Jessica Miller-MerrellThe interviewing process is the single most important part of candidate selection; yet it’s often overlooked. Interviewing is your opportunity to put your candidate in the hot seat, see them work under pressure, learn more about their personality, and see how he or she may integrate into your organization.
Asking the right questions to the interviewee will address your concerns and needs to make the right hire. The right interview questions will create good knowledge for the issues that you need to answer yourself: Can this candidate do the job? And if so, how will the candidate do the job? Is that how what my team needs?
From my years of experience, here are some effective interview questions that can be used for most any position:
- Tell me about a time when you worked with little supervision.
- How do you structure your work week and daily tasks? How do you determine what is important?
- Tell me about a recent failure. How did you handle it and what did you learn?
- Is technology a part of your everyday life? How are you using these tools to make your life and your co-worker’s lives easier?
- What do you like least about your last boss? How did he challenge you?
- Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond in your work.
Avoid interview questions like, “Tell me where you see yourself in 5 years?” According to a 2010 the Department of Labor study, the average employee has a company tenure of 4.1 years. If a candidate answered honestly, they’d tell you, “I don’t know.” General questions like, “Why are manhole covers round?” aren’t effective and don’t get to the heart of the matter, which is for candidates to verbally demonstrate their areas of expertise, and ability to be a good fit within the company culture.
Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a HR consultant, new media strategist, and author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. Jessica is the host of Job Search Secrets, an internet television show for job seekers.
Photo Credit Marvin Delavega
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