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Recruiting? : Ensure You Ask the Right Questions
RECRUITING? ENSURE YOU ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.
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Below is a carefully selected number of interview questions for
your hiring process. The headings will assist you in deciding
which to chose. Most of the questions are ones which lead to
other questions which you can begin with a "why?" "when?" "
where?" "what ?"
OPENING QUESTIONS
Tell me about your greatest strengths? What would be the
greatest asset you'll bring to our company? What is your
greatest weakness? How do you plan to resolve it? Tell me about
the favourite job you have held, and what role did your boss
play in making it so? What was your least favourite job you have
held, and what role did your supervisor play in making it so?
Tell me about your expectations of this job? What are you
looking for? Give me a Brief History of .... (the interviewee)
Tell me what you know about this company? Why are you here? What
can you do for us? What kind of a person are you? How do your
colleagues (or supervisor) describe you? Can we afford you? What
attracted you to this job? Is your resume completely accurate?
KNOWLEDGE and SKILLS RELATED QUESTIONS
What do you think are the broad responsibilities of this job
that you are applying for? What particular knowledge and skills
would you bring to the job? What aspects of your current/last
job do you consider most useful? most important? How will the
knowledge and skills learned and developed in your present/last
job benefit our company? What area of your skills (knowledge,
attitudes) do you still need to improve upon? What is your time
schedule for accomplishing this? What workplace attitudes do you
consider most beneficial in the work you do? Why did you leave
your last job? or, why do you want to leave your current job?
What are your weaknesses? What did your previous boss see as
your shortcomings? What skills do you have relating to ....(the
topic)? What technical skills do you think you have? What skills
do you lack? How long would it take you to come fully up to
speed if you were to get this job?
CAREER KNOWLEDGE & SELF-KNOWLEDGE RELATED QUESTIONS
How do you see your career advancing over the next five years?
Why did you chose your present profession ( or trade or line of
work)? Tell us about any time you were laid off? If you don't
get this job, what will you do ? Where do you see yourself in
five years If you were to get this job and if you had your
choice, what would you like to do during the first month?
Describe how you progressed through the ranks and landed in your
current/last position? What will you do if we don't hire you?
How have you reinvented or redefined your current/last job to
meet company needs? What should, or should have been, your next
logical move in progression at your current /last job? Why did
it not transpire? When you retire, what do you most want to be
remembered for? In the ....... industry, layoffs are common even
for outstanding people, have you ever been laid off, and how did
you deal with it (or how would you deal with it if it were to
happen? Why are you considering leaving your present job? What
aspects of your current work do you consider most crucial? What
would you say are the most important features of this job? What
words have work colleagues (or your supervisor)used to describe
you?
CORPORATE CULTURE & VALUES INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
How do you define "Corporate Culture" ? Every company, including
this company, has its dysfunctional quota. How dysfunctional was
your current/last company and how much tolerance do you have for
dealing with its shortcomings? In what kind of corporate culture
do you thrive? If you were to get this job, how would you try to
influence the corporate culture? If you suspect that a colleague
is helping him/herself very liberally to company materials and
supplies repeatedly, what action, if any, do you take?
WORK-RELATED ACHIEVEMENT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
What makes you stand out among your peers? What have you done in
your last/current job to increase your companies top-line
revenues? What have you specifically done to reduce the
companies operating costs? Why should we hire you in preference
to the others we are interviewing for this job? What has been
your most creative achievement in your last/current jo What do
those reporting to you say is your most enduring quality? Tell
me about a project you were involved in, that you consider to be
a great success. What was your involvement and what was the
outcome? Please describe what you consider to be your top three
strengths, and, if possible, tell me how these attributes would
fit into and help our company grow. How long would it take you
to come fully up to speed in this job How much structure,
direction and feedback, do you need to excel?
LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
In regard to managing your staff, do you "expect" more than you
"inspect". Or visa versa? How do you discipline a staff member
who repeatedly comes to work ˝ hr late? How do you deal with a
staff member who is clearly very bright, but spends quite a lot
of time looking for like mind to gossip to? Give us an
Associated Websites
example
of how tough you can be with your staff? Can you give me an
example of a time you were involved in a really highly-efficient
team. What was the project you were jointly working on? What was
your contribution? Can you give me an example of a time you were
involved in a team that didn't work well together and more
importantly, what did you do to try to get the team back on
track?
How do you deal with a chronically problematic person who
nevertheless is productive? How do you typically confront
subordinates where it is necessary? How do you monitor your
staff's performance? What kind of staff behavior gets you really
angry? do you consider intolerable? Tell us of a situation when
you made an unpopular decision; and what were the consequences?
How did you deal with it? How do you go about setting goals for
your employees?
WORK HABITS INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
How do you balance your career with your personal life? How do
you react to overtime work? How do you know when you have done
sufficient work on a project? At what pace do you typically
work? Are you willing to work overtime? Travel on the weekends
so the company can get lower airfares? Have you ever been called
a workaholic? Do you consider yourself a wokaholic? Where are
you on the "work smart....work hard" continuum?
WORKPLACE ATTITUDE QUESTIONS
What is it about clients that make you impatient? What makes you
impatient (mad, angry) about those that report to you? Describe
your persona which is predominant in the workplace? We've all
encountered a difficult client/customer. Can you think of a time
this happened to you and how you dealt with it? Describe a work
situation where you encountered conflict with another employee.
What were the circumstances? How did you resolve the conflict?
What was the outcome? Give us an instance when you behaved at
work in a manner that you latger regretted
CHANGE RELATED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Give us an example of an innovation you initiated to keep
abreast of, or ahead of, changes in the industry How do you
encourage your staff to be innovative and creative, on the one
hand, but to continue being productive on the other hand?
Sometimes change can be radical, dramatic and stressful? If you
have experienced something like this how did you react? How did
you help your staff?
SUPERVISOR RELATED QUESTIONS
Tell us about your last performance appraisal? Did you agree
with your supervisor? How would you go about telling your
supervisor that you disagree with him/her on a serious moral
issue effecting one of your staff members? What do you do if you
know your supervisor has behaved in an unethical or dishonest
manner on an issue affecting the company On what matters do you
agree with your supervisor most often? Disagree? How would your
supervisor grade with your ability to deal with major last
minute changes to a project? How do you communicate with upper
management? Those who report to you?
SALES RELATED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
How do you rank among the other salespeople in terms of your
production? What are the two most objections you face and how do
you deal with them? What one objection do you most dread
getting...and how do you deal with it Role play with me if you
will. Convince me that the product you sell is worth my time and
money. Describe your closing style? How many times in the last 2
years have you failed to reach your quota? What did you do about
it? Tell me about your quality ratios. How many prospects do you
typically meet with before closing a sale? What sales skills do
you consider important in a job like this? Take us through one
of your recent, more complex sale cycles? How would you describe
your sales style? What sales skills do you still lack? Tell me
about a time when your morale was low, and what you did about
it? I personally think that it a waste of time following leads
for more than 3 months? Do you agree? Tell us how you motive
yourself and keep upbeat? What do you dislike about most sales
your conduct? What rewards are most satisfying to you? How do
you plan your typical sales week? What kind of people do you
like to sell to? When you don't meet your sales quota, how do
you deal with it? Sales people have to face rejection as a part
of the process. How do you personally deal with the rejection?
CONCLUDING INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
When can you start working? What benefits do you expect? Are you
having other interviews? What are your salary expectations? In
your professional opinion, how much do you think a job like this
should pay
There is an important caveat to these questions. If you
intuition says : don't ask that question, don't. If you feel you
should ask another question : ask it! The gut never lies!
WHY YOU ARE ABOUT IT, CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE www.ehomebiz.org. You
may find it interesting.
About the author:
Michael Brooke, Ph.D is a retired Dean of Continuing Studies at
the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Trainingworks Inc
is his recruiting and training company. He also has an eBusiness
: Prosperity Automated System which can be accessed at
www.ehomebiz.org. He writes, edits, keeps bees, does stained
glass, loves the Internet and women.
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