Asking the Right Questions to Make the Right Hire

When searching for the right questions to make the right hire, you must first ask yourself some key questions. As ridiculous as this may sound, you may want to ask yourself why you are conducting this interview. Knowing the reason for the interview is going to be the precursor for the questions asked.

After gathering what reason is behind the interview, that's where you determine what sort of questions you want to ask. The questions you ask are also dependent on whether you want to do all of the talking or you want the interviewee to do all of the talking. You may want to give them some background information on the company before asking any questions, then you must decide if you want your interviewee to give you short answers (use close-ended questions) or lengthy answers (use open-ended questions). Usually, allowing the interviewee to do quite a bit of talking will allow you to know a lot about that person.

As for the questions you want to ask, you want to verify the information on their application or resume'. This is a good way to find any discrepancies between what they've given you on paper and what they say. Another crucial question you want to ask is the reason why they want to work for your company.

Other sample questions:

-"If you could choose to have a job with a varying workload or a steady workload, what would you choose and why would you choose that?" (This question reviews the candidate's behavior type)

-"Tell me about a time you had to make a critical decision with no one available to assist you in that decision. How did you handle it?" (Situational question)

-"What do you feel you can bring to this company?"

-"What are your responsibilities at your current job and which due you view as the most important of those responsibilities?"

-"How have you adapted to changing environments on your current job or past jobs?"

-"Do you preferred to be supervised, to report to a supervisor regularly, or do you prefer to work alone?"