 102 Questions To Accelerate Your Hiring Process
Sample Interview Questions For Candidates Via E-Mail
Thank you once again for your interest in the position of _____________________________ with _______________________.
As outlined in a summary of our hiring process, please find a few questions below. Please send your answers to my attention, by ________________________________.
1. What aspect of the job posting interested you the most?
2. What are you looking for in your next position?
3. Of all the work you have done, where have you been most successful? Why?
4. Where have you been the most fulfilled? Why?
5. What personal qualities do you think are necessary to make a success of this position?
6. What would you say are the broad responsibilities of this position?
7. What is your ideal office environment?
8. What is your preferred style of working?
9. (example – deadlines, fast pace, predictable, organized)
10. What would you change about your current job, or your most recent job?
11. What aspects of it do you like the least?
12. What do you like the most?
Sample Interview Questions For Candidates Via The Telephone
Ability/Suitability
1. Where do you see yourself professionally in 2 years?
2. What are you looking for in your next position?
3. What aspects of your last job gave you the most enjoyment?
4. What aspects of your last job caused you the most problems?
5. Tell me about a time when the boss was absent and you had to make a decision.
Flexibility/Stress
1. How many projects can you handle at a time?
2. How do you prioritize your projects?
Planning/Organization
1. Describe your method for keeping track of important matters.
2. How do you plan your day?
Teamwork
1. How do you establish a working relationship with new people?
2. What kind of people do you like to work with?
3. What kind of people do you dislike to work with?
Manageability
1. How would your boss get the best out of you?
2. How would you get the best out of your boss?
3. How do you react to criticism?
4. How do you take direction?
5. Tell me about the kind of rewards that make you feel adequately recognized for your contributions.
6. Do you have any personal commitments that I should be aware of?
7. What can you do for us that someone else cannot do?
8. What special characteristics should I consider about you as a person? OR
9. Is there anything else that you would like me to know?
Sample Interview Questions For Candidates Via Live Interview
Opening Questions
1. Tell me about yourself. (It’s an open ended request, designed to elicit insight into what kind of a person the candidate is.)
2. Why are you looking for a job? Why are leaving your current position?
3. What unique experience or qualifications separate you from other candidates?
Career Path
1. Where do you see yourself six months from now?
2. Where do you see yourself a year or two from now?
3. What job would you like to work toward in our company?
4. If you could have any job in our company, which would it be?
5. How do you define a successful career?
6. How will this job help you reach your long-term and career goals?
Level of Interest
1. What do you know about our organization and industry?
Motivation
2. Give a specific example of how you have worked independently and under pressure to get the job done and meet a deadline.
3. Tell me what you have studied and learned to improve the understanding of your last position.
4. Give examples of how you manage your time and make decisions.
5. In a situation when your manager is unavailable, how have you proceeded with a project when all the information is not readily available to you?
6. Provide me with an example of where you have had to isolate yourself from co-workers in the office to focus and complete a project with a deadline.
7. Explain the benefits of working independently, or working collectively as a team. What situation do you prefer and why?
Environment – looking for a candidate who enjoys working in a smaller office setting with
an entrepreneurial spirit.
1. What is your ideal work environment?
Ability, Suitability
1. What would you change about your current job?
2. How do you handle repetitive tasks?
3. What are you looking for in your next job?
4. What are the personal qualities this job demands?
5. What aspects of your job do you consider the most crucial?
Willingness
1. What role do you play in ensuring a smooth working environment when your boss is away?
2. What have you done to go beyond the call of duty to get a job done?
Flexibility
1. What type of people do you get along with the best?
2. How many projects can you handle at a time?
3. How do you prioritize your projects?
4. When have you rescheduled your time to accommodate an unexpected workload?
Teamwork
1. How do you handle conflict?
2. Have you ever worked with a group like this before?
3. How do you establish a working relationship with new people?
4. Tell me how you see your responsibilities as a group member.
5. Have you ever had to stifle your normal behaviour to get along with someone?
6. How do you define a conducive work atmosphere?
Manageability
1. How does your boss get the best out of you?
2. What do you think of your current boss?
3. Describe the best manager you ever had. Describe the worst manager you ever had.
4. Tell me about the kind of rewards that make you feel adequately recognized for your contributions.
5. How could your boss do a better job?
6. In what ways has your boss contributed to your reasons for leaving your job?
Planning, Organization
1. Describe your method for keeping track of important matters.
2. How do you plan your day?
3. How would you plan for a major project?
4. Do you set goals for yourself?
Assertiveness
1. Sometimes it is difficult to know when to quit. Describe an experience in which you were too persistent / not
persistent enough. What happened?
2. What was the most difficult interpersonal situation you encountered in this position? How did you handle
this?
3. How have you gotten around obstacles that prevented you from completing projects? Describe an obstacle and what you did to get around it.
Attention to Detail
1. Describe a situation or process that required your close attention to detail or adherence to prescribed procedures. Give an example when your close attention paid off.
2. It can be difficult to attend to every detail of an assignment. Tell me about a time when this happened to you.
Follow Up
1. Have you ever followed up on tasks and activities that had specific due dates? Tell me about one of these situations.
2. How do you make sure that your company meets due dates for vendors or consultants? Tell me about a specific situation.
3. Have you ever needed to contact vendors to check the status of files? Tell me about one of these situations.
4. How do you make sure that due dates are met for work that you send out? Give some examples.
5. What systems do you use to keep track of what’s going on with case files? Tell me how you’ve used one of these systems.
Judgment
1. Describe some recent work related problems and the decision you made to solve them.
2. Think of a recent decision you made that was good and one that wasn’t as good. What did you do differently in making these decisions?
Initiative
1. What changes have you tried to implement in your area of responsibility? What have you done to get them under way?
2. What has been your biggest achievement at _________________? What steps did you take to achieve it?
Decisiveness
1. Describe a time when you had to make a decision when you really would have preferred more information.
2. Occasionally, most of us have had to make quick decision. Tell me about some of your quick decisions, and the outcomes.
Resilience
1. How have you reacted to criticism from your manager? Give an example.
2. How have you reacted to customers’ criticism of your products or services? Give an example.
Integrity
1. It is often easy to blur the distinction between confidential information and public knowledge.
2. Have you ever been faced with this?
3. What did you do?
Closing Questions
1. What are your salary requirements?
2. Why are you interested in this position? Our company?
3. What would your former boss/colleagues say about you? |
