At some point in your career, you will hopefully be expected to interview and hire employees. And from your first job until your last, you will CERTAINLY be interviewed many times yourself! One of the best ways to get better at being interviewed is to think about the process from the other side of the desk, so-to-speak. So before we talk about what you should do when YOU are getting interviewed for a position, let’s think about the process of interviewing a potential new hire.
Job Postings
Most people will discover that you are hiring for a particular position based on an online job posting. Online job searches are a valuable resource (though word of mouth and networking are much more valuable!). If you are in charge of writing a job posting to advertise a job your company is looking to fill, you are going to have to be politically-sensitive and use language that can’t be interpreted as offensive or discriminatory on any level. Make sure to follow these guidelines:
- Avoid gender-specific titles and other language. Instead, use gender-neutral language or gender-inclusive language. For example, for a position that involves waiting on tables, use “server,” both “waiter” and “waitress,” or “waitstaff.” Do not use just “waiter” or just “waitress.”
- Avoid references to groups of people that imply age, race, color, religion, gender, national origin, physical traits, disabilities, sexual orientation, or other traits that do not relate to job function. For example, instead of advertising a position that is good for “homemakers,” “retirees,” or “students,” advertise the hours or seasonality of the job.
- Focus on the actual skills, knowledge, and abilities needed on the job. For example, instead of advertising a position as a “man’s job;’ state the actual requirement, such as “must be able to lift 75 pounds.”
Narrowing the field: Screening Interviews and Checking References
It is not unheard of for many, MANY people to apply for a single publicly advertised position. Obviously, you can’t talk to 250 people about each position you need to fill – there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for you to personally interview each and every person! We have to narrow the field of potential candidates.
Often, employers will hold a screening interview – sort of a pre-interview interview – to shrink the number of applicants for a particular job. A screening interview is a super-short discussion to find out if an applicant meets the basic requirements to be considered for the job. Screening helps save time and money on more extensive interviewing. Screening interviews can happen in person or by phone and are simply a means of seeing if it’s worth anyone’s time moving forward. This is a good opportunity to carefully read the potential employee’s application and/or resume. Once the hiring professional has determined that someone meets the basic criteria of the position, it’s time to move to the next step: checking references.
Before the actual interview, you should also check your job applicants’ references. Why? It is not unheard of for applicants to just…. make stuff up. They might put companies on their application that they never worked for, or say that they worked in ONE position when they actually held quite a different job, or report that they worked for company (when in reality, they were there for such a short period of time that the experience is irrelevant). They might have been terminated from that position or left without giving proper notice. Remember, if they treated their LAST job with disregard, the chances are high that they will treat their NEW job with the same lack of respect. If they were terminated from their last position under mysterious circumstances.. you need to follow up.
The standard question to ask a reference is: ”Would you hire this person again?” Often, companies will only reveal that someone has worked for their company, the times and dates of employment, and the title of their position with the company. Companies have been sued for revealing too much information about a former employee that resulted in the person being denied a new job… so they have gotten very careful. If the references are willing to talk to you, you can definitely ask if they would hire the person again. If they seem talkative, ask about candidates’ reliability and attitudes toward work.
Getting ready for the interview
Since interviews can cover potentially private information, they should be held in a private, quiet area. It is a good best practice for interviewers to arrange for the interview to be uninterrupted (to the best of their ability). Few things make a company look worse or more unprofessional than the hiring manager answering a string of phone calls, responding to emails, or fielding constant interruptions while interviewing a candidate.
Interview Questions: The bad, the really bad, the good, and the great
Remember, an interview is a discussion: a series of questions that are designed to get information about a potential employee’s suitability to a particular position, the company’s culture and ethos, and the team with which they will be working. Interview questions are incredibly important! There are good questions to ask and many, many BAD questions that will not provide the information you need and worse, may even be illegal. The rest of this post is all about avoiding the bad ones and focusing on the good.
Every flavor of bad interview question
Ask shallow, unimportant, close-ended questions and you will make it harder to find the most qualified people. A close-ended question is one where the answer can be given in a single word, usually “yes,” “no,” or a number. Open-ended questions, on the other hand, encourage the applicant to talk about themselves and require thought – giving the interviewer important information and valuable insight. Close-ended questions are not always bad – but if you ask too many close-ended questions. you can end up with little knowledge about your candidate to go on.
Here are a few close-ended questions which aren’t necessarily bad, just very shallow.
- “How many years did you work for your last employer?”
- “Have you ever worked in a different industry?”
- “What’s the longest you’ve worked for any employer?”
- “In your last job, did you work with people of various ethnicities?”
- “Do you like working on a team?”
