Interview Portal Quick Start Guide
Overview
This guide is intended for program directors and managers. Other individuals involved in interviewing applicants can learn more about the Interview Portal via the Conducting Interviews article, while applicants can refer to the Participating in Interviews article.
Choosing Your Interview Process Setup
After reviewing applications in the Program Portal, you'll determine who to invite for interviews and then use the Interview Portal to manage the interview process. Depending on how you'd like to run your interview process, there are three primary setup options:
- Interview Process Setup Option 1: use ResidencyCAS for invites, building the schedule, ranking/scoring, and executing the interviews via the Interview Portal's native video conference platform.
- Interview Process Setup Option 2: use ResidencyCAS for invites, building the schedule, ranking/scoring, and executing the interviews via Zoom, Teams, WebEx, or any other video conference platform. This option works best for programs that are more comfortable with a respective platform but still want to use the Interview Portal's scheduling tools.
- Interview Process Setup Option 3: use ResidencyCAS for invites and ranking/scoring, but manage your schedule and run the interviews outside of the Interview Portal via Zoom, Teams, WebEx, or any other video conference platform. This option works best for programs with more complex scheduling setups, including the use of multiple breakouts rooms.
Preparing for Interviews
Add Applicants to the Interview Portal
Once you're ready to add applicants to the Interview Portal, place them in an interview-related phase in the Program Portal.
The system will then automatically add them to the Interview Portal. When an applicant is added to the Interview Portal, two different PDFs of their application are also included: one provides a full view of the application, while the other provides a limited view.
Important Notes:
- The phase change only adds applicants to the Interview Portal; it does not send notifications.
- When a waitlisted applicant accesses the Interview Portal, they see your program listed under the Waitlist section.
- You can customize which phases are used to add applicants to the Interview Portal, as well as how you want application PDFs to look in the Interview Portal.
- Once applicants are in the Interview Portal, they remain there indefinitely. Moving them to a different phase in the Program Portal will not remove them from the Interview Portal. If you added them to the Interview Portal in error, you can change their Interview Portal status to Canceled.
- While the Program and Interview Portals are both part of the ResidencyCAS suite, they serve different purposes: the Program Portal is for reviewing applications, and the Interview Portal is for preparing for and conducting interviews.
- Phases in the Program Portal are different from those in the Interview Portal. Generally, once you finish reviewing applications in the Program Portal, you'll add applicants to the Interview Portal and continue the process from there.
Accessing the Interview Portal
From the Program Portal, users who have access to the Interview Portal can navigate to it via the portal switcher.
Once you're in the Interview Portal, you'll use the left menu to navigate through the different sections.
- Sessions: a session is a block of time in which interviews occur (i.e., a full day of interviews, a half day of interviews, etc.). In this section, you configure everything related to your interview days, then perform those interviews.
- Scoring Forms: here you can create and manage a library of scoring forms which you can use with your interview days.
- Applicants: here you can see all applicants you added to the Interview Portal via the Program Portal.
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- Meeting Rooms: you can create virtual meeting rooms with applicants or interviewers or both before, during, or after interviews. For example, you might create a morning welcome session for applicants or an end-of-day session for all interviewers to review results.
- Staff: here you'll see a list of your Interview Portal users (who you add via the Program Portal).
Note that program directors and managers can use the role switcher to become interviewers as needed.
Create an Interview Session
A session is a period during which you conduct interviews (e.g., a full day, half-day, etc.). When you create a session, you first select the session type: standard or basic.
- If you're using Interview Process Setup Option 1 or 2, you'll use a standard session.
- If you're using Interview Process Setup Option 3, you'll use a basic session.
After selecting the session type, you'll add key information, such as the date, start time, number of applicants you plan to interview during the session, etc. You can also add scoring questions at any time before the interview day.
Invite Applicants to Interview and Finalize Your Schedule
Once your sessions are configured, you're ready to invite your applicants.
Executing Interviews
Get Familiar with the Interviewer and Applicant Views
When it's time to conduct interviews, review the Conducting Interviews article to become more familiar with the platform's functionality, especially based on which Interview Process Setup Option you're using.
Use TimeTrack to Manage the Interview Day
There are lots of moving parts to an interview day. If you're using Interview Process Setup Option 1 or 2, you can use the TimeTrack feature to help you manage the day and ensure interviews progress smoothly.
View and Adjust Scores and Ranks
Once interviewers enter their scores, you can view and adjust the final scores and rankings.
