Top Seven Interview Tips — For the Virtual Hiring Manager

Despite the unemployment stats out there, it’s an extremely competitive technical recruitment market — and one little missed step in the process could cost you the worst loss of all: that of your dream candidate. The recruitment and interview process has changed, possibly forever, and gone up in the cloud, literally. Luckily in technology we have had the majority of this process virtual for some time now — but even for us, aspects have also significantly changed. With the current state of the economy, technology candidates have dozens of resources available on how to “nail” the perfect remote interview. Now it’s time to talk about the essential role of the hiring manager, and why now it is actually more important than ever to ensure you follow these simple tips to recruit and land the top people.

1. Be on time.

It sounds simple, but in this virtual world it actually isn’t. Our Zoom meetings are lined up back to back, and we still have life and family to manage in between our jam packed remote schedules. Often it’s hard to end a team meeting that has run over into the next hour — and no one wants to start that awkward moment of breaking up what is actually a good use of the team’s time. To prevent this last minute feeling of cutting off the team, at the beginning of your call it’s not rude to say “ I have a 10:00am right after this, so I have a hard stop…” even if it’s on a team or external client or even interview call. Set the expectations from the start and no one gets hurt. You most likely are one of half a dozen hiring managers your highly sought out candidate is talking to — and you do not want to be late to the dance. And in reality the folks you are talking to also have a call thereafter. Or need to check on a distance learning assignment or leave to pick up a kid at school, etc. The hard stop may benefit others too.

Another tip we’ve seen successful is to schedule your interviews (and maybe even all your meetings) with a 10 minute grace period at the end. So your 9:00am — 10:00am is now until 9:50am. Again, this doesn’t sound too complex, but providing a 10 minute buffer or a preliminary “heads up” could ensure that you are on time for your scheduled candidate interviews, which will go a long way with your prospective future employees.

2. Be flexible.

Realizing the last point was about punctuality, this sounds somewhat contradicting of the first tip. However, flexibility in the interview process and employee life used to bear the meaning “Can I go work remote in Bali for a month?” But that’s no longer the case.

The term “flexible” now is about being flexible as a boss. In that initial phone interview — you have to let the candidate know what your company and team have done to accommodate the remote parents, caregivers, and others who now have additional frequent “walk-in” visitors in their remote office — the unannounced visits of their family members, roommates or parents. A lot of technology roles have been remote for years, but the difference is the remote environment at the home office is now quite different.

Anecdotes go a long way at this point as well. “Our team does have daily standups each morning, however I’ve had to set up my 7 year olds hybrid school schedule each morning around 8:30am, as do some of the other team members, so we’ve pushed our standup back to 9:30am. We find a way to make it work since a lot of the team is also now carpooling to school or teaching their kids on some level of remote too.”

Identifying what the “new normal” means in your business, and on your team, will put your candidate at ease, and also start to develop your rapport and relationship from that first call. Do not make the mistake of waiting until “offer stage” to set the stage. The reality is that our work-from-home world has changed for all of us. We acknowledge, we adapt, we evolve and we move onward and upward should be the mantra your candidates are hearing loud and clear from the start. Reminder — you still can’t legally ask what their family/marriage dynamic is, but letting the candidate know the flexibility factor of your team and company regardless of the candidate’s current climate will surely go a long way.

3. The first phone screen is more important than ever. Don’t screw it up.

First round interview phone screens primarily were used to ensure this candidate was somewhat qualified, matched who they said they were on the resume and a chance for the hiring manager to ensure they were where you needed them to be technically. It was you, the hiring manager, interviewing them the candidate. Now the reverse is true — the candidate is actually interviewing you on the first call.

The reality is he or she has already spoken with at least three other hiring managers, possibly even all today, and they are now trying to understand who you are as a person, as a boss, what your company mission is, and what your product is actually doing to contribute to bettering society. Come to the phone interview with poise and your A-game. Be yourself, be humble and ask the candidate genuine questions about what they are looking for in their next role, and what are their job expectations and needs.

If you are working with a recruiter that’s great — they will most likely tell you what the candidate “hot buttons” or needs are from the start. Answer and address the question from that first phone screen. “What are you looking for in your next role?” — Then sit back and listen. You may only have one shot to do so.

Also professionalism still goes true even though both of you are both remote. Be sure to be in a quiet, simple, and clean background setting. Also dress professional, let’s put the 80’s band t-shirt you’ve been wearing all quarantine aside. And although I’m not suggesting to wear a suit (even though it does feel good now to put one on once in a while!), perhaps break out your business casual attire just for this call. It will set the tone that you mean business and that this interview is a priority to you. Conducting the first phone screen while making a batch of cookies or while walking your pup could send the signal that this isn’t as important as most of your meetings.

