Build the interview pack in ten minutes

Pick the competencies that matter for the role. Get the scorecard, the behavioural questions, the follow-up probes and the red flags — on one printable pack you can hand to any interviewer.

Free. No signup. Built in seconds.

Or start with a job description and we'll suggest the competencies.

1

Choose your role

Pick from 8 common role types. We load the most-used competencies for that role.

2

Pick competencies & scale

4–6 competencies is the sweet spot. Choose a rating scale your panel will agree on.

3

Print the pack

Scorecard, STAR questions, probes, red flags and calibration notes. One printable pack.

What's in the pack

  • ▸Scorecard table — your competencies, the rating scale, evidence column, recommendation field.
  • ▸Behavioural STAR questions — three angled questions per competency, so candidates can't pre-rehearse a single answer.
  • ▸Follow-up probes — what to ask under Situation, Task, Action and Result. The bit most interviewers skip.
  • ▸Red flags — what to listen for that suggests rehearsal, blame-shifting or absence of real experience.
  • ▸Calibration notes — what "good" sounds like, per competency, so your panel scores consistently.

What an interview pack is — and why most companies build hiring decisions without one

An interview pack is a one-document hiring brief. It defines what "good" looks like for the role before any candidate walks in: the competencies you'll assess, the rating scale you'll score against, the behavioural questions you'll ask, the follow-up probes you'll lean on when an answer is too smooth, and the red flags you'll listen for. Done well, it turns a panel of subjective opinions into a defensible hiring decision. Done badly — or, more commonly, skipped entirely — and you're just hiring people who remind you of yourself.

The research on this is unambiguous. Structured interviews using a consistent pack predict job performance roughly twice as well as unstructured "let's just have a chat" interviews (Schmidt & Hunter's century of selection research; replicated by Sackett and others). Yet most companies still walk into interviews armed with a CV and good intentions. That's how you end up with a hire who interviews well and works badly.

How to build an interview pack that actually works

1. Pick 4–6 competencies. Not 12.

If everything matters, nothing matters. The job of the pack is to force a conversation about what you're willing to trade off. A senior salesperson with weak written communication is still hireable; the same person with weak resilience is not. Decide which competencies are non-negotiable before you build the pack — not after the candidate has charmed you.

2. Ask the same questions of every candidate

Same role, same questions. If everyone asks something different, you're comparing apples to oranges to interview anxiety. The pack gives you three angled behavioural questions per competency — pick one per candidate, but pick the same one across the panel.

3. Use the probes

Most interviewers ask a STAR question, listen to the answer, and move on. The signal is in the probes: "what did you specifically do?", "what did you consider but rule out?", "what would you do differently now?". Smooth, rehearsed answers fall apart under probing. The pack gives you the probes ready to go.

4. Calibrate the panel before the first interview

Five interviewers using the same pack will still produce five different scores if they haven't agreed on what a "4" means. Spend 20 minutes with the pack before the first candidate — walk through one made-up answer, score it together, argue about it. It's the highest-ROI meeting you'll have all week.

Common interview mistakes the pack prevents

  • Using personality traits as competencies. "Cultural fit" and "passionate" are not assessable. They're how bias hides in plain sight. The pack pushes you toward behavioural competencies you can score against evidence.
  • Letting interviewers pick their own questions. If the panel ad-libs, you're not comparing candidates — you're comparing interviewers.
  • Scoring afterwards from memory. Memory rewrites itself within hours, usually flatteringly. Score during the interview or immediately after. The pack is built for that.
  • Averaging scores instead of debating them. The point of multiple interviewers is multiple perspectives, not arithmetic. If two interviewers disagree by more than a point, that's a discussion, not a calculation.

Where this fits in your hiring process

This builder is step two of a two-step workflow. Step one is understanding the role — which is what the JD Analyser exists for: paste in your job description and it'll surface the competencies that actually matter for that role. Then come here to turn those competencies into a structured interview pack. Two free tools, one workflow, evidence-based hiring from end to end.

FAQ

Is this pack suitable for any role?

The role templates cover the most common functions (sales, engineering, customer service, management, HR, marketing, operations, admin). For specialist or technical roles, pick the closest template and customise the competencies. The structure of a good pack doesn't change between industries — only the specific competencies do.

How many questions should I ask per competency?

One main behavioural question, plus 2–4 probes under it. Three angled questions per competency are provided so you can vary across candidates or rounds, but don't try to ask all three of one candidate — you'll run out of time and they'll start sounding rehearsed.

Can I save and reuse my pack?

Yes. The tool saves to your browser's local storage automatically. You can also print to PDF or copy a plain-text version to the clipboard.

Is my data sent anywhere?

No. Everything happens in your browser. There is no signup. Anonymous usage analytics (page views) are collected via Plausible — no cookies, no personal data, GDPR-compliant by design.

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