The interview process is a way to learn about a future employee. So, the questions you do choose to ask are crucial and will help you discover as much information as possible on that particular individual. It is to your advantage to come up with specific, interesting and original questions each time. Although it might seem like it would be time consuming, you will end up saving time and money by selecting the right candidate the first time. If you don’t take this step to heart, you might have to either interview a dozen of candidates before finding the right one or even worst hire the wrong individual and having to start all over again a few months down the road. Do it right the first time…
Now, we understand that you won’t come up with a complete different set of questions for each candidate, especially if you are planning to interview several candidates, but pick a few unique scenarios if you can.
To find out what the appropriate questions to ask are, think about what this person’s responsibilities will be on a daily basis, but also whom will that person be in contact with and in what type of environment. You definitely also want to try to get the most genuine and honest responses from the candidate. For example, some unconventional questions could be asked such as “What steps do you take when you start preparing dinner? This will give you an idea of the person’s organization skills. Perhaps you can ask questions such as: “What do you think should be the next best invention in the automobile industry?” This will show how creative and ingenious your candidate can truly be.
You can’t base your whole interview only on some non-traditional questions, the interviewee might even feel like it was not a serious interview if you do so. So, make sure you do mix it up with some more classic ones. Ask them about their strengths and weaknesses, or what their career goal are?
It is always interesting to also throw in the mix a few questions referring to a specific situation, to understand how a candidate would handle a difficult, sensitive or stressful situation. If you are hiring a manager for example, maybe you can ask him how he would fire someone who is just the nicest person in the office but very incompetent. Another question you may want to ask could be what would they do if they caught a co-worker stealing? Then you can tell about the person’s work ethics and honesty.
Using the future tense when you ask the series of questions is a good idea as you will place your candidate in a fictive context, opposed to him always referring to situation that previously happen. You can judge how quickly they will think, react and handle some events or conflicts based on their personality and cultural thinking. Franky, that’s exactly what you are after, the way they will adapt to your culture as a firm, and if they are a smart candidate, most likely they have researched and read enough about your firm that they have an idea of the anticipated culture at work already.
In summary, you want to find the right questions to ask each candidate you will interview. If you put enough thoughts into writing down the famous interview questions, a large part of your selection process will be lighted.
Michael Klein is a premier writer and speaker on all aspects of human capital. As VP Operations for KDS Staffing, Inc., he has achieved industry-leading success. Michael was awarded, The New York State Small Business Growth Award; presented by Governor George Pataki. Additionally, Michael has successfully grown and sold multiple firms. If you or your organization would like to discuss hiring needs, contact Michael at 646-350-3015 or michael@kdsstaffing.com.
