Hiring for Impact: How to Interview Beyond the CV

Insight by: Aimee Brenner, Partner and Principal Key Account Manager | Permanent Division | Q&R Specialist

If you're leading hiring in life sciences, I’m sure you’ve sat through interviews that felt like a tick-box exercise, only to realise months later that the experience you assessed in the interview doesn’t guarantee the impact you were expecting.

Whether you're scaling an R&D team, expanding your QA function, or onboarding regulatory talent for a critical project, the people you hire directly shape your outcomes. And yet, too many interviews focus solely on past roles, not future impact. In our earlier piece on why interviewers matter in hiring, we explored the pivotal role interviewers play in that process. This follow-up dives into how to equip them with the right tools to make better hiring decisions.

In an industry where innovation moves faster than job descriptions can keep up, it’s no longer enough to hire based on what someone has done. You need to uncover what they’re capable of doing next and whether they can grow with your business.

And this is where smarter interviewing techniques come in. This blog explores three critical tools every hiring leader should be using. Because building high-performing teams doesn’t start with a job title. It starts with asking better questions. These are the areas  that we are diving into this blog:

• The STAR method for evidence-based storytelling
• Structured interviewing to reduce bias and guesswork
• Techniques for assessing potential, not just experience

 

The STAR Method: From Storytelling to Strategic Insight

Every interview tells a story. But without structure, that story can be inconsistent, surface-level, or hard to compare with other candidates in process. That’s where the STAR method comes in.

Situation → Task → Action → Result

This behavioural framework helps interviewers dig beneath the surface and uncover how candidates think, act, and deliver.

Instead of “What are your strengths?”, you should be asking: “Tell me about a time you had to identify a deviation in a manufacturing batch. What happened? What did you do, and what was the outcome?”

In high-stakes life sciences roles, whether in R&D, QA, Regulatory or any other role, the STAR method helps you go from assumptions to evidence.

Why the STAR method works

• It anchors candidates in real-world examples, not hypotheticals
• It reveals decision-making, ownership, and impact
• It creates consistency across interviewers, reducing bias
• It helps you assess both experience and potential

Example of practical prompts to try

Here are some examples of STAR-based, evidence-backed questions tailored to common competencies in life sciences:

• Growth mindset & long-term alignment (This shows initiative and commitment to development): "Can you walk me through a time when you identified an opportunity for growth in your career or team? What steps did you take to pursue it, and what was the outcome?"
• Career trajectory fit (Helps you assess whether they’ll grow with your organisation): "Where do you see yourself in 3–5 years, and how do you think this role helps you get there?"
• Technical capability (Brings out competence under pressure, and applied knowledge): "Tell me about a project where you had to use [specific skill]. What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?"
• Collaboration & communication (Gives insight into emotional intelligence and cultural fit) "Describe a time you had to manage a conflict with a colleague or cross-functional team. What role did you play?"
  

What great STAR answers sound like
Here is what a good answer should look like. And always score against a defined rubric so your decision is based on evidence, not impressions.

Situation/Task: Short, specific, and clearly scoped

Action: The candidate clearly explains the specific steps they took, not just what the team did. If they default to “we,” that’s your cue to dig deeper and uncover their individual contribution. Look for ownership, initiative, and clarity of role.

Result: Clear outcome, ideally with measurable impact (“reduced deviation rate by 30%,” “accelerated audit prep by 2 weeks”)

If any part is missing, prompt them:

• “What was the outcome?”
• “How did the team react?”
• “What would you do differently next time?”
  

Evidence-Based Interviewing: Taking Bias Off the Table

Even the most experienced hiring managers are human. We’re wired to favour charisma, familiarity, or shared experience, and this often happens unconsciously. Evidence-based interviewing protects your hiring decisions from bias by making them structured, replicable, and grounded in real data.

Key features:

• Standardised question sets across all candidates
• Predefined scoring criteria (not gut feeling)
• Focus on behaviours and outcomes, not just credentials

This is especially important in life sciences, where teams are often global, cross-functional, and made up of both specialists and generalists.

Try these evidence-based question types like:

• Behavioural (Reveals courage, diplomacy, and problem-solving): “Tell me about a time you had to push back on unrealistic regulatory deadlines.”
• Situational (Tests reasoning, prioritisation, and initiative): “Imagine you're onboarding to a new digital platform and realise data quality is inconsistent. What would you do in your first 30 days?”

Combined with work samples, case scenarios, or technical reviews, these questions build a multidimensional view of each candidate and allow your team to make smarter, fairer decisions.

 

Experience vs Potential: What Are You Really Hiring For?

Not every role requires 10 years of highly specific experience. And not every high-performer comes from the "ideal" background.

Sometimes, your next star hire is someone who hasn’t done the exact job before, but has the mindset, ability, and drive to grow into it fast. So the question becomes: when do you hire for experience, and when do you prioritise potential?

When to hire for experience:

• Senior-level QA, RA, or audit leadership where ramp-up time is minimal
• Time-critical roles with defined protocols and delivery goals
• Positions where regulatory risk is too high for learning on the job
  

When to hire for potential:

• Early-career or entry pipeline roles in R&D, Quality, Data, or Regulatory
• Teams undergoing digital or strategic transformation
• Situations where cultural contribution and learning agility matter more than legacy expertise

The best interview processes are designed to reveal both experience and potential, and help you decide where the trade-off is worth it.

 

How to Assess Potential in Interviews

Hiring for potential doesn’t mean guessing. It means testing for things that don’t show up on a CV, like resilience, curiosity, and self-awareness. Here’s how to structure it:

1. Add a case or work-sample task

Ask candidates to walk through how they’d approach a real-world challenge: “You’ve just joined a new QA team mid-project and noticed gaps in the documentation. What’s your first step?”

This reveals critical thinking, prioritisation, and communication, key traits for potential-based hires.

2. Ask about learning

“Tell me about a time you had to learn something completely new. How did you approach it?”. You’re looking for resourcefulness, initiative, and coachability.

3. Test reflection

“What’s a project or decision you would approach differently today?”. This shows self-awareness, maturity, and adaptability.

If candidates are vague or overly self-promoting, it may be a red flag. If they’re honest, specific, and thoughtful, they’re likely to grow quickly.

 

Five Practical Shifts for Life Sciences Hiring Managers

1. Use a structured interview guide with STAR prompts aligned to role competencies
2. Incorporate potential-assessing questions and work samples early in the process
3. Rate candidates using a shared rubric, not by consensus alone
4. Debrief with discipline, let each interviewer score independently before discussion
5. Clarify career path alignment: Does this role fit into the candidate’s long-term growth plan?

 

Final Thought:

Talent Can Be Taught. Traits Can’t. Hiring for experience will get you capability. Hiring for potential will get you impact.

At Panda, I work with clients across the Life Sciences industry to build interview strategies that balance both. I support teams in asking the right questions, identifying real potential, and avoiding the blind spots that lead to mis-hires. Because when you're building something that could change lives, the right talent isn’t optional. It’s foundational.

Not sure where to begin with improving your interview process? Let’s take 30 minutes to map it out. I’ll happily share some small adjustments that are helping our current partners to make better hiring decisions. Book a time here or reach out via email below.

 

Author Details:

• Aimee Brenner

• Partner and Principal Key Account Manager | Permanent Division | Q&R Specialist

• a.brenner@panda-int.com