“The top performer isn’t always the top interviewee”. I heard this on the radio during the week and couldn’t have said it better myself.
Companies spend time planning interviews, comparing candidates, going through the process and then at the end, they hire the person who sold themselves the best. Is that always the top performer? Absolutely not.
Here’s what happens. A candidate comes in, they’re warm, chatty, great at selling themselves. The conversation flows, everyone gets on well, and before long the interview has turned into a more of a casual chat with biases forgotten and technical questions quietly dropped. It feels great in the room. But for technical roles especially, no real deep dive ever happens. Ok, they’ll fit the team. They might be a great cultural hire. But can they actually do the job? Sometimes yes. Often, no.
So how do we prevent it?
Companies that go in prepared with a clear structure, the same interview for every candidate, and an awareness of their own biases can avoid a lot of this. Every candidate should be asked the same core questions. Yes, conversations will drift, but it’s important to pull them back. Gut instinct has its place, but for technical or senior roles it can’t carry the whole decision.
Define what you need before the interview, not after. A scorecard can often help. For technical roles, a practical test can cut through the noise faster than any conversation can.
Structured interviews aren’t perfect for every role. But when you hire someone for their personality, that should be a decision made before interviews ever happen and not a side effect of a process that lost its way.
The best hire isn’t always the best interviewee. Build a process that shows you who is.