Tanzania Job How to conduct a job interview and recruit the best match in Tanzania

Recruitment is central for a company to function properly, and a job interview usually is the best way to find the perfect match. An interview is not a simple spontaneous conversation and should be structured in order to have the clearest idea of the applicant. Predicting if a candidate will be a good employee is a challenge, and preparing the job interview process in advance will help you overcome it. A bad hire can be pretty costly and you had better think twice before deciding to have a new member on board. Do not worry though: we gathered the best advice and tips to help you avoid the most common pitfalls.

Before the job interviews: define the process and your company’s needs

You have already explained the requirements for the position in the job offer. Try to think as much as possible of what you expect from the new employee, what criterion is crucial and which one is only preferable.
In addition to the specifics of the job, you should also consider the atmosphere you want to create in your company. You are looking for someone for the job, but also for the company as a whole. A group of people working together always is a matter of equilibrium, and adding a new element to this group will always break this equilibrium, which will have to be created again – your hire thus needs to be a good fit who will get along with their co-workers and work in a harmonious and complementary way.

Spend some time understanding each candidate’s profiles before their interviews

You should not discover the applicant’s resume during the job interview but read it through a few times in advance. Take some notes, circle what you want to dig deeper and prepare specific questions you have for them.
Moreover, you can also try to look for information about the candidate on the internet in order to have a clearer idea of who they are. Google them and check their LinkedIn and/or Facebook profiles.

How to contact a prospective candidate for a job interview

You either have found an interesting profile on Jumia Jobs or received applications to the job offer you posted, and wish to invite the candidate to an interview. How should you do this?

If you found the candidate yourself, explain to them how you found their profile, a few words about the company and ask them if they would be interested in doing an interview.
If the candidate applied for a job posting, thank them for their application and suggest several time frames during which you would be available to interview them and ask them to pick the day and time they prefer.

Once this is agreed, you will need to send them all necessary information about the job interview: confirm the day and time, provide them with the address, names of all the interviewers and the expected duration of the interview.

How to structure a job interview and the recruitment process

A structure is very important if you want to be able to compare the answers of several applicants. You should first present yourself briefly, what the company does and how the job interview will be structured. You can then ask the candidate to present themselves and ask your questions regarding their CV and cover letter. You may thus proceed with the position itself: ask the candidate what they understood they would be doing at this job, and give them further information after they have answered, so that they have the clearest idea of what the position is about.

Tips to follow during the job interview

The most important thing when conducting an interview is the ability to listen carefully to what the candidate is saying. If you want to be able to ask relevant questions and spot the weaknesses and strengths of the applicant, you will need to be focused during the whole duration of the job interview, in order to ask good follow-up questions to know more details. Pay attention to what they are saying, but also notice their non-verbal behaviour: are they smiling? What is the orientation of their body? Do they avoid eye-contact?
Avoid biases as much as possible, since they will not help you make the right decision. Try to be very conscious of the reasons why you like someone: is it because of their skills and abilities or their good looks? Try to disregard the candidate’s attractiveness, weight, gender, as much as possible. To do so, it would really help if the job interview is well-structured since you will be able to ask the candidates the same questions.
Always be honest when you explain what the job offer consists of. Do not try to lure candidates into joining because a disappointed team member will underperform and eventually leave the company. The more precise information you give, the more you will attract good matches for your company.
Depending on the job, you can also ask job-seekers to solve a work simulation. It will help you understand how they work and if they can really perform as good as they say. For instance, you can ask a developer to write a few lines of code for a short program, or a marketeer to come up with ideas about an advertising campaign.
Always ask the candidates at the end of the interview if they have questions, and make sure to answer them as honestly as possible.

Common job interview questions – what questions you should ask to optimize recruitment

There are two main categories of questions you can ask:

Behavioural questions will help you understand the candidate’s general way of behaving and their character.
Situational questions depend more on the type of jobs they are applying for and are related to their reaction in precise situations.

