You schedule an interview from the candidate's page. The interview gets the job's panel and question set, can go straight into your Google Calendar with a Meet link, and can send the candidate a branded invitation. Everything scheduled shows on one calendar for the whole team.
Set up an interview with Wei Ling Tan.
In sarah.chen@acme.example, with the interview panel and the candidate as guests.
Added to the event and to the candidate's invitation.
A Acme Corp email with the details and a calendar file. Replies land in the candidate's thread.
Step 1: Date, time and time zone
The time is read in the time zone you pick, which starts as your own. An interview set for 10:00 in Singapore is at 10:00 in Singapore, wherever the rest of the team is.
Step 2: Duration and mode
30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes, as Video, Phone or Onsite. Stage / kind is a free label, such as "Technical screen", that shows wherever the interview is listed.
Step 3: Google Calendar
With your calendar connected, Add to Google Calendar puts the interview in it, and Create a Google Meet link adds a Meet link for a video interview. Leave Location / link empty and the Meet link is used.
Step 4: Invitation
Email the invitation to the candidate sends them a branded invitation with a calendar file.
Schedule an interview
- Open the candidate on the Candidates page.
- Select Schedule interview in the header.
- Fill in the date, time, time zone, duration and mode, and add a link or an address unless a Meet link is being created.
- Choose whether to add it to Google Calendar and whether to email the candidate.
- Select Schedule and send invitation, or Schedule if you are not emailing the candidate.
A short message confirms what happened: saved, added to your calendar, invitation sent. If a part did not work, for example Google Calendar did not respond, the interview is still saved and the message tells you what to follow up.
The rest of the team gets a notification, the interview appears on the Interviews calendar, and the event is written to the activity log. Scheduling the first interview with a candidate also counts as your first response to them. See Needs you and notifications.
Schedule interview is there while the application is open. It disappears once the candidate is rejected, hired or has withdrawn.
Who interviews: the default panel
Each job has a standing interview panel. When you schedule, the job's panel is copied onto the interview: they become the interviewers, they are added as guests on the Google Calendar event, and the invitation tells the candidate who they will meet. The form has no panel picker of its own, so set the panel on the job first.
Changing a panel later affects interviews you schedule from then on, not ones already booked.
Set up a job's interviews
Go to Jobs, open the job and select Interview setup. The same settings are step 3 of the new-job wizard, Interview.
Step 1: Interview panel
Up to twelve people. Choose a teammate under Add a teammate and select Add. To include someone who is not in the workspace yet, select Invite someone new, enter their email and role, and Send invitation. They show as Invite pending and join the panel when they accept, with access to this company only.
Step 2: Interview questions
Up to twenty questions, asked of every interviewer in the order you set. Select Add interview question and choose an answer type: Rating scale (from 1 to between 2 and 10), Single choice, Multiple choice, Yes / No or Free text. Add What a strong answer looks like as guidance, and switch on Interviewers must answer this to make it required.
Structured questions make interviews comparable: every candidate is asked the same things, and every interviewer answers in the same shape. Interview questions never reject anyone automatically. See Interviewer scorecards.
Owners, Admins and Recruiters can change a job's panel and questions. Inviting someone new also needs the right to manage members, which Owners and Admins have.
Google Calendar
Each teammate connects their own calendar, once. Go to Integrations, find the Google row and select Connect Google, or select Connect in the Schedule interview form. Google asks you to allow the app to create and change events in your calendar, and nothing more. The same approval also links Google sign-in to your account. See Integrations.
With your calendar connected:
- the event is created in your own calendar, with the panel as guests, and the candidate too if you are emailing them the invitation;
- a video interview can get a fresh Google Meet link, which goes into the event and the invitation;
- when anyone on the team reschedules or cancels the interview, the event in your calendar moves or is removed.
Google itself sends no emails about these events. The candidate hears from you once, in your branded invitation.
If your workspace has not set up Google Calendar yet, the form offers no calendar options and the Integrations page lists Google Calendar & Meet under Coming soon. Disconnecting your calendar later leaves events already created where they are.
The candidate's invitation
When you choose to email it, the candidate receives an invitation in your company's name, logo and colour, with:
- the time in the interview's own time zone,
- the format, and the join link or the address,
- who they will meet,
- a calendar file that adds the interview to Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar.
The invitation is written in the job's language. It lands in the candidate's email thread with you, and their reply comes back to that thread. Candidates without a verified email address, such as some imported ones, can't be emailed, and the form says so. See Email threads with candidates.
Follow an interview through
A candidate's interviews are listed on their page, on the Interview feedback tab, with the outcome of each.
- Completed
- Scheduled
An interview is Scheduled, Completed, No show or Cancelled. When its time has passed and nobody has recorded an outcome, it shows Awaiting outcome: the end time passing is not proof that it happened, so a person says what it was.
- Mark completed records that it took place. Submitting interview feedback for a past interview does this for you.
- Under More interview actions (the three dots):
- Reschedule lets you set a new date, time and time zone. Tick Email the candidate the new time to send them an updated invitation. A completed or no-show interview you reschedule becomes scheduled again.
- No show records that the candidate didn't attend.
- Cancel interview asks you to confirm. It removes the event from Google Calendar, and you can tick Email the candidate a cancellation.
A rejected candidate, or one who withdrew, can't be given a new interview or have one moved to a new time. Rejecting a candidate cancels their interviews that are still to come and removes them from Google Calendar, without a separate email to the candidate: the rejection email covers it. If Google can't be reached at that moment, the event is removed later. A cancelled interview stays in the record but can't be rescheduled: schedule a new one instead. Rescheduling, cancelling and invitations are all written to the activity log.
The interview calendar
Interviews in the sidebar shows a month calendar of every interview in the workspace, so anyone on the team can see the week without asking.
- Each day shows a dot per interview, up to three: darkest for video, mid grey for phone, light grey for onsite. Today has a ring.
- Select a day to list its interviews with the time, the mode and the job. Select one to open the candidate.
- Use the arrows to move between months, and Today to come back.
Owners, Admins, Recruiters and Hiring Managers can schedule and manage interviews. Viewers can see the calendar.