How to be a good interviewer: 10 habits that change your hiring

The ten habits

• 1. They decide what they're testing before writing questions — attributes first, questions second.
• 2. They ask the same core questions of every candidate — comparison requires consistent inputs.
• 3. They talk less than 25% of the time — and know their actual percentage.
• 4. They follow up two levels deep — rehearsed answers survive one question, never three.
• 5. They tolerate silence — the pause after a hard question is where honest answers form.
• 6. They write evidence, not impressions — what was said, not how it seemed.
• 7. They score immediately, alone, against a rubric — before anyone else's opinion can anchor theirs.
• 8. They know their biases by name — anchoring, similarity, recency, halo — and design against them.
• 9. They give candidates a real picture of the job, downsides included — because retention starts in the interview.
• 10. They practise deliberately — reviewing their own performance, rehearsing new question sets, getting feedback. Interviewing is a skill; skills need reps.

How to actually improve (the practice loop)

You interview a few times a quarter, get zero feedback, and never see the counterfactual — the worst possible conditions for skill development. Build a loop instead: after each interview, grade yourself on the habits above (talk ratio, follow-up depth, evidence notes). Ask a colleague to sit in once a quarter purely to watch your technique. And rehearse outside live interviews — practising against an AI candidate gives you the reps without spending real candidates on your learning curve.

The fastest single upgrade for most interviewers: record your talk ratio once. Almost everyone is shocked. The second fastest: never accept the first version of an answer — one follow-up minimum, every question.