Each organization’s hiring process is a little different, but the one-on-one interview will always play a pivotal role. It’s often your best opportunity for digging deeper, confirming behavioral traits, and generally gaining reassurance about a candidate.
The job interview alone isn’t your only tool in hiring top talent; good job descriptions and a streamlined system for attracting talent are just as important. But when it does come time for the one-to-one interview (or interviews), you’ll want to narrow your focus with the interviewee.
That means knowing what behavioral traits you’re looking for in the role, what questions to prioritize, and how to read the body language of the job seeker in a face-to-face interview. It’s no silver bullet, by any means, but the one-to-one dynamic can help you break candidate ties and make a habit of nailing the hire—if you have your system down.
In this post, we’ll walk through the little things that can help you nail this critical stage in the interview process.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- What is a one-on-one interview?
- One-on-one interview questions to ask
- One-on-one interview tips
- One-on-one interview advantages and disadvantages
What is a one-on-one interview?
A one-on-one interview is a formal meeting between a job candidate and a single interviewer, typically a hiring manager or HR representative. This type of interview allows for a focused and in-depth discussion, enabling the interviewer to assess the candidate’s qualifications, skills, and cultural fit for the organization.
One-on-one interviews provide an opportunity for candidates to ask questions, learn more about the role, and showcase their abilities. They are most effective when they’re conducted by someone who will work directly with the candidate, and, ideally, when applying strategic interview questions.
There are a number of reasons you might prefer the one-on-one format, but the most common is simple: You tend to get more information out of the conversation, and it’s easier to stay on track. A group interview might keep a candidate on their toes, but it’s also more prone to tangents and questions that don’t prompt the responses you need. In other words, one-on-one interviews can be more efficient—when done right.
To get the most out of the exercise, it’s on the interviewer to be economical with the questions they ask, and to offer follow-up questions at the correct intervals. Otherwise, the efficiency advantage is negated.
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One-on-one interview questions to ask
The role the interviewee is vying for will dictate much of your interviewing technique. But as a skilled interviewer, there are still some fallbacks you can employ with any candidate, as well as behavioral questions you can use when you’re seeking a particular profile for a role.
Let’s start with a few general questions you’ll want to hear most any candidate answer:
- In the past, how did you address conflict with a coworker?
- Can you tell me about a time you faced adversity, and how you handled it?
- How do you manage competing priorities or requests?
Each of these questions lends itself to organic follow-ups, unlike generic yet often-employed standbys like, “What would you say is your biggest weakness?”
Let’s say you’re looking for a candidate who aligns with a certain behavioral profile. You need someone with a high patience drive—a steadying presence who can stay even-keeled amid shifting priorities, and balance some innovative but freewheeling teammates.
Example one-on-one interview questions
To probe for these behavioral traits, you might ask:
- How do you hold yourself and others accountable to stated goals/deliverables?
- How do you organize your daily or weekly priorities?
- What might warrant a re-evaluation of those priorities?
- When is it appropriate to deviate from the plan?
The candidate can’t necessarily prepare canned responses when your interview questions are more behavioral (and sequential) like the above. You’ll also see how well their answers align with the ideal behavioral traits needed for the role and team.
One-on-one interview tips
The onus is on the interviewer to be both flexible and keenly observant in a one-one-one scenario. You can’t divvy up responsibilities the way you might in a panel interview. It’s important hiring managers, recruiters, and anyone else involved know how to conduct a remote interview, too. The two-on-one video interview dynamic is much different from the one-to-one.
No matter the medium or type of interview, interviewers need to practice active listening while both probing for follow-up questions and evaluating non-verbal cues, like eye contact and body language. It’s not easy, but the best hiring managers become adept with practice.
There are a few cheat codes you can employ, too:
- Map out your questions (including some follow-up questions) in advance.
- Keep your phrasing clear and concise.
- Allot a certain amount of time for each interview question or section.
- Don’t allow the candidate to take the conversation too far off track.
Some interviewees will lead you in the direction of your follow-ups better than others. Whether this makes them more viable candidates is a matter of alignment. Do their answers mirror the behavioral tendencies outlined in your job description? You only know the answer if you’ve done your prep work.
One-on-one interview advantages and disadvantages
As noted, one-on-one interviews are mostly advantageous for their efficiency. It’s easier for one person to keep things moving than it is in a group interview. With multiple interviewers, you’re more likely to run into conflicting biases, ulterior motives, and generally competing goals.
That said, one-on-one interviews shouldn’t be your sole source of information about an interviewee. Disadvantages of the one-to-one approach include:
- Individual biases (one person’s distaste alone can ruin a candidacy)
- Transcription gaps (it’s incumbent upon the interviewer to take and relay notes)
- Decision hesitancy (the interviewer feels the weight of having the ultimate say)
- Resource intensive (in-depth structured interviews of this type can be time-consuming)
Your interview process will be most effective if you supplement one-on-ones with:
- Clear job targets
- Recruiter intake
- Hiring manager analysis
- Phone interviews
- Group interviews (ideally utilizing cultural fit interview questions)
- Mission-oriented evaluations
The best hiring processes feature clear transitions, from the first interview to the final step, and everywhere in between. Everyone from the HR manager to the individual contributor assessing team fit should understand how they can positively impact the outcome.
Because, after all, no matter your role or eventual relationship with the interviewee, all parties should want the same thing: to hire the right person, regardless of how quickly it closes a job opening.
Join 10,000 companies solving the most complex people problems with PI.
Hire the right people, inspire their best work, design dream teams, and sustain engagement for the long haul.
How PI can help
One-on-one in-depth interviews can be daunting to facilitate, especially without the right prep work.
PI Hire gives you the tools to lead a next-level hiring experience. Use PI to get your hiring team aligned on a job’s requirements, and craft a job description that’ll have candidates lining up at the door (or in the Zoom waiting room). Leverage millions of data points to determine the optimal behavioral profile for a role—and generate a custom interview guide designed to confirm candidate fit.
Curious how PI Hire could transform your interview process? Leave that curiosity behind, and try PI for yourself.
FAQs
How do I prepare for a one-to-one interview?
A successful one-on-one interview starts with the right prep work. This includes:
- Assembling the right interview team
- Aligning on who’s interviewing the candidate, when, and about what
- Building a behavioral interview guide that probes for candidate caution areas
- Creating a standardized rubric to mitigate bias as a hiring team
- Assigning a dedicated “culture interviewer”
What is the difference between a one-to-one interview and a panel interview?
Whereas a one-to-one interview involves just a single interviewer, a panel interview consists of a small group of interviewers. A panel interview can be particularly useful if your hiring team consists of several employees from the same function; that way, you save time among the team, while cutting down on repeated questions.
For example, say you’re hiring a Demand Generation Specialist for your marketing team. If your hiring team includes the VP of Marketing, the Director of Demand Gen, and an existing Demand Gen Specialist, it might make sense to consolidate their time into a single panel interview. This allows you to schedule other interviews (e.g., a panel interview with members of the sales department) and add variety to your candidate’s super-day.
