I try to be equally friendly to everyone because we interview before we check references. I have absolutely had things fall apart at that stage.

I interview well in general, but for those where I’ve gotten an offer, conversation typically strayed from business only into the more personal/casual, interviews were longer than scheduled, there are laughs and encouraging words. In the couple of interviews where I didn’t get an offer, the interviewer seemed distracted/officious and wasn’t that warm or friendly. A couple of those times I strongly suspected they had a candidate in the hopper and were doing my interview as a formality.

Smiling a lot and nodding head

The jobs I have been offered, we stray from the interview-y formal questions and are very conversational about the business or related topics. It seems they knew quickly into the conversation that I had the skills and background, and the comfortable conversation made us both feel like it was a good fit.

I'm equally friendly to everyone.

I straight up tell them to let me know if they receive any other offers

I say nothing. Interviewing is my part of assessing their credentials but hiring is a collective decision.

There are three categories of candidates. Ones that would be perfect, ones that might work and ones that you know almost instantly are a “no.” With the “no” category, I don’t bring up anything about future interviews and try to cut it short if I can do so subtly. I act the same way with the perfects and maybes. Sometimes, I think I have a perfect and then learn something about what was said in an interview with someone else on the team that puts the person in the no group.

There’s really no way to tell if you’re the preferred candidate until you receive the offer.

My interviewer told me the next step was an interview with the CEO and that if I was selected I would hear from the CEO next. She kept stressing though that if I did not hear from the CEO’s office within a week to reach out to her (the interviewer).

I work at a government agency and when I interviewed an interviewer in my first panel said something like “Obviously there’s more to the process, but I think that went well and I hope you are seriously considering this agency because you’d be a really good fit here.”

I'm much less vague. I've pulled others into the conference room when in person, to meet them. I've given tours around our office. I confirm their schedule - that they won't be out of the country or anything. I've flat out asked people not to accept any other offers before talking with us again.

When they write the job listing with you in mind and tailored to your very specific experience so other people can't get filtered through HR.

I mirror their body language, my pupils dilate, and I imperceptibly turn my body toward them. /jk

OP, there’s no point in trying to read tea leaves like this.

As a hiring manager, I start describing what the person would be doing in the role and instead of saying, "the person in this role would do xyz." I say, "YOU would do xyz." I also ask for references up front for people I like if I don't have them. I give more precise answers about the next steps in the process, so if they're a good candidate, hopefully the expectations set will help them be patient enough to see it all the way through to the EOD

I know as the interviewer you can’t say right there on the spot that you want the interviewer but what are some things you say or do when you think this is the right person?