Your Interview Process Defines You More Than You Think

In a tech scale‑up, every hire is important. Selecting the right leadership team and team members can see your business grow rapidly, while the wrong choices either slow your progress or derail it entirely! Quite often, one of the most neglected aspects in the hiring process is not defining the role purpose, the candidate sourcing strategy, or indeed the offer itself but, the interview process itself.

To be clear, your interview process is more than a vehicle to compare and contrast candidates. It is a reflection of your business and how you operate. Every touch point, from the recruiter’s first InMail through to the final panel interview, sends a message about your business, its people, who you are, your values, and, indeed, how you operate. In 2025, be under no illusions, candidates are running the rule over you and your business just as much as you are evaluating them.

Your Interview Process Is A Brand Experience

For scale‑up businesses, your brand isn’t just for your customer base, it’s also for the talent that you want to attract to your scale up. The strongest candidates, especially those in senior roles, are running the rule over your company to decide if it is worth their time, energy, and reputation.

An interview process which has a chaotic, disorganised, or inconsistent feel to it… candidates may come to the conclusion that this is how your business runs as well. Equally, if the process feels like it’s too inflexible and bureaucratic, may have them asking themselves if innovation and agility are stifled. However, an interview process with some structure and is candidate focused, challenges in the right way, shows respect to those who apply (and interview), visibly demonstrates that your scale-up is both professional and one where people matter.

Bottom line, the way that you set up your interview process is a live insight into your organisation and your culture.

Why Is This So Important For A Scale‑Up

As a scale‑up, you do not have the name recognition or a well-established reputation that larger corporate organisations have to rely upon. More often than not you are competing for the strong performers’ skills against those larger, well-established businesses who may well have deeper pockets than you. However, it is not all doom and gloom, what you do have is your story, your culture, and your growth trajectory.

Strong performing candidates consider the following:

• Is this an organisation where I can make an impact?

• Will I be both stretched professionally and supported?

• Does this organisation live and breathe its values and culture or are they just words?

  
  

Many of these questions can be answered when walking through the interview process as a candidate. One which is put together professionally and is thought out can turn the head of an “on the fence” candidate. Conversely, the reverse is true and runs the risk that you lose the strong performers which your business needs most.

How Are You Being Judged?

Below are some of the ways in which interviewees pass judgement:

• Responsiveness and Communication Slow response times, unclear guidance or instructions for an interview, interview rearrangements at very short notice. Strong, clear and punctual communications exude respect for their time and your own professionalism.

• Structure and Consistency A structured, well-thought out process that focuses on gathering evidence and fit with the role’s purpose (and associated competencies) demonstrates the importance that you place on fairness in your decision making.

• Interviewer Behaviour Any candidate will pick up on an ill-prepared interviewer when compared to one who is completely engaged in the session. Poorly prepared and distracted interviewers reflect poorly on an organisation's leadership.

• Candidate Experience Multiple touch points on this one – were they welcomed, was there a warm introduction, was there a clear purpose for the interview, was the feedback comprehensive after the interview? Each of these individually and collectively will impact the perception of your organisation by the interviewee.

• Alignment with Stated Values Does the interview process align with your values? As an example, if you claim to champion diversity but, interview with a male only panel or you run an interview process which is very rigid then it will not signal the innovative culture that you promote. Candidates can and will spot disconnects like this very quickly.

  
  

Create An Interview Process That Is A Mirror Image Of Your Organisation

Some simple steps to take to produce that process:

1. Purpose Stepping away from the role purpose for a moment, what do you want your candidates to learn about the culture and style of your organisation in the process? Is it your collaborative culture? Is it your ambitious growth strategy? Is it your people-centric philosophy? Then, look to see how you can showcase some of this in the process.

2. Train Your Interviewers Absolutely do not assume that your leaders and team know how to interview well. Train them, give them guidance on items like structured questioning, unconscious bias as well as how you would like them to showcase the company in those interviews.

3. Communicate Transparently Manage expectations from the outset, as in timelines, next steps and similar. It doesn’t matter if the answer is “we’re still making a decision”, your candidates do not know this, do they? Clear communications are the order of the day.

4. Feedback Do not neglect this one, always provide feedback even if it is brief. Those who are unsuccessful will have more positive feel for your organisation if they feel respected.

   
   

The Long Game…

A robust and professional interview process not only improves your hiring but, it also enhances your reputation in the market. Of course, candidates talk and share interview experiences with their peers. Those who have been unsuccessful but, feel that they have been treated professionally (and respectfully), can (and will) speak positively to others about your organisation.

Where a business does not have the magnitude of a tech giant, where every hiring decision has increased weight and importance, where impressions of your business are everything, where the interview process is not a box tick exercise. It becomes an opportunity or a strategic move to build (and enhance) your employer brand, to become an organisation of choice for strong performers and to live out your cultural values.

To conclude….

The way you interview allows you to weave a narrative, to tell a story about who you, how you operate and your values. Make sure your process tells a compelling story because when competing for the strongest talent, it is often the case that the best story wins… as you’re being interviewed too!