This toolkit brings together Jess Skylar’s complete interview process — from the pre-screen that surfaces culture fit before you ever meet to the conversation guide that helps you hire for the why, not just the résumé. Jess has spent twenty years hiring across mission-driven organizations, and this is the process she wishes she’d had earlier in her career.
From the Helia Library — based on the article An Interview Process Where Everyone Says Yes by Helia founder, Jess Skylar.
What’s Inside
Three resources, meant to be used in sequence. Start with the full process template — everything else builds on what you learn there.
01 — Interview Process Template
Jess’s complete 7-step hiring process — from pre-screen questionnaire through final conversation — with reflection prompts and exercises to customize each step for your role and culture. Start here before you post the job or schedule a single call.
02 — Pet Peeve + Favorites Questionnaire
A ready-to-send pre-screen questionnaire that surfaces culture fit before you ever meet — including four example ranked activity lists (for ops, management, external-facing, and coordinator roles) and a hiring manager cheat sheet for reading responses. Send this before any conversations begin.
03 — The Why Interview Template
Jess’s conversation guide for the most important interview you’ll do — including how to get their story, how to reflect back what you heard, how to share your organization’s why honestly, and what to do when you’re not sure. Use this in the middle of your process, after the phone screen and work samples.
Each resource in this toolkit includes tips for adapting it to your specific situation, including AI prompts!
When Resources and Templates Aren’t Enough
These tools will help you structure your process and protect you from your own patterns. What they can’t do is tell you when you’re falling into the same hiring mistake you’ve made before, help you redesign your process for equity when it keeps surfacing the same kinds of candidates, or give you a reality check on whether the role you’ve designed actually matches what your organization needs right now.
If you want help with interviewing
Sophia Zisook designs equitable hiring processes from job description through offer — and is refreshingly direct about where most organizations go wrong and how to fix it.
She’s a good fit if:
- You want to redesign your hiring process to be more systematic AND more human
- You’re hiring for a role where getting it right really matters and you want to be thoughtful about equity
- You keep defaulting to the same interview approach and it’s not working
- You need help designing exercises and assessments that are fair and actually useful
