A job interview is such a commonly used step of any recruitment process that it feels almost funny to stop and question how we're used to conducting them. Everybody interviews job applicants at some point in their careers, but how many of us have ever consciously studied interviewing techniques or received interview training? There are so few "real experts" out there that we just assume that everybody is one.

We have an internal schema of how candidate evaluation works; after all, most of us have applied to several jobs and been interviewed countless times throughout our careers. Invite a candidate for coffee, do a little small talk to get to know each other, talk about work experience, discuss the job-related skills, and ask about their salary request. Right? But when we dig deeper into what goes on in most interview situations - only through Linkedin applications, there are over 350 million of those globally every year - we notice that there is a lot to improve.

Most don't know that a single, unstructured job interview is a surprisingly unreliable way to recognize talent. If we only had to pick one way to evaluate job applicants, companies would get better results if they utilized online ability tests instead of job interviews. However, this goes against the simple fact that we are human: job candidates and company representatives want to connect instead of running through a faceless recruitment process.

Here’s the dilemma: Everybody wants to interview, but a traditional meet-and-greet job interview is unreliable.

Since everybody, hiring managers and candidates alike, want to meet their potential colleagues face-to-face (or online, as is the new standard), we should do everything we can to make that precious time count.

When we systematically compare different interview techniques, we notice that a job interview's reliability can double with some simple changes. Without going to the technical details, one critical factor is the "structuring" of interviews. It means that you ask the same interview questions from each candidate in the same order. Simple? In theory, yes, but unfortunately, this process can be pretty tedious and time-consuming.

We think that interviewers should focus on the "human" part of the situation: dialogue. Hireproof wants to support that situation by handling all the nerdy stuff - preparing professional and relevant interview questions, gathering data, scoring candidate answers, and giving you recommendations on who to hire - all in the backend of a modern web application.

If you're interested in leveling up your job interviews, we invite you to join our waitlist at hireproof.io and follow us on Linkedin. We can't wait to show you what we're building!

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Kiuas S21 questions

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What was your childhood dream job?
‍A pilot! I've been dreaming of flying since I remember, and even though I experimented with skydiving and building radio-controlled airplanes, I've come to realize that regardless of the cool pilot uniforms, the job would probably be too monotonous for my taste.

If you would get 1 billion euros right now, what would you do?
‍16 million would selfishly go to my stock portfolio to support my "dream lifestyle." With the remaining 984 million, I would fund my next venture and support some of the Global Goals for sustainable development through charity and startup investments.

Choose: A world with fast internet everywhere, anytime vs. A world with personal flying vehicles. Why?
‍Thanks to many ventures such as SpaceX and X by Google, we're about to achieve fast internet access everywhere already, so I'd go for flying vehicles! As mentioned, I've always dreamt of flying, so this would be pretty neat.

If you could change one law in Finland, what would it be?
‍This is embarrassing, but I know absolutely nothing of politics. I'm not sure if I can name a single law in Finland. I know that I'm lucky to have the opportunity to follow my dream by building Hireproof, but not everyone is so fortunate. Many people have a hard time due to whatever reason - discrimination, socioeconomic status, mental health - so there's probably something that we could do to help by legislation?

Ideal vacation: a) A ride to space and back, b) 2 weeks in an all-inclusive, all paid beach resort, c) a week of alpine ski-hiking and riding in the Alps.
‍A, for sure. I'll take this as an opportunity to wish that my application to join the dearMoon crew goes through!