The first interview shows you what a candidate wants you to see. The second interview shows you who they actually are. Being called back lowers the guard in a way no question can, because it tells them they did something right. Use the first interview to evaluate capacity: can they do the role and can you build enough connection to justify a second conversation? Use the second to evaluate character: their values, motivations, and who they really are when the polish comes off. Keep the same people in the room both times. Two intentional interviews beats five unfocused ones.
Most businesses do one interview and make a hiring decision from it. It works out sometimes, which is why we keep doing it. But the version of someone who shows up to a first interview, prepared and guarded and ready to sell you, is not who shows up on the job six months later. That's who we're actually hiring. The guard is up, the answers are rehearsed, and the real person is still underneath all of it.
Part of the ongoing hiring series. This episode makes the case for always doing two interviews and explains exactly how to structure each one differently. The first is for capacity: wiring, gifts, potential, bandwidth, and building enough connection to earn a second conversation. The second is for character: values, motivations, work ethic, and who they actually are when the guard comes down.
- First impressions in an interview are unreliable in both directions. Someone can seem like a dud and turn out to be outstanding. Someone can seem great and fall apart six months in. One interaction is not enough data.
- Being called back for a second interview immediately lowers a candidate's guard. That phone call tells them they said something right. That shift is where the real person starts to come out.
- The first interview is for capacity: can they actually do this role? The second interview is for character: who are they really? That sequence is intentional. Flip it and you get guarded, rehearsed answers to the questions that matter most.
- If you ask character and values questions in the first interview, they're too guarded and nervous to answer them well. The timing of when you ask questions matters as much as the questions themselves.
- Keep the same people in the room for both interviews. If group A runs the first and group B runs the second, the candidate's guard goes back up around the new faces. You lose what the first interview built.
- Every interaction in the hiring process is a building block for retention. The phone call, the calendar invite, the second interview, the onboarding. None of it is small. All of it is laying a foundation.
- If you do nothing else differently in your hiring process, add a second interview. The return on that one extra interaction is bigger than almost any other change you could make.
Why isn't one job interview enough to make a good hiring decision?
Because one interview only ever scratches the surface. You're dealing with people, and first impressions are wrong all the time. I met one of my husband's friends at church a couple of times and thought he was a total dud. No personality, awkward conversation, no expression. Didn't match anything my husband had told me about him. Then the friend came over to the house a few weeks later and I met the real version of him: outgoing, funny, fearless, not afraid to say what was on his mind. Completely different person. He'd been nervous the first couple of times. Weird dynamic meeting his buddy's wife.
An interview is really just the process of meeting a person and deciding if you're going to enter into a longer-term committed relationship with them. You cannot do that in one conversation. In a first interview, the guard is fully up. They're prepared, probably have rehearsed answers, ready to sell you. And we do want to know why they're great. But we also need to know why they're not so great. What red flags might we be facing. It is so hard to get to that in a first interview.
The person who really shows up on the job six months down the road, that's who we're hiring. The real person. Flawed, imperfect, has strengths, has weaknesses, has a sense of humor, has a life. All of those things affect who they are on the job.
Amy Dardis, Episode 36What actually changes in a second interview that you can't get in the first?
The guard comes down. When a candidate gets the call saying we'd like to invite you back for a second interview, that conversation immediately lowers their guard a little bit. It tells them: I said something they liked. They liked me enough to want to see me again. And that's when somebody shows up a little differently.
I sat in on a second interview with a client once. First time the candidate came in, so nervous. Talked a ton. Hair was slicked back with gel. Looked like he didn't do it that way often and it didn't fit his personality. Second time he came back, still very talkative, because that's just who he is. But so much less nervous, so much more relaxed. Different outfit, different demeanor, hair done completely differently. And I was like, oh, that's actually what he looks like. That's him on a regular basis.
You're watching all of these little signs: are they on time again, how do they walk into the room, who do they greet on the way in, who do they chat with on the way out. A second interview is just one more chance to see whether who they are matches who they said they were.
First interview is them showing you what they want you to see. And the second interview is you getting a glimpse into who they really are.
Amy Dardis, Episode 36How should I structure the first interview differently from the second?
