We’re reviewing our interviewing practices. Are there any good questions you recommend we ask applicants?
Job Descriptions in California: How To Tackle Tricky Drafting Hurdles
Job descriptions can be your best friend or your worst enemy from both a practical and a liability perspective. Our free White Paper, Job Descriptions in California: How To Tackle Tricky Drafting Hurdles, explains how to draft objective, legal, effective job descriptions.
Here’s what you had to say:
- Stay focused on the job. Don’t ask questions that don’t pertain to the job.
- Jot down several good questions ahead of time that you’ll ask all candidates and a few specific ones for each candidate–for example, to clarify or amplify information on the resumé.
- Avoid yes/no questions. For example, don’t ask “Do you work well under pressure?” but do ask “Under what working conditions do you thrive?”
- Here are some questions I’ve found elicit interesting answers:
- “What will your last boss say about your performance?”
- “Tell me about a disaster at your last job and how you handled it.”
- “Tell me about a successful project and why it was so successful.”
- “Of what are you most (or least) proud in your work at your last employer?”
- “What are the most important things about being a good…?”
- “What would you have changed about your last position?”
- “What could your last boss have said that would have encouraged you to stay?”
- I like situational questions. For example:
- “You notice a mess on the shop floor. You ask a subordinate to clean it up and he refuses, saying that’s not his job. What do you do?”
- “You’re under a tight deadline to get a product shipped to a good customer, but the boss has told you to do a different project instead. What do you do?”