12 Interview Questions That Will Reveal the
Very Best Candidates
If you’re not getting exceptional
hires, it may be because your traditional interview process is simply not
designed to excite them.
Instead of dwelling on the past, a
superior alternative is to ask them to solve real problems, and to demonstrate
that they are forward-looking and that they have solutions for the future.
Top candidates routinely dislike standard interviews because they find them tedious and predictable. Most
interviews are simply not designed to allow a top candidate to show off their
capabilities, ideas, and innovation.
As a result, if you are recruiting
for a mission-critical job that requires an exceptional hire, you simply cannot
afford to bore top candidates with standard interview questions.
The
weakness in interview questions
One of the weaknesses is that the
interview questions that are typically used focus on historical situations that
occurred at another firm. But what you need to know is how this individual will
perform now at your firm. That requires getting them to demonstrate how they
will solve the problems that they will face in your job.
Most typical questions have already
been anticipated and practiced for by the interviewee to the point that their
answers are not authentic. So if you’re going to interview top professionals,
here are 12 questions to select from that I have found will quickly reveal
which one of your exceptional applicants is the very best.
The 12 questions I have provided
here are broken into four distinct categories. In this article, they are
presented as interview questions, but they can also be provided in a
questionnaire format, which can give candidates more time to think, while
simultaneously saving some of a hiring manager’s valuable time.
A
– Questions relating to identifying, solving real problems
These questions are known as content
questions, and they are usually determined to be valid because they actually
reflect the content of the job. In addition, they allow the candidate to show
off their skills in problems solving. If you agree that the best hires are
those who can first identify problems accurately and then are able to solve
them, these questions can be effective.
The following three questions work
best if you pre-test them on a current top performer to ensure that they can
quickly understand the problem and that they can in a short period of time
outline a solution to it.
1. How will you identify problems
and opportunities on the job? “The
best new hires rapidly seek to identify problems that must be quickly addressed
in their new job. So, please walk us through the steps of the process that you
will actually use during your first weeks to identify the most important
current issues/problems, as well as any possible positive opportunities in your
new job.”
2. Can you identify the likely
problems in this process? “Our
employees should be able to quickly identify problems in our existing
processes, systems, or products. So please look over this outline of one of our
processes and identify the top three areas or points where you predict that
serious problems are likely to occur?” (Hand them a single page showing an
existing process or system related to this job that you already know to have
flaws).
3. Solve a real problem that you
will face. “Because we need to know your
capability for solving the actual problems you will face in this job, we would
like to see how you will go about solving a real problem. “Please walk us
through the broad steps that you would take in order to solve this problem that
will be on your desk on your first day.” (Then hand them a half sheet with
bullet points outlining the existing problem).
B
– Questions that show you are forward looking
If your firm operates in a
fast-evolving environment, you will need employees who are forward looking and
who anticipate and plan for the future. These questions can tell you if your
candidate meets those requirements.
4. Forecast the evolution of this
job. “Because our jobs
constantly change and evolve, being forward-looking is critical if you are to
be successful. So please project or forecast at least five different ways that
the job you are applying for will likely change and evolve over the next three
years as a result of business changes, technology changes, and a faster, more
innovative environment.”
5. Forecast the evolution of this
industry. “Because we operate in a
fast-changing industry, our employees should be forward-looking, and anticipate
and plan ahead for those industry changes. So, please tell us how often you sit
down and focus on the future of our industry? Next, please forecast and project
five trends in our industry and forecast how the top firms will likely have to
change over the next three to five years as a result of these business changes,
new technology, and the need for increased speed and innovation.”
C
– Questions about a candidate’s ability to innovate, adapt, learn
Many times our best hires are those
who are rapid continuous learners, those who are adaptable, and those who can
innovate. If you want to assess these factors, consider asking these questions.
6. Show us how you would be a
continuous learning expert. “Rapid
learning is essential in our fast moving company and industry. So please select
an important subject matter area in this job where you will need to
continuously be on the bleeding edge of knowledge. Then show us in some detail
how you will initially learn and then maintain your expert status.”
