What a first interview should find out.

Most first interviews try to do too much. They ask about career goals, culture, strengths and weaknesses, then run out of time before checking whether the candidate can do the core of the job. A first interview has one narrow purpose. It should answer one question: is this person worth an hour of a hiring manager’s time? Everything in it should help answer that, fairly and quickly.

Three things a first interview should do

A good first interview does three things and nothing more:

1. Confirm the basics. Can this person take the job as it actually is: the hours, the location, the start date, the pay range?
2. Check the must-have skills. Can they do the parts of the job they’ll need in their first month?
3. Give every candidate a fair chance. Same questions, same standard, a clear chance to show what they know.

If a question doesn’t serve one of those, it probably belongs in a later interview, or nowhere.

It helps to think about what a first interview costs each side. For you, every extra minute is multiplied by every candidate. For the candidate, every extra minute is time they could spend on another application. A focused 15-minute interview respects everyone’s time. A 45-minute interview that wanders through someone’s whole career mostly tests their patience, and the candidates with the most job options are the first to give up.

A focused first interview also makes later interviews better. When the first interview has already confirmed the basics and the must-haves, the hiring manager can spend their hour on depth: how the candidate approaches harder problems, how they’d work with the team, and whether they want the job for the right reasons.

Confirm the basics

The basics are facts, not opinions, so ask them as facts. Short questions with clear answers work best:

• “This role is 7am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday. Can you work those hours?” (Yes / No)
• “Which of these locations could you work from?” (Multiple choice)
• “When could you start?” (Short text)
• “The pay for this role is $18 to $21 an hour. Does that work for you?” (Yes / No)
• For roles that require one, “Do you hold a valid driver’s license?” (Yes / No)

State the pay range up front. It saves both sides time, and candidates notice when you do.

Be careful about rejecting automatically on these answers. People misread questions, and “Can you start in two weeks?” answered “No” might mean three weeks. Read them before deciding. Leave out anything about personal life, such as age, family plans, health or religion. It isn’t relevant to the job, and asking can create legal risk.

Check the must-have skills

A must-have skill is one the person needs in their first month. Not their first year, and not something you’d like them to grow into. Most roles have two to four.

Test each one with a question about a situation they’ll actually face, rather than asking them to describe themselves. “Tell me about a time a customer was angry about something that wasn’t your fault” tells you more than “Are you good with customers?”

Four to six questions is usually enough. Fifteen to twenty minutes gives candidates room to answer properly without making the first interview as long as the next one.

Give every candidate a fair chance

Fairness in a first interview mostly comes down to asking everyone the same way and being clear:

• Ask everyone the same core questions. If different candidates get different questions, you can’t compare them.
• Score against the same standard, written down before you start, with the level you expect for this role.
• Say what you’re looking for. Candidates answer better when they know the interview is about how they handle situations, not trick questions.
• Let people take it at a time that works. A first interview offered only during office hours rules out people with jobs, classes or family to care for.
• Don’t let accent, grammar or language choice count unless the job genuinely requires a specific language. If it does, make it an explicit skill.
• Tell them what happens next, and when.

Our guide on shortlisting fairly goes further on how to review results consistently.

What to leave for later interviews

Some things matter a lot and still don’t belong in the first interview:

• In-depth skills tests. Live coding, case studies and work samples take real time from both sides. Save them for people you already believe in.
• Team fit. Meeting the team is useful once you’re choosing between a few candidates, not forty.
• Pay negotiation. Confirm the pay range works in the first interview. Negotiate when you make the offer.
• References. Check them near the end, for your final candidates.
• Selling the role in depth. Do it with people you want, in a live conversation.
• Practical checks. Driving, lifting, equipment and cooking tests need a person present.

A first-interview checklist

Before you send out a first interview, check that:

• Every question checks either a basic fact or a must-have skill.
• The must-have skills are written down with the level you expect.
• The pay range and hours are stated.
• Nothing asks about personal life or protected characteristics, such as age, religion or disability.
• The whole thing takes 20 minutes or less.
• Candidates can take it on a phone, at any hour.
• The invite says what happens next and when.
• Someone is ready to review results within a day or two.

An AI interview that candidates take on their own time meets most of that list by design. In LessRounds, screening answers are shown to you but never scored or used to reject anyone, spoken answers are scored per skill against the level you set, and each candidate’s interview is locked when they start, so if you edit it later, they still finish the version they began. See how it works.