9 Game-Changing Interview Techniques Top Recruiters Swear By

These methods guide the overall interview format and types of questions asked. They’re valuable for setting up a framework, but there’s more to uncover in an interview than the method alone can provide.

This is where interviewing techniques come in.

Interviewing techniques are the specific ways recruiters engage with candidates, read between the lines, and draw out deeper insights.

Techniques like active listening, strategic probing, and paraphrasing allow recruiters to get beyond surface-level responses and better assess candidates’ true potential, values, and fit for the role.

In this article, we’ll explore a set of effective interviewing techniques that can enhance any method you use—helping you connect with candidates on a more authentic level and make more informed hiring decisions.

Active listening

Active listening is a powerful technique that goes beyond simply hearing what a candidate says during the job interview—it involves fully focusing, understanding, and responding thoughtfully to their words.

By actively listening, you can pick up on subtle cues, gauge a candidate's interpersonal skills, confidence and enthusiasm, and encourage them to open up more genuinely.

How to use active listening

• Minimize distractions: Start by ensuring your full attention is on the candidate. Close unnecessary tabs, turn off notifications, and maintain eye contact - both in in-person interviews and video interviews. This creates a setting where the candidate feels seen and respected.
• Show engagement through body language: Small gestures like nodding, smiling, and maintaining an open posture signal to the interviewee that you’re fully engaged. Subtle affirmations such as "I see" or "That makes sense" encourage them to keep sharing.
• Ask follow-up questions: When a candidate provides a notable answer, take the opportunity to ask a clarifying or deepening question. For example, if a candidate mentions they led a team through a difficult project, you might say, “That sounds challenging. What steps did you take to keep everyone motivated?” These questions show that you’re not only listening but are genuinely interested in their story.
• Reflect and paraphrase: Occasionally, restate or paraphrase key points the candidate has made. For example, “So, it sounds like you approached that project by focusing on clear communication. Is that right?” This technique shows the job seeker that you’re actively absorbing what they say, and it also allows them to clarify or elaborate if needed.

Active listening helps you form a clearer and more accurate picture of the candidate, capturing details and nuances that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Candidates tend to feel more comfortable and understood, which can lead them to be more open and authentic.

It also allows you to pick up on inconsistencies, emotional responses, and points of emphasis—all of which contribute to a deeper understanding of the person in front of you, and therefore a higher chance of choosing the right candidate for the company culture and role.

Note: Recruiters often focus on taking notes during interviews instead of being fully present. They listen to candidates’ answers to fill in ATS fields, rather than listening to understand the person in front of them.

An AI assistant like Carv can help by joining the meeting, listening in, taking notes, and converting those notes into ATS-ready candidate data.

Probing for depth

Probing for depth is an essential interviewing technique that helps recruiters uncover the layers behind a candidate’s initial responses.

Often, candidates provide concise or surface-level answers, either due to nerves or because they’re unsure how much detail is expected, and this can lead to a not-so-good first impression.

Probing encourages them to expand, helping you gain a fuller understanding of their experience, thought process, and decision-making abilities.

How to use probing for depth

• Ask follow-up questions: After candidates answer questions, follow up with prompts like “Can you tell me more about that?” or “What specifically was your role in that project?” These questions signal that you’re looking for more detail, and they encourage candidates to dive deeper into their experiences.
• Clarify ambiguous statements: When a candidate uses vague language or general terms, ask for specifics. For instance, if they say, “I managed a difficult project,” you might respond, “What was challenging about it, and how did you address those challenges?” This approach helps clarify their contributions and reveals the skills they applied.
• Use "Why" and "How" questions: Another interview tip is to ask questions that start with “Why” or “How”, as these elicit more thoughtful responses. For example, “Why did you choose that approach?” or “How did you manage the team’s workload during that project?” These questions encourage candidates to explain their reasoning, showing you the motivation and critical thinking behind their actions.

Probing for depth goes beyond asking a list of questions, providing a fuller picture of a candidate’s abilities, mindset, and work style. It helps clarify how much of an achievement or challenge was directly managed by the candidate versus a team effort.

