Interviews can be nice chats, but being friendly doesn’t always give you useful hiring information. Before your candidate hops on the call or walks into the room, you want some notes to anchor your conversation to the role’s responsibilities. Otherwise, it’s all too easy to remember the most confident person and forget the person who gave the best evidence for the actual work.
Start with the work your new hire needs to get done. Pick a couple of responsibilities from the role description, and jot them in your interview notes using straightforward words. If the role includes “maintain team records,” “draft scheduling updates,” and “conduct handoff meetings,” write that in your notes before you draft any questions. This helps you stay anchored in the role rather than wandering into “is this person likable?”
Next, jot down situations you want to ask about. Your best interview questions will connect to the candidate’s real-world experience. For example, rather than ask “Are you very organized?,” ask “How would you keep track of follow-up items after a team sync?” or “How would you draft a handoff message for incomplete tasks?” The point isn’t to trap the candidate; it’s to hear how they approach doing the work your role will need done.
You also want a straightforward area for evidence. Before the interview, set up a candidate evaluation sheet with the same categories for each person: role responsibility, candidate example, question to ask for more context, and follow-up question to ask. This can help you avoid writing vague impressions like “looks good” or “seems strong” that don’t give you a clear justification. It’s better to write, “Candidate gave a good example for tracking task status,” and “Needs to ask how she handles missed deadlines.”
Another useful practice is to start with a single role responsibility and write a single question, a single thing to listen for, and a single follow-up question. If a responsibility is “create onboarding materials,” the question might ask “How would you organize a new hire’s first day?” Listen for the onboarding materials you’d expect a new hire to get (tools, introductory meetings, first task, etc.), and the follow-up question might be “What would you do if a critical tool wasn’t ready?” It’s a nice way to add some structure to the interview without getting stiff.
You might also want to include what you’re NOT supposed to decide in the interview. An interview should never be a chance to speculate how long a person will stay, the type of person they are, or if that person will be able to handle any task you’ll ever put in front of them. For new people managers especially, that distinction matters. Stick as close to hiring criteria, role requirements, work boundaries, and examples that candidates provide as possible. If you notice a hunch, treat it as “needs to ask more” instead of assuming it as a fact.
Before the interview, your page should make your interview more manageable, with your candidate’s role responsibilities, your questions tied to those responsibilities, the evidence you’ll need, and any follow-ups you may need. After the interview, your page will help you judge candidates more equitably, since you’re looking at the same category of evidence across all of them instead of whoever was the most memorable.