Have you interviewed your DREAM candidate, and they’ve accepted another offer?

As an interviewer, it’s up to you to choose the right candidate, but it’s also your job to make sure they choose YOU! By creating a positive and structured interview experience, you’ll identify the best talent and leave a lasting impression on candidates. Even if they accept another offer, creating a positive interview experience could benefit you in the future – you never know when your paths will cross again!

In this blog, we want to give you some tips that can help you improve your interview process so you don’t have any regrets about ‘the one that got away’.

• Always be on time! This is a basic requirement, but interviewers do still occasionally make this mistake. Please don’t make candidates wait around like they’re not an important part of your day. It creates a really bad first impression and it’s not a good sign of things to come if they’re not valued at the interview stage.
• Make sure that the candidate receives a warm welcome from everyone they meet. First impressions of the team are crucial too, and a warm welcome will set a positive tone and calm any nerves.
• Make sure you’re as prepared as the candidate! Review their CV before the interview and make sure you know why they’re meeting with you. If they have noted any interests or hobbies on their CV, reference them to show your interest in them as a person, too, it’s an excellent way to build rapport.
• Make sure you give them a detailed and honest overview of the role – including the problems they might face. They’ll appreciate your transparency – and might even be more excited about the challenge! Ask about their values and work style, and show how they would align with the team. You can learn a lot from how they respond to an honest overview and it will help them visualise what it’d be like working in the role more clearly than a generic job spec.
• Interviewing is a two-way street; candidates should leave feeling they got everything they needed from the interview, too. Make sure you give them plenty of time to ask any questions they might have.
• ALWAYS provide feedback, and try to get it to them as soon as you can. Even if you have other interviews coming up and have yet to make an offer, any initial feedback will always be appreciated! Remember, your feedback is not just a courtesy; it’s a valuable tool for their professional growth.
• It’s always tough when you don’t get the candidate you wanted, but use every experience to grow and develop yourself too. Ask for feedback from the candidate on how you interviewed, what might have put them off, or simply why the role they accepted was a better offer. This isn’t done nearly enough, but it will help you become better at your role as an interviewer, or help you improve your offering – it might even help you clinch the next candidate!

Many of our points may not be considered ground-breaking, but the little things that matter so much can be easy to forget when you’re busy and your day is booked with interviews. Good luck with your next interview, you’ve got this!

If you’d like any more hints and tips on interviewing or your recruitment strategy, please do get in touch, as always, we’re here to help.