These questions will allow you to collect two types of information:

related to the job: general traits of characters, experience and knowledge)
non-related to the job: interpersonal skills, behaviour, social skills

Try to mix all kinds of questions to have a good overview of who the candidate is and what they can do.
If you need help finding out job interview questions, Glassdoor browsed through thousands of job interview reports to give you the 50 most common interview questions, which you can find below. However, you should not limit yourself to these questions. They are a good way to start but it is advisable to come up with your own special questions. Candidates expect the questions below and are thus prepared for them. If you want some more spontaneous answers, you should also have more spontaneous questions!

Most Common Interview Questions

What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
Why are you interested in working for [insert company name here]?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
Why do you want to leave your current company?
Why was there a gap in your employment between [insert date] and [insert date]?
What can you offer us that someone else can not?
What are three things your former manager would like you to improve on?
Are you willing to relocate?
Are you willing to travel?
Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
Tell me about a time you made a mistake.
What is your dream job?
How did you hear about this position?
What would you look to accomplish in the first 30 days/60 days/90 days on the job?
Discuss your resume.
Discuss your educational background.
Describe yourself.
Tell me how you handled a difficult situation.
Why should we hire you?
Why are you looking for a new job?
Would you work holidays/weekends?
How would you deal with an angry or irate customer?
What are your salary requirements? (Hint: if you’re not sure what’s a fair salary range and compensation package, research the job title and/or company on Glassdoor.)
Give a time when you went above and beyond the requirements for a project.
Who are our competitors?
What was your biggest failure?
What motivates you?
What’s your availability?
Who’s your mentor?
Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss.
How do you handle pressure?
What is the name of our CEO?
What are your career goals?
What gets you up in the morning?
What would your direct reports say about you?
What were your bosses’ strengths/weaknesses?
If I called your boss right now and asked him what is an area that you could improve on, what would he say?
Are you a leader or a follower?
What was the last book you’ve read for fun?
What are your co-worker pet peeves?
What are your hobbies?
What is your favorite website?
What makes you uncomfortable?
What are some of your leadership experiences?
How would you fire someone?
What do you like the most and least about working in this industry?
Would you work 40+ hours a week?
What questions haven’t I asked you?
What questions do you have for me?

What to do after the job interview

How to detect if the candidate is just putting a poker face on during the interview, without showing their true nature? To discover this, you will need to gather information from the outside. For instance, how did the candidate treat the receptionist? Was he polite and smiling? You can also call references, but if you can, call also people with whom the candidate has worked but whom he did not list on their CV. Having external input would help you greatly discover interesting facts about the candidate.
You should also expect a follow-up email from the candidate – it will help you realize who is a truly motivated and who is not.

Still not sure you want to recruit the applicant?

Recruitment is a difficult process and it is good to take some time to be certain you are taking the right decision. If you still have doubts, you can ask the candidate to come for a second job interview. You can include more people to have their thoughts on the applicant, or change the setting: why not ask the candidate to come over for lunch? You will thus be able to see how they treat the waiters, for instance, in addition to having a more casual conversation.

Different ways of doing job interviews

In order to filter out applicants and avoid spending too much time and money on interviews, many companies conduct first interviews on the phone or via Skype. You can afterwards invite the selected candidates for a regular interview in your office. How to conduct a job interview on the phone? You should follow the same rules as a regular job interview: have a clear structure, ask them questions about their personality and also about their work, and present the position and the company.
Stress interviews are sometimes considered to be efficient if you wish to discover how an applicant reacts under pressure. How to conduct that kind of job interviews? You can try to intimidate the interviewee by having many interviewers asking challenging questions at a fast pace, have an interviewer not look at the candidate or doubt the veracity of the interviewee’s affirmation. However, this kind of interviews should only be used for positions which will need to be under a lot of stress.

Recruitment’s final step: How to take the final decision

Deciding on whom to hire is not often obvious. If you are hesitating between two or three candidates, a two-entry table might be a good option. Write down all criteria you want to take into account and give a grade to each candidate for every criterion in order to have a better overview of who is best at what. Weigh the pros and the cons of each selected applicant. However, always bear in mind that you should avoid any biases based on gender, race, weight etc.

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