1. Best PracticesInterviewing

2. Our success is directly attributable
to our people.
As an interviewer, you hold the
key for continued success as we
scale.
Be ready to spend 20% of your
time on interviewing.

3. Interview Objective
• Evaluate if the candidate is the right fit for us
• Let the candidate evaluate if Craftsvilla is the right fit for him/her
Make the candidate a brand ambassador of Craftsvilla
by ensuring a great recruitment experience
(Even if a candidate is not hired, he/she should talk to the whole world about us!)

4. Step 1: Designing the Interview Loop
Interview Rounds Topics to Cover
(Focal Area)
Recruiting Screen
Technical Phone Screen
Interviewer 1
Interviewer 2
Interviewer (n)
HR
Function Lead
Hiring Manager and Recruiter will agree on the skills and competencies required for
the role and will assign each interviewer with specific areas they need to evaluate
candidates on. It starts with a JD.

5. • Take 10 minutes to go through the candidate’s resume and LinkedIn profile.
Never walk into an interview cold.
• Review job description, your interview focal areas and prepare questions.
• Be ready with the selling message.
Step 2: Pre Interview

6. • Leader in Ethnic space
• Flat org, approachable leadership team.
• Freedom to fail. Fail fast. But learn fast.
• We love Chaos
• ………..
• …………
Sell : Pitch Samples
Write down and practice your pitch!
(like sales team)

7. Bias
• Tendency to give positive feedback to candidates who are similar to oneself.
• Seek out information that supports a pre-conceived belief.
• Quick and superficial evaluations.
• Forming an overall favorable impression of a candidate based on responses to only one
or two questions.
63% of hiring decisions are made within the first 4.3 minutes of an interview (SHRM)

8. Common Biases
• My Type: She has similar company / school / cultural background
like me, so she must be good. He loves to ski and wind surf like me!
• Confirmation Bias: Seek out information that supports a pre-
conceived belief about the candidate that has been formed prior to
the interview (from the resume) or during the interview
(looks/dressing/soft skills). He rated himself expert on Cassandra,
and worked with XYZ company, so he must be good.
• Affective Heuristic: Quick and superficial evaluations - the level of
attractiveness of a candidate, race, gender, personal
background. She is from a premier school, prestigious company.
• Halo Effect: He gave the perfect answer to first qn. Impression
already formed, rest of the interview becomes a formality.

9. How To Avoid Bias
• A structured interview leads to a more accurate evaluation.
• Look for proven track record and demonstrated behaviors during the interview.
• Write down your observations, review notes to draw final conclusions.
• Support your hiring recommendations with evidence.

10. Prepare Questions in your Focal Areas
Be prepared with 3-5 questions in your focal area which you
would ask all candidates being interviewed for that role.
Complexity of the questions to be based on the experience level
of the candidate.
Avoid using competencies in the questions, competencies
should be demonstrated by candidate while answering.

11. YOU Control The Interview
• Do NOT use resume to guide your interview
This will put the candidate in control of the interview, you will hear only
about the topics they want you to hear. Use the resume only for initial
screening.
• When YOU select the topics, YOU are in control of the interview
By covering a variety of topics in your focal area, you control the pace of the
interview and can identify trends in behavior.

12. • Be on time. Break the ice. Connect. Tell them why you are excited to be here.
Be genuine.
• Let the candidate know you would be taking notes. Switch off your cell phone
and laptop. Listen.
• If they get stuck, bring the interview back on track by giving leads.
Step 3: Interview Process
This is no ego test!
A conducive environment needs to be created by
Interviewer to ensure the candidate shows their true
potential.

13. Ice Breaker Samples
• Greet the candidate with first name and offer a firm handshake. Thank candidate for
showing interest for interview.
• Ask if he/she is comfortable and would like to have coffee/tea/water. Ask if it was difficult
to find the way to office in case you are the first interviewer, otherwise ask how the
previous interviews were.
• Note down a fact that stands out (an award, scholarship, side projects) from the resume
or LI and start your conversation around that.

14. What do you look for?
• Past Performance as a Predictor - Focuses on how the candidate
performed in past situations.
• Projective Behavior - how they will perform in future
scenarios.
• Conceptual Knowledge of the required skills (theoretical or
practical).

