Advice for a first-time interviewer
HeyLaughingBoy: Behavior-based interviewing takes the approach that what the candidate did in the past is a good predictor of what they will do in the future. The problem is that it's difficult to learn to do it on your own quickly: it really helps to take a class in interviewing.Briefly:
Ask questions like "have you ever had to do X?" "What problem did you encounter doing X?" "How did you solve it?" "What would you do in this (insert common job problem) situation?" "What were the people at your last job like?" "Did everyone go out for lunch, or eat at their desks?" "Which do you prefer?" "Why?" "What did you do for lunch yesterday?"
Learn to listen (this is the really hard part) and respond to the answers and drill down from there. For example, for each answer he gives you, think of three questions to ask to fully plumb it out. The phrase "tell me more about that" will quickly become your friend when you can't think of anything else to say :-)Like I said, it's hard to do this stuff on the fly. Training and practice helps :-)Then there are all the other things like not asking illegal or biased questions (legality varies by state), etc. Businesses really need to do a better job of training their interviewers!