On the surface, interviewing a candidate for an available job sounds easy. With a job description in hand describing specific skill sets and experience, the recruiter or hiring manager fires off a dozen questions or so and voila, they are equipped to make a hiring decision.
If only interviewing were that simple.
The nuance of interviewing candidates extends well beyond skills and abilities into areas of candidate maturity level, fit for company culture, and self-awareness. Once you have attracted some great candidates, you will want to ask interview questions regarding industry and expertise, as well as broader-based questions to learn how they will ultimately mesh with your team. These questions are an excellent way to find out more about what’s important to a candidate and how well they can interact and work with others.
Ideally, the goal is to have a collaborative and communicative conversation during the interview. Be sure to put candidates at ease and create a pleasant and comfortable interaction (versus an interrogation).
Here are some great interview questions to ask candidates:
1. Tell me something about yourself that others may be surprised to know about you.
This question is an opportunity to learn something very interesting and real about a candidate that might otherwise not come up in a standard interview.
2. If there were something in your past you were able to go back and do differently, what would that be?
Why Ask This Question? This question is another way to understand life lessons a person has learned and how these lessons may be of benefit when managing others or working in teams.
3. Tell me about a time you had a difficult working relationship with a colleague. What was the challenge?
Look to understand how a candidate moves through, resolves problems and how the experience and knowledge learned can be applied to possible future situations.
4. Tell me your biggest success story related to improving the customer’s experience?
Candidates lacking a good success story, particularly recently, raises a red flag. Plus, it often helps to fuel better follow-up questions afterward.
5. What is your ideal position and why?
This offers the candidate an opportunity to share their best skills sets (technical skills) along with their transferable skills (soft skills) and understand what they consider to be the best-fit position. It gives the interviewer an opportunity to see how closely aligned the candidate is with the duties and responsibilities of the position. There are many times that you will find that the candidate’s “best-fit position” does not align with the position they are interviewing for.
6. What is a development area that you’re had to overcome to improve in your career?
This question offers you the chance to learn how the candidate deals with self-realization, self-actualization, and potentially how they overcome obstacles or adversity.
7. Describe your favorite supervisor and your least favorite supervisor and why.
This allows some fast insight into how the candidate likes to be communicated with and managed, as well as some revelations into his/her overall attitude and maturity.
8. How did you end up in your current role?
You’ll get a better sense of a candidate’s career trajectory, as well as what motivates them.
9. What interests you most about this position we have available?
This question will help measure the quality of a candidate’s preparation for the interview.
10. Do you have any questions for me?
The candidate having jotted down a few questions to ask signals their interest in the position you have available.
Remember, how your company interviews candidates really does matter. It will reflect in the reviews your company receives on various social media platforms.
Be sure to make a positive impression at each and every interview!
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