidate so you can fairly compare answers later, but don’t be afraid to go off-script. If a candidate mentions a project or skill that sounds intriguing, ask them to elaborate — this is your chance to get insights that might not immediately pop up on a resume.
Remember that interviews are a two-way street, too. Top candidates are evaluating you just as much as you’re evaluating them, and you should be selling the role by sharing why you love working at your company, what the team culture is like, and what opportunities for growth exist. This not only builds excitement, but shows that you value their interest (and their time).
5. Keep Track of Your Post-Interview Candidate Evaluations
You’ve asked the right questions and (hopefully) met some incredible candidates — but we hope you’ve been taking notes! As it comes time to make a decision, you’re going to want to be able to remember each candidate’s strengths, weaknesses and impression of overall fit for the role so you can discuss them properly with your team. This ensures that you have a record of any key professional accomplishments or important skills they mentioned, and that you aren’t hiring purely on “vibes” alone (or just whatever you can recall off the top of your head).
Using a tool like ZipRecruiter’s Candidate Management Dashboard lets you store interview notes, track candidate status, and even share feedback with your team in one convenient place. There’s a thumbs-up/thumbs-down feature to quickly categorize candidates, and you can lean on the collaborative tools to make sure everyone’s voice is heard before making the final call. But don’t let the hiring process drag on too long — great candidates often have multiple offers, and you don’t want to lose out on your top pick. Use your interview notes and team feedback to confidently make an offer, and when you do, move fast to show the candidate you’re excited to have them on board.
