Interview Questions

[rayeanne]

My boss and I have been conducting several interviews recently for our new clerk position and am looking for new and different questions. My boss is so good at this process that when he asks if I have questions for the candidate, I can't think of anything really good to ask.

Was there a question that you were asked by an interviewer that really made you think, or you thought was a great question?

If you've hired someone, what questions did you ask?

Some of my favorites:
-3 adjectives to describe yourself
-Skills/experiences looking for in this job
-Dealing with conflicting yet equally important deadlines

TIA!!!

[Tanis]

I prefer the following questions:

- If you have a zombie on your left at 10 feet, and a cute fuzzy thing on your right, but only have time to shoot one, which do you shoot and why?

- You're on your way to work, when you realize that the Tim Hortons beside your workplace is shut down due to zombie invasion, and going to the next closest Tim Hortons would cause you to be late. What do you bring your boss to make up for it?

- You're a fan of the Vancouver Canucks. Your boss walks in wearing a Colorado Avalanche jersey. What do you do?

And the best of them all;

- If you have a Zeeky Causer, and your boss, your ex('s), your neighbour, and the HR lady are all in the same room, who would you Zeeky?


Ahem.

In all seriousness (which is a horrible affliction around here right now ) I've never interviewed someone before. And I'm glad for that. Cause I suck at interviews. I'd be loath to inflict the same on someone else. :P

[punkypower]

From the book, "Top 250 Interview Questions"

Describe a time in your work experience when the existing process didn't work, and what you did about it.
Describe a professional skill you've developed in your most recent job.
Compared to others with a similar background in your field, how would you rate yourself?
How is your experience relevant to this job?
What interests you most about this job?
What new skills or ideas do you bring to the job that other candidates aren't likely to offer?
We have a number of applicants interviewing for this position. Why should we take a closer look at you?
Why do you want to work here?
What would your friends tell me about you?
Tell me about your relationship with your previous bosses.
Describe your working relationship with your colleagues.
How do you manage your time on a typical day?
Give me an example of a time you delivered more than was expected.
Tell me about a time when your employer wasn't happy with your job performance.

[Frong]

The one that pisses me off the absolute most, even more than "Why do you want to work here?", is "What would you say your biggest weakness is?" Sure, grab me by the nuts, whydontcha? If you answer honestly, you give them one potential reason not to want to hire you. If you refuse to answer, they'll think you're hiding something. The only way I've found to deal with this, short of flat-out lying, is to give them some minor weakness that you used to have and then say how you learned to fix it. It makes you look human without actually faulting yourself very much. I use "I used to have trouble staying focused at certain times of the day, but I found that getting up and taking short breaks helps keep me more alert." It's technically sorta true, but the entire question is still a load of crap. GOD, I loathe interviews.

[Tanis]

I fully agree with Frog. There is no good behavioural/competency style interviews. They all suck and just because someone can BS their way through a "Tell us a time when you were fsck'd and came out of it alive." question doesn't mean that they are at all suited for the job their applying for.

Unless it's a management job. Then BSing and lying through their teeth IS the job they're applying for.

[punkypower]

I conduct lots of interviews and actually, those questions tell you a lot about the person answering them. For example, we have one where we ask them to give an example of a time when they had a conflict with a coworker and how they handled it. 90% of the people we interview claim that they've NEVER had a conflict with a coworker, that they've never been unhappy with anything their employer did, etc. We all know that's a load of crap. The people that usually have great interviews are the people who can honestly answer those questions with tact and thoughtfulness.

[Tanis]

I still stand by my statement that just because someone can BS their way through pointless questions like that, and honestly a person could straightup lie about something like that (and through 99% of Behavioural interview questions for that matter) and you have no way of proving it either way, does NOT mean that they're suited for the job that they're applying for.

That's why I hate interviews for most companies. Instead of asking me questions like, "We have this problem with this piece of equipment. How would you go about finding out what was wrong with it and fixing it?" that actually tests my knowledge and skill level, I get asked, "Assume that you just had an arguement with your direct supervisor over X issue. How would you handle it?"

It's like, wtf? The hell does that have to do with me doing my job?

The companies that ask those questions obviously don't care if you can do the job. All they care about is that you can be politically correct while doing the job. I've been lower-level management in companies, like the one Nakor currently works for, that relies on the Behavioural questions and they ALWAYS have the problem of getting people who have no clue what the hell they're doing (ie: can't turn on their own computer, but is doing tech support for the entire Windows XP/Vista OS).

Thanks, but I'd rather have someone who knows what the hell they're doing, not someone who can answer hypothetical interview questions. Ask someone technical details about the job they're being interviewed for, and you'll very quickly weed out those who can do the job.

[Nakor]

I can name an interview style worse—cryptic interviews, for lack of a better term. Never, ever conduct a cryptic interview. And no, I'm not just joking, I've been through interviews where I've been asked why manholes are round, and if there were me and two others on a farm, would I drive a truck, load the hay bales, or stack them. Honestly, the guy was a jackass, and the whole interview process was a joke.

The behavioural questions separate people with good interview skills and preparation from those who do not have that. When going into an interview I always have a stock answer prepared for those. Tossing one or two in to test for preparedness isn't bad (it'll at least tell you if they were prepared for the interview, and ergo have some interest in actually getting the job), but make sure the whole interview isn't that style, or you'll wind up having those who are prepared effectively reading off a page to you.

Better than your average behavioural question, is a situational question. Rather than asking an open ended question about weaknesses, instead ask a question that puts the candidate into a rough situation that is likely to happen in that position, and find out how they would handle it. While the answer you get might have been thought about in advance, the difference here is this time it means they were thinking in advance of how to do the job well, instead of how to pass the interview. Questions that relate directly to the job give you the candidates opinions of how the job should be done, and are a lot more valuable in making the selection.

Also, I'm sure at the end of the interview you ask if the candidate has any questions for you (if not, be sure to). Make sure when you're taking notes of the interview to make a note of any questions they asked too. Those can give a little honest insight, although they can be prepared as well as anything.

[Tanis]

I think if an employer is ONLY asking behavioral questions, they probably have a track record of problems between employees and you might not want to work there anyway.

And I think that sentence sums up the problems I have with interviews.

My interviews have traditionally been either entirely job/knowledge related (which I don't mind because I don't apply for jobs that I can't do), or entirely behavioural. And both jobs that have been entirely behavioural have been almost exactly like Punky says.

So that may explain my severe and deep rooted hatred for those interview types in general.

[Frong]

It seems to me like even if there's a benefit to asking one or two behavioral questions, most of them are still total crap and aren't even worth using. Besides the one about weaknesses and the one about why you want to work there, the career goals one is also stupid and pointless, depending upon the job being applied for. If somone is applying for an entry-level job that they don't plan on doing for the rest of their life (and both they and the employer know it damn well), there's no fookin' point in asking what their career goals are. Whatever they are, they're not going to involve the job they're applying for, so why bother asking? Colossal waste of time in those cases.

I say all the questions in an interview should be directly targeted at learning about the applicant's ability to do the job, both in terms of technical skill and in terms of having the right type of personality to get along in that SPECIFIC work environment. For example, take my job. I do data entry for a restaurant supply company, which involves digging around on manufacturers' websites and typing product information that I find about the items we buy from them. All that's really required to do my job are decent computer skills, some measure of patience for repetitive work, and a functioning brain. Check for those things, check for a general sense of responsibility and work ethic (i.e. whether or not the applicant is a total irresponsible bum or has any other serious issues ), check for a desire to hold the job for a while, and that's enough. Any more than that is a waste of time and effort.