First interview: focus on capacity. That's what people are most comfortable talking about, and it's what you need to establish before you can justify a second conversation. Start by building personal connection: tell me about your hobbies, what do you do for fun outside of work? Then look at their experience, but not to confirm what's on the resume. To assess the wiring. Do they have the gifting, the potential, the bandwidth to actually excel in this specific role? While you're figuring that out, you're also getting them comfortable, building some trust, getting them to loosen up.
If you leave that first interview thinking this person would be great at this role, that's when you call them back. And if they truly want to work for you, there's going to be real enthusiasm when you do.
Second interview: go deeper into who they are as a person. Character, values, motivations, work ethic, sense of humor. Different questions, deeper questions. You can go there now because you established enough rapport in the first interview. Ask these questions in the first interview and they're too guarded, too nervous to answer them honestly. The timing of when you ask is as important as what you ask.
Does it matter who is in the room for each interview?
Yes, and this one is easy to overlook. Keep the same people in both interviews.
The candidate builds connection and trust with whoever is in the first interview. That's who they felt comfortable enough with to start opening up. If you have group A in the first interview and group B in the second, their guard goes right back up. New people, new body language, new dynamics to navigate. And that keeps them from being able to lower that guard and actually open up. You lose the ground the first interview built.
You could add one or two new people to the second interview, but bring in the same core people who were there the first time. That continuity is what allows the second interview to go somewhere the first one couldn't.
If you have group A in the first interview and group B in the second, their guard goes back up because it's new people, new body language, new dynamics to navigate. And that keeps them from being able to lower that guard and actually open up.
Amy Dardis, Episode 36Resources mentioned
- Free Interview Questions Download — Questions designed to reveal true character, motivation, and natural strengths
- Free Candidate Alignment Evaluation — The form that structures both interviews around the six hiring objectives
- Ep 35 — The 6 Objectives of Interviewing to Hire with Confidence — What every interview must accomplish before you can decide
- Ep 34 — The Real Cost of Hiring the Wrong Person — What a bad hire actually costs in time, money, and team damage
Full transcript
Of all the interview tweaks you could make to improve your process, this is number one for me. If you only do one interview, change it to two. Just right off the bat. If you do nothing else differently but have a second interview with someone, it will 100% reveal information that you are missing out on in the first interview.
Not everybody only does one interview, but plenty of businesses do. Or what can happen is you do an initial screening, which is just 15-20 minutes to make sure they're a viable candidate. I don't count an initial screening as a first interview. So if you're doing a screening, then an interview, then an offer, I would still add a second interview in that process.
Here's the problem with only doing one interview. One interview only ever scratches the surface. You're dealing with people. And how many times in your life have you had a first impression of someone that was wrong? Either wrong because you had a good feeling and they turned out not to be who you expected, or maybe you had a bad feeling and they turned out to be someone else.
I remember I had met one of my husband's friends at church. Short introduction, a few minutes the first time. Saw him again a few weeks later. Both times I honestly thought this guy was just a total dud. No personality. Awkward conversation. No expression. And I was like, that's your friend? Because it didn't match at all what my husband had been telling me about him. He was like, that's not who he is. I don't know why he's acted like that when he's met you.
A few weeks after that, the friend came over to the house. And I ended up meeting the real side of him: outgoing, funny, fearless, not afraid to say what was on his mind. Totally different person, totally different experience. But the first few times it was awkward. I think he was nervous. He was meeting his buddy's wife. There was just a weird dynamic going on.
The interview process is the same thing. If you take all the nuances and expectations out of it, an interview process is really just the process of meeting a person, getting to know them, and deciding if they're going to be a good fit to enter into a longer-term committed relationship with. And you just cannot do that in one interview.
In that first interview, they walk in wanting to impress you. They're prepared. They probably have some rehearsed answers. They're ready to sell you. And we do want that. We want to know why you're so great. But we also want to know why you're not so great. We want to know what red flags we might be facing. It is so hard to uncover that stuff in a first interview because the guard is up.
The person who really shows up on the job six months down the road, that's who we're hiring. The real person. The person who is flawed, imperfect, has strengths, has weaknesses, has a sense of humor, has relationships, has a life. All of those things affect who they are on the job. And that's the person we need to know.
