Hiring is a year-round occurrence for most teams, but few teams consider how they hire beyond the number of rounds and interviewers. While getting the right candidate is important, it’s also valuable to make sure all of your prospective candidates see the best the company has to offer in every stop along the way.
Planning
Before you post your job ad, partner with your HR team to design an effective hiring process that is aligned to industry expectations. Chat through with HR what you want from the role, the profile of the candidates you’re wanting to attract, and prepare the job brief. Some of the best job briefs not only capture the classic who we are, what you’ll do, and who you are sections, but also outline what the goalposts are for the first 30/60/90 days, realistic company benefits, and what the mandate is for the person coming into the role (e.g. ‘transform the team with AI to reduce manually handled tickets by 50%’ or ‘maintain existing processes while growing team by two’).
Once you’ve decided on what you’re offering and seeking, it’s important to know how many rounds you’ll put candidates through and what each round intends to achieve. For most support roles 3-4 rounds (recruiter screen → hiring manager → technical evaluation → culture fit) is generally accepted. Planning this out now helps you to avoid repetitive questions, make sure your interviewers each have a skill focus and set of questions, and that everyone knows what’s expected of them in regards to notes and scoring. As part of this, also think about timing for top-of-funnel reviews and responses, are you going to get back to candidates within days or weeks? Setting these expectations with candidates is basically a matter of respect, whether you hire them or not.
Before starting interviews, take the time to have a meeting and ensure every single person interviewing has an accurate and full understanding the role, team size, scope, and future growth. There is nothing worse than one person saying team of 8, for a candidate to later discover midway through another round it’s a team of 20 with 4 team leads. By aligning upfront, you’ll help candidates understand the scope of the role and prepare for later rounds appropriately. This saves everyone time and makes for a smooth end-to-end process.
Interviewing
The key to a successful interview for both candidates and interviewers is to show up as themselves and represent the facts accurately. The goal of an interview is not just to tick off skills and experiences, but to build rapport and get to know the candidate and if they are a fit for the role. You’ll find candidates are also wanting to get to know you and why your company is a good fit for them. Authenticity comes from being honest about the challenges and opportunities in the role, what’s on offer, and what’s needed to be successful. For IC positions, this is often the ‘it’s a big role with a lot of moving parts’ speech, for leadership positions, it’s often the ‘here are our current challenges and what you’ll be walking into’ speech.
Starting with soft ball questions that people are used to (e.g. what do you know about the company, what do you understand about the role, how have you found the process so far, how was your drive here) eases people in. They’re a common standard that candidates encounter in every interview. Make sure to introduce yourself as well. It’s easily forgotten, but helping people understand who you are and where you fit in the organisation can help set expectations. Once you’ve broken the ice you can start diving in to the meatier questions and interview content.
Match the overall intensity of the interview to the company culture and role. A casual startup might favor conversational interviews, while a high-stakes enterprise role might warrant more structured, scenario-based questions. Don’t run ‘combative’ interviews as it reflects poorly and demoralises candidates. Using appropriate interview tactics to simulate pressure after you have established rapport provides a better candidate experience and reflects positively on your organisation.
Make sure to also offer opportunities for the candidate to ask questions. Interviews are a two-way street and you need to make sure they’re getting the information they want out of the process as well.
Finding The Right Fit
To find the right fit, it is useful to evaluate the below criteria.
| Role Alignment | Trajectory | Honesty & Self-awareness | Adaptability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can this person fill the gap that needs filling immediately, and grow into the broader role over time? | Do the candidates immediate and future goals align to what the role can offer now and in the future? | Am I being told only what I want to hear, or are they upfront about what they have and haven’t researched, their approach to tasks, and who they are? | For support engineer and leadership roles especially, I like to see how people work on their feet. How do they accept, engage with, and adapt to new information? |
It’s also important to consider personality and team-fit. Did they come across as inquisitive or confident? Were they quiet or extroverted? How did they engage on topics they didn’t know about? There is no one ‘right’ personality, but it helps to keep in mind how this will influence personal dynamics on the team.
Handling Rejections
An underappreciated aspect of hiring is the nuance of handling rejections. A one-size-fits-all approach does not do, and you should tailor your approach based on the number of rounds a candidate has attended.
If you’re using ATS to automatically screen applications, do a service to your candidates and configure your software to include a reason in rejection emails. Was it location, years of experience, skillset, etc. While you might not be in a position to hire them this round, help them understand how to improve their position for next time.
For first-round screens - potentially some second-round interviews - a generic ‘better fit’ reply is broadly acceptable. Once you’ve entered into territories of technical tests or third-round interviews, however, you should tailor your feedback to the specific candidate.
Feedback should be concise and highlight a strength they had, while letting them also know what specifically placed other candidates ahead of them. (e.g. ‘While you demonstrated strong knowledge of AWS infrastructure management, we felt other candidates in this round had greater experience in data engineering which is a core focus for this role.’)
For good candidates, leave the door open. Invite them to apply again in the future for appropriate roles letting them know it’s only a ‘no for now’.
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Most teams focus on who they hire, but the how matters just as much. Every interaction - from your job brief to your rejection email - shapes how candidates see your organisation. Invest in the process, and you'll find that great candidates seek you out, not the other way around.
