Almost nobody likes interviewing for a job.

While some people may thrive at interview, the process of the interview itself, and in particular the anticipation of the interview, brings, for the majority of people, an overwhelming sense of dread and stress.

What’s more, even for those who are not perturbed by the idea of an interview itself, the fact they are so high stakes - only one person will get the job after all - can mean the anticipation and threat of professional embarrassment is very real and can impact performance on the big day.

As such, it has been interesting to see that the concept of sharing interview questions with candidates prior to interview is gaining more and more traction in recent years.

I am a strong advocate for such an approach and, having interviewed using this approach several times, it is something I feel other leaders and their schools should look to embrace.

How to do it

The first point to consider is the practicalities - which are numerous.

For example, how much do you want to share and when with interviewees? Ideally, this should be decided by your school’s recruitment committee but this should have some level of input from heads of department.

On the “when” question, there are two routes you can choose. One is to do so an hour or so before the interview and give the candidates a room to prepare. However, I have seen other schools share questions days in advance.

From my perspective, sharing them too far in advance can lead to overthinking and subsequent stress for the candidate

Knowing that they’ll know on the day takes the pressure off and would be my suggestion for optimal wellbeing benefits.

I think there are benefits to both but, whatever you do, make sure it is clearly communicated to candidates when informing them of their interview and that you apply it equally to everyone.

Once you’ve decided on “when”, you need to think about what sort of questions you want to share.

To do this, you want to think about the questions that require independent research and that require application of the candidate’s experience.

For example, if you are asking about the school and why the candidate wants to work there, you may want to ask this “cold” to see whether the candidate has done their research.

However, more practical questions that require the candidates to delve into their own experiences and apply them to the question are much more appropriate to be known in advance. An example of this could be: “How have you led change at a departmental level in the past three years?”

It’s perfectly reasonable to suggest that someone may go blank under the pressure of the interview or not give the best example as they clutch for the first thing to come to mind. Having that time allows them to consider and select the best response.

As outlined, you want to hold some questions back that will help demonstrate evidence of a candidate properly researching the school or the role.

Some may still not be convinced about sharing any questions ahead of an interview but, for me, the benefits are numerous.

Better answers

The purpose of the interview process is to find the most suitable candidate for the post advertised and so sharing questions with interviewees prior to the interview will allow them to curate better responses.

Therefore, the interview panel will have a better overview of the suitability of each candidate for the role. This won’t be determined by the candidate’s ability to perform verbally under pressure.

Unless you are interviewing for a role that requires such a skill set, then sharing questions beforehand seems like a sensible and more sensitive approach to an age-old process.

The most obvious rebuttal to such a suggestion would be: “The answers are going to be manicured to such an extent that it will be difficult to determine the best candidate.”

But I would rather have to make a decision based on which excellent response was better, as opposed to who performed better verbally under pressure and who got tongue-tied.

Furthermore, knowing what is going to be asked in advance does not in any way, to my mind, affect the reliability or utility of the process. In all probability, what you will be asking the candidate is to give real-life practical examples in relation to whatever theme it is you are asking about.

Therefore, the ability to give this some thought beforehand doesn’t mean that the candidate can manipulate the process. They either have the experience and are able to evidence how that demonstrates the suitability for the criteria, or they do not.

Opportunity for dialogue, not monologue

With a new approach comes different opportunities. With the candidate having sufficient time to prepare their responses prior to the interview, it’s more appropriate to interject with supporting questions.

This will give you a much better opportunity to delve further and scratch beneath the surface. I find that when interviewing without sharing the questions prior to interview, I am much less likely to interject as I don’t want to interrupt the concentration of the person being interviewed.

If questions are shared ahead of time, though, it means you have more chance to create a dialogue with the candidates, as opposed to listening to an impromptu monologue.

Better appointments

As per all the above points, you are much more likely to get better appointments in the long term. Surely, this is the purpose of the process?

As a school leader, I am aware of the significant spending on recruitment and the importance of retaining the best staff.

So much time, resource and money goes into this process and anything we can do to gain that extra one or two per cent is worth it.

Of those that have been appointed through this process, there is a general sense that it is a kinder and more sensible approach that allowed them to deliver the best version of themselves on the day.

This is why sharing questions ahead of interview is something I would advocate for all senior teams across the country to consider if it would work in your school.

Paul Gardner is vice-principal at Methodist College, Belfast and author of So, you want to teach abroad published in March. He has previously worked in international schools in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Russia and Spain