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The Best Interview Questions To Ask Any Candidate

Guest post by: Dianne Shaddock

Article Overview: No matter what type of job you are interviewing for, there are certain questions that must be asked in order to know more the applicant’s overall skill set. This article provides core questions that you I recommend you to include in your behavioral interview questions.

The Best Interview Questions To Ask Any Candidate

I will be discussing the four best types of questions to ask in an interview, no matter what type of job it is that you are interviewing for and then why you should ask those questions. I consider these questions to be core questions that should be added to the behavioral interview questions that you will be asking that are very specific to your job opening.

But one caveat that these questions that I am about to recommend may need to be tweaked a bit to fit the type of job that you are interviewing for.

Here's number one of my best interview questions. The first question is:

We all make mistakes on the job, share with me two mistakes that you have made in your current or past job. How did you resolve these mistakes and what did you learn from the mistake?

Now why ask this particular question? Well, even the best workers make mistakes. So the question requires the job applicant being interviewed to use specific work related examples that highlight their ability to acknowledge that they have made mistakes.

It also demonstrates the applicant's ability to problem solve, to fix mistakes, and to make decisions under stress.

In some circumstances, mistakes cannot be fixed, as we all know. But whether or not a mistake is fixable or not, the question also gives you the opportunity to understand what they have learned from the mistake. Their answer should demonstrate in some way that the mistake became a learning experience which allowed the employee to do a better job when faced with a similar situation in the future.

Best interview question number 2 is asking a hypothetical question. Here is my example of a hypothetical interview question:

It has been two years since I hired you in (insert the title of your role in this section), when you look back on your job responsibilities, in what ways would you measure your success in this role?

Now why ask this question? This is a hypothetical question that you should ask after you have clearly explained the job responsibilities and the expectations to the person being interviewed.

The goal with this question is to determine how well the interviewees understands your job requirements for their role and to get the job applicants to share with you how they can specifically add value to your job based on their overall experience.

You will also gain some insight on the level of experience the job applicant has based on his ability to apply concrete hypothetical accomplishments based on your job requirements.

Best interview question number 3 is: If I were to contact your current supervisor today for reference, what would he or she say about your work performance your attention to detail, and your commitment to the job?

Why ask this particular question? Well, this question can give you a sense of how honest and how self aware the candidate is about their work experience. When I interview job candidates, I often use the candidate's response to this particular question as part of my reference check.

For example, if the candidate's response to this question is that my current supervisor will say that I am a dedicated worker who is always on time, who has worked hard and excelled at all of my tasks.

When I actually call to check that reference, I will share the employees' feedback with their supervisor and ask them to confirm the employees' assessment of their own skills.

This is also a good time to ask the reference to provide specific work related examples that support the applicant's assessment of their job skills.

Best interview question number 4: Share with me three work related examples that support your statement that you have strong customer service skills.

Now this is an example where you can tweak the question and replace "strong customer service skills" with any type of skill set or experience that you are looking for.

Now why do I ask this question? Many applicants will tell you that they have strong or excellent customer service skills using the customer service skills as an example but the proof is really on the pudding as they say. Asking for very specific work related examples that support their statement will give you a very clear sense of your potential hires' interpersonal skills and how they proceed and treat customers or clients.

I wish you luck in your hiring efforts!

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Article Tags: Behaviorial Interview, Best Interview Questions, Employment Interview, Help with Hiring, Hiring Tips, Interviewing Tips



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Re: Quote of the Day - "Don't be embarrassed about asking "stupi - One of my favorite requests when leading a class, workshop, lecture, interview, whatever... There are no Stupid Questions, don't be afraid to ask - someone else has the same question, but is afraid to ask On the other hand - try anticipate the questions Back to the first hand - Some People ARE dummer than a ROCK
The Game Inventor's Guidebook - by Brian Tinsman, 2002 I checked this out of my local library today and its pretty interesting... didn't address what I wanted to know, which was how to actually design an online gaming system (indeed this doesn't cover online games at all), but for board games etc. it's pretty good. Here's the TOC: 1. How they diid it: Trivial Pursuit Magic, the Gathering Dungeons & Dragons Pokemon Trading Card Game Interview with an inventor Interview with a publisher 2. How the industry works 1. What's in it for you 2. How new games happen 3. Anatomy of a publisher 4. Markets for games 3. Games and companies you should know 1. Mass market games you should know 2. Mass market companies you should know 3. Hobby games you should know 4. Hobby companies you should know 5. American specialty games and companies you should know 6. European specialty games and companies you should know 4. Self publishing 1. What am I getting into 2. Before you print 3. After you print 5. Selling a game step by step 1. How to invent a game 2. Game design 3. Game development 4. Targeting publishers 5. Before you submit 6. Eight submission strategies 7. Contacting publishers 8. Protecting your property 9. What to do if they don't say yes 10. What to do if they do say yes! 11. The game industry's dirty little secret 6. Resources and examples Publishers and mnufacturers Distributors Brokers Game conventions and trade shows Industry publications Sample query letter Sample record of disclosure Sample licensing agreement Sample option agreement
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Re: Contact Information - Another idea would be to have an email form in place to accept "ticketed" inquires (if people are afraid of spammers seeing their email address). However, I hate how some sites try to persuade you out of sending an email by bombarding you with lists of "Frequently Asked Questions & Answers" as I find they're rarely helpful.


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