Two vital questions to ask when recruiting

I think it runs deeper than that, actually. I don't think it's intended to reflect Buckingham and Gallup's work on unearthing people's strengths and getting them to play to them. Because I don't think Catsimatidis is that kind of leader. I think he goes with gut instinct rather than reading the latest from people like Buckingham. But, in practice, that's what those two questions are designed to do; tease out passion and strength on the one hand and weaknesses & dislikes on the other, which helps you balance teams by matching people with different strengths, according to all that Strengthsfinder stuff from the people Buckingham used to work with at Gallup. Buckingham has started saying recently that your 'strength' is not necessarily something you are good at, but something you love doing. If you are good at something but hate doing it, it's not a strength. So, these two apparently bland questions take you into all of that territory. Gadget Leader

Go Go Gadgets for Leaders

I like "tell me about a time" questions. Like, tell me about a time when you did not have all the facts you would have liked to have, but had to make a decision anyway? How did you go about processing the decision? Or, tell me about a time when you’re had to change priorities and had to shift your focus quickly? Another good one is, Tell me about a difficult decision that you had to make? What made it difficult? How did you go about making the decision that you finally made? Others are: Tell me about a time when you worked under pressure effectively? Tell me about a time when anticipated a problem and addressed it proactively? Tell me about a time when you had to deal with an irate customer? Tell me about a time when you surmounted a major obstacle? Tell me about a time when where disappointed in your behavior? I think what this does is to put the candidate into real world situations and see how they respond. Edgar

Hi. I blend some of Buckinghams strength based questions with a bit of traditional biographical and some 'tell me about a time' questions. The few questions that seem to create the best conversations for me and the candidates I see are: - What gets you out of bed in the morning? - What do you love doing out of work and do you bring any of that into the office? - If you had an additional two hours a day what would you use it for? - Is there anything you find yourself 'pretending' to be or know? - When did you last cost the company money? Darren (first time poster - hope of help!)

This is something I learnt from my boss about 10 yrs ago! Makes it interesting for both parties and puts the candidate at ease: 1. If you look at your entire life and talk about ONE significant accomplishment - something that you have worked hard for and are proud that you have accomplished it - what would that be? 90% of the time such an instance would be from college or first job... does that say something? :) Its always good to see the glow on their face when they talk about it. Candidates who answer briefly for other questions take off on this one! 2. If I were to talk to someone who has worked with you and ask them about you -what do you think they'll say your strengths and your areas of improvement are? This kinda makes them think beyond their own perceptions about themselves and think from another person's point of view

Sandrit has a point, I like all of the answers so far but being a headhunter I have to throw my two penneth in here. Situational questions do work as do straight forward questions that require straight forward answers but for me it's all about getting to know the person. I am sure we all want to answer the interviews questions in a favourable light as we all want to get the job. We aren't going to be doing just a job when we work for the company, we are going to give it everything and that includes passion, experience, heart and soul, so more questions around us as people often work and are more effective. I left the corporate recruiters because I was only allowed 30-40 mins to interview any candidate as we had targets to hit and I didn't feel I really got to know them. I usually met them twice and often tried to make the second meeting a social one. Running my own show and 8 years later I still spend more time than most getting to know both my clients and my candidates. Would you marry someone after an hours worth of questions? so why do we still hire people in that way. Most of us see our work colleagues more than our spouses and yet we spend hours, days and months checking out Mr or Mrs Right. I know there are thousands of books out there on great questions to ask during an interview but my experience in this area tells me to follow one train of thought. "Treat the person you are sitting in front as the most important person in your life at that moment", learn something new from them, make sure they leave the meeting with some real positives and if you do need to refer to a list of questions during the meeting then don't hide them under the desk or on your lap. Get thequestions out and tell the candidate that you have a few questions prepared as you never know they may have done the same. Now that exercise alone would tell you a lot about the candidate you are about to interview!! Emma Hackforth Headhunter Matchsticks Ltd www.matchsticks.biz

Agree with you Emma - get to know the person in front of you. My question to add into the mix: If you could add something new to your cv - what would it be? R

A method I've used before, particularly when employing consultants, is to ask them to interview me to clarify what the brief is. It throws a lot of people. You do see with this how clear and insightful their thinking is, as well as how they connect with people. In answering, I neither hold back nor offer un-asked-for detail. If they don't get to understand the work, they don't get the job. If they do, then I follow up with questions about how they would tackle it, what similar work they have done, and so on. Dave