Why Hiring Managers Need Interview Training

Interviewer training, culture fit bias and hiring without a CV, with Jay Guney, founder and managing director of Dcoded.

Most hiring processes put real effort into finding candidates and almost none into the person who interviews them. Jay Guney sees the result from the agency side every week. Many of the hiring managers his candidates meet have never had formal interview training. They are handed a candidate and asked to see if they're good, whatever that means for the role, and some walk out saying "thank God that's over, they seem like they can do the job." Sometimes it works out. It is rarely predictable, and candidates who gave up 30, 60 or 90 minutes often get no useful feedback in return.

Jay has spent 13 years in UK recruitment. He founded Dcoded in May 2024 as a recruitment partner working exclusively in AI, data and engineering, building talent pools from chief data and AI leaders to ML engineers and data governance experts for SaaS, retail and consultancy businesses. Dcoded went for B Corp accreditation from day one, because Jay wanted to build an agency that challenges the stigma recruiters often carry.

In this episode Jay unpacks the hidden bias inside "culture fit." Every client tells him candidates must fit the culture, yet three people in the same room will describe that culture three different ways, and without a definition it often slides into whether the hiring manager would enjoy a drink with the candidate on a Friday. He also explains why companies that ask candidates for their opinions often reject the ones who disagree, and why his own personality test results changed depending on whether he'd made a placement that day.

On CVs, Jay describes placements where the client only ever saw a limited company name and a contract, and others made through blind candidate packs built from answers to questions agreed with the client in advance. As far as he knows, those hires are still in role. For his wildcard, he describes the AI tool he would give every hiring manager: one that plays two candidates, one you should hire and one you shouldn't, so interviewers can practise before they meet real people.

What you'll learn
→ Why interviewer training is the most overlooked part of hiring
→ Why candidates deserve feedback after giving up their time
→ What "culture fit" really means, and how to stop it hiding bias
→ Why personality tests can mislead hiring decisions
→ How blind candidate packs can replace the CV
→ How AI could train hiring managers to interview better

Looks Good on Paper is hosted by Anita Chauhan and powered by Willo. Season 4 is about everything the document leaves out, on both sides of the hiring table.

GUEST

Jay Guney, Founder and Managing Director, Dcoded
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayguney/

YOUR HOST
Anita Chauhan, Founder, InGoodCo.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anitachauhan/

LISTEN AND FOLLOW
YouTube: https://youtu.be/w3L3LuFjasE
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/looks-good-on-paper/id1625835562
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dbfz6y0tMq3crViHQD66H
All episodes: looksgoodonpaper.willo.video

POWERED BY WILLO
https://www.willo.video/looks-good-on-paper

CONNECT WITH US
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10170893

If this one hit home for someone on your hiring team, send it to them. Follow Looks Good on Paper wherever you listen so you get every Season 4 conversation.

Looks Good on Paper is a podcast about hiring, hosted by Anita Chauhan and powered by Willo. In this episode, Jay Guney, founder and managing director of the AI, data and engineering recruitment partner Dcoded, explains why untrained interviewers are the biggest mistake in hiring, why "culture fit" hides bias when nobody defines it, and how blind candidate packs have led to placements without a CV. Season 4 asks what a CV leaves out, on both sides of the hiring table.

Show Resources

• Willo: willo.video - The most cost-effective way to screen candidates at scale. Interview candidates anywhere & at any time
• CV Free Toolkit: cvfree.me/join - Break up with the CV and get everything you need to modernize your hiring approach with skills-based assessments
• Anita Chauhan: linkedin.com/in/anitachauhan - Connect with the host