Many business owners find themselves frustrated by the interview process. Finding the right employee, with the skills you need and a personality that meshes well with your other employees can be a daunting task and most business owners feel that they’re basically winging it, groping toward a new hire and hoping for the best.
A lot of that goes away with time and practice. You can’t conduct thousands, or even hundreds of interviews without getting better at it. Unfortunately, it takes time to get hands on experience in that way. The good news is, this article can help! Below, you’ll find some fantastic questions to insert into your current interview process that will help guide you toward the best possible new hire from your candidate pool.
5 Effective Interview Questions
- Tell me about three people whose lives you have changed for the better in some way.
- Tell me about a specific accomplishment you achieved in your last position.
- Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a colleague or manager.
- What goals have you set for yourself in your personal life?
- If you could meet a celebrity right now, who would you be most excited about meeting and why?
1 . The Question: Tell me about three people whose lives you have changed for the better in some way. What would they say if I called them tomorrow to ask about you?
Why It’s Awesome: This feels like a lighthearted question, and in some ways, it is, but it’s also incredibly revealing and will tell you a lot about how they see themselves and provide you with some solid examples of the kinds of positive action they’ve taken in their lives, and the impact that it’s had.
2. The Question: Tell me about a specific accomplishment you achieved in your last position that will shed some light on how you’ll perform in this job?
Why It’s Awesome: Want a quick and easy way to gauge the level of knowledge and expertise that your current interview subject has about the job he or she is applying for? This question will give you that. Plus, it’s a great way to acknowledge real life professional success because everybody enjoys talking about the wins they’ve had.
3. The Question: Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a colleague or manager. How did you deal with it?
Why It’s Awesome: At one point or another, everybody has a workplace disagreement. It happens. If your interview candidate should indicate that they’ve never had one, push back. You really want to have a firm understanding of how your potential new hire copes with disagreements, because sooner or later, they’re sure to happen.
4. The Question: What goals have you set for yourself in your personal life, and what are you doing to achieve them?
Why It’s Awesome: This is a great question on a couple of different levels. First, it gives you some important insights into who they are as a person, and second, it provides some powerful clues about how organized they are and what kind of work ethic they possess.
5. The Question: If you could meet a celebrity right now, who would you be most excited about meeting and why?
Why It’s Awesome: It’s usually pretty easy to discern whether or not a candidate has the skills you need for the job opening you’ve got available. What’s harder though, is figuring out whether this person you’ve never met before will mesh well with your company’s culture. This question will help clarify that.
Interviewing is difficult. These questions will make the process easier and give you greater insights into the people you’re considering bringing into your company, and that’s a very good thing.