7 of 11 in Series:
The Essentials of Hiring Employees
What makes a job interview question “good”? A good job interview question gives you the specific information about a job applicant that you need to make a sound hiring decision and helps you gain insight into how the candidate’s mind and emotions work.
Develop a list of questions designed to elicit responses that will be most helpful in evaluating a candidate's suitability for your position and organization. These questions can get you started:
Can you tell me a little about yourself? A confident applicant can give a brief summary of his or her strengths, significant achievements, and career goals.
What interests you about this job, and what skills and strengths can you bring to it? Stronger candidates should be able to correlate their skills with specific job requirements.
Can you tell me a little about your current job? Strong candidates should be able to give you a short and precise summary of duties and responsibilities.
In a way that anyone could understand, can you describe a professional success you are proud of? The answer shows the applicant’s ability to explain what he or she does clearly.
How have you changed the nature of your current job? A convincing answer here shows adaptability and a willingness to “take the bull by the horns,” if necessary.
What was the most difficult decision you ever had to make on the job? The answer to this question tells you the person’s decision-making style and how it fits into your company culture.
Why did you decide to pursue a new job? This question is just a different way of asking, “What are you looking for in a job?”
Why did you leave your last job, and what have you been doing since then? It isn’t really unusual for highly competent people to find themselves unemployed through no fault of their own. Try to get specific, factual answers that you can verify later.
Who was your best boss ever and why? Who was the worst, and looking back, what could you have done to make that relationship better? These answers give you insight into how the candidate views and responds to supervision.
Which do you enjoy the most: working alone with information or working with other people? An excellent candidate might say the different perspectives within a group produce more innovative ideas than one person working alone can, but without information, a team can’t get very far.
What sort of things do you think your current (past) company could do to be more successful? You’re probing to find out whether the candidate has a clear understanding of his or her current or past employer’s missions and goals and whether he or she thinks in terms of those goals.
Can you describe a typical day at work in your last job? See how the applicant’s current (or most recent) routine compares with the requirements of the job in question.
What sort of work environment do you prefer? What brings out your best performance? Probe for specifics. You want to find out whether this person is going to fit into your company.
How do you handle conflict? Can you give me an example of how you handled a workplace conflict in the past? You want candidates who try to be reasonable but nonetheless stand up for what’s right.
How would you respond if you were put in a situation you felt presented a conflict of interest or was unethical? Have you ever had this experience in previous positions? No rational candidate today is going to say that sometimes it’s okay to be unethical. But how individuals approach this question can offer valuable insights.
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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/fifteen-questions-to-ask-at-a-job-interview.html
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