15. Past Performance Future Performance
Job Performance Predictor
• Focuses on the technical or functional
nuances of the role
• Experience measured by projects led,
knowledge used, results met or
exceeded
• Forms of the basis of “has the
candidate done the job?”
• Harder to quantify – identified by
discussing work-related scenarios
• Focuses on behaviors exhibited when
doing the role
• Experience measured by individual and
team interactions, emotional
experiences, success thru adversity
• Forms the basis of “can the candidate do
the job ?”
• Interview questions  knowledge,
skills and abilities • Interview questions  scenarios,
relationships and behaviors

16. Probing: What / How / Why / When / Where?
What have they done?
Ask about a Specific Situation
or Problem
What did you do to resolve the
customer escalation?
What principles of good code
development were particularly
relevant to solve this?
Reveals facts and
accomplishments from the
past
Why did they do it?
Reasoning / Result / Learning
/ Application
What was the result? Will you do
it differently? When? Why?
What have you learned? Where
else have you applied this
learning?
Repeated evidence to
competency and future
repeatability
How have they done it?
Approach / Action
How did you go about
implementing it?
What are the alternate solutions
you considered?
Reveals individual
competencies

17. Probing the situations – best practices
Probing the Situations is the method of gathering the applicant's specific past
experiences. You will spend the majority of your time on this section during the
interview.
• Discuss past project experience
• Probe in to most relevant or recent experience
• Start with understanding roles and responsibilities
• Probe specific activity or role
• Cover full depth ensuring sufficient breadth
• Ask questions related to skill sets as required for delivery of job; refer JD if required
• Try to elicit behaviors from the questions, behaviors should be demonstrated by
candidate while answering
• Its preferred if the behaviors you are trying to check are tied up with skill sets – for ex. , if
your are checking a behavior of attitude for a Customer Success role, ask questions on
how to handle situations during breakout stage rather than asking question on football
game.
• Ask open ended questions
• Check for past experience, conceptual knowledge and demonstrated behavior.

18. Example
• A candidate has mentioned in resume about testing a banking app
• Pick this experience and ask “explain in details on your approach on
bank app testing, entire process and any significant issue catch”
• Candidate mentions “ I realized that the server query time was slow”
• Probe further “what made you realize that the sqt was slow”
• Candidate explains “ the algorithm was repetitive which could have
been reduced”
• Probe further “what is key learning from this finding”
• Candidate explains “keep algorithms to min no. of steps using
number theory”
• Probe further “where else you have used this learning”

19. Avoid drawing conclusions/leading questions.
 I am assuming at that point you rechecked the code to make sure the system wouldn't crash again.
 So at the point when the system crashed, what did you do?
Avoid asking for "usual" behavior.
How do you typically handle conflicts?
Tell me about a time you had conflict with someone in your organization?
Avoid questions which will result in yes-no answer unless specifically warranted
Have you worked with tough customers? (Questions starting Have you..? Did you..? Can you..?)
Tell me about your toughest customer.
Probing Questions to Avoid

20. Follow Up Questions
Self Appraisal Questions
• What is it about you, that enabled you to develop that solution?
• Why did YOU get promoted to lead the Sales organization?
• How did you manage to get such a high GPA in college?
Third Party Self Appraisal Questions
• If I contacted your Manager (Direct Reports / Co-workers), what would they say why you
were promoted so quickly to lead the Sales organization?
Self Appraisal – reveals the self awareness of the candidate
Third party – reveals more data about working relationships, any issues with the team etc.

21. Company Questions
The purpose of this part is two-fold:
• To determine the applicant's interest in and understanding Craftsvilla. For
example, you would want to ask questions like:
 What challenges are you looking for in this position?
 How will Craftsvilla fit in your career goals?
 What concerns or issues do you have about working at Craftsvilla?
• To sell the organization & role ; clarify any doubts candidate is having

22. Wrapping up the Interview
What else should I know about you that we haven’t covered?
• Help you collect additional information about the candidate
What questions do you have for me?
• Leave at least 10 minutes to answer their questions.
• The kind of questions a candidate asks can reveal a lot about the candidate.
• Are they thoughtful? Have they done their homework?

23. • Immediately, flag any areas you want to be double-checked and communicate
to the recruiter.
• Review notes and make objective decision based on the evaluation, avoid bias.
• Your feedback is confidential. Do not discuss with the team or with other
interviewers.
• Submit formal feedback within the next 15 minutes.
Step 5: Post Interview

24. • Why should we hire this candidate? Is the candidate adding value?
• Will the candidate be a good cultural fit? Does the candidate share our core
values?
• Are we raising the bar with hiring this candidate? How does he/she compare with
the others on the team?
Making Great Hiring Decisions

25. If You Are The Hiring Manager
• Talk to the candidate about current project, team, challenges, technology, innovation.
Does the candidate connect with what you are trying to do?
• Is the candidate asking you thoughtful questions when you explain the above?
• What would you and your team gain from this candidate?
• Sell : Why should they join your team?

