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Interview ordering is a bit of an ad hoc art form, one that we at Talgo have (frankly) done an insufficient job of codifying.

Part of the reason is that there is no one “right” way to order your interview process. And it’s possible, in most cases, to flex the order to ensure you deliver a fast, smooth, and efficient candidate experience.

However, there are three guiding principles to keep in mind, based upon the combined experiences of dozens of our clients:

1. Get the hiring manager involved as early as possible

Nobody wants to go through five interviews before meeting with their future boss. The hiring manager should be involved early in order to build that critical relationship, fan the flames of interest from the candidate, and demonstrate their own commitment to being a supportive boss. 

In fact, we like it when this is the first real interview (especially for highly referred candidates from our networks) or at least the second (when a key recruiter did the sourcing).

This is a uniquely important moment for both sides — while we don’t want anyone to over-index on whether we like the person, if either the candidate or the hiring manager feels the chemistry is clearly not there, it’s best to know this early and save our colleagues’ time “downstream” (avoiding wasted interviewing time for our team as well as for the candidate).

2. Put high bar interviews or assessments earlier in the process

If there are particular facets of the role (results or key competencies) where the bar is especially high — that is, where fewer candidates meet the mark — you should err on the side of testing those facets early. 

Why? 

Cutting candidates earlier is a service to you (less time spent interviewing candidates who aren’t going to make it) and to them (getting a “no” after investing many hours with a company is a bad candidate experience).

There is one catch, of course — you need to insert a decision point after that interview in order for you and the candidate to get the benefit. One of the upsides of remote/video-based interviewing is this ability to thin-slice your process into multiple decision points, rather than packing everything into a single onsite day.

3. Place interviewers with limited availability late in the process

If there is a particular interview in your process that can only be delivered by one person with the requisite domain knowledge/training and if that person’s time is in short supply, it’s typically best to put them later in the process, with a couple of decision points “upstream” of them. We don’t want our process to be blocked by this person’s availability.

Of course, it’s best to avoid this predicament altogether if possible, either by training others to do what this person does or by creating dedicated capacity on this person’s calendar well in advance.

These principles should give you a good starting point. But be open to tweaking the order if there are issues related to team capacity and/or candidate experience.

This post was originally published on LinkedIn.

Jordan Burton has 17 years of experience as an executive assessor and interviewing trainer, working with top VC/PE investors and high-growth startups to help them hire the best of the best. He has trained thousands of founders, leaders, and investors on hiring and interviewing skills. He leads Talgo’s business development initiatives, managing relationships with Sequoia Capital, TH Lee, Palantir, Scale AI, and over 50 venture-backed startups.

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