Recruit Interviewer Training

---
name: recruit-interviewer-training
description: Writes a 45-minute interviewer training session for hiring managers and panels on the structured interview, note-taking, independent scorecards and questions never to ask, with a one-page cheat sheet. Use for "run recruit-interviewer-training", "interviewer training", "train hiring managers to interview", "interview skills session", "panel briefing", "questions not to ask in an interview", "interviewer cheat sheet", part of the AI for Recruiting Pack by Polar Bear.
---

# Interviewer Training

## When To Use
Interviewers improvise, ask things they should not, and the debrief has no evidence. You have a new panel, a manager hiring for the first time, or a debrief that ran on "I liked her". It answers: what does every interviewer need to do the same way, and how do I teach it in under an hour.

## When Not To Use
This trains people across roles; for the plan of one role's interviews, use Structured Interview. If a single interviewer asked an unlawful question, that is a conversation with HR and a qualified adviser, not a training session.

## Inputs
- Your current interview stages and who interviews at each
- One real scorecard or question set from a recent role, if you have it
- Time available and how the session runs (in person, video)
If you have none of this, I start from a generic structured interview and mark the output as a first draft.

## Approach
The session follows the OPM tip sheet "Hiring Managers: 3 Steps to a Successful Interview" and the lesson plan in Appendix E of the OPM Structured Interview Guide, with the EEOC list of prohibited practices for what never to ask. The judgment is to spend the time on practice, not slides: people learn to probe by probing. The failure it prevents: a panel of four walks into a debrief, the most senior person speaks first, and three scorecards get written afterwards to match.

## Workflow
1. Ask three questions: who attends (first-time managers, experienced panels, both); how long you really have; which interview stage hurts most today.
2. Lay out the 45 minutes, with timings you may change: why structure (5), the plan and the questions (5), probing on situation, action and outcome (10), note-taking (5), rating on anchors alone (5), questions never to ask (5), practice (10).
3. Teach the common mistakes from the OPM tip sheet: weighting one negative too heavily, judging on superficial factors such as looks or small talk, and letting the order of candidates colour the rating.
4. Teach note-taking as what the candidate said and did, in their words, not judgements. Show one bad note ("seemed weak") beside one good note ("could not name the result of the project").
5. Set the rule: each interviewer completes the scorecard alone and submits it before the debrief. No one sees another rating first.
6. Build the never-ask list: age, family plans, health or disability, religion, nationality or origin, and anything else your adviser adds. Give a safe route for each: ask about the job's requirements, the same way for everyone. Check with a qualified adviser for your jurisdiction.
7. Write two practice rounds with fictional candidates, marked fictional, where attendees probe and take notes; then write the one-page cheat sheet.

## Output Format
```markdown
# Interviewer Training Session: [Team]
## Session plan
| Block | Minutes | What happens | Materials |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Probing] | [10] | [Pairs practise follow-ups on one answer] | [Probe card] |
## Practice rounds (fictional candidates)
| Round | Fictional candidate answer | What to probe | Good note |
|---|---|---|---|
| [1] | [Example: a vague "we improved it"] | [What did you do? What was the result?] | [Candidate's words] |
## Cheat sheet (one page)
- [Same questions, same order, for everyone]
- [Never ask: list]
- [Scorecard alone, before the debrief]
## Follow-up
- [Observe one real interview per attendee within [n] weeks]
## Decision
[Head of talent decides who must attend before joining a panel, and the first session date, by [date].]
```

## Done When
- The blocks add up to the time you have
- Practice uses only fictional candidates, each marked fictional
- The cheat sheet fits on one page and matches the session
- The never-ask list carries "check with a qualified adviser"

## Quality Bar
- At least a fifth of the time is practice, not talk
- Every example note records evidence, not a verdict
- No attendee is assessed or ranked in the session; feedback is on the technique
- Plain words a first-time manager can use the next morning
- Claude writes the search, the questions and the message, never the verdict: it does not screen, rank or score a candidate, and a person reads every application and makes every hiring decision.

## Next
Run recruit-structured-interview (Structured Interview) to apply the training to the next role's interview plan.

## About the makers

This pack is made by Polar Bear, a consultancy built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. If your team has outgrown the self-serve version, message Pauline (linkedin.com/in/paulinebertry).