How to Run an Interview That Tells You Something Real

Run structured interviews that reveal actual job performance using behavioral questions and work samples.

1. Design role-specific work samples. Create a 30-60 minute exercise that mirrors actual work the person will do. For sales roles, have them pitch your product to you. For analysts, give them messy data to clean and summarize. For managers, present a realistic team conflict scenario and ask how they'd handle it step-by-step.
2. Use the STAR method for behavioral questions. Ask candidates to describe specific Situations, Tasks, Actions, and Results from their past work. Instead of "How do you handle difficult customers?" ask "Tell me about the most challenging customer situation you resolved last year — what exactly did you do and what was the outcome?" Vague answers reveal limited experience.
3. Test decision-making with constraints. Present realistic resource limitations they'll face in the role. Give them a budget number and ask how they'd prioritize competing needs. For operations roles, describe a day when three things break simultaneously and ask them to walk through their triage process.
4. Dig into their numbers. Ask candidates to quantify their past achievements with specific metrics. Revenue generated, costs reduced, projects completed on time, team turnover rates. If they can't cite numbers from their previous roles, they likely won't track them in yours.
5. Include peer interviews. Have 2-3 current employees interview the candidate separately, focusing on different aspects of the role. Compare notes afterward — if accounts don't align or the candidate changes their story, that's signal. Your team will work with this person daily; their input matters more than your gut feeling.