On the surface, giving a job interview seems easy. All you need to do is sit down with a potential new employee for a discussion to see if they are the right fit for your business, right? Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy. You need to ask the right questions of your interviewee to really get a good picture of what they would be like if they were to work for you. Although the questions you ask will depend on the nature of your business, here are a few that every employer should have for their candidates.
Tell me something about yourself that others might not know about you.
Okay, this technically isn’t a question, but it’s good to include in an interview. It gives you the chance to learn something interesting about an employee that might otherwise not come up. You might even find that the interviewee might have something in common that can put both of you more at ease with each other.
How did you handle a conflict with a coworker in the past?
Just about everyone has clashed with a coworker at some time in their career. It’s good to know how a potential new hire has handled this kind of conflict in the past. You need to know that the interviewee will be able to handle conflict on the job in a way that isn’t disruptive or creates a hostile work environment.
What is your biggest professional success story?
This question gives the interviewee a chance to tell you about something that they do well, which can be particularly valuable if their biggest success story relates to the position they’re interviewing for. It’s the kind of thing that someone would want to talk about during a job interview, but it can provide you with valuable insight into what kind of employee they would be.
What is your biggest career-related failure?
Nobody likes to talk or even think about their failures, but the way in which they handle these failures says a lot about who they are as a person and as a worker. You won’t find someone who has never failed at something before, but you can find someone who learned from their failures and moved on to better things. These are the kinds of people you want to hire, especially if they aren’t afraid to own up to their past mistakes.