I recommend inviting your candidates back for their 2nd interview one per day, on consecutive days.  This schedule keeps you in the Talent Mindset and makes it easier for you to compare and contrast results.  You should budget approximately 2 hours for each interview to give your team and the candidate ample time for setting the stage, getting them the beverage of their choice, and creating a positive, relaxed tone.  At this stage of the interview process, you will have talked with your candidate for about three hours total, so rapport should be easy to establish.  If it’s a struggle to connect with your candidate in the 2nd interview, I’d have some serious concerns about cultural fit.

Like the first round of interviews, the second round should be conducted with an interview buddy.  You, as the hiring manager, should ask the questions, while your interview buddy listens intently and takes notes.  As you’ll soon discover, the interview questions employed in the second round are much more thought-provoking and “deeper” questions that simple job-related inquiries.  I mention this because in the second interview, your interview buddy will have a lot more content to absorb - they’ll need to prepare accordingly. 

The questions that you’ll ask in the second interview will all be pre-scripted, meaning that everything you’re going to ask will be determined ahead of time.  You’ll ask the same questions, in the same order, with each and every candidate.  Most hiring managers have difficulty with interviews because they’re unsure of what to ask.  As a result, each interview is different, and there’s no baseline for comparison.  Selecting the best candidates is guesswork and relegated to “gut feel.”  To prevent this situation from happening, I train my clients to ask the same questions of each candidate - regardless of the role and regardless of their level of experience.  What you’ll find is that the context of the role (entry level vs senior level) will not necessitate a change in the question format, but the answers from candidates will be commensurate with the context of the role.  No need to change the script for each and every position - a real time-saver and one less thing for you to worry about! 

 I’ve developed a comprehensive competency-based interview guide that I’ve used to successfully assess talent over the course of more than 2500 interviews, and it’s now available for your use.  Our In-Depth Behavioral Interview Guide will dramatically improve your hiring results and pay for itself the first time you use it.  Click here for more information.

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