By consistently probing, you ensure you’re not simply taking responses at face value, but instead uncovering the depth and substance of a candidate’s experience—critical insights that are often missed in more superficial answers.

Maintaining neutral body language

Neutral body language is a subtle but powerful technique that helps create a welcoming and comfortable environment for candidates, reducing the risk of them feeling judged or pressured.

As a recruiter, your nonverbal cues can significantly impact how candidates perceive the interview, influencing their responses and level of openness.

By using neutral body language, you ensure the focus stays on the candidate’s answers and experiences rather than their interpretation of your reactions.

How to use neutral body language

• Adopt an open, relaxed posture: Sit with your arms uncrossed, lean slightly forward, and keep your shoulders relaxed. This posture shows you’re attentive and receptive without appearing defensive or overly intense.
• Maintain consistent eye contact without staring: Making eye contact shows you’re engaged and interested, but be mindful not to hold it too long, which can come across as intimidating. Instead, aim for natural, periodic eye contact to convey focus without creating discomfort.
• Avoid facial expressions that imply judgment: Even subtle expressions can make candidates feel self-conscious. Try to maintain a neutral or friendly expression, especially when candidates share experiences that may be challenging or difficult. Avoid frowning, raising your eyebrows, or showing surprise at any answers.
• Use nods and small gestures: Gentle nods and slight movements like tilting your head can encourage candidates to continue speaking without making them feel pressured. These gestures signal that you’re actively listening and engaged without needing to interrupt.
• Limit distracting movements: Fidgeting, looking at your watch, or glancing away can make candidates feel you’re disinterested or impatient. Keep movements minimal and intentional, focusing on stillness and calm to create a stable environment where candidates feel at ease.

By mastering neutral body language, recruiters can make interviews feel more conversational and less like a high-stakes evaluation.

Note: Although candidates can’t see your body language during phone interviews, they will pick up on cues from your tone, so make sure it’s warm, engaged, and clear. This ensures a successful interview by fostering a positive, open conversation and helping candidates feel comfortable and understood.

Using silence strategically

Silence is a simple yet effective technique that many recruiters overlook during interviews.

It may seem uncomfortable at first, but when used strategically, silence can encourage candidates to open up more, reflect deeper, and provide more thoughtful responses.

By allowing brief pauses after asking a question, you give the candidate space to gather their thoughts, elaborate on their answer, or add more details.

How to use silence strategically

• Wait after asking a question: After you ask a question, especially for open-ended questions, don’t rush to fill the silence. Give the candidate a moment to process and formulate a complete answer. Some candidates may need a few extra seconds to gather their thoughts, and in these moments of quiet, they might provide a more detailed or considered response.
• Let candidates fill the gap: If a candidate finishes speaking but the answer feels incomplete or you’re unsure of the depth, remain silent. Often, candidates will feel the need to fill the gap and elaborate further, sharing additional information or clarifying points they hadn’t fully addressed.
• Encourage reflection: If a candidate gives a short or simple answer, use silence to encourage them to expand. After their response, simply nod and remain quiet. This invites them to continue speaking, allowing you to probe for more depth without needing to ask a follow-up question immediately.
• Pause after sensitive topics: When discussing sensitive or challenging topics, use silence to give candidates space to process emotionally or think through their answers. A brief pause shows you’re not rushing them, and it helps them collect their thoughts without feeling pressured.

Silence can make candidates feel more comfortable and give them room to express themselves in ways they might not otherwise.

It’s an effective way to draw out more thoughtful, reflective answers that provide deeper insights into a candidate's experience, problem-solving abilities, and personality.

By incorporating strategic silence into your interviewing style, you create an atmosphere of respect and patience, which encourages candidates to open up more freely.

Paraphrasing for clarity

Paraphrasing for clarity is a technique that helps ensure you fully understand the candidate’s response and allows the candidate to elaborate or correct any misinterpretations.

By restating or summarizing their answer in your own words, you not only confirm your understanding but also give candidates a chance to clarify points they might have missed or to offer more detail.

