---

What’s wrong with interviews?

Let’s start with the basics: most interviews are not designed to predict performance. They’re designed to test how well someone interviews.

That means:

• People who speak well under pressure tend to do better (even if the role doesn’t require that skill).
• Hiring panels often ask overlapping or irrelevant questions.
• Vibes and gut feel carry more weight than actual evidence.

This opens the door wide for bias. “Would I enjoy working with this person?” is often code for “Are they like me?” — which means candidates who look, sound, or think differently can get sidelined, even if they’re a better fit for the role itself.

And then there’s the length. Candidates are put through 4, 5, sometimes 6 rounds — often repeating the same stories to different people — just to hear “sorry, we went with someone else.” That’s not a hiring process. That’s a loyalty test.

---

Why we stick with it

Interviews feel safe. Familiar. Easy to justify. Everyone’s done them, everyone thinks they know how to run them — and it gives the illusion of thoroughness.

But the reality is: if you’re not getting consistent results, struggling with time to hire, or struggling to build diverse teams… it might be your interviews that are letting you down.

We keep sticking with broken formats because it’s easier than building something new. But that’s not how great teams grow.

---

What to do instead

You don’t need to scrap interviews entirely — but you do need to fix how you run them. Here’s what actually works:

• Real-world assessments: Stop asking abstract questions and start testing actual skills. “How would you approach this task?” > “What’s your biggest weakness?”
• Structured interviews: Ask the same questions, in the same order, scored against the same criteria. Sounds boring. Delivers results.
• Standardised scorecards: Agree upfront what good looks like — and rate accordingly. No more “I just had a good feeling” in the debrief.
• Reduce the number of rounds: If you can’t make a decision after 2–3 stages, you haven’t built the right process.
• Async or pre-recorded components: For certain roles, let candidates show skills on their own time. No pressure. No calendar Tetris.

---

The RecruitMend approach

At RecruitMend, we’ve helped teams cut down interview stages, sharpen their questions, and rebuild hiring processes that actually predict performance — while reducing bias and improving candidate experience.

Interviews aren’t going away. But how we use them has to evolve. Because if you’re relying on instinct and hoping for the best, you’re not running a hiring process — you’re rolling the dice.

---

Let’s talk about how we can reduce your time to hire and increase your offer acceptance rates – while delivering a candidate experience that sets you apart.