Rethink Your Interview Format

When was the last time you changed your interview format?

Most hiring managers have a style they default to same questions, same structure, same flow, interview after interview, year after year. I understand why. It feels fair. It feels safe. It is what they know.

But here is what I have noticed after many years of watching people hire: a rehearsed candidate and a genuinely exceptional candidate can look identical in a structured interview. Because the good ones have prepared. They have researched your likely questions, practised their STAR responses Situation, Task, Action, Result and they arrive polished and ready.

That is not a bad thing. Preparation is a reasonable proxy for professionalism. But it does mean you can walk away thinking you have found your person when really you have found someone who is very good at interviews.

STAR still has a place. Past behaviour remains the strongest predictor of future performance, and the framework keeps answers grounded in what someone actually did rather than what they think you want to hear. Keep using it. But consider wrapping those questions in something less predictable.

Consider a conversational style. Not unstructured, not a casual chat but a deliberate, purposeful conversation that feels human enough for the candidate to relax, and real enough for you to see who actually walked into the room.

When people are at ease, the script drops. You start to hear how they think, how they handle an unexpected question, how they talk about other people, whether their values surface without prompting. You are not trying to catch anyone out. You are creating the conditions for an honest answer.

Try ending your structured questions ten minutes early and simply asking: “What do you want me to understand about you that we have not covered?” What follows is almost always more revealing than anything that came before it.

That is where the best hiring decisions come from. Not the polished answer to the expected question but the moment someone stops performing and starts just talking.