---
title: Effective Interviewing — Art or Science?
description: Maybe you think effective interviewing and talent evaluation is an art I disagree People often describe something as magic or art when they don
---
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# Inbound & Digital Marketing Blog
## [Effective Interviewing — Art or Science?](http://www.inboundteam.com/blog/bid/34028/Effective-Interviewing-Art-or-Science)
July 11, 2011, [Clarke Bishop](http://www.inboundteam.com/blog/author/clarke-bishop)
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Maybe you think **effective interviewing** and **talent evaluation**is an art. I disagree!
People often describe something as magic or art when they don’t know how to ***reliably*** create a result they want. In this case, I know better because I can interview and pick great employees almost every time. Most hiring managers only pick winners 25-40% of the time. I used to have a low success rate, too. Then, I learned how to effectively interview and evaluate and get it right almost every time!
## How to Evaluate Talent
- Start with a clear [Performance Benchmark](http://www.inboundteam.com/blog/bid/34026/Hire-the-right-person-with-a-Performance-Benchmark). If you don’t know what you’re looking for, how will you know when you find it? How would you know if you got a great employee or not!
- Use Structured Interviewing. There’s a lot to say on structured interviews, but basically, you ask the same questions to each candidate, so that you have a consistent way to compare candidates. I use a chronological interview which starts at the beginning and covers the candidates entire work history. For each job or period in a person’s background, I ask:
- How did you come to work at \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_? (Fill in the blank with the next company or job. This is a transition question. I want to know why they left their old job and how they found the new one.)
- What was the situation when you started the job?
- What were your one or two best accomplishments? (Great people will both **have** accomplishments and **want to** talk about them.) Once you’ve heard the accomplishment, ask how they did it. You want something they really did rather than something they can just take credit for.
- What didn’t go as well? It’s easier to get this after they’ve talked about accomplishments. Everyone knows things they could do better, so I keep pushing until I get something.
- If they were a manager, I’ll ask how many direct reports they had. Then I want to know what they did to improve their team and develop their people.
- Finally, why did they leave the job?
- Evaluate each candidate against the Performance Benchmark. I grade each candidate against each desired result, skill, etc. Because I used the structured interview, I have a lot of data to back up each grade. I can look through my notes to see where they’ve actually accomplished something similar to the results I want. I want to see accomplishments that are both specific and relevant to my open job. If they’ve done it before, there’s a good chance they’ll produce results for me.
- Once I’ve interviewed and evaluated each candidate, I pick the best one and make an offer. Or, if none of them meet my standards, I start over and generate more candidates.
None of this is all that hard, but it does take commitment and discipline. It does require some work! A good structured interview can take 4 hours for an experienced candidate. That’s a lot of time, but how much time does it chew up to have to fire someone or compensate for poor performance. I’d rather spend a couple of man-days getting it right on the front end than spend man-months cleaning it up later.
So please, take the time to get it right, or hire someone to do it right for you (This is one of the services I offer my clients). There’s just no reason to think it’s art or luck that determines the quality of your hires. Take the time and do the work! With a little practice, you can have great hiring results, too!
[Clarke Bishop](http://www.inboundteam.com/blog/author/clarke-bishop)
More Leads ♦ More Sales ♦ More Visibility ♦ More Fun ♦ Marketing & Sales Results
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