How To Prepare Your Candidates For Interviews

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Here's the hard truth about tech recruiting:

Most recruiters just throw their candidates into interviews like it's a sink-or-swim situation. They send a job description, wish them luck, and hope for the best.

But that's amateur hour. And you're not here to be amateur.

I've placed hundreds of engineers & other types of tech workers, and I'm about to show you my exact playbook for preparing candidates to crush their interviews. This isn't theory – it's the exact process I use to maintain a 70%+ interview-to-offer ratio.

And don’t worry - if you have a different recruiting niche, virtually all of this is transferable.

1. Ditch the Phone Calls, Go Video First

Look, it's 2024. If you're still doing phone calls, you're living in the past.

Here's why video matters:

• You build trust faster when candidates can see your face and expressions

• You can read their body language and enthusiasm level

• It sets a professional tone that carries through to their actual interviews

Pro tip: Record these calls (with permission) and review them to improve your own prep process.

2. Share the Inside Intel

Most recruiters keep their hiring manager notes locked away like they're state secrets. That's backward thinking.

Instead:

• Share your detailed hiring manager intake notes with your candidate

• Break down exactly what the team is looking for beyond the generic job description

• Include specific tech challenges they're trying to solve

• Highlight the growth opportunities that got the hiring manager excited

This transparency builds trust and helps candidates align their experience with what matters most.

3. Turn Interviewers from Strangers into Known Entities

Here's where you become a true strategic partner to your candidate:

• Share LinkedIn profiles of the entire interview panel

• Break down each interviewer's background and role

• Add your personal insights: "Sarah's been leading the cloud infrastructure team for 3 years. She's big on scalability and loves discussing system design trade-offs."

• Point out common ground: "Mike also graduated from Georgia Tech and worked at MongoDB"

This intelligence helps candidates build rapport and have more meaningful conversations.

4. Behavioral Interview Mastery

Don't let your candidates wing the behavioral portion. Give them a framework:

The STAR method is table stakes. Here's what actually works:

• Share real examples of answers that impressed these specific interviewers

• Help them identify their own stories that align with the company's values

• Practice turning negative experiences into growth narratives

• Teach them to connect their past impacts to the company's current challenges

5. Technical Interview Domination

This is where most recruiters drop the ball. Not you. Here's your playbook:

• Connect candidates with successful placements for mock interviews

• Create a focused LeetCode study plan based on the company's known patterns

• Offer to set up system design practice sessions

• Share resources specific to their tech stack

Remember: A candidate who feels prepared performs better. Period.

6. Leverage AI for Deep Company Research

It's 2024 – if your candidates aren't using AI tools for interview prep, they're at a disadvantage.

Guide them to:

• Use Perplexity to analyze recent company news and earnings calls

• Create custom response templates based on company values

• Research their interviewer's content and speaking engagements

• Identify company pain points from public data

7.Practice, Practice, and more Practice!

Make sure you emphasize they should be practicing as much as possible.

• For behavioral questions, upload your manager notes and the job description into chatGPT

• Ask it to give you 10-20 questions a hiring manager would give you based off this info

• You can ask it for behavioral, scenario, or technical questions

• From there, you can ask it to emphasize more on a certain skill or technology

• Make sure to practice this in front of a mirror so they can mimic a live interviewing scenario

8. The Final 24-Hour Checklist

The day before the interview:

• Review all prep materials one final time

• Do a quick video call to answer last-minute questions

• Double-check technical setup for remote interviews

• Send a quick brief on best practices for virtual backgrounds and lighting

• Remind them of key stories to share

The Bottom Line

Great interview prep isn't just about helping candidates – it's about building your reputation as an elite recruiter who consistently delivers prepared, confident candidates.

When you nail this process, three things happen:

1. Your candidates perform better

2. Your offer acceptance rates skyrocket

3. Hiring managers start requesting you exclusively

Remember: Your success as a recruiter isn't just about finding great candidates – it's about preparing them to showcase their greatness.

Now go help your candidates crush those interviews.

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