Interviewing is an art that can be mastered for better understanding the inner personality traits that sometimes even the candidates themselves are not aware of.
Great Interview Questions:
If you are a recruiting professional and have ever looked for interviewing advice online, you must have found those banal sites reiterating the same age-old interview questions.
The problem with them is that by now, almost everyone has got immuned to them.
As recruiters, you need to keep upgrading yourself as candidates get themselves evolved with better answers to make your questions futile in identifying what they want to hide.
Find below the list of questions that can help you discover some of the insights to make better recruiting decisions.
1. Tell me the most interesting thing about you that is not mentioned on your resume?
This question presents you with an opportunity to peek through the real side of the candidate.
Most candidates are well prepared to talk about their resume or profile and therefore regular questions related to their past experience can not yield much substantial but a well-thought, planned response.
To venture into their real self you need questions that can catch him unprepared. This one will help you do exactly that.
2. What’s the biggest misconception your colleagues have about you and why do you think they have it?
This question helps you gauge the confidence and self-awareness of the candidate. To make it really effective.
The response of their colleagues should also be considered as part of their reference check and like an alibi, the responses of both the parties should be considered while deciding upon the trustworthiness of the answer.
3. Can you tell me about the work you have done that seems most relevant for this job?
This question let’s you understand the candidate’s perspective about his past role as well as his understanding about the role you are hiring for.
It tells you how well the applicant can translate his past experiences into your current business scenario.
4. Having heard about our role and team here, what do you think are the first 2 or 3 projects you would want to handle or the obstacles that you would want to tackle first?
This question will help you understand if the candidate has done his homework properly to understand the role.
It will also check the planning skills of the candidate required to succeed in the position you are interviewing him for.
5. How would this job advance your career?
You will come across a lot of candidates who are desperate to get settled for a job – any job. Hiring these candidates will not be the best hiring decision for you.
This question will help you identify candidates who are genuinely interested and qualified to do justice to the role you are hiring for.
6. If you got hired, love everything about the job and are paid the salary you asked for, what kind of offer from another company would you consider?
This question will give you a hint on how much the person is driven by money vs working at a place he loves?
If asked at the later stages in the interview, this can uncover some of the hidden motives of the candidate.
7. What according to you is the most significant accomplishment in your career?
Discussing a single accomplishment is an easy way to get additional information about the person’s leadership style, team management skills, work habits and many other things. Questions like – what position did you held while achieving this?,
How did it impact your growth at the company? – can be asked as follow-up questions to get additional insights.
8. Tell us about your past experience when things didn’t go the way you wanted – like a project didn’t turn out as you hoped it to be or a promotion you expected but did not get or anything of that sort?
This seemingly simple question has the potential to unearth the personality traits of the applicant.
Candidate’s answers will broadly fall into one of the 3 categories :
- Blame
- Self disparagement
- Opportunity for growth.
Depending upon which category the person’s answer falls into, you can dig deeper to understand the person’s overall perspective about life and career.
9.This is the problem that comes up always around here, Whats your stand? <First, You will need to explain a business problem you face very often in the role you are hiring for>
This will let you know the person’s problem solving or management style and provide you a quick-peek at the person’s ability to perform and excel at the job you are interviewing for.
10. Do you have any questions for us?
A man can be judged better by his questions rather than his answers. Their questions will show you the level of their thinking. The kind of questions they ask can help you determine the amount of altitude or intelligence they have.
The best interviews are always the unscripted ones. And that you will learn much more about candidates by letting them ask you questions than by making them answer yours.
Do you have questions that you have honed over years of recruiting experience, Questions that you are certain will tell you everything you want to know about candidates? Share them in the comments.
