Creating an Interview Session
Overview
A session is a period of time in which you conduct interviews (i.e., a full day, half day, etc.). When you create a session, you add key information, including the number of applicants you want to interview during the session, the number of rounds of interviews, etc. Later in the process, this information will be used to create a schedule. This schedule will organize the times and pairings of applicants with their interviewers.
Step 1: Create a Session
- From the left menu, click Sessions, then click +Add Session at the top right.
- Enter the details, including:
- Session Name: the name of your interview session.
- Date: the date this interview session will occur. If you have multiple sessions, you can copy this session after creating it.
- Start Time: the time your first interview will begin on the specified date (note: the system automatically uses your operating system's time zone). You don’t need to enter an end time because the system will determine that later when you generate the interview schedule.
- Rooms: the number of rooms the interviews will be held in. Typically, these are virtual rooms that include one or more interviewers.
- Applicants: the number of applicants you will host during the session.
- Rounds: the number of rounds of interviews each applicant will participate in during the session. This is useful for multiple mini interviews (MMIs) or other interview sessions that are broken up into multiple sittings.
- Interview Duration: the duration, in minutes, of each interview.
- Review Duration: the amount of buffer time, in minutes, between each interview, which interviewers can use to submit their scores and prepare for their next interview.
- Interviewers Instructions: if you have a PDF file with guidance for your interviewers to follow – for example, scenario-based questions the interviewers should ask – use this window to drag and drop the file or click Select File to browse for the PDF on your device.
- Session Visibility: when you enable this option, applicants who log in to the Interview Portal can see the session and self-select it as their preferred choice (or second choice, if you have multiple sessions). You can enable session visibility now or later, after you've configured everything. If enabling later, you can simply open the session and use the gear icon in the top-right corner to adjust this setting.
- Click Save.
Step 2: Configure the Interview Rooms
When you first created the interview session, you entered the number of interview rooms. Now, you can decide which interviewers will be in each room and what application information they'll have access to.
- From the Sessions page, open the session.
- In the Schedule area, click the pencil icon next to a room.
- Edit the room name, add one or more interviewers to the room, and select the application PDF you want to make accessible to interviewers.
- Click Save and complete this process for any remaining rooms.
Step 3: Add Scoring Questions
You can add scoring questions at any time before interview day.
- From the Sessions page, open the session.
- Click Add Questions and Score Rules.
- Choose the range for scores (e.g., 1–5, 1–10).
- Enable single score, itemized scores, or both. If using itemization, add the questions and factors (i.e., weightings).
- Click Save – the scoring system is now ready for use on interview day.
How Factors Work
Itemized questions include factors for weighting. The default factor for each question is 1, but you can choose to enter higher numbers to place more weight on specific questions. For example, you might have three questions and choose to weight one of them as double that of the others:
- Communication: factor = 1
- Clinical Knowledge: factor = 2
- Professionalism: factor = 1
When interviewers provide their scores, each score is multiplied by the question's corresponding factor. These weighted scores are then summed and divided by the total sum of factors used. Here's an example:
Suppose the interviewer provides the following scores on scale of 1 – 5:
- Communication: score = 5
- Clinical Knowledge score: = 4
- Professionalism: score = 5
The calculation works as follows:
- Scores are first multiplied by the factors:
- Communication: 5 x 1 = 5
- Clinical Knowledge: 4 x 2 = 8
- Professionalism: 5 x 1 = 5
- Each individual score is summed:
- Total Score: 5 + 8 + 5 = 18
- The sum of all weighted scores is divided by the sum of all factors:
- Weighted Score: 18 / (1 + 2 + 1) = 4.5