Two vital questions to ask when recruiting
What are the first and last questions you ask in any job interview?
What do you like to do? What do you hate to do?
From an interview with John Catsimatidis on Forbes.com .
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You have to be joking?
I think my candidates would think I was bored if I asked questions like this...I suppose you don't waste time with a real conversation if you get this basic...I wonder if he conducts all of his interviews in restaurants as well.
Emma Hackforth
Headhunter
Matchsticks Ltd
www.matchsticks.biz
I don't think it's a joke, I think it's Marcus Buckingham stuff
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
Sounds like a joke, but I've seen it work
We recently had a position open, and myself and another engineer were doing the interviewing. Since I had only interviewed a candidate once before, in a different company, I did a bit of research on a couple of sites that I know to find a few questions, so that I didn't just sit there trying to work out what to say.
Although they were not worded as simply as those stated above, there were 5 or 6 questions from a list of about 30 that were designed to draw the candidate into talking a bit more about what they liked and disliked doing. I remember that we used two of the like and one of the dislike questions, as well as some of the others on the list as well.
The guy we hired in the end, from four applicants in total, not only did really well in answering these questions, but has also fit really well into our team. Asking those questions showed a number of qualities that we find admirable in our team members.
1) He can think on his feet. (These are not the usual type of questions asked in an interview in Czech.)
2) He is confident enough to ask for a moment to gather his thoughts. (Not necessarily the easiest thing to do when you are under pressure in a time limited interview.)
3) He is willing to examine himself and be honest with us about the results. (Again, not something that is usual in an interview.)
And, to make sure I give you the full picture, the HR rep who sat in on the interview was upset with us for asking these types of questions, rather than just asking him things that we already knew from his CV. But, he fits well in the team, has done really well learning the systems and skills we need him to know, and is expected to grow into a larger role. He is also not really from an engineering background, there were other candidates who looked better on paper, certainly to HR, but they did not do well in the interview.
Regards,
Colin.
Two vital questions to ask when recruiting
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
A Different Slant
I have always asked questions along a similar lines but I phrase a little differently. I certainly don't ask the question because I am bored and I don't believe my candidates think I am bored either.
I believe the answers tell a lot about a person. If I needed proof of this I received it yesterday. I won't share what the proof was only to say that had we bothered to ask similar questions when promoting someone to a leadership position last year the outcome for the individual (who has now resigned) and the company would I suspect be been a more positive outcome.
Kate
These questions work for me and the candidates I see
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!)
Additional 2 hours
Love the additional 2 hours in the day question, not sure how I would answer it though :-)
Regards,
Colin
My Fav questions
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
Queries, Questions & Questionnaires
"As one who is mind-numbingly bored with my current job...so far I'm not really impressed by the HR executives I've managed to encounter, and weary of the limelight of the frontline...I just want to meet a recruiter who will ask me about me and my life; have a chin wag, so to speak...Afterall, it's the cumulative effects of my life which is 'on offer' to any prospective employers out there anyhow (I have a great deal to offer in my field of expertise)...All these formulas for what makes the best questionnaire 'to sort the chalk from the cheese' is all a tad bland (artificial) and most persons like myself (a group growing in number) can see right through the facade anyhow...Let's get real, I say"
Get to know your interviewee
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