I’ll say up front that the subject matter of this post is a bit unreal. Great interviewing can’t be boiled down to a list of questions. It’s a combination of helping a candidate feel at ease, listening, observing, talking and, yes, asking the right questions. And what a recruiter or potential employer does (or asks) in any given interview depends, to a large extent, on what the candidate is like.

Strategies can also change in mid-interview – several times, in fact – because of a candidate’s verbal or non-verbal response. And much depends on what kind of interview is taking place – a get-to-know-you phone interview, a final interview, an interview for a full-time position, an interview for contract work, or something else.