The interview process is a critical time for you to get to know the applicant. It is really not a time to go over their basic qualifications, as you can accomplish that by reading their resume. The purpose of the interview is to see what kind of person and employee the applicant is. To accomplish this you will want to ask questions that give you an idea of:
what kind of personality they have,
what their work ethics are, and
if you will want to work with this person.
Prepare a list of questions ahead of time and print out enough copies so that all of the personnel involved in the interview each have a copy of the questions for every interview scheduled. This will help you ask every applicant the same questions, to get the same amount and kind of information from every applicant, and have a place to organize your impressions and notes about each applicant’s answers.
After getting an idea of who the applicant is, you can move on to asking questions that are directly related to specific needs of the job: software hardware, typing speed, 10 key speed, certifications, etc. If there special duties that the job requires, this is the time to find out if the applicant is capable of, or willing to do them. For example if extensive travel by car is required, make sure that the applicant is willing to travel, that they have a car, and that they are able to drive.
To wrap up the interview ask:
What was their best and worst work experience?
Why did they leave their last job?
When are they available to start?
Make sure to take notes about the answers each applicant made, and also note their body language, their appearance (casual or business), and their personalities.
A second purpose of the interview is to weed out bad employees. By bad I mean employees who will cause problems within your company because of combative personalities, sloth, and unprofessionalism. To avoid hiring these kinds of employees look for the following warning signs:
They have been laid off before, but say they weren’t given a reason for being fired or laid off.
They are unable to substantiate training with proof, i.e. a certificate, letter of reference, etc…
They take a long time to answer questions.
They break eye contact continuously.
They are avoidant about talking about their past employers or jobs.
The final step of the interviewing process is to verify references and review the information that you gathered.