Managers are often expected to be natural interviewers with a discerning ear, able to determine if a candidate is both capable of doing the job and a good fit with the team. I had to learn how to interview and assess a candidate because it’s way more complicated than a gut check.

This week, I explain learning from experience interviewing and the process I use to understand a candidates capability, competencies and culture fit.

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Read the related blog article: How to Lead Learning from Experience Interviews

Key Takeaways:

• I typically seek to assess whether a candidate has the hard skills (capability), soft skills (competencies) and culture fit to thrive in the role.
• Use the interview to primarily assess competencies. Use a simulation to assess capability. Culture fit can be assess during the interview and simulation.
• How a person behaved in the past is a great indicator of how they’ll be have in the future. Use “tell me about a time when…” questions to explore how a person has behaved in the past under certain conditions.
• Explore prior behavior, how they understand a competency intellectually, and what they’ve learned from an experience where they didn’t apply the competency well or over-used it.
• Prepare for the interview by know what competencies are important for the role, what questions you’ll ask, and what you’ll look for in their answers.