When a startup first starts hiring people, it’s exciting. It’s usually a good sign that things are heading in the right direction. But more often than not, startup founders have no idea how to interview candidates properly. It’s not something they teach in school, and rarely something that startup founders rush to get advice on. After all, they’re too busy building their business and product. But hiring is the single most important issue for fast-moving startups, and unless you have a lot of experience doing it (and doing it well), it’s not easy.

Here are 5 of the biggest interview mistakes that startups make:

1. Not Asking the Same Questions to Each Candidate. You need a structured list of interview questions that you ask each interviewee. The list will vary depending on the position, although some questions will stay the same. If you don’t ask candidates applying for the same position the same questions, it’s very difficult to rank them. This is one of the most common mistakes I’ve seen. Very often it’s because the interviewers are basing a great deal of their judgment on their own gut. They’re basing decisions on whether they like the person or not, or if they get a good vibe from them. This is absolutely critical - since the person will have to fit in well with the team & culture - but you need to go on more than just your “feelings” about someone.

   Mark MacLeod just published his new hire checklist. It’s worth reading. You’ll notice he’s listed a few personality traits, including animal-like tendencies and energy. These are the kinds of things you can find out about someone without structured questions, but you can also be fooled by people. It’s important that you do “get a feel” for the candidates you’re interviewing, but it’s as important (if not more important) that you’re able to rank all interviewees on the same scale.

2. Not Having Candidates Do Tests. At a recent event, Joel Spolsky said (and I’m paraphrasing), “Every interview is like an audition.” And he’s 100% right. You need to test interviewees by having them do something. Talk is good, but actions often speak louder than words. For technical people this is fairly straightforward — setup a technical test (or multiple tests) and have the candidates go through them. Developers and programmers should code something. And it should be hard. Really, really hard. You might start it off easy, but if it’s too easy everyone will succeed. At Standout Jobs we call it “The Gauntlet” - a technical test with multiple phases (starts with a pencil and paper and eventually moves to the computer), where it’s almost impossible for people to finish the test. Finishing isn’t the point. The process the person goes through, the questions they ask, the approach they take, and their attitude, are some of the things we’re measuring - not whether they finish or not.

   For sales and marketing people, tests are a bit harder to devise, but not impossible. You can setup mock sales exercises. Get a sales person to pitch you on some random product. Get a marketing person to build out an email marketing campaign. There are definitely ways of testing business people - and in some cases this is more important than testing tech people because business people are often much slicker and smoother during interviews. If you’ve never hired business people before, I guarantee you that most of them will seem like excellent candidates after an interview. You gotta test them.

3. Rambling About Yourself. It’s not unusual to be nervous when giving an interview. It’s also not unusual to go overboard when talking about yourself, your company and wandering off-topic into a no-man’s land of conversation. You want to talk about yourself, your co-founders, the startup and the team — and you want to sell people on working for you — but don’t go overboard. Make a list prior to the interview about the points you want to make, and stick to them. Meandering conversations are nice over a beer or two, but if you’re talking more than the candidate, there’s a problem.
4. Delegating the Hiring Process. I’ve commented in the past that everyone on your team should be involved in the hiring process. And I think that’s 100% true. But, if you’re the CEO, then hiring great people falls squarely on your shoulders. Don’t delegate the hiring process to others. You’re responsible for the make up of the team. You’re responsible for instigating and incubating the company culture. You pay the bills. And your startup will succeed based on your ability to hire great people. Aside from all these things, it’s also important to realize that your other employees (or even department managers, if you have departments … and managers) may not be great at hiring people. They might not have a lot of experience, or they might not be familiar with your structured interview process. So don’t throw them to the wolves. Get everyone involved in the hiring process, but don’t delegate the process entirely. And certainly do not delegate the decision.
5. Lying by Omission or Exaggerating the Truth. Be honest. Be open. Be truthful. Don’t “forget to tell the candidate that funding is running out” and don’t tell the candidate that a “huge deal is 100% going to happen and make everyone rich” unless you’ve got a signed contract and a lot of money in the bank. You may want a star candidate really, really badly, but you don’t get anywhere by pulling the wool over people’s eyes. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t sell them the dream — by all means, sell it to them and sell it hard — but don’t claim it’s reality. I’ve always felt it’s better to be straightforward about things. I tried to “scare” one of the last people we interviewed by making sure they understood what startup culture was all about — it’s messy, hectic, stressful and intense. I wasn’t going to pretend that we had all the answers. I wasn’t going to tell them that everything was nice and cushy and chill. It’s not. I’d rather we get the proverbial skeletons out of the closet before they start…

There’s no one absolute style for performing interviews. But the more mistakes you make during the process, the more likely you’ll make mistakes in hiring the wrong people - and that’s bad news for your startup (or any company). Doing great interviews takes practice and preparation. You can’t go in and assume it’s like having any old conversation at the pub. You’re trying to really learn about the candidates, and be able to put them head-to-head and make the best possible decisions for your company.