Give Job Candidates Interview Questions Before the Interview

Before candidates join for the interview round, Peoplism sends a thorough prep guide to sketch out expectations. “We tell the candidate most of the interview questions in advance. While it is a unique approach, I don’t understand why it’s that controversial and why other companies don’t do the same,” says co-founder Liz Kofman-Burns.

There are plenty of behind-the-scenes factors that contribute to someone being a great on-the-spot interview that don’t actually have much bearing on whether they can do the job well. “Being great in an interview setting can be the product of going to elite schools, knowing people in the same profession, or even having access to someone who is already working at the company to prep beforehand. On-the-spot interviews evaluate a certain set of criteria — but is that the criteria that you’re really looking for in the role?” she says.

If you really want to evaluate candidates for clear competencies, you want to give them the best shot of actually showing you whether or not they have those skills. If you don’t give candidates a sense of what you’re going to be probing, you end up hiring folks who are just the best at interviewing.

Giving folks time to prep for the questions in advance also taps into what it’s actually like operating in most startup roles. “The way we set up this interview mirrors the real world, where you’re able to actually prepare for what you’re expected to accomplish. When you give folks the opportunity to review the interview questions in advance, it raises your expectations of the quality of the answers you get back,” says co-founder Amber Madison.

Like this content? Why not share it?