You’ve validated they can do the job. You’ve confirmed they passed the culture sniff test.
Now comes the final test.
Will this person fill buckets or drain them when they join your organization?
The final interview determines whether an applicant aligns with your core values and will improve the overall tenor of your firm. Here’s how to structure it.
Give Them Time to Prepare
Send candidates a short video two days before the interview. Walk them through your mission, vision, and values. Give them full context about what you’re trying to do.
Don’t just send a document with no explanation. Give them the tools to prepare properly.
Ask them to present for five minutes on how they align with what you’re presenting.
How is your firm good for them?
How are they good for your firm?
Make it open-ended. Let them apply it however they want.
Watch How They Prepare
Candidates who show up and wing it are an easy no.
They didn’t put preparation time into it. They didn’t put the slides together. They didn’t practice. You can tell because they wander all over the place.
For example, set a time constraint and ask them to stay within five minutes.
Candidates who practice come in right around five minutes. Candidates who didn’t practice ramble past six minutes and still have 20% more to go.
Did they read the instructions? Did they listen to the video? Did they provide critical thought, or did they run it through ChatGPT and hope for the best?
It’s obvious when you get into the actual conversation.
This Is Their Court
The first five minutes belong to the candidate. It’s their opportunity to sell you on themselves.
If they take it seriously, they can get the team excited about working with them. This sets the tone for how you evaluate the interview overall.
Watch how they present. This is the polished version of who they are. Then the Q&A reveals how they think on their feet.
Ask Questions They Can’t Prepare For
Follow-up questions can be technical, personality-driven, or situational. They’re all over the place intentionally.
There’s no good way to prep for this because you just want to see how they think on their feet.
Use open-ended questions with no obvious right answer.
“Tell me about your ideal future” has no wrong answer, but it tells you what drives someone. “How do you measure success in your life?” reveals their value system.
Also, try different questions. The questions you asked in your first final interviews won’t look anything like the questions you ask after you’ve refined your process.
Steal shamelessly from great interviewers. Try questions out. See if they work for you. Tweak them until they do.
Give Them Access to Leadership
Regardless of the role, bring members of your leadership team into this interview. Even entry-level candidates get access to VPs and senior leaders.
This is a unique opportunity from an access standpoint. Do candidates think about what questions to ask this group? Do they tailor their message to the audience?
Depending on the role, this ability matters. Can they adapt their communication to different audiences? You’ll find out in this interview.
Evaluate the Questions They Ask
Always leave time for candidates to ask questions at the end. What they ask reveals how much they’ve thought about the role and your firm.
Good questions show depth and preparation. “Map out what success in 30, 60, and 90 days looks like for this role.” “What can I do in my first 90 days that will exceed your expectations?”
That second question is excellent because they didn’t just ask for the expectations. They asked what above and beyond looks like.
Great candidates do their homework. They’ve listened to your recent podcasts. They researched things on your website. They took the personality test seriously and did additional research on it.
The fact that they invested in the process goes a long way.
Bad questions are generic. You can tell they Googled “five good interview questions I should ask” and picked the first ones they saw.
Ask Vision-Oriented Questions
Candidates should ask about vision, how you defined your values, what success looks like for the firm over the next five years, and how this role contributes significantly to accomplishing different parts of that vision.
These questions show they’ve considered who they’re talking to and tailored their questions appropriately.
They’re only going to get these answers if they ask them of this specific audience. This is their chance to get direct access to leadership. Strong candidates recognize that opportunity.
Remember Why This Matters
Making a bad hire is expensive.
If you take your time and create a process that allows you to better vet candidates, you’ll improve retention and margins.
People are everything in your firm. The final interview is your last chance to make sure you’re bringing in someone who will improve your team rather than drain it.
Get this right, and you’ll build a firm full of people who align with your values and push toward the same vision. Get it wrong, and you’ll spend months managing problems instead of growing.
