Interview Tip

The Hiring Manager screen is the first time that candidates begin to evaluate who you are as a Manager.

When you do it right, you provide an excellent candidate experience and the right candidates progress through your hiring pipeline.

When you do it wrong, you risk your brand, your company's brand, extending how long it takes for you to make (and retain) a hire plus the time it takes for them to become revenue generating (SDRs/AEs/CSMs).

There are so many important pieces of this part of the interview.

- Being on time (or apologizing if you're late and scheduling more time)
- Stating the purpose of the call + what you're evaluating
- Asking applicable, quality questions
- Providing quality answers to candidate questions
- Budgeting time for candidate questions
- Budgeting time to give feedback (if asked)
- Giving good feedback

This list goes on.

Unfortunately, so many Hiring Managers Google "what are good questions to ask during the interview" (it's obvious when this happens), which leads to a horrible candidate experience and can lead to the wrong candidates slipping through.

Let's breakdown what happens during an excellent Hiring Manager screen.

The 4 most important parts

1. Budgeting Time

Typically, these are 30 minutes. Hopefully they're 45, but here we are.
Let's break this down.

4 minutes = Getting to the call / small talk (careful not to let bias seep in)

16 minutes = 4 interview questions (candidate takes 3 minutes to answer each, you take a minute to respond - because this is a conversation not an interrogation)

8 minutes = Allow the candidate to ask questions (if they're not doing it throughout the interview)

2 minutes = Provide the candidate thorough feedback (if they ask)

If you're not budgeting time for them to ask questions or for you to give them feedback, what kind of Manager are you showing them you are?

If you're not being conversational during the interview, what kind of Manager are you showing them you are?

If you're showing up late, not apologizing or offering to schedule more time / answer questions via email, what kind of Manager are you showing them you are?

2. Asking Applicable / Quality Questions

Before you get on a call, know what you're looking to get out of it. I mean, really, really know.
5 hours of interviews is rarely enough time to make a 24 month decision on a hire.

What makes you think 30 minutes is enough?

How you feel better about this is knowing what you need to walk away with to make you feel confident about putting them through.

Think about what you need to hear from the candidate to validate you having your panel spend an hour of their time with them.

Come up with the 3-4 questions you need to ask and what you're looking for + what you're not looking for.

If you waste one of these questions on, "So tell me about yourself", you're not showing up for the candidate and your wasting everyones time.

Evaluate from the perspective that the candidate had the job description, other publicly available pieces of information and whatever you sent (or didn't send) them.

Did they do their research. Do they have executive presence. Did they ask impactful questions that lead to a conversation vs. tactical questions.

These are 3 examples that can make you feel better about how they'll do in a presentation round vs. you evaluating how well they know an industry (especially if you have an Enablement team).

3. Answering Candidate Questions

Let me remind you that a good candidate evaluates you as much as you evaluate them.
Don't be the Manager that doesn't care to answer candidate questions or doesn't do it honestly.
While you can guess what candidates will ask you or Google it, you won't always be prepared for every question.
Building a list of questions you get will help you and your team for the future. I recommend it (don't list any candidate info, just the question).

The type of questions you get from candidates should be a part of your evaluation as well.

No matter if you're interviewing an SDR/AE/CSM, you can expect questions around:
- Quota attainment
- Funding
- Expectations of the role
- Resources provided
- Management/coaching style
- What success looks like

Preparing to answer these and practicing with a non-bias person you trust is a must.

Candidates rarely give you feedback on how you answer questions (interesting how that works out), but it's critical.

4. Giving Good Feedback

Let me start here - know what you legally cannot say or do when it comes to making hiring decisions.
If your leadership team does not allow you to give feedback to candidates (wow), don't get fired for doing it.

If the candidate asks you for feedback and you're allowed to give feedback, provide something helpful.

If you're going to give them a thumbs up and you're the decision maker, tell them.

If you're going to give them a thumbs up but you need to run it by the team first, tell them.

Tell them what you liked from your time with them and why.

If it's a no, look at your job description and your line of questioning, then tell them how it didn't align with what you're looking for.

"I thought you did an excellent job talking through X, Y and Z. When it comes to ABC, we're looking for someone that DEF. Thank you for your time and I want to wish you the best of luck."