(Alternatively you can ask how they maintained their expert status in their
current job).
7. Show us your adaptability when
dramatic change is required. “In
the fast changing, chaotic, and volatile environment we operate under, everyone
and every process should be adaptable. So please show us how you would adapt to
this situation that may occur in this job (provide them with a possible major
change that requires adaptivity in this job) by walking us through the steps of
how you would adapt to it.” (Alternatively you can ask, “Please show us
a situation in your current job during the last year that required you to
change rapidly and adapt with a completely different approach. Tell us the name
of the situation that required this significant adaptiveness and then walk us
through the steps of how you and your team successfully adapted.”)
8. Show us how you will
innovate. “Our firm is focused on
innovation, so we need to know if each new hire has the capability of
innovating. So please select a single important area in this job and walk us
through the steps as to how you might innovate in that area during your first
year?” (As an alternative, you can ask them to select an area in their
previous job and then to walk through the steps on how that innovation was
created and implemented, and what their role was in each step.)
D
– Help us better understand you
Some interview questions that relate
to individuals’ competencies or preferences can be improved by requiring the
candidate to rank their answers from most important to least important. In
order to ensure that you successfully “sell” a top candidate, the most valuable
question covers the decision factors that they will use to accept this job.
Other questions where ranked answers
are superior in revealing their preferences involve their motivators, their
strengths, and the best ways to manage them.
9. List and rank your job acceptance
factors. “We know that you have choices,
so if we make you an offer, we obviously want it to meet your needs. And that
requires knowing what factors that you will use (i.e. pay, job duties, fit
with your manager, levels of responsibility, etc.) to determine if
’our job’ is the right job for you. So if you had a choice between two
offers for your next job, please list the top five factors that you would use
to evaluate and accept the superior job opportunity. Please list them in their
descending order of importance to you.”
10. List and rank your job
motivators. “We want to ensure that we
provide every employee with the right set of motivators. So please list the top
five factors that you have found that best motivate you on the job. Please list
them in their descending order of importance to you.”
11. Tell us the most effective
approaches for managing you. “We
want to ensure that every new employee has the best chance of succeeding. You
can help us to reach that goal by highlighting the most effective ways to
manage you. For each of these how to manage you factors (i.e. feedback,
rewards, closeness of supervision, communications approach, and leadership
style preference), please explain to us the most effective approach for
optimizing your performance.”
12. List and rank the capabilities
that you bring to this job. “It’s
important to fully understand the strengths of each new hire and how they match
the requirements for the job. So, given the four important categories of
knowledge, experience, education, and skills, can you please list in descending
order what you have found to be your strongest five capabilities that will make
you a top performer in the job?” (As an option, if you are concerned about
weaknesses, you can also add this question: “Based on past manager
assessments, 360s, and appraisals, what is the top job-related area where you
need to improve the most, and what actions are you taking to improve in that
area?”)
Final
thoughts
Hiring managers should be aware that
thanks to social media, interview questions are now easily available to the
public. That means that if you work for a major firm, candidates can now
find the actual interview questions (and the best answers) that were previously
asked by hiring managers in any job family at your firm on websites like
Glassdoor.
So if you rely on typical interview
questions, you will likely get fully rehearsed answers.
In contrast, the questions I have
provided here are designed to make rehearsing more difficult. They work best on
sophisticated professionals who know how to identify and solve problems. But
don’t be surprised that if you ask these in-depth questions to an average
candidate, they will respond with a blank look.
Obviously asking good questions is
only the first part of the assessment equation; you must also prepare a range
of answers from great to weak for each question, so that you know in advance
when you hear a great answer. I have developed and used each of these questions
professionally over several decades so I can vouch for their effectiveness.
If you use them, you will find like
I have that top performers and professionals prefer these types of questions
over the mundane “tell-me-about-yourself” questions that they normally get.
Whether you use my questions or develop your own, these types of questions are
superior because they are focused on 1) real problems, 2) this job, and 3) your
firm.
Dr. John Sullivan http://www.tlnt.com/2013/04/02/12-interview-questions-that-will-reveal-the-very-best-candidates/
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