The Way You Interview Says Everything About Your Company

You’re Not Losing Candidates — You’re Turning Them Off in the Interview.

Resumes are only part of the story. The best candidates bring more than just a list of skills — they bring critical thinking, emotional intelligence, real-world experience, and a style that fits how your team works.

But if your interviews are too generic or surface-level, you won’t see that.

At Evolve Consulting Co., our secret sauce to conducting strong interviews is based on connection, framing expectations and being easy to talk so candidates feel comfortable to bring their A-game. We’ve seen firsthand that how you interview often determines who you hire. Great interviews lead to great hires.

Here’s how to design an interview process that actually helps you evaluate candidates effectively — so you can make decisions with clarity, not guesswork.

1. Structure Your Interviews With Intention

Too many interviews start with: “Walk me through your resume…”

That’s fine for a warm-up, but if that’s the whole interview? You’ll miss everything that matters.

Build your interview around three key buckets:

✅ Skills – can they do the job?

✅ Culture & values – do they align with how your team works? 

✅ Problem-solving & mindset – how do they think, adapt, and grow?

Pro tip: Decide in advance what you're actually trying to assess in each round. Ask all interviews the SAME questions so you are comparing each candidate in a fair way.

2. Framing: The Secret to Better Interviews (and Better Hires)

Here’s the ultimate trick of the trade — and something we do with every talent that interviews with us. 

The way you frame questions and set expectations during an interview tells the candidate everything about what it’s actually like to work with you. 

Your goal isn’t to catch people off guard. It’s to make them feel safe, seen, and clear on what success looks like in your company.

That doesn’t mean you lower the bar. It means you raise the clarity.

Here’s what framing sounds like:

💬 “Our client is driven by feedback to improve processes. That means you’ll always know where you stand — and we’ll ask for your feedback too. Can you tell me how you usually like to give and receive feedback?”

💬 “We’re a remote team that values flexibility, but we also operate with a lot of self-accountability. What kind of structure helps you stay focused and motivated?”

💬 “Our client is looking for someone who is a self-starter and takes initiative to find efficiencies. Can you give me an example of a time you found inefficiencies and how did you put in a process to improve it?”

Why this works:

• It anchors your expectations early — before the offer stage

• It makes candidates feel respected and informed

• It filters in people who are actually ready to thrive in your environment

  
  

Framing is part of what separates great interviewers from average ones. It's subtle, powerful, and totally human.

3. Evaluate Cultural Fit — Without Bias

This one gets tricky. “Culture fit” isn’t about hiring people you’d grab a beer with — it’s about shared values and compatible work styles.

Focus on VALUE alignment, not what you would think or feel.

Instead of: “Would I enjoy working with this person?” 

Ask: “Do their values and communication style support how we operate?”

If your company values transparency, ask:

“Tell me about a time you had to deliver tough news. How did you approach it?”

Look for signals of openness, emotional intelligence, and adaptability — not just charisma.

4. Test Problem-Solving with Real Scenarios

Give candidates a chance to show you how they think — not just tell you what they’ve done.

Depending on the role, that could mean:

• A short case study

• A roleplay or simulation (especially for customer-facing roles)

• A hypothetical, job-relevant challenge

  
  

Example for a Customer Success role: “You receive an angry email from a client who says they’ve been ignored. What’s your next move?”

You’re not looking for perfection — you’re looking for thought process.

5. Never Set People up to Fail

Never walk into an interview thinking, “if they say multitask or if they didn’t ask any questions, that’s a red flag and it’s an automatic no.

People aren’t there to read your minds and you don’t know what type of history they come from and what was ok/not ok with their previous workplace. Don’t set people up to fail, it is not the modern way to interview (or treat humans to be honest).

If something is a dealbreaker for you, say it:

• Multitasking is something that can be a good thing or a bad thing, my viewpoint is that it’s hard for people to do things really well if they multi-task, what’s your take on it?”

• I love when people ask me questions about the role, shows genuine interest in the role and company, please ask me anything that you are wondering about?

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Make them feel comfortable, don’t be intimidating or come across arrogant, no one wants to work for a company like that. 

TL;DR –Interviews Aren’t a Test — They’re a Preview.

Want to actually evaluate candidates well?

Keep this checklist in your back pocket:

✅ Design your interview around skills, values, and mindset 

✅ Use framing to set expectations and show what it’s like to work with you 

✅ Focus on value alignment — not personality or “culture fit” clichés 

✅ Ask open-ended, scenario-based questions that reveal how people think 

✅ Give real-world challenges to see problem-solving in action 

✅ Be clear about what matters — don’t expect candidates to read your mind 

✅ Make interviews feel safe, honest, and respectful — not like a test 

✅ Drop the ego — and never set someone up to fail

When your interview process reflects your values, the right candidates show up — and say yes with confidence.

Want help designing a stronger interview process?

At Evolve Consulting Co., we help founders and teams build interview strategies that work — so you can feel confident hiring the right people.

Whether you need to refine your questions, train your team, or design a full hiring process — we’ve got you.

👉 Let’s talk https://www.evolveconsultingco.com/contact-us 

Don’t forget: Our free Job Description Template drops January 2025

Hiring starts way before the interview. Get the template we use with our clients to write job ads that actually attract the right people.

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