4. Engage and empower your team.

So once you’ve made it past the first dance, or the phone interview in this case, the waltz now continues to the technical review dance floor. There are lots of collaboration tools and resources teams are using for the technical review that you probably already heard of. Some of my hiring managers use Miro, or even just the whiteboard on Zoom, for collaborating in the virtual interview process. Although this isn’t entirely new to the technology recruitment process, what has actually changed is enlisting your current team to your A-team. They are just as important as you are in this process, from the recruitment standpoint. They too need to be ready to put on their dancing shoes.

The technical review should feel like a delight and a dance on air for the candidate — not an interrogation process. They should feel comfortable and confident around this team, and gain a chance for insight into what it will actually be like to problem solve and collaborate with this team — since that is essentially what they will be doing in the role on a daily basis anyway. Engage your team with the new strategy, and make them feel empowered to help “us” get this candidate.

5. What tools is your team using to not feel so remote?

You are used to talking about your stack, but not always about the tools. In the first few interviews, or even in the team technical call, do talk about what you are implementing both at the team and company level to allow employees to stay connected and engaged. Talk tools and overall resources available, and even what has and hasn’t worked with them. For example some companies are doing weekly All-Hands led by their CEO followed by trivias and happy hours. Others are even sending weekly COVID tests to their employees doorsteps if they opt into them. I’ve heard hiring managers mention monthly stipends for the remote office needs, and others are using 1 on 1’s as a chance to really inspire their direct reports and to stay connected to them. Is your company using Slack or Gchat for communication? Are you Trello, Jira or Monday? Is your company on Microsoft Teams, but your team is using G-Suite? So talk about it.

Also ask them what tools they have used in the past, and gain some insight to their needs here too. Always assure them regardless of the tools your team is using they will have an understandable learning curve if new to it, and that it’s okay. For example if they are a Jira user and you have switched to Trello, they will easily get up to speed. You don’t want a candidate to feel like they will be left in the dark if they join a team utilizing new tools, instead this is an opportunity for them to learn something new. And even talk about why you chose these resources for your team too- put them at ease and make it conversational. Most candidates love trying new tech tools — so get them excited about it.

6. If you like the candidate — tell them you do so. And don’t delay the process.

I hate to have to remind hiring managers that they aren’t the only Belle at the Ball — but you really aren’t. Each step of the way you should be the point person in the process and continue to guide the candidate as it continues. Checking in after the technical review, for example, will go a long way. I encourage my hiring managers to pick up the phone and call said candidate to see how it went, and gain insight to what their thoughts were. You will learn a lot about the candidates perspective and where you stand in the danceline.

Candidates also realize how busy hiring managers are, so that checking in phone call (not email) will also gain them some insight into who you are as a manager. She cares about her employees — is definitely on the list for what any top talent candidate is looking for in their future boss. Allow them feel that way starting from the first time your talk.

You should also have a “closer” in mind before it comes to the offer stage. Some hiring managers like to bring in the “big guns” whether it’s a CTO or CEO, or another leader in the company to do the company “song and dance”, to shake the hand and convince the candidate that this is a great home for them. And if you already are the CTO or CPO, then great — then you have home field advantage of the dance floor. Having that conversation that you and the team have come to the decision to move forward with them will go a long way. You don’t even need all the details, but just letting a candidate know they’ve been saved for the last dance is often the closer they need to make a decision that this is their new home too.

7. Provide insight to what “the future” looks like.

This tip coincides with the above closing remark, but providing insight isn’t just about what is happening in your company today, but what does tomorrow really look like for the company? Although your future employee may be coming in for the engineering side of the company, candidates love to hear about what the upcoming milestones are and what the future for the business holds. “Well we are a biotech company that has 3 drugs in clinical trial right now, with very promising outcomes. We are setting sail to become the first breast cancer approved drug on the market of this kind.” This will help you separate yourself from the other suitors at the ball, while also showing job stability for both of your futures.

We often get lost in the day-to-day and the technology shuffle of our businesses, so sometimes taking a step back to see what excited you about your role and what made you join in the first place, will allow your growth mindset to set in. Are you building something new in 2–3 years? Is your team doubling in size because of a new investor? Did you recently acquire a new company? Are you expanding to the global market? All of this information will impact how they view your company differently. You want your candidate to be thinking “ Wow, that is something I have to be part of! I don’t want to miss out on this opportunity.”

Provide insight, provide some stats and of course provide what the future would like for not just anyone joining the company, but specifically for the candidate joining your team and the overall business.

What we’ve learned from these tips.

Each candidate recruitment process is going to be different. Especially now. We all have our day-to-day to manage, our teams, our now chaotic family schedules, and oh there is a pandemic going on out there too. When it comes to recruiting a new team member we all have to remember why this job req was open in the first place — it was to make your job and your life easier with more manpower. Make the time, be flexible with the process and expectations of the role, empower your A-team, be professional, be engaging and always be showing your candidate on why they should take the chance on you.

Happy Recruiting.