Innovative Interview Questions
One of the biggest struggles my clients face is moving past those typical Google suggested interview questions. They want to learn more about the candidates than just skill sets, they want to know who they are, what and who motivates them and how they behave in social and professional settings.
Cultural fit, emotional intelligence and technical skills are all important in finding the right candidate. You want someone who will fit with the team but also bring different ideas, strategic thinking and a diverse skill set so they can actually add value, teach the team new things and learn from the people they work with.
Here are some additional questions to add into your interviews that will help you learn more about your candidates as people not just tools to execute on a set of tasks.
What do you like about your company? What do you wish you could change?
What you’re learning from this is a few things; how they will talk about their current company, how they look at their company and see the value/struggles, learn more about why they are really looking to leave.
Why can’t you change it?
Can they and they haven’t tried or are they going to be able to show you that they’ve tried multiple ways with limited buy in/success.
Why are you successful? Why aren’t you more successful?
This is my favorite question, but you need to have confidence to ask it! In the first part of the question you’ll learn why they think they are successful and get them talking about their accomplishments. Hopefully they will talk about mentors and leaders who helped them along the way. The second part really only has three possible answers;
“I feel like I am growing at the right pace, I have a lot to learn and am enjoying hitting different successes over time” CHECK! They aren’t power hungry and accept that they have things to learn and are still growing
“I would like to be more successful however I had to take a lateral move to gain expertise/growth opportunity and that put me back a few years” CHECK! Any variation of this is fine, things happen, real things (illness, businesses close, started out on a different path) are all real, sharing them with you allows you to understand their path
“Well I would be BUT…so and so did this, and so and so did that” FAIL! You get it…the blame game. Sometimes it’s true people got in their way, but what you’ll find is that when it’s real they can somehow make it work into answer ii. Blamers are the worst, a sophisticated candidate can tell an uncomfortable story without ever blaming anyone.
If you were given $1m in capital what would you do?
This is a great way to get to know what drives them. It doesn’t have to be work related to what you do, don’t judge a dream. I’d open a little bakery and do children’s parties in the back, doesn’t mean I don’t love Recruitment and Talent Management!
What innovative products have come to the market that you were a late adopter to and why?
This is great if you’re in a more innovative business, but even if you’re not, hearing their story about how someone got on board with something after everyone else has is always an interesting story.
What problems do you solve in your current role?
This will give you real insight into what they do and how they can articulate it.
Tell me about a time you had to do something brand new?
What was it? How did they deal with it? Where they successful? Can they laugh about their failures and tell you how they would do it today?
What does a job description mean to you?
Is this a candidate who takes their job description as the word of Gd? Or someone that uses it as a base line to build on? Will this person ever do anything outside their job description?
What’s the most interesting thing about you?
If this question doesn’t make the conversation go off the rails a bit there may not actually be anything interesting about them and I’m a believer in hiring interesting over experience.
What steps have you taken on your own to grow your career?
Do they feel they are in control of their success or rely on others for it…
To quote a fabulous final thought from an article written by Ritika Puri “Emotionally intelligent candidates are also powerful storytellers. In addition to describing a situation, they are well-equipped to analyze what happened, describe their mistakes, and even assess the road not traveled. Seek out candidates who love what they do, while keeping their cool.”