What is Structured Interviewing?
Structured interviewing is doing the same thing, the same way, every time, to gather the facts you need. This way any variation comes from the candidate, not the interviewer.
Structured interviewing is:
- a common set of questions asked of all candidates
- a method to collect data from the interviews, not simply impressions
- a framework to evaluate the data against – the Cipher
- a process the interviewer, not the interviewee, drives
The same process for everyone ensures you can manage, not eliminate, your biases.
Structured interviewing is not:
- drilling candidates with tough questions like you're a police detective
- traps, tricks and other games designed to make them fail
- "figuring it out in the first five minutes" and then spending the rest of the interview gathering confirmatory evidence
- walking through the résumé and letting them drive the process
Many interviewers use these techniques, unwittingly injecting huge sources of bias. Maybe you're going to go a little lighter on the candidate who you think can't handle the tough questions… and then as a result, you're more impressed with the one who handled the tough questions you threw at them.