Interview Tips
The Office of Human Resources has listed the following guides to assist you with your interviewing process. Special attention should be given to compliance with Federal and State legislation that prohibits asking questions that are protected under Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws.
Introduction
The best form of preparation for an employment interview is practice. The more you prepare and practice the process the more comfortable you will be in an actual interview situation. Each interviewer may have a different interviewing style. However, you are likely to encounter three basic types of interviews--structured, unstructured, and behavioral. Click here for information on basic interview formats (PDF).
Organizing your Questions
We have organized the following questions into subject categories to help you prepare your questions. Click here for sample interview questions (PDF).
EEO Compliance
There is no single federal, state, or local agency or court that defines for all cases which interview questions are legal or illegal. Instead, a plethora of court rulings, legislative decisions, agency regulations, and constitutional laws combine to produce the often confusing and frequently changing list of what you can and can’t ask a job applicant. What follows are suggestions for some of the more difficult areas in which you must exercise caution as an employer when formulating interview questions. The following links provide multiple approaches to formulating EEO compliant questions.
- Who makes the rules for Interview Questions? (PDF)
- Examples of Questions that may of may not be asked during an employment interview (PDF)
- EEO Compliance: Sample questions to avoid and how to appropriately ask it (PDF)
Candidate Evaluation Form
We suggest you initiate a process to will enable you to evaluate interviewed candidates equally. One method is to utilize a structured candidate evaluation form that focuses on specific evaluation points. The Office of Human Resources has created a sample
- Candidate Evaluation Form. Candidate evaluation form This is a PDF file and will allow you to enter your comments electronically. You will need to save it to your individual network folder.