Interview questions and criteria

How can you use AI to prepare useful recruitment questions without delegating candidate assessment to it?

1250 € per session, excl. VAT

In short

“Preparing a recruitment interview” is a private in-person session of half a day for managers who will be conducting their first recruitment interviews or hR assistants and novice recruiters wishing to explore AI support. It helps you identify three priority competencies in a job description. Groups of up to 12 participants, in French, with exercises on your own work cases.

Why this training?

An interview prepared around general impressions can overlook the requirements of the role. Linking each question to a competency helps to elicit examples of work rather than relying on how at ease the candidate appears. AI can suggest wording and follow-up questions, but it can also invent requirements or introduce bias. The training teaches participants to examine its suggestions before incorporating them into an outline that a recruiter can use. Case study used throughout: The fictional organisation ‘Cadrance Logistique’ is recruiting a planning assistant to process delivery requests and flag delays. Participants are given an entirely fictional job description and candidate career history to prepare a 40-minute interview. Transfer to the workplace: Before your next recruitment exercise, adapt the outline to a real role without sending personal data to the AI. Have the questions and criteria validated by a qualified HR professional, then note after the interview which questions actually elicited concrete examples.

Objectives of this training

  • Identify three priority competencies in a job description.
  • Formulate a simple request to the AI using the context provided.
  • Write six open-ended questions linked to the competencies sought.
  • Distinguish between facts gathered, interpretations and missing information.
  • Check an outline using an explicit checklist.

Who is it for and what are the prerequisites?

Roles and tasks concerned

  • Managers who will be conducting their first recruitment interviews.
  • HR assistants and novice recruiters wishing to explore AI support.

Prior skills

  • No prior knowledge of AI required.
  • Be familiar with the general duties of a role you might need to recruit for.

What you will work on

  1. From the role to competencies

    Objective: Identify what the interview should help explore. The difference between a duty, a competency and an impression; possibilities and limitations of a generated response.

  2. Questions that elicit examples

    Objective: Obtain relevant wording without blindly adopting the suggestions. Contextualised requests, open-ended questions, follow-up questions about the situation, action and result; risks of leading questions.

  3. Structuring the conversation and notes

    Objective: Prepare a sequence that enables comparable facts to be gathered. Welcome, introduction to the role, exploration of competencies, candidate’s questions and conclusion; distinction between observation and judgement.

  4. Checking before use

    Objective: Measure the quality of the preparation and correct its shortcomings. Relevance, neutrality, competency coverage and confidentiality; no automated sensitive decision-making; professional validation is essential.

What you take away

  • Summary sheet of three competencies and observable indicators.
  • Bank of six questions with follow-up questions.
  • 40-minute interview outline and note-taking template.
  • Completed checklist and justified corrections.

Method and assessment

  • Short inputs followed by immediate practice using the ongoing case study.
  • Individual work followed by work in pairs, with peer review of outputs.
  • Guided group discussion: what works, what needs correcting and what remains a human decision.
  • Preparation: Arrange access to a generative AI tool authorised by the organisation; otherwise, work with prepared responses. Use the fictional dossier provided or an anonymised job description, without a real CV or personal contact details.

Observable criteria: The three selected competencies correspond to duties included in the job description. ; Each question seeks an example or an approach related to the work. ; The outline allows time for the candidate’s questions and the conclusion. ; The template separates observations, interpretations and points to explore further. ; Invented requirements and irrelevant questions are removed before HR validation..

Frequently asked questions

Can a real CV be used?

Not during the exercises: only fictional or anonymised career histories are used, within authorised tools.

Can AI rank candidates?

That is not the purpose of the session. No selection, scoring or sensitive decision-making is automated.

Have the suggested questions been legally validated?

No. Sensitive questions should be checked with your legal department; the outline must be reviewed by a qualified HR professional.

How is progress assessed?

By comparing the initial outline with its corrected version against the five criteria, with justification for the changes.

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