Monday, December 14, 2009

5 of My Favorite Interview Questions

I like to interview candidates. I enjoy meeting people, sharing my passion about my Company and learning about past careers, companies and experiences. I'm very conversational and relaxed in my interviews and they usually run a little long because of that. My favorite part of the interview is when it's the candidate's turn to asks me questions. Little do candidates know that I am not only evaluating them based upon their answers to my questions, but I'm also evaluating them based upon the depth and choice of their questions. For example, I am looking for a sales candidate to ask me about the sales support available, CRM, marketing, training and metrics - not about expense accounts. Bonus points if you ask to meet another sales person.

'Tis the season of giving, so I'm giving you a few of my favorite interview questions and what they are intended to explore.

1. Why did you join the Company and why did you stay? (Retention!)

2. Describe your favorite manager. (Culture, Leadership and Management)

3. Tell me about your ideal next position. (Actual vs. Desired Position)

4. Tell me about one of your professional failures. What did you learn? (Overcoming obstacles.)

5. What is your biggest strength? Where would you like to improve? (Focusing on improvements, Self-awareness and Development)


I'd love to hear about your favorite interview questions in the comments below!
Posted by at 4:29 AM

4 comments:

  1. I always like to ask #2 - Tell me about the best Boss you've worked for (and why), as well as the opposite - Tell me aobut the worst Boss you've worked for and what made that person the worst (in your opinion).

    I find I get some of the most revealing answers from people in terms of culture fit and whether or not they will be successful in working with the hiring manager from these two questions!
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  2. I don't do many interviews, but I always thought that asking about how the candidate functions in team settings, by maybe giving examples of positive and negative outcomes in these kinds of projects to be pretty interesting and revealing.
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  3. Thanks for your comments, Jennifer and Steve!
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  4. The questions that give me the most information are:

    What did you like about the last (or current) job you had?

    Why are you looking to leave? (or left?) If its a layoff I always follow up with Were you happy with your job when you were layed off? or Were you surprised by the layoff?

    It usually gives me a sense of the employee's motivators.

    And I haven't been wrong in a long time.
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