These aren’t bad questions, per se… just time wasters and mostly irrelevant.
Leading questions
On the other hand, some close-ended questions are actually terrible. They are called “leading questions” because the question itself “leads” the person being interviewed to giving the “right” answer. They are sometimes also called “soft-balls” because they are seen as so easy the applicant can’t possibly get them wrong. Don’t ask softball questions like these:
- “You know a lot about team building, don’t you?”
- “I bet you’re good at setting long-term goals. Right?”
- “Is this a job that interests you?”
Common Bad Questions
Some interviewers ask questions they THINK are good open-ended questions but which are actually pretty awful. The following questions are really common (so you should be ready to answer them), but if you are in charge of interviewing, avoid these like the plague:
“Tell me about yourself.”
- Too vague. “I really love flannel shirts,” is an acceptable answer to this stupid question. “Interviews give me hives, so excuse me as I itch,” is equally acceptable.
“What was the most traumatic experience to happen in your personal life?”
- Too invasive. This has nothing to do with any job and based on how the candidate answers, may even be illegal.
“What’s your biggest weakness? What’s your biggest strength?”
- Basically asking the applicant to make up lies. This is another common and overused question. The intention is to ask the candidate to give themselves constructive criticism, but the result is usually a canned response that doesn’t provide any real value to the interview process. And whatever they say… it’s probably untrue. Lies.
“How does your experience relate to this job?”
- If the candidate is sitting in front of you for an interview, you should already know the answer to that question. This question shows you either didn’t read the candidate’s resume or didn’t take the time to prepare useful questions. Both of these send the signal that you don’t value the candidate or their time.
“I’m interviewing other candidates for this role. Why should I hire you?”
- Arrogant much? You are trying to get the best employees to WANT to work for you. You should be talking good workers into coming to your company, not challenging them to “prove” they’re good enough for you.
Just weird
There’s a related class of bad questions: the weirdo, out-of-the-box, what-are-you-even-THINKING-about question. Some interviewers believe if they ask something really odd, they will get to see how the applicant thinks on their feet. Or perhaps they believe that by asking something REALLY OUT THERE, they will get the person being interviewed off-balance enough they will say something they otherwise wouldn’t share.
These people are wrong.
Weirdo questions are just that: odd, off-putting, and unprofessional. Don’t ask questions like these:
- If you could be Batman or Robin, which one would you be? (or) If you could be any tree, which would you be and why?
- What professional or college team do you root for? Why them?
- Cats or dogs? Which are better and why?
- Why on earth are you here today? (or) What is your life’s purpose? (or) Do you believe in destiny?
- Sing a song that best describes you. (or) You have ten minutes to memorize and recite this poem.
- When you go on vacation, when do you pack your suitcase? (or) What is your ideal hotel? (or) Where do you want to retire?
- What would I find in your fridge right now? (or) What’s your favorite food? (or) What would you like as your last meal?
- If Hollywood made a movie about your life, what would the title be? (or) Whom would you like to see play YOU as the lead role?
- How would you design a spice rack for a blind person?
- Sell me this glass of water.
- Why are manhole covers round? (or) How many balloons would fit in this room? (or) If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?
Not just bad… cost-you-money, get-you-in-trouble, ILLEGAL bad questions
Sometimes, asking bad questions can get you into legal trouble. Why? You can’t ask people about things which might result in discriminatory hiring practices. The process of selecting and interviewing applicants is strictly regulated by laws that protect the civil rights of job applicants. Not only do you need to have hiring practices which protect these civil rights (including the kinds of questions you ask), you ALSO have to keep good records that prove you observed those laws if you are ever challenged.
Here’s a basic rule-of-thumb: all hiring and interviewing practices must be fair and directly related to the job.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and other government agencies enforce a number of laws that ensure everyone, regardless of race, age, gender, religion, national origin, color, or ability/disability, gets a fair chance at any job opening. To avoid charges of discrimination, or accidentally/ on purpose making a decision based on prejudice, employers should use identical application forms and tests for everyone who applies for the same job. Job applicants should be asked the same kinds of questions in interviews, and each one should receive the same information about the job and the organization.
It’s kind of like taking a standardized test in high school: everyone gets the same information at the beginning. They get the same questions. They get the same amount of time. It’s what they DO with that information that counts. It’s the same with interviewing potential employees: everyone needs to get the SAME treatment. This is especially true in the questions you can ask.
