Round 3: Personal Interviews
*This round should be conducted if the second shortlist of applicants exceeds the number of spots available.
Personal interviews would include scheduling a one-on-one conversation with the participant where the team should interact with the applicant individually. This round would be relevant if you are unsure of the individuals shortlisted post the Open House as well.
Since this shortlist would be shorter than the previous one, personal interviews can be organised and planned for by coordinating with the applicant directly.
A few key considerations include:
1. Scheduling interviews:
While you may not need to use a form to coordinate the personal interview, you should have a schedule at hand to make it easier for you to plan. Similar to the previous round, the personal interviews could take place back-to-back over the weekend to help you save time. Each interview could be scheduled for approximately 30 – 45 minutes.
2. Creating a comfortable environment:
It is important to create a comfortable environment for the individual being interviewed since this would be their third round of interaction with you. To also get a better idea about them, it would help to primarily ask them questions about their personal experiences, viewpoints and thoughts. A conversational format would help more than a question-and-answer format.
3. Clear communication of next steps:
In this round, it would be important to clearly communicate next steps and approximate dates of when they would hear back. This is crucial because at this stage, the candidates too would have spent a significant amount of time on their application and would be invested in the process.
4. Communication regarding A F.A.I.R. Space:
It would also be very crucial that you project the program, as well as its functioning, well during this stage since the participants are likely to have questions. Regardless of the participation in the program, this could be their biggest takeaway from the interview. If it is your intention to run this program again, then this would be crucial to not just get their attention, but also for them to recommend this to their friends, peers, colleagues, etc.
5. Platform for interviews:
You could continue using Skype at this stage as well since due to the Open House, they would have used this platform before. Again, as mentioned, Skype is a free platform and participants would not be required to create an account to access the interview room.
Here are the templates for the communications.
Once, the email is sent out you can call them directly to explain the details of Round 3.
A few talking points that you could refer to when scheduling the interview are provided below:
1. Congratulating applicants:
It would be important for you to congratulate applicants for making it this far in the process. You should also thank them for time and patience for sticking to the process for so long and reiterate how difficult it has been to do the final selection.
2. Confirming date and time:
You should start by asking applicants if they are available on a particular time slot. Options for other time slots should only be provided if they aren’t available at your preferred time slot. This would help make the planning and coordination easier.
3. Confirming platform:
You should confirm that the interview would take place over Skype and check with them if they would be okay in terms of internet connection. In case the applicant would face bandwidth issues then a conference phone call should be arranged.
4. Requesting for video:
When scheduling the call, you should inform applicants that a video would be preferred unless it interferes with their connectivity.