by Florence Stone
When you interview job candidates, you need to be sure that the
person’s work philosophy and style are compatible with those of
your organization. Once you know this, you can focus on whether
they have the skills, abilities, and expertise to fill the vacancy
for which you are recruiting.
How can you improve this part of the interviewing process?
Consider the issues that you want to address, and then develop
a few questions for each. For instance, you will want some measure
of the applicant’s abilities, their dedication to their work, and
supervisory needs and response to supervisory direction. I recall
an interview I conducted many years ago in which I asked each candidate
how much direction they expected. One candidate told me, “None.”
Then he elaborated, “I don’t like anyone to tell me what to do.”
Needless to say, that answer went far in disqualifying him for a
job in which the ability to take direction until corporate policies
and procedures were learned was critical.
Here are some 25 interviewing questions divided into three critical
job categories. Many of these questions may already be ones you
ask; others may be new to your interview question repertoire.
Ability:
This is often discernible based upon past experience (job
or otherwise with entry-level employees). For instance, you might
ask someone right out of school What achievements are you most proud
of? Likewise, you can ask someone who is looking for a job change,
What accomplishments in your last job are you proudest about?
Let’s look at some other questions related to ability:
- What were your three most important
responsibilities in your last job? Following this question up
with What special competences did you need to complete these tasks?
will give you insight into how the employee thinks. If the individual
mentions he or she took courses to excel in these areas, it will
also tell you that the former employer considered the candidate
to be a good investment for training.
- What decisions or judgments did you
make on your own in your previous job? This tells you something
about the person's level of responsibility. Further, it may add
insights into fit within your organization if these are decisions
that are made at a higher level.
- What was the most important project
you worked on in your former job? You can follow up by asking
the individual his or her role. Were you a team leader? If not,
what were your responsibilities? If your organization increasingly
is managing by project, the candidate's response -- positive or
negative toward team-based decision-making -- will be insightful
about his or her fit within the organization.
- Why are you thinking of leaving your
current employer? Or, alternatively, why are you no longer with
your past employer? If you don't trust the answer to the last
question, you might want to get a more honest answer by asking,
In what ways did your boss's actions contribute to your desire
to leave?
- Finally, you might want to ask, What
have you learned from jobs you have held? While this is a very
open-ended question, it can provide considerable insight into
the corporate knowledge an applicant might bring to your workplace.
Dedication: You want to gauge
a candidate’s motivational level or commitment to their work.
Here are some questions that will enable you to do this:
- What do you consider your greatest strength?
Listen not only to the words but the enthusiasm in which the answer
is given. The latter is a good gauge of motivation. The former
will give you practical information by which you can determine
the candidate’s fit with the specific job. For instance, the job
demands technical expertise, with little people involvement, yet
the candidate tells you that he sees his greatest strength as
people interactions. It's likely he’s not going to like the job
if he gets it even if he tells you later in the interview, as
you describe the job, that he’s interested in it.
- What would you like to see come from
your position here? Does the candidate's response show a desire
to advance in his or her career? Is that realistic given the position?
How about your own company’s situation? Hiring someone with a
desire for quick advancement will leave you with a demoralized
employee if she suddenly discovers the opportunities for advancement
are few.
- Describe a problem situation and how
you handled it on your own. Give the candidate a chance to brag
about his or her abilities. If your organization is team-oriented,
ask about a team project the candidate had to work on and a problem
he resolved. How the candidate answers will give you his or her
opinion of teams in general and strengths within team settings
in particular.
- How did you feel about your workload
in your previous post? Did you think the work assignments could
have been better apportioned? The reasons for these questions
should be self-evident.
- What have you done to become more effective
on your job? Ask the candidate about his or her weaknesses and
what the individual has done on his or her own to improve in these
areas.
Manageability:
Remember the story about the employee who didn’t like to take direction.
These questions will give you insights into a candidate’s relationship
with his supervisors.
- What are some of the things your boss
did that you disagreed with? As the individual speaks, you might
probe further, What else did you dislike about your boss?”
- How do you think your boss will take
your decision to leave? If the past work-relationship was poor,
it may be revealed in the response to this question. Equally insightful
is the question, How accurately do you feel your boss rates your
performance?
- Describe the best manager you had. Follow
this question with, What was it that made this manager stand out?
- Ask the applicant who tells you that
he has numerous ideas to bring to your company, How does your
current manager respond to your ideas? If the candidate tells
you that he has been fortunate in having his ideas pursued, you
might ask, Tell me about an occasion when there was disagreement
about one of your ideas. What did you do to convince your boss
of your viewpoint?
- Did your company ever have to change
a plan or program to which you were committed? How did you feel?
What did you do under the circumstances? This will tell you how
change resistant your applicant is.
Of course, depending on the job, you need
to adapt these questions. Different levels of responsibility demand
different perspectives reflected in the questions you ask. But the
purpose of the interview is to enable you to hire the bestž and
avoid the rest. So think about the questions you traditionally ask
job candidates. Does your list need refreshing?
Author Florence Stone is director of
Membership Programs for the AMA and author of numerous articles
and nine books, including Coaching, Counseling, and Mentoring and
How to Resolve Conflict on the Job. To read her other article written
for Headhunter.net -- Attracting Top Talent: Do You Have What It
Takes? -- click here.
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