How to prepare a candidate for an interview

A recruiter’s checklist: the brief to send before, the questions worth rehearsing, and the debrief that tells you what really happened.

Last updated 22 September 2026 · 8 minute read

Interview preparation is the highest-return half hour in recruitment. The candidate is already qualified — that is why they have the interview — so almost every avoidable rejection comes down to preparation: they could not give an example, they had not looked at the company, they answered the salary question badly, or they did not ask anything at the end. All four are fixable in a phone call the day before.

What follows is the structure of that call, and the written brief that should go with it.

The written brief, sent 48 hours ahead

Send it as a document rather than a chain of messages, because the candidate will read it again on the train. It should contain:

• The logistics. Date, time and time zone, address or video link, who to ask for on arrival, how long it will run, and a phone number for the day itself. Add parking or the nearest station if it is on site.
• Who they are meeting. Names, job titles, and one line on each — who the role reports to, who is the technical assessor, who is there from HR. If a profile is public, link it.
• The format. Competency interview, technical test, presentation, panel, or a mix. If there is a task, exactly what is expected and how long they have. Candidates who are surprised by a whiteboard exercise do badly at it.
• The stage. Which round this is, how many follow, and what the decision timeline looks like.
• The brief behind the role. Why the vacancy exists, what the team is trying to achieve this year, and the three things the hiring manager told you they care about. This is the part candidates cannot get from the job advert, and the part that makes your preparation worth more than a general guide.
• What to bring. Photo ID, certificates, a portfolio, a printed copy of the CV you submitted — and make sure it is the version you submitted, not their original.

The five questions to rehearse

Do not attempt to script the whole interview. Prepare five answers properly and the candidate will handle the rest.

1. “Tell me about yourself.”

Two minutes, structured: where they are now, the two moves that led there, and why this role is the logical next one. Most candidates either ramble for six minutes or answer in thirty seconds. Have them say it out loud once on the call.

2. “Why are you leaving?”

Honest, brief, and forward-looking. Whatever the real reason, the answer should be about what they are moving towards rather than what they are escaping. Coach out anything that sounds like criticism of a current employer, however justified — interviewers hear it as a preview of how the candidate will talk about them.

3. “Walk me through a time you…”

The competency question, and the one preparation transforms. Use the STAR structure — situation, task, action, result — and have three examples ready that between them cover the top requirements on the brief. One should be about something that went wrong and what they changed as a result; interviewers ask for it far more often than candidates expect.

4. The gap, the short stint, or the redundancy

Whatever the awkward line on the CV is, rehearse the one-sentence version. It becomes a non-issue when answered plainly and a red flag when it is skirted.

5. “What are your salary expectations?”

Agree the answer before the interview and keep it consistent with what you told the client. The safest form is the range you have already discussed, followed by deferring the detail to you. Two candidates giving two different figures — one in the interview, one through the recruiter — is a real cause of offers falling apart.

The questions they should ask

“Do you have any questions for us?” is a scored part of the interview at most employers, and “no, I think you have covered everything” is the worst available answer. Three or four, written down, tailored to the person asking:

• What would a successful first six months look like in this role?
• What is the biggest challenge facing the team at the moment?
• How is the work prioritised between [the two things the brief mentioned]?
• How did the previous person in this role do, and what would you want done differently?
• What are the next steps, and when should they expect to hear?

Tell them to avoid asking about holiday, remote working and progression at a first interview unless the interviewer raises it. Those are questions for you to handle on their behalf.

Research they should actually do

Thirty minutes, not three hours, and pointed:

• The company’s own description of what it does and who it sells to, in its own words
• The last piece of news about it — funding, a launch, an acquisition, a results announcement
• The products or services relevant to the role, used or looked at first-hand if possible
• The interviewer’s background, briefly
• The job description read twice, with the three requirements from your brief marked

The aim is one specific, informed observation they can make in the interview. That is what reads as interest; reciting the company’s founding date does not.

Practicalities worth saying out loud

• Arrive ten minutes early, no earlier. For video, join five minutes early and test the camera, microphone and link the day before.
• Dress one notch above the office norm, and ask if they are unsure. It is a fair question and clients never mind it.
• For video, check what is behind them, sit with the light in front, and use a headset if the room echoes.
• Phones off and in a bag, not face down on the table.
• Take notes, and bring the questions written down. It looks prepared rather than unprepared.

The debrief, within an hour

Call the candidate before the client does. You want their impressions while they are fresh, and you want to know about any problem before the hiring manager tells you about it. Ask:

• Who did you meet, and how long did it run?
• What did they focus on, and what did they ask that surprised you?
• Which answer are you least happy with?
• Did anything come up about the role that you did not know?
• Where does this sit for you now, honestly, against anything else you are looking at?

The fourth question catches roles that have quietly changed shape. The fifth is the one that stops an offer being declined a fortnight later. If the candidate flubbed something specific, you can often repair it in your own follow-up to the client, which is a good reason to make the candidate call first.

Then close the loop: tell the candidate when they will hear, and make sure they do hear, including when the answer is no and including the reason. Candidates remember who came back to them, and they are the same people you will want to place in three years.

Frequently asked questions

How far in advance should I send interview preparation?

Two days before, so there is time to read it and come back with questions, and a short call the day before to run through the five answers. Anything sent the morning of the interview adds pressure rather than confidence.

What is the STAR method?

A structure for answering competency questions: the situation, the task you were given, the action you personally took, and the result, ideally with a number. Its value is that it stops candidates describing what a team did and never saying what they did.

How much should I tell a candidate about the interviewer?

Names, job titles, their role in the decision, and how they interview if you know from experience. Avoid speculating about personalities — it changes how a candidate behaves, usually for the worse.

Can I prepare interview notes without writing them from scratch each time?

Most of the content comes from the CV and the job description, which is why it feels like retyping. Brandidate.ai produces interview preparation alongside the branded CV and candidate profile — likely questions drawn from the role, the gaps in the CV a hiring manager will probe, and the candidate’s own evidence to use in the answers — so the call is spent coaching rather than assembling.