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Short guide to interview scheduling

Step 1: Create interview group/groups

  1. Click on the Interviews button on the Postings page for the position for which you want to schedule interviews.
  2. You need to create one or more groups into which your interviewees will be divided. All the members of a given group will be sent invitations to sign up for an interview at the same time. So if you want to stagger your interview invitations, you will need to create more than one group. Click Add group near the bottom of the page.
  3. Give your group a name. If you have one group, you could just call them "Interviewees". If you have more than one group, you could call them "Group A" and "Group B", for example.
  4. Choose the conference or enter another venue and click Save.
  5. You will now be returned to the Interview scheduling page for your position.
  6. Click the link Interview locations and click the button Add location.
  7. Choose the hotel at which you will conduct your interviews or the name of another location. (If you are interviewing at a hotel that is not on the list, let us know the name of the hotel by submitting a Support request.)
  8. If you do not now know the number of the room in which you will interview, leave this field blank. You will be able to enter it later, and notify applicants about it.
  9. Enter a label for the room in which you will interview, so that you can identify the room. You could call it "Room A", for example, or "Smith's room" or "Micro room".
  10. Click the Save button and then the Close window button.

Step 2: Select interviewees

  1. Click the link Select interviewees ... for the group you want to populate on the "Interview scheduling ..." page for the position (reached from the Postings page by clicking the Interviews button for the position).
  2. Click the button Add interviewees.
  3. In the window that pops up, enter the first two or three letters of the last name of an applicant you want to interview and click the Search button.
  4. Among the applicants found, click the Select button for the one you want. Repeat the procedure for each applicant you want to interview: enter the first two or three letters of their last name in the search field, click the Search button, and then click the appropriate Select link.
  5. When you have selected all the interviewees for the group, click the button Return to interview schedule.

Step 3: Create interview slots

  1. Click the Add interview slots button on the interview scheduling page for the group.
  2. A window will pop up with a form containing default values for the parameters. Edit them as necessary, then click the Create slots button. You should create at least as many slots as you have interviewees, but we recommend that you do not create a number of slots that is much larger than your number of interviewees. It is perfectly fine to create exactly the same number of slots as there are interviewees. If you create more, then you may wind up with inconvenient gaps in your schedule, depending on which slots the applicants choose.
  3. You will be returned to the interview scheduling page for the group. If you would like to designate some of the slots as breaks, click the Edit link for those slots and change the "type" of the slot from Interview to one of the other options. The final schedule will be much more readable if you designate some slots as breaks rather than deleting those slots.
  4. If you want to change the location of some of the slots, check the boxes for those slots and then click the link at the bottom of the panel.

Step 4: Ask applicants to choose slots

  1. In the Interviewees panel, check one or the boxes for your interviewees. (Before sending the real messages, you will send a test message to yourself, so at this point you need to select only one interviewee.)
  2. Click the link at the end of the line Invite interviewees to select interview slots.
  3. Check the first box, to send messages to yourself, as a test. You don't have to do so, but if you do then you will know that your message looks good.
  4. Choose dates for the next two fields and, for this test, leave the next field ("Email address for notifications") blank.
  5. Click the button Proceed to message. (Later you can create a customized message.)
  6. Check that the proposed message is appropriate. Do not edit the string "{{ $applicantName }}", which will be replaced by the applicant's name when you send the message. (You can add words before or after it if you wish — like "Dear" if you want to be quaint, "Hey" if you want to feign youth, "Ahoy" if you want to be eclectic.)
  7. Click the link Send message and then check your email inbox for the message. (The link in the message will not work, because you are not one of the interviewees.)
  8. If you would like to customize your invitation message, go to the section "Customizing your invitation message", and when you are done, return here.
  9. Go back to your "Interview scheduling" page for the group and check the boxes for all interviewees and then click the link at the end of the line Invite interviewees to select interview slots.
  10. Leave the first checkbox unchecked, enter appropriate dates in the next two fields, and then, if you or someone else wants to be notified whenever an applicant chooses a slot, enter the person's email address in the field "Email address for notifications".
  11. Click the button Proceed to message, check the message, and then click the button Send message.
  12. Take a break (or continue working on something else, if you are so inclined) while the applicants sign up for interview slots. If you interviewees are normal, about 25% of them will sign up within 10 minutes of receiving your message, another 25% will sign up within the next 50 minutes, and about 75% will be signed up within 8 hours.

Customizing your invitation message

  1. In the "Interviewees" panel of the interview scheduling page for a group, click the link at the end of the line Invite interviewees to select interview slotsand then click the link Create custom message ... beside the "Proceed to message" button. (If a manager for your organization has previously created such a message, click the link to edit it.)
  2. In the form in the window that pops up, edit the message as you wish but do not edit the strings in double braces, like "{{ $applicantName }}". You can move these strings around, but do not delete them or replace them with hard-coded text. (If you make a mistake and delete or alter one of these strings, click the Close window button and start again.)
  3. When you are done, click the Save button.

Step 5: Assign interviewers to slots

  1. In the Interview slots panel, check the boxes for the slots to which you wish to assign a given interviewer. To check all the boxes, check the box Check/uncheck all near the top of the panel. Don't worry about checking boxes for slots that are breaks rather than interviews; when the system assigns the interviewers, it will ignore those slots.
  2. Click the link at the bottom of the panel at the end of the sentence Assign interviewers to interview slots ....
  3. In the resulting popup window, check the boxes for the interviewers you want to assign to the slots. If you want to assign a person who is not a Reviewer or Manager for your organization, you can either (a) give them one of those roles or (b) enter their name in the form at the bottom of the window and click Add, in which case they will be added to the list of possible interviewers (but not added as a Reviewer or Manager).
  4. Click the Assign interviewers to selected slots button. You will be returned to the main screen, with the interviewers assigned.
  5. To remove an interviewer from a slot, click the trash can icon beside their name on the schedule.

Step 6: Inform interviewees of their interviewers and/or of your hotel room number

  1. In the Interviewees panel, check the interviewees you wish to notify.
  2. Click the link at the end of the sentence Notify interviewees of hotel room number ... or Notify interviewees of interviewers ..., as appropriate.
  3. If you wish, check the box Send message(s) to yourself, as test. (If you do that, do not forget to send the real messages subsequently!)
  4. Click the Proceed to message button.
  5. Edit the message, but do not edit the strings in double braces, like "{{ $interviewers }}". (You can move these strings around, but do not edit them.) Click the Send message button.

Feature requests

If you would like us to add features to the system, please click the Feature requests link at the bottom of any page.