That's where the magic of the second interview comes in. You have a first interview, they come in, they say all the right things, it goes well. And chances are they have no idea what you're thinking. They won't know until you call them and say: hey, would you like to come back for a second interview? And that conversation right there immediately lowers their guard a little bit. Because it says: I said something they liked. They liked me enough to want to see me again. And that's when somebody shows up a little differently.
I sat in on an interview with a client once. The first time the candidate came in, he was so nervous. He talked a ton. His hair was slicked back with gel. It looked like he didn't do it that way very often and it didn't fit his personality. Well, he came back a second time. Still very talkative, because that's just who he is. But so much less nervous, so much more relaxed. His whole outfit and demeanor were different, but more in line with who he actually was. His hair was done completely differently. And I was like, oh, that's actually what he looks like. That's what he looks like on a regular basis.
Even these little nuances matter: what they wear, are they on time again, how do they walk into the room, who do they meet and greet on the way in, who do they chat with on the way out. A second interview is just one more time to see: are you who you say you are? We're not just watching what you say. We're watching what you do, how you show up, how you engage with other people.
I believe two interviews is plenty. You can do what you need to do in two interviews, plus the little interactions that happen between them: the phone calls, the emails, the calendar invites. But the magic is all about what happens during those interviews. It's not just that two is enough. It's what you do with those two.
First interview: focus on capacity. That's what people are most comfortable talking about. The applicant comes in nervous and guarded, and we're looking to establish some kind of personal connection, some rapport. Tell me about your hobbies, what do you like to do for fun outside of work? We look at their resume and talk about work experience and what they're good at. But I don't spend a ton of time on the resume. I'm not focused on what it says they've done. I'm focused on: do they have the wiring, the gifting, the potential, the bandwidth, the ability to excel in this specific role? People are pretty comfortable talking about these topics. And while we're getting a good idea of whether they'll thrive in the role, we're also getting them comfortable, building connection, letting them loosen up a little.
If you leave that first interview feeling like this person would be really great at this role, that's when you call them back. And if they truly want to work for you, there's going to be real enthusiasm in their response when you do.
The second interview is not a repeat of the first. We're not talking about skills and experience and resume again. We should have answered those questions in the first interview. If we have a few follow-up questions, we'll start there. But really, the second interview is where we go deeper into who they are as a person. Character, values, motivations, work ethic, sense of humor. And the reason we can go there is because we established rapport and trust in the first interview, and time has gone by, and other interactions have happened, that make it comfortable enough to actually get there. Ask these questions in the first interview and they're too guarded, too nervous, too closed off to answer them honestly.
Even the timing of when and how we ask questions is super important. We want to curate this process of building trust. It's the same way you'd talk to any person. We never start with the real stuff. It's always: what's your name, what do you do, what are your hobbies? Safe topics. And then after you feel them out and gauge where they're at, that's when you get into the things that drive them, the things they value, the experiences that shaped them. That's when you start to uncover the real person.
It's not just about having two interviews. It's also about having two interviews with the same people. You have your first interview with one, two, three people. When you have the second, have the same people in the room again. You could potentially add one or two new people, but bring in the same people from the first interview. That's who they established connection with. That's who they established trust with. If you have group A in the first interview and group B in the second, their guard goes back up because it's new people, new body language, new dynamics to navigate. And that keeps them from being able to lower that guard and actually open up.
If you've ever hired someone who ended up not being a good fit, and you're like, man, they said all these great things in the interview but six months down the road that was just not who they really were, ask yourself: would a second interaction have revealed some of those things? I've never been in a situation where a second interview wasn't worth it. Sometimes you'll have a first interview with a really, really good feeling, and the second interview confirms it. I love that. It's just confirmation.
And not only is it confirmation, it's also more time to build the relationship. Everything you do in your hiring process, from the messaging on your careers page and your job descriptions to the conversations in your screening to the questions in your interview to your onboarding process, every single interaction matters. These are the building blocks to retention, the building blocks to loyalty and employees wanting to stay for the long term.
First interview is them showing you what they want you to see. The second interview is you getting a glimpse into who they really are. If you just start with doing two interviews, I guarantee you will start making better and more confident hiring decisions.