How to use paraphrasing for clarity

• Restate key points: After the candidate answers a question, briefly restate the core of their response to ensure you’ve captured it accurately. For example, you might say, “So, if I understand correctly, you managed a team of five during that project. Is that right?” This invites confirmation and ensures there are no misunderstandings.
• Ask for confirmation: Encourage candidates to confirm or elaborate on what you’ve paraphrased. For instance, “You mentioned you helped develop the strategy for that campaign. Could you share a bit more about your specific contributions?” This can lead to deeper insights into their role and impact.
• Clarify ambiguities: If a candidate’s answer is unclear or vague, paraphrasing gives you the opportunity to gently guide them toward providing more specifics. You might say, “When you said you ‘handled customer concerns,’ can you clarify what that looked like in practice?” This prompts the candidate to fill in the gaps without feeling interrogated.

Paraphrasing ensures both you and the candidate are on the same page, reducing the likelihood of miscommunication.

It also helps you dive deeper into the candidate’s experiences, ensuring you get the full context of their answers, and leading to a smoother and more insightful interview process.

Scoring responses against pre-defined criteria

Although this only applies to certain types of interviews, scoring responses against pre-defined criteria is a useful technique that allows recruiters to assess candidates' answers objectively.

This ensures that evaluations are based on consistent, relevant factors rather than personal biases or subjective impressions.

By setting clear criteria before the interview and evaluating candidates' responses with these standards in mind, you can make more informed, fair decisions and better compare candidates across different interviews.

How to use scoring

• Create a scoring rubric: Before conducting interviews, develop a clear and detailed rubric that defines the key competencies and qualities you're looking for in a candidate. These might include technical skills, problem-solving abilities, cultural fit, or communication skills. Each criterion should have specific, measurable descriptors for what constitutes a "strong," "average," or "weak" response.
• Rate responses during the interview: As the candidate answers questions, rate their responses according to the rubric. For instance, if you're assessing problem-solving, you might rate how clearly and logically they explained their approach to overcoming challenges. By doing this in real-time or right after the interview, you can keep the assessment objective and aligned with the needs of the role.
• Focus on evidence, not just claims: Make sure your ratings are based on evidence from the candidate's response rather than vague impressions. For example, instead of just noting “good communication,” you might note, “Explained the process of managing team conflicts clearly with an example of resolving a dispute between two colleagues.”
• Be consistent: Use the same criteria and rating scale for all candidates interviewing for the same role. This ensures fairness in your evaluations and helps you make apples-to-apples comparisons between candidates.

Scoring against a pre-defined rubric helps eliminate bias and ensures your evaluation is based on the job requirements and competencies that matter most. It also allows for a more structured and transparent decision-making process.

With clear criteria in place, you’ll have concrete data to support your hiring decisions, which can be especially helpful in justifying your choice to others or when you need to revisit a decision.

Additionally, using this method helps you make a more informed comparison between candidates. It keeps the interview process consistent, allowing you to focus on evaluating skills and experiences rather than trying to recall specifics from memory.

Note: Recruiters, like all humans, can have biases, so it may be beneficial to use an AI assistant to evaluate the consistency of answers or score responses against objective criteria. As long as the AI doesn't make decisions for you, this approach complies with EU AI regulations.

Encouraging storytelling

Encouraging storytelling is a technique that allows candidates to share their experiences in a more natural and detailed way.

When you ask candidates to tell stories about their past work, they are often able to provide deeper insights into their skills, problem-solving abilities, and overall approach to challenges.

Storytelling lets candidates paint a vivid picture of how they handle situations, providing you with a fuller understanding of their capabilities, and making it easier to choose the best candidate for a role.

How to use storytelling

• Ask behavioral questions: To prompt storytelling, use behavioral interview questions that begin with phrases like “Tell me about a time when...” or “Can you describe a situation where...” For example, “Tell me about a time when you had to resolve a conflict between team members,” or “Can you walk me through a project you managed from start to finish?” These types of questions encourage candidates to share specific examples from their past experiences.
• Encourage detail: If a candidate gives a brief or general answer, prompt them to dive deeper. You might ask, “What was your role in that situation?” or “How did you handle that challenge?” This encourages them to break down their story step by step and share more comprehensive details about their actions, thought processes, and outcomes.
• Pay attention to the “STAR” interview method: The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) is a useful framework for storytelling. Encourage candidates to cover each part of the story, helping them provide well-rounded answers. If they miss certain parts, ask them to elaborate—“What was the outcome of the project?” or “What was the challenge you were trying to solve?”
• Create a comfortable environment: For candidates to share detailed stories, they need to feel comfortable and safe. Use body language, active listening, and neutral facial expressions to signal that you’re open to hearing about their experiences without judgment.

