As a hiring manager, it is your responsibility to separate bad candidates from good candidates, and then good candidates from great candidates. When you finally do extend a job offer, you want to feel confident that you are extending it to the very best-of-the best. In order to single out that elusive top candidate, ask the following five questions:
“Show Us How You Would Solve Problem X”
Setbacks and obstacles are inevitable in the workplace. The best candidates are able to identify the problem early, devise a workable solution, implement it, and then continue forward on the correct course. Asking the candidate to describe how they would approach this process step by step gives and a revealing look at their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
“How Do You Predict That This Job/Industry Will Evolve”
Success in today’s hyper-competitive business climate requires all companies to embrace change, accelerate their pace, and seek out the cutting edge. The top candidates will be excited about his evolution and have spent a lot of their own time thinking about it. Solicit their own predictions, and look for responses that seem both realistic and optimistic.
“Describe Your Professional Development Efforts”
Top talent is not content with treading water. No matter how great they are today, they know they can be even better tomorrow, and will actively seek out opportunities to expand the depth and breadth of both their hard and soft skills. Ask your candidates to describe their past and present professional development efforts, and try to gauge if they are motivated by true passion or self serving motives.
“What Motivates You to Accept a Job”
Top candidates are often weighing offers from multiple companies and have no problem grabbing the attention of companies. For that reason, you will need to ask them to explicitly describe the factors that lead them to accept/decline a job offer: Salary, benefits, title, advancement opportunities etc. Having this information can help you to calibrate your offer to be more competitive.
“Something Unexpected”
In the age of the Internet, it’s easy for any candidate to look up common interview questions and craft sparkling responses in advance. It may even be possible to find specific questions you routinely ask. When you are only getting polished responses, however, it’s hard to get an accurate portrait of the candidate. As part of any interview, ask a question that is totally unique, completely unexpected, and possibly even a little strange. Catching a candidate off guard gives you an real opportunity to asses their intelligence and aptitude.
In order to interview the best available candidates, you first have to find them. Improve the quality of your overall talent pool by working with the experienced staffing team at Morris Bixby.