A There are a number of things you can do to ensure that you conduct the interview confidently. Examine the job and decide what key skills or competencies are required to be effective in this role. This will give you a number of areas on which you can concentrate during the interview. For each of these areas, what kind of behaviours are you looking for in the candidate? What makes someone a strong team player, for instance?

An effective communicator?

An effective team leader?

Next, you need to figure out what questions you are going to ask to cover these areas. Your job as interviewer is to elicit as much information as you can from the candidate. You must be prepared to do a little probing to collect as much evidence as can that this person is a potential match for your requirements.

In addition to skills, are there any particular personal attributes the candidate needs to splay . . . are they committed, enthusiastic and keen to learn? These are things to look out for during the course of the interview.

Your job as interviewer is to ensure that the candidate is comfortable so you also need to be able to put them at ease.

Even when interviews are informal, you still need to be sure that the candidate has the key skills to be effective in the role.