How to Interview a Candidate: Guide and Best Practices

Knowing how to interview a candidate can seem simple; however, getting them to reveal their true potential in that time is not so simple. Today, companies need to go beyond traditional questions and focus on how people think and act in real situations.

One of the most effective solutions for this is conducting behavioral interviews, since they clearly identify candidates' key competencies.

In this article, we'll talk about how to interview effectively through best practices, and how, together with specialized tools like the Big Five personality test, you can make decisions that are more objective and based on real data.

Common interviewing mistakes and how to avoid them

Even the most experienced interviewers can make mistakes that affect the objectivity of the process. Here are some of the most common ones and how to avoid them:

• Talking more than listening: an interview should focus on the candidate. If the interviewer dominates the conversation, valuable information gets lost.

• Improvising questions: not having a clear guide leads to inconsistent interviews and makes it harder to compare applicants.

• Asking questions that aren't relevant to the position: straying from the key competencies produces assessments that aren't very useful for the final decision.

• Letting personal bias take over: such as likability, affinity for the same university, or communication style. Using standardized assessments, like the Big Five, helps reduce this risk.

• Not taking proper notes: relying solely on memory can distort later perceptions, especially in lengthy processes.

Avoiding these mistakes improves the quality of the interview and strengthens the candidate experience, which is key to attracting valuable talent.

What a behavioral interview is and why it improves your results

The behavioral interview is based on a simple principle: past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Instead of focusing on hypothetical answers (“what would you do if…?”), it looks for concrete examples of how the candidate acted in real situations.

By asking about scenarios that actually happened, like “tell me how you resolved a conflict on your previous team,” you can assess how the applicant thinks, acts, and leads in real situations. This type of interview also reduces personal bias, since it relies on facts rather than perceptions.

The Big Five test complements this approach, since it lets companies understand how a candidate's personality influences their job performance. This provides data on candidates' compatibility with the position and the company's organizational culture, resulting in lower employee turnover.

How to interview a candidate: strategies and best practices for effective behavioral interviews

Below, we share best practices and key strategies to make your interviews more effective and help you discover the ideal candidate.

1. Prior preparation with objective data

A good interview starts with good preparation. The interviewer should analyze the job profile, define the competencies to be assessed, and review the candidate's resume. Without a proper action plan, valuable information may be lost.

2. Ask open-ended and specific questions

Instead of asking closed questions (like “do you consider yourself a good leader?”), it's best to ask open-ended questions that invite the candidate to share experiences, such as:

• “Tell me about a situation where you led a team under pressure. What did you do, and what was the result?”

• “Describe a moment when you had to adapt to an unexpected change at work.”

This way, we avoid one-word answers (yes/no) and dig deeper into the applicant's skills.

3. Practice active listening

During the interview, attention should be paid to the candidate's content, tone, and body language. These signals make it possible to detect inconsistencies between what's said and how it's expressed.

4. Tailor interviews to the position

Each role requires different competencies. For example, for a leadership position, prioritize questions that explore decision-making, team management, and resilience under pressure.

Complementing interviews with assessment tools

Interviews, on their own, don't always capture a candidate's full potential. That's why many organizations combine the behavioral interview with complementary assessment tools to get a more complete picture.

Among the most commonly used are:

• Big Five personality test: provides an objective profile of the candidate's behavioral style, ideal for leadership roles, customer service, or teamwork.

• Competency or aptitude tests: help validate skills such as logical reasoning, communication, or problem-solving.

• Situational assessments or simulations: recreate real work scenarios to observe how the candidate acts under pressure or when facing a challenge.

These tools, available on platforms like Evalart, allow for a more comprehensive assessment, reduce bias, and improve decision-making in every selection process.

How the Big Five model can strengthen your interviews

The Big Five model assesses five major dimensions of personality: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability. These traits directly influence the way a person communicates, leads, and works in a team.

The Big Five test gives recruiters a complete picture of candidates while eliminating any bias they might have about a person, since using this model produces completely unbiased results.

If you're still not sure how to recruit effectively, we invite you to try our Five-Factor Test (Big Five) completely free to get a clear picture of each candidate's personality and make decisions that positively impact your company.

Interview better, hire with greater certainty

Interviewing a candidate effectively goes beyond following a list of standard questions. It requires preparation, focus, analytical ability, and tools that back up decisions with concrete evidence.

Behavioral interviews, together with assessments like the Big Five personality test, let Human Resources teams see beyond the talk and understand how a person really acts in real workplace contexts.

Applying these strategies not only improves the quality of hires, it also strengthens HR's image as a strategic partner in the company's growth.

If you're looking to optimize your interview and selection processes, we invite you to try Evalart's tools and discover how to make decisions that are more objective, efficient, and less prone to error.

Request your free trial here