Favourite interview questions

Gilly

Gilly

Gilly

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So you're conducting an interview and you want to make the person think on their feet without being a **** about it and without sounding particularly cheesy.

Which question do you use? Are you partial to a 'what can you do for us?' or would you prefer a 'why do you want to work with us?' or are you more a 'what can we offer you?' or maybe even a 'what do you know about this company?'
 
All of the above questions are ones I usually prep for before any interview.

A couple of good ones may be:

What do you think is wrong in our field?
What could you do to improve our field?
Do you think a company can ever be 100% perfect?
Whats more important your boss or your customer?
What values can you bring to the job?

The questions really depend upon the role though as a lot of ones I would use would be no use in different jobs: i.e. questions about zachmans, adaptive, BPR, CPI etc.
 
i hate those type of questions :(

what can you do for us?' work for you... :confused:
'why do you want to work with us?' to earn some money? :confused:
'what can we offer you?' the job you are interviewing me for would be nice :rolleyes:
'what do you know about this company?' all i know is exactly what you advertised, nothing more, you know why? because i havn't started to work here yet and i have never heard of you before in my life.


i would rather hear something relevant to the job to quickly test the candidate to see if they are right for the job instead of questions you ask to fill up time because you cant think of any better questions to ask :o if you need gap filling questions, ask questions about them to see who they are, see if you have anything in common with them.

if you start playing around with them in an interview, then the candidate isnt going to take you seriously, if that happens, how can they take the company seriously? it could put them off from working there and you just lost somebody who could have been the best person to work for you.
 
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Gilly said:
So you're conducting an interview and you want to make the person think on their feet without being a **** about it and without sounding particularly cheesy.

Which question do you use? Are you partial to a 'what can you do for us?' or would you prefer a 'why do you want to work with us?' or are you more a 'what can we offer you?' or maybe even a 'what do you know about this company?'
Click to expand...

"Would you sleep with someone in order to get a job?"
 
Questions such as 'What attracted you to apply for our company?' is a pretty good way of finding out whether their interpretation of the job and company are congruent with yours.

Depending on the job, roleplaying can work very well. With concise but well thought out scenarios (sans hobbits etc) It has the benefit of really making the interviewee think on their feet and is very useful for sales, negotiation and other jobs involving a great deal of customer interaction.
 
"If I asked your current colleagues to describe you, what would they say?"

Inevitably makes them think a bit.
 
Where do you see yourselves in 10 years?
What difficulties can you forsee if you were accepted for this position?



But to be honest, asking a load of question which forces awkward answers which are inevitably lies (I mean, who answeres trutherly to the classic question about your biggest weakness!) is not very helpful. Interviews should be more informal and friendly, with basic questions. There is no need to do a CIA interrogation!
 
the thing is, most of these questions have been heard before and invite the aplicant to be economical with the truth, making sure that the answer given suits the role / company.
just like 'what are your strengths / weaknesses' question, its silly, you wont get a real answer. so for that 10 minutes, nothing has been gained by the interviewer.
 
As you know Mat I recently had my (successful) interview with TNT.

I was asked the following (not in point form, it flowed like conversation)

What do you do in your current role?
How do you think you are you seen there?
How often are you given feedback on your progress and performance?
How do you rank amongst your current colleages with regards to performance?
What do you enjoy most about your current role?
Tell us about a time you've had negative feedback or criticism?
How did you react to this and how did it change the way you work?
What would you do if you had a series of setbacks in one day - how do you deal with the stress?
Tell us about a time when you successfully resolved a problem situation?
Why TNT?

Then it petered out into talking about promotion opportunities, benefits, bonus schemes, staff development, what would be expected of me, dress code and so on.

I got the job the same day so I must have done something right :)

I think the most important thing to remember is that you are attempting to find out if a candidate is the right person for the role offered, and the candidate is attempting to impress you with their skills, knowledge, experience and personality.
An interview shouldn't be a series of attempts to outwit and one-up each other.
 
Gilly said:
So you're conducting an interview and you want to make the person think on their feet without being a **** about it and without sounding particularly cheesy.
Click to expand...

Depends on what you are testing for or whether you merely wish to toy with them becasue you can... it also depends on what kind of work you are in.

I'd imagine that it would be enough to ask some fairly run of the mill questions about their work history and expectations of the job to see how many 'buzz words' they say and generally what their world view is

I think that if a person starts talking about their profession using industry terms as absolutes then it says a lot about their world view and understanding of the job, also their desire to conform to the role

If you merely wish to toy with them...

"What is your greatest achievment"
"How do you want people to see you"

and other questions that you wouldn't usually answer if a stranger asked you
 
cleanbluesky said:
" Would you feel comfortable in a world without the concept of the word 'the' "
Click to expand...
Heh, if you asked me that you'd get a quick lesson in Farsi.

Conducting a good interview isn't easy to be sure. I was interviewing a chap a few months back who, when asked why he had left his previous job, started talking about how the stress had led to a nervous breakdown, and promptly went into some kind of flashback mode. Ended up bawling like a baby. I had to go make him a cuppa and give him ten minutes to calm down, poor sod.
 
Bar said:
All of the above questions are ones I usually prep for before any interview.

A couple of good ones may be:

What do you think is wrong in our field?
What could you do to improve our field?
Do you think a company can ever be 100% perfect?
Whats more important your boss or your customer?
What values can you bring to the job?
Click to expand...

Those are really horrible questions!
 
I don't want to toy with them, I specifically stated I didn't want to be a **** with him.
 
TBH I hate the strengths Vs Weakness and where you see yourself questions.

If I want to ask a tough question it's normally competency based to find out what there real skill set/understanding is.

Questions I use "What would your strategy be in the first 12 weeks in order to have a succesful start here?"
"Describe a time when you had to uphold company policy with a difficult customer."
"Describe the three best qualities you think you bring to this job? Follow up - Which of these do you think is the most important? - Tell me about a time when you demonstrated this in your last company."
 
"Describe an orange without using the word orange"
Click to expand...

A citrus fruit from hotter climes with a pimpled skin a colour mix between red and yellow. When peeled the fruit is segmented and chewed or squeezed to produce a juice that ranges in taste between sharp and sweet.
 
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