26. Annexure

27. 1. Managing Case Studies
Offline Problem Solving
• Problem bank
• Provide the candidate with a couple of
problems and give an option to pick. Later on
ask why they picked the particular problem
• Candidate submits the approach / solution to
solving the problem
• Review the solution
During Interview :
• Review the offline problem and add challenges to it
• Add further context to the problem and build a use case for further analysis
• Discuss related technical projects to reveal impact in current job
Decision Making
• Grade Problem solving skills
• Learnability & Agility
• Cultural Fit

28. • Never explore Knowledge or skills. Derive them.
• Don’t have direct process questions. See whether candidate can apply it for the
given problem
• Focus on examples and specifics.
• You are out to understand the candidate’s thinking process & approach
• Your interview should challenge the person
• You have to have a problem that can be stretched in ways up or sides
• Your job is to help the candidate get to the solution. The level of help determines
whether the candidate meets the job or not.
Case Study techniques

29. 2. Behavior based Interviewing competencies
Intellectual
Analytical
Articulate
Conceptual
Decisive
Detail-Oriented
Good Listener
Handles Ambiguity
Information Seeker
Innovative
Intuitive
Judgment
Organized
Perceptive
Problem Solver
Quick Study
Strategic Thinker
Interpersonal
Adaptable
Assertive
Collaborative
Develops Others
Diplomatic
Empathetic
Ethical
Independent
Inspiring
Manages Stress
Networking Skills
Personable
Persuasive
Risk-Taker
Self-Confident
Team Player
Motivation
Ambitious
Committed
Continuous Learner
Customer Oriented
Enterprising
Enthusiastic
Goal-oriented
Hard-working
Initiative
Optimistic
Persistent
Quality Commitment
Resourceful
Results-driven
Self-motivated
Wants a Challenge

30. 3. Elicit underlying Beliefs: Intent based Questions
QUESTION INTENT
There is a famous quote that says, “This is your
life. Do what you love and do it often.” How
does this quote apply to your work?
People tend to work hard at things they love doing. I
want to hear about how ‘hard’ into their work they
are.
“Most people never scratch the surface of what
they’re capable of.” Does this apply to you?
I want to hear about what they’ve done, what they
have left to do, and what they need to get there.
What does the term “customer obsession” mean
to you?
I want to hear all about the customers they’ve served
and the times they’ve put the customer 1st.
Would you rather be “right” or “effective”? Caring more about impact than credit. Being effective
often requires subordination of ego. I want to hear
about this.
What’s the hardest thing you’ve done? Things don’t come easily and often require
acceptance of defeat today in service of a win
tomorrow. I want to hear about the battles they’ve
fought and what it took to ultimately prevail.

31. 4. How To Tackle Difficult Candidates
Tackling difficult candidates who plays the psychology game:
• Have a pre-prepared interview plan.
• Allow the candidate to speak, but within the boundaries of interview.
• Do not encourage candidates if they try to go tangential on a different topic not
relevant to the interview.
• Ignore compliments from such candidates, however be polite.

32. 5.Common Interviewer Mistakes
• Fails to build rapport with the candidate
• Lacks preparation and uses resume to drive questions
• Asks closed-ended / non-job-related / generic questions
• Does not probe or follow-up on candidate’s previous answer

33. 6. What Not To Do In An Interview
• Be rude, exhibit body language that shows dissatisfaction with responses
• Appear overly enthusiastic, sit too close
• Create familiarity with candidate, prolong the interview unnecessarily
• Share detailed interview feedback with the candidate
• Ask questions which are not appropriate - Political Ideology, Affiliations to organizations
(non professional), etc
• Promise a project or a position or salary to the candidate
• Maintain Confidentiality - Let the candidate know that you are not able to disclose that
information, however will review what you can share with the HR and get back.
• NEVER SAY ANYTHING WHICH IS BEYOND YOUR CONTROL
Talking Too Much (80/20 rule)
Idea is to get to know the candidate, not to talk too much about yourself

34. Happy Interviewing!!!