Storytelling gives you more context around a candidate's capabilities, showing how they apply their skills in real-world scenarios.

Additionally, storytelling allows candidates to showcase their communication skills. The way they structure and articulate their story tells you a lot about their ability to communicate clearly, organize their thoughts, and engage others—key traits for many roles.

Mirroring the candidate’s communication style

Mirroring involves subtly adapting to the candidate’s communication style, tone, or energy level to create a sense of connection and make them feel more at ease.

By reflecting their language and emotional cadence, you show that you’re in sync with them, which can help build trust and encourage more open, authentic conversations.

How to use mirroring

• Match the candidate’s energy: If a candidate speaks with enthusiasm and high energy, you can mirror that by responding with similar enthusiasm. Conversely, if the candidate is more calm or reserved, adopting a more measured tone can help them feel comfortable. The goal is not to mimic exactly, but to subtly align with their energy.
• Adapt to their language style: Pay attention to the way the candidate frames their answers—whether they use formal or informal language, whether they are more concise or elaborate—and mirror it without overdoing it. For example, if they use professional jargon or specific terms, you can incorporate that language into your responses. If they speak casually, using a conversational tone can make the exchange feel more comfortable.
• Reflect their non-verbal cues: Along with language, mirroring includes body language and facial expressions. If a candidate is using hand gestures while talking, you might naturally adopt a similar posture or gesture. If they’re maintaining a relaxed posture, you can do the same to avoid creating a power imbalance or discomfort.

Just like recruiters, candidates often form first impressions quickly. Mirroring can help build rapport by creating a relaxed, natural atmosphere.

When candidates feel the interviewer is on the same wavelength, they’re more likely to feel comfortable and open during the conversation.

Behavioral anchoring

Behavioral anchoring involves asking candidates about specific past experiences to understand how they have handled situations similar to those they may encounter in the future.

By focusing on real behaviors rather than hypothetical scenarios, you gain more reliable insights into how a candidate is likely to perform in the role.

How to use behavioral anchoring

• Shift from hypothetical to real scenarios: Instead of asking questions like, "What would you do if a team member missed a deadline?" try rephrasing to ask, "Can you describe a time when a team member missed a deadline? How did you handle it?" This approach encourages candidates to share concrete examples of how they’ve responded to challenges, rather than relying on abstract, speculative answers.
• Ask for specific examples: Encourage candidates to provide detailed examples by using prompts such as, "Tell me about a time when you had to manage a difficult project with limited resources," or "Describe a situation where you had to work under tight deadlines." This technique helps candidates think back to actual instances, ensuring their responses are grounded in reality.
• Follow-up with probing questions: Once the candidate has shared a story, ask follow-up questions to clarify the details. For example, "What was your role in that situation?" or "How did you prioritize tasks?" This will help you assess their approach and involvement more accurately.

Behavioral anchoring provides a strong foundation for predicting future performance because it’s based on actual past actions rather than theoretical responses.

Past behavior is one of the best indicators of future behavior, and by focusing on real-world examples, you gain a clearer, more reliable understanding of how a candidate will react to similar challenges in your workplace.

This interviewing technique also helps eliminate the guesswork that comes with hypothetical scenarios and gives you a more objective, fact-based basis for evaluating candidates.

Note: When preparing your list of questions, ensure they are directly relevant to the job description.

For example, if the role involves managing a team, ask the candidate to share a specific instance where they successfully led a team through a difficult project, including how they handled team dynamics, resolved conflicts, and ensured project completion on time.

Conclusion

Mastering interviewing techniques is key to building a more effective and insightful hiring process.

These techniques not only improve your ability to assess candidates more effectively but also help create a more positive, engaging experience for them.

When candidates feel heard, understood, and respected, they’re more likely to give their best responses, leading to better outcomes for both the hiring process and your organization.