Optimized Interview

A practical step-by-step interviewing guide to help you hire the best candidates every time

Last updated 2022-01-10 | 4.2

- Build structured testing into your interviews.
- Identify good candidates with objective evaluation & assessment.
- Uncover potential 'red flags' and the 'real story' from candidates.

What you'll learn

Build structured testing into your interviews.

Identify good candidates with objective evaluation & assessment.

Uncover potential 'red flags' and the 'real story' from candidates.

Create highly targeted and effective interview questions.

Address compensation to setup favorable negotiations.

Plan the interview and build a kit for all stakeholders to use.

Make the best use of 'sync meetings' for requirement gathering.

* Requirements

* Basic exposure to the job market.

Description

Are you struggling with turnover and a track record of unsuccessful hires? Are your interviews failing to produce enough reliable information to pick consistent ‘winners’? Are you missing out on the best candidates, often losing them to the competition?

Whether you’re a seasoned HR professional or an entry-level recruiter, job market insider and hiring strategist Ryan Lecour shares his refreshing blueprint to guide you through the interviewing and hiring process with a step-by-step method that secures the best fit every time.

The interview is the only window you have for observing candidates. Business-building and team-transforming decisions are based on these limited and precious hours. Many take credit for the quote ‘a company is only as good as its people'. Truer words cannot be said. And the interview is ground zero for determining how good your company is going to be.

In this course, Ryan teaches invaluable foundations on interview planning & execution. Students will learn essential strategies for question building, test administration and candidate evaluation. They’ll also learn key tactics for achieving clarity and verification with candidate profiles, personalities and work history. The course upholds a constant respect for the crucial role the interview plays in determining the fate of companies in areas of team-building and employee selection.

Learn to hire consistent winners with proven interview techniques from a leading recruiting strategist

The following are some of the key things you will learn how to do in this course:

Cut to the heart of the truth with penetrating sequences of probing questions that reveal critical details surrounding the candidate’s career change history
Identify the elements of strong and weak candidate questions and learn to evaluate how they contribute to the overall strength of the candidacy
Bring awareness to unconscious biases that tend to creep into the process and mitigate or eliminate their effect while restoring objectivity and sound evaluation
Lead the stakeholder synchronization meeting with an organized method that efficiently captures the various dimensions of the position and sets the table for the interview plan
Establish preemptive compensation discussions early in the interview process and setup foundations for favorable offer negotiations
Build an interview kit that guides the interview and ensures the best use of time for all personnel involved in the process

Ryan draws on nearly a decade of experience witnessing how the interview has the power and influence to ‘make or break’ companies. From supplying key personnel to the offices of Apple, Google and many other Fortune 100 companies, to starting and operating his own successful HR firm, Ryan has learned that decisions on matters of hiring are difficult and almost always based on incomplete information. The interview is the key tool that hiring professionals can wield in order to bridge this gap in hopes of bringing consistent success to candidate selection. The success of a company hinges on the effectiveness of its interviewing.

Who this course is for:

Anyone involved in the hiring process.
Managers
Recruiters
Human Resources Professionals
Those who aspire to be any of the above.
Anyone who wants to understand the approach of the interviewer

Course content

6 sections • 33 lectures

Welcome! 3 lectures

What you will know by the end of this course Preview 03:30

An overview of what the course will cover, what you will learn about the interviewing and hiring process and the benefits to be gained from each section.

Who I am and why I'm teaching this course Preview 01:44

A brief introduction and bio that outlines my relevant qualifications, experiences and why I'm teaching this course on interviewing and hiring.

Getting started...

A short activity to help students start thinking about the topics in the course and how they presently evaluate candidates.

The interview is not what you think 4 lectures

The interview is not what you think -- here's what you'll learn in Section 2... Preview 01:46

An introduction of what you will learn in Section 2 and why it is so important.

How to understand the 'interview game' in a helpful way… Preview 04:24

This lecture assumes that we can better strategize for an interview if we have a deeper understanding of its purpose. We discuss how an interview functions beyond the face value of Q&A.

*DOWNLOAD: HVT vs LVT Breakdown Chart -- a handy table that exemplifies various candidate telegraphs and categorizes them using a simple dichotomy of HVT vs LVT. This helps the student get a better handle on these two terms and enables them to better identify real-world instances of the two categories in their subtler forms.

What ‘tests’ are being administered in the interview? Preview 03:32

The last lecture defined the interview you administer as a series of tests rather than just a series of questions. In this lecture, we identify what tests are actually being administered and how they are partially concealed by interview questions.

Understanding the 'interview game'...

A quick assignment to help the student apply what they have just learned.

Opening the interview and setting the stage 4 lectures

Opening the interview and setting the stage -- here's what you'll learn! Preview 01:26

An introduction of what you will learn in Section 3 and what you will be prepared to accomplish from these lessons.

How to establish comfort that ‘opens the floodgates’... Preview 04:10

Establishes the greater value of listening over talking in the role of the interviewer. Suggests tangible practices for fetching candid and truthful responses from candidates.

How to go beyond checking boxes and dig deep... Preview 05:03

Prepares the interviewer to go beyond a superficial understanding of the job requirements and their fulfillment. Suggests solutions for contextualizing candidate responses and generating more accurate representation of specificity and specialization.

*DOWNLOAD: Contextualizing Qualifications PDF -- a simple template with example question suggestions for probing about a candidate's experience.

Opening the interview and setting the stage...

