We know that first interviews can be exciting and even nerve-wracking, so we've put together a special guide to walk you through using Recruit to your advantage and ensure you make the most of your interview.

Here's what our guide can help you with:

• Automated scheduling: Connect your calendar, set your preferences, and let us handle the rest.

• AI-powered questions: Recruit AI suggests tailored interview questions, helping you dive deeper into candidate qualifications effortlessly.

• Interview best practices: Recruit provides you with best practices to assess the candidate’s fit for the open role, ensuring you make informed decisions.

1. Connect your calendar

Integrate your calendar to facilitate interview scheduling, automatic scheduling, and improved candidate experience.

1. From your My Account window, navigate to the Integrations tab.

2. You'll see the option to connect your calendar. Enter your credentials when prompted, click Confirm, and Save.

2. Set your scheduling preferences

You've connected your calendar, now it’s time to set your preferences:

1. From your My Account window, navigate to the Scheduling tab.

2. Pick your time zone, set the start day of your workweek, and specify when you're available for interviews and how much time you want to allocate for interviews each day and week (see all configuration options).

3. Once you're all set, click Save. Now candidates can choose interview times that match your schedule.

To do this, within your calendar, create an event named "Spark Hire Recruit Interviews" for neatly reserving a time slot. Keep creating as many slots as needed, and feel free to move them around to organize your schedule.

3. Schedule your first interview

Whether it’s you or one of your teammates who usually set up the interviews, scheduling is accessible to all of the hiring team.

1. Select the candidate you're scheduling for and, on the upcoming interview step, click on the Schedule button.

2. Now, you have two options, you can:

   • Pick a time (if you already know the candidate's availability)

   • Invite the candidate to select a time that works for them from your availability

When a time is selected, Recruit will send invites to the interviewers and the candidate and will reserve a meeting room if applicable.

4. Prepare for the interview

Now that your interview is scheduled, it's time to prepare and think about what you want to ask. Coming prepared to the interview maximizes your opportunity to learn about the candidates and evaluate them, ensuring the best experience possible.

By creating your interview questions in advance, you can also help standardize the process, implement industry best practices, and align with candidates' expectations to make better decisions and improve the candidate experience simultaneously.

• You can create sets of your own on the Interview questions page of your account.

Create questions with the AI Assistant

Recruit's AI Assistant can suggest a question set for your interview based on the position's description, requirements, and scorecard.

1. Navigate to the relevant candidate and click Interview.

2. Click AI Assistant. Wait for the assistant to generate text.

3. When satisfied, click Continue to edit and edit the content, if necessary, and save.

4. To immediately enable these questions for the current interview or for this and all future interviews for this opening, click Save and enable for, and then select the relevant option.

5. Click the Interview/Manager link to go back to the current interview.

5. Interview and evaluate

When the time of the interview comes, open the candidate's profile (from your calendar or Recruit) and click Interview. This is your command center to help you make the most out of your meeting with the candidate.

Before the interview

You can review:

• The candidate's resume

• The position's requirements

• The brief for the hiring team.

You can also click AI Assistant for personalized questions about the candidate's work experience.

During the interview

• Follow your Questions and mark the candidate's responses as either 👍 or 👎.

• Write your thoughts in your Notes or Private notes (visible to you only).

• Indicate the Salary expectations.

After the interview

Go to the Evaluation tab at the top and summarize your assessment – why you would hire the candidate as well as any concerns you may have.

• Select your Recommendation for whether to move forward with them (or not)

• Give them a star rating on the Scorecard

• Mark areas for Further review.

Finally, go ahead and Submit. Based on your recommendation, the candidate may continue to the next step or be assigned to the Recruiter to make a decision.

Documenting your experience with the candidate is essential in supporting the team when it’s time to make a decision. Share the evaluation with additional stakeholders who don’t access Spark Hire Recruit and leverage Slack to support your collaborations.