JULY
1999
The
10 Best Questions to Ask a Job Candidate
(Plus a Postscript About "Phone Screens")
IT’S
THE "MAIN EVENT" – the face-to-face interview
– at which new careers will be launched or left at the
dock. The employer is deciding whether to extend a job offer,
while the candidate is deciding whether to accept one if offered.
What
next? All to often, the interview proceeds as follows:
Interviewer
– I see you graduated from Yale.
Candidate
– Yes, great school.
Interviewer
-- And your pharmaceutical experience includes eight years
with Eli Lilly?
Candidate
– Nine, actually. Then on to Pfizer.
Interviewer
– Well, we’re not yet as large as those two firms,
so everyone has to wear lots of hats. Do you mind long hours?
Candidate
– Not at all. I always do whatever it takes…
This
is clearly an interview that’s going nowhere, totally
unexciting and stuck in an endless loop of resume verification
and leading questions. Indeed, no effort is required to conduct
it. By contrast, great interviews require a clear understanding
of what information the interviewer hopes to obtain –
and what kinds of questions will produce the intended results.
Here
are ten that do an especially good job of revealing what makes
a candidate tick:
1. Tell
me a little about yourself. Few people anticipate
this disarming request, which causes them to think on their
feet, decide what information they want to convey and organize
a concise response. Non-threatening and open-ended, it makes
a good first question.
2. In
your current job, who is the person you report to
– and what are his or her responsibilities? By asking
candidates to define the boss’s duties, you have made
it more difficult for them to exaggerate their own scope of
responsibility.
3. I’ve
read the various accomplishments you’ve cited on your
resume. But if you had to pick the single greatest contribution
you have made to an employer, what would that be? Many
books on resume writing encourage laundry lists of achievements
– e.g., increased production by 23 percent, reduced
scrap by 15 percent, etc. This question is designed to elicit
how the candidate views his or her true impact on organizational
performance.
4. All
of us have a combination of strengths and weaknesses. Can
you tell me a shortcoming that affected your work performance
and what you did to address it? It’s one thing
to know that one is too demanding of others (or whatever the
shortcoming is). More important, faced with that insight,
was the candidate able to modify personal behavior in a way
that ameliorated the problem?
5. If
I were to ask your fellow workers to describe you, what would
they say? This question, along with number 4, is
based on a relatively new concept known as "Emotional
Intelligence" – which measures self-awareness,
particularly in dealing with other people. If you ask it,
get beyond the glib response and dig a little, i.e., "What
else would they say?"
6. Like
people, companies are a mix of strengths and weaknesses. What
are some of the things your present company could do to be
more successful? Strong managers have to deal with
organizational effectiveness in all of its complexities. This
question is a good predictor of how the candidate would function
in your organization. Look for responses that address a wide
range of issues – people, products, processes and markets.
7. Tell
me about some of the people you’ve hired in recent years,
how they’ve worked out and what you did with any poor
performers. In addition to a candidate with good
self-awareness, you want a candidate with sound insights into
others. How does the interviewee go about hiring people, evaluating
them and taking corrective action?
8. What
risks have you taken in your current job, and what were the
results? There’s an old adage, "If you
haven’t crashed and burned a few times, you haven’t
flown high enough." Well, maybe. There are three categories
of risk-takers: those who take foolish risks, those who take
prudent risks and those who are risk-aversive. Most likely,
you are seeking the individual who is not afraid to take prudent
risks – particularly of high magnitude. Give extra points
to the candidate who mentions a failure as well as a success.
9. When
you have the kind of "drop-everything" crisis at
work, what techniques do you use to enlist the help of others?
Various people have various management styles, ranging from
dictatorial ("Call your wife and tell her you’ll
be working all night") to beseeching ("Do you think
it would be possible to stay a bit late and help out?")
Look for the style that will best fit your corporate culture.
By the way, the shrewdest answer to this question is probably,
"We have such a close-knit team that has worked on such
a wide range of challenges, I don’t even have to ask.
Everyone knows instinctively when it’s time for the
tough to get going."
10. Setting
aside compensation and perks (which we’d all like to
have more of), what changes or improvements in your current
work situation would make the job so attractive that you wouldn’t
want to leave? This very good last question accomplishes
three distinct goals. First, it identifies those work-related
values – title, responsibility, opportunity to manage
others, professional growth, advancement, recognition, geographic
location, community resources, family time, flexible hours,
etc. – that the candidate holds to be important but
finds lacking in the current job. Second, if you decide to
offer that person the position, you know which attributes
of the new job that you and your search consultant should
emphasize – and which to steer away from. And, third,
if the successful candidate receives a counter-offer upon
resignation, you can remind the individual – in his
or her own words – of the current situation’s
shortcomings, most or all of which will still exist.
One small word of warning: These and similar questions need
to be asked but once during the day; more often is counter-productive.
Therefore, take the time to convene the interviewing panel
in advance and decide who will ask which questions.
P.S. Do "Phone Screens" Serve a Purpose?
Clients
sometimes ask Sanford Rose Associates what we think of their
screening potential candidates by telephone before extending
an invitation for a face-to-face interview.
If a
search consultant is performing his or her job and presenting
only those highly qualified candidates who merit an on-site
visit, the phone screen is unnecessary. Nonetheless, some
companies insist upon phone screens as part of the interview
process, for financial and other reasons.
If you
need to do a phone screen, remember that you can only make
a first impression once. Accordingly, turn it into a sales
call as well as mini-interview: "Hi, this is John Doe
from Acme Widgets. I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce
myself … tell you a few things about Acme and the position
opening we have … and learn a little about your background
and needs."
Unless
the conversation goes poorly (for example, the candidate is
interested only in the salary you pay), make the process one
of "including in" – not "excluding out."
Explore why the candidate has shown preliminary interest in
the position and explain some of the career benefits it offers.
Work toward scheduling the full-blown interview. There will
be time later to determine if the individual is a perfect
fit.
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