A couple simple exercises to help the student apply the lessons of this section.

The 'body' of the interview 11 lectures

The body of the interview -- here's what we'll learn! Preview 02:01

Section 4 is a big one and covers a huge portion of the 'meat n' potatoes'. In this lecture we introduce the section and walk you through the various topics to be covered, how they relate and the extent of their significance.

How to create (rather than ‘borrow’) highly targeted and effective questions… Preview 04:46

How to avoid asking arbitrary questions that are borrowed from the internet and end up being ineffective. How to craft your own questions that are precise and targeted.

*DOWNLOAD: Problem = Questions Scenario PDF -- a handy scenario that illustrates how identifying the root problem allows one to infer and deduce highly targeted and effective questions.

How to test candidate upside… Preview 02:35

In the event that multiple candidates meet a minimum standard, these question suggestions are designed to identify truly special candidates.

DOWNLOAD: Upside Questions PDF -- a list of suggested questions from the lecture for testing candidate upside for the interviewer to keep in their files and use in an interview situation.

How to uncover real reasons for change (PART 1)… Preview 05:03

This lecture illustrates why understanding the change in a candidate's job history is so important for assessing their candidacy. It also suggests how to assess reasons for change.

How to uncover real reasons for change (PART 2)… Preview 03:12

In this lecture you'll learn about acceptable and unacceptable reasons for change and how to get to the bottom of the 'real story'.

DOWNLOAD: RFC Cheat Sheet PDF -- a handy reference boiling down the 4 points of RFC importance, 4 questions to ask & the 3 acceptable RFCs.

Creating Questions & Dealing with RFC

Applying what we have learned about creating interview questions, as well as uncovering and assessing reasons for change.

Assessing candidate questions... Preview 02:47

A key portion of the interview is where candidates are invited to ask questions. You'll learn how the questions they ask are just as telling as the answers they've provided. The lecture offers tangible methods for assessing the quality of the questions asked.

Understanding a candidate's full compensation package… Preview 04:07

Emphasizes the importance of commencing negotiations in the interviewing process and provides a method for uncovering Claimed Salary Threshold & True Salary Threshold.

Win the war of information with JSD... Preview 02:43

Discusses the importance of discussing Job Search Developments (JSD) with the candidate in every interaction. This is because the interviewer plays a role in negotiations and managing salary expectations and therefore must keep tabs on salary thresholds.

Pre-emptive compensation negotiations... Preview 04:10

A solid negotiating strategy starts in the interview. In this lecture you'll learn when to talk numbers, how to frame the discussion, how to set parameters, and how to close the candidate on salary prior to an offer.

DOWNLOAD: TST Question List + CoS Cheat Sheet -- questions that reveal a candidate's True Salary Threshold; includes a step-by-step method for closing candidates on a hypothetical compensation package.

Candidate Questions & Compensation Thresholds

Applying what we have learned about assessing candidate questions & initiating preliminary negotiations.

Around the edges of the interview... 10 lectures

Around the edges of the interview-- here's what you'll learn! Preview 01:46

This is another hefty section that covers the 'before and after' of the interview and all the loose ends in-between. In this lecture we introduce the major topics of the section and their significance.

Make the best use of the information you have in your preparation... Preview 03:23

In this lecture you will learn how to analyze and prepare using the information you already have on the candidate prior to meeting with them.

Preparing and delivering your 'evangelism pitch'... Preview 03:49

Securing a candidate involves more than just selecting them. You also must ensure they select you. This lecture is crucial for learning how to do that.

Constructing your ‘interview plan’... Preview 03:38

This lecture shows how you can plan the flow of the interview and anticipate some important things to cover with the candidate.

DOWNLOAD: Sample Interview Plan -- a simple template example you can use for constructing your own interview plan.

The problem of unconscious bias in assessing candidates... Preview 03:48

If you thought bias wasn't affecting you, think again. This lecture demonstrates how easy it is for bias to creep into the process and seriously derail sound selection practices.

Techniques to overcome unconscious bias in the selection process... Preview 03:25

In this lecture you'll learn how to address and resolve the issues we uncovered in the last lecture. You'll learn how to restore objectivity to the interview and evaluation process.

DOWNLOAD: The 12 core competencies of job success -- a list of core competencies used as measuring sticks for objective testing.

Prepping key parts of your interview strategy...

A couple simple exercises to help the student apply the lessons of this section.

Taking a requirement and syncing with stakeholders... Preview 04:02

You can't test, evaluate and select without a complete understanding of what is needed. This lecture breaks down the steps for arriving at a rich and effective understanding of the job opening itself.

DOWNLOAD: Taking a Requirement Cheat Sheet -- a step-by-step outline to bring into a stakeholder sync meeting and help you hit all the key points for learning about the role you'll be interviewing candidates for.

Candidate scorecard creation... Preview 04:14

From this lecture you'll learn how to create a simple scorecard that is based around the requirements that we learned about in the last lecture.

DOWNLOAD: Sample Candidate Scorecard -- as the name suggests, this is a scorecard template you can use to craft your own candidate scorecard.

Your interview kit... Preview 05:23

In order to make the best use of time, the interview process must be planned. The interview kit is the 'master plan'. This is guideline for all parties involved in the interview process to follow. It outlines the process and tests to administer based on the requirements and how they will be administered.

DOWNLOAD: Sample Interview Kit -- this is a lengthier document that provides a multitude of ideas for constructing your interview kit.