Over my career, I’ve conducted far more interviews than I’ve ever attended—and I’ve learned that most organisations have forgotten what interviews are for.
Responsibility for building and sustaining teams has given me a strong sense of how differently organisations approach interviews, and how unclear we often are about their purpose.
Is it an interrogation? An oral exam with pre-scripted questions from a panel, some of whom haven’t even read your CV or cover letter, or an interview led by an HR professional or recruiter who has limited understanding of the role or the needs of the team? Or is it an intentional conversation, designed to understand how someone might contribute to a team with its own culture, pressures, and ambitions?
Having experienced more interviews as a candidate myself over the last year, I increasingly feel that we have lost our way.
Across my career, I have conducted numerous interviews in both small and large organisations. In some contexts I had full autonomy over how interviews were run; in others the process was highly prescribed, with little room to move off script. What I have learned is simple: the best interviews are focused on building your team.
At their best, interviews are conducted by the team members the candidate will work with, asking questions grounded in the actual work and culture a candidate will enter. They create space for meaningful conversation about values, experience, transferable skills, problems that can be solved, gaps that can be filled, and growth that can occur—on both sides. They are not exercises in perfect recall or narrow sector-specific experience.
Face-to-face interviews are my preference, as they allow you to create an environment where a genuine conversation can take place—rather than feeling like an online exam in a small, windowless room (yes, I’ve conducted those too and know they should be avoided!). While online interviews are now routine and often necessary, being in the same room—where the space itself can support conversation and relationship building—still fosters nuance, trust, and exchange, encouraging understanding rather than performance.
Too often, interviews amplify uneven power dynamics. They feel like a return to school—where you sense you have ‘failed’ in the first five minutes while grappling with dated, pre-scripted questions that filter out anyone who does not mirror an imagined ideal. In doing so, organisations lose exceptional candidates.
Building strong, resilient teams requires interviews designed as genuine conversations, not rigid assessments. They are an opportunity to explore skills, values, potential, and how someone can contribute to and strengthen a team; to have a meaningful dialogue rather than a cross-examination; and to invest in the people who will grow, solve problems, and make a lasting impact.
