The Talgo Blog

Interviewing is a massive pain point for most high-growth companies. “What questions should we be asking? What information should we be seeking in our follow-ups? How do we improve time management, get past the candidate’s ‘spin’, interpret the data we’ve gathered, etc.?”

Interview training is our ...

(And How To Ask Instead)

Closed-ended questions are ones that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” Questions like: “Did you…?”, “Could you…?”, “Was there…?” etc.

In candidate interviews, closed-ended questions are almost always a mistake. Why? It is not because they “cut off the dialogue...

Candidates–especially senior-level ones—frequently tell stories about tough decisions they had to make. This usually comes up when talking about a big accomplishment or achievement in their past, but it can come up in other contexts as well.

Imagine that you are interviewing a candidate who is curr...

“She was clearly very well-prepared for the interview. I was impressed.”

“He fumbled with some of his responses. I’m not sure he’s the strong communicator we need.”

“He talked about his sales metrics a lot. You can tell he’s driven and competitive.”

These kinds of comments are what we call “inter...

The way most good-but-not-great interviewing is done is to ask the candidate for examples of very specific skills, behaviors or competencies from their past. Something like:

“What’s your best example of leading a cross-functional initiative where you had to really herd cats—reining in a lot of opin...

If you’re not conducting high-quality, high-touch reference interviews, you are leaving enormous value on the table—on multiple fronts! Having rich interactions with the key individuals from your candidate’s professional past is not just “good hygiene,” it can add considerable value to your entire h...

A “take home” is when you give candidates a sample business or technical assignment that they perform on their own time. In the past decade, we have seen a huge increase in these take-homes in interviewing processes. Companies tend to do this to cut down interviewing time or to screen out obviously ...

Most of us care about growing and progressing in our careers. Regardless of our underlying motivation (money, mission, fun), we have a natural desire to “move up”—to elevate our roles and our impact.

Unfortunately, most of us will hit a wall at some point, reaching a level where we struggle to prog...

Interviews can be intensely vulnerable and emotional experiences for candidates. They’re trying to put their best foot forward, but nerves inevitably get in the way. Based on my experiences interviewing many high performers, believe me: even stellar candidates can end up rambling in an interview!

I...