Employers cannot ask about the following things in an interview:
- Race
- Age
- Religion
- Gender
- Sexual orientation
- Parents’ names
- Birthplace (or birthplace of parents)
- National origin or ethnic background
- Former name or maiden name
- Prior arrests (arrests are not convictions; there is no proof that the applicant is guilty of a crime)
- Marital status or any other information about a spouse
- Children, plans to have children, or childcare arrangements
- Disabilities an applicant might have unless it has a direct bearing on job performance
- Height, weight, hair color, or other questions about an applicant’s physical characteristics, unless the information is directly relevant to doing the job
Some hiring managers have tried to get around these laws by asking variations on the prohibited topics. They always get in trouble eventually… so don’t ask these either:
- “Where do you live? What’s your address?”
- “What country are you from?”
- “What is your current salary?”
- “What year were you born? What year did you graduate?”
- “Are you married? Pregnant? How many kids do you have? What are your child care arrangements?”
- “Do you observe any religious holidays?”
- “Do you have a disability?”
Good Open-ended Questions – Applicant Skills and History
With all of these BAD questions, it may seem like there aren’t any good ones and you should just quit trying, hire everybody who applies, and hope for the best. Never fear. There are some really GOOD questions you should ask of nearly every candidate. Here are a sampling of some of the best:
- Discuss two skills you developed at your previous job.
- What steps do you take when solving a problem?
- What area of your work skills do you most want to improve?
- How do you define “hard work” in the workplace?
- How would your colleagues describe your work habits?
- What do you know about our company, and why do you want to work here?
- What can you tell me about your current (or former) job?
- What could your current company do to be more successful?
- Why do you plan on leaving your current job?
- How would your coworkers describe you?
- How would your boss describe you?
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
- How do you manage the stress of deadlines or the pressure to complete a task by a specific time?
- How do you like to be managed?
- Have you applied for any other positions/ had any other interviews lately?
- When can you start?
- Do you have any questions for me?
We would not be remiss if we didn’t talk about an important category: the open-ended questions specifically asked of students:
- If we hire you, how long do you think you would be able to work here?
- What is your availability? Will you be able to work extra hours during breaks and when school is not in session?
- What are your favorite subjects in school? Why?
- What subject do you find most difficult?
- What after school or extra-curricular activities do you participate in? What about these particular clubs, sports, or organizations do you like?
- Are you involved in any community service projects or obligations? Why did you pick this particular organization? How long have you been doing it and what has it meant to you to give back this way?
- What are your plans after graduation? Do you plan to continue your education?
- How many days of school or work did you miss during the last year?
Situational Questions – Soft Skills and Job-Specific Skills
Sometimes, the best way to figure out whether an applicant is the right person to hire (especially if you are on the fence about whether they are a good fit or not) is to ask situational questions. Situational questions follow the “Tell me a time…” format, and are basically inviting the applicant to tell a story that reveals whether they have the skills necessary to be successful at the job.
Soft Skills
Soft skills are shorthand for all of the personal characteristics, traits and interpersonal behaviors that determine how well someone will perform at a job. Soft skills include values (like work ethic, dependability), attitude (negative vs. positive, confident vs. hesitant), and interpersonal skills (team worker, customer-oriented, good communication).
What are the top 15 soft skills recruiters and hiring managers are looking for? Glad you asked.
| Strong Work Ethic Time Management Detail-Oriented Dependable Decision Making | Steady Under Pressure Problem Solving Positive Attitude Communication Self-Motivated | Customer Service Team Oriented Confidence Critical Thinking Flexibility |
Excellent applicants will answer “tell me a time,” situation-based interview questions using a problem–solution–benefit style of response. Good answers follow a predictable pattern:
- The problem they faced
- The solution they came up with
- The benefit to their employer.
Here are some situational questions you may want to use with applicants to discover their range of soft skills:
- In your most recent role, was there a time when you had to overcome a significant challenge?
- What’s the most interesting project you’ve worked on in a past position?
- Can you tell me about a time when you had a disagreement with a boss or colleague?
- Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for work.
- Tell me about a time you had to choose something else over doing a good job.
- Describe a situation where you saw a problem and took steps to fix it.
- Describe a situation where you had to make a good impression on a customer. How did you do it?
Job Skills
There is second type of situational question interviewers often ask, one which relates to a specific job skill.
Here, the interviewer wants to know if the applicant has the SPECIFIC experience necessary to do the job and will require only limited training before being able to working independently. To develop a list of job skill situational questions, simply take the job description and identify all the necessary skills: specific equipment, technology, techniques, etc that are requirements for the position. Then turn the skill into a “tell me a time when you…” style question.
Excellent applicants will be ready for this one. They will:
- Understand the skills necessary for the position
- Be able to describe a time they used each skill (or) tell a story about a problem they discovered in a past position and how they used this particular skill to solve it.
- Talk about how the company benefited from their expertise: dollars saved, revenue earned, time saved, customer satisfaction increased, etc.