When you’re looking to grow or scale your operations, or just leading a team to do something great - hiring is the one thing we all get stuck on. Sometimes it's the hardest thing to do and also the task that we might be tempted to race through because 'we just need to find someone now'. But it's worth remembering that hiring is one of the most important things you'll ever do in a business. Choosing to hire someone is not just expensive but embedding that person into your team, your culture and your work relationships can cost you the trust and goodwill of the people around you, that's the real cost of these kinds of decisions.
The time that you spend really trying to understand someone, is time well spent. When it comes to interviewing like everything else, you get out as much as you put in. So how might we be able to improve our chances of finding a good fit? What should we look for? How do we think about the process? What do other companies and what questions might help?
The 1980s Management Style Interview Questions.
Tell us your greatest strengths, weaknesses and whatever else you’ve pre-prepared earlier by surfing the net and looking at interview questions. Oh wait . . you’re a perfectionist too?! What a great weakness.
Hey Company . . these sorts of questions don’t tell you much about us.
But they sure tell us a lot about you.
The “Let’s revisit your Resume Again” Questions.
Walk us through your jobs and what you enjoyed, why you left and what happened there.
Hey Company . . it’s all on my resume. Did you read it?
Let’s walk somewhere new.
The “Silicon Valley” Interview Questions.
We’ve stolen great concepts from the Valley . . like Lean + Agile, Hacking and Fuzzy. Now we’re coming after your interview questions.
How would you move Mount Fuji?”
“Why are manhole covers round?
What would you do if you found a penguin in the freezer?
How would you describe the color yellow to a blind person?
How many square feet of pizza is eaten in the U.S. each year
Hey Company . . WTF?
This sure is fun but I’m not sure where are we headed here.
Are you?
Good Interview questions that reveal people’s true selves & move the conversation beyond the transactional competency check are hard.
They’re hard for the person interviewing . . because you’re trying to understand the meaningful aspects about a person, in a short period of time. Once you’ve ticked off the competencies and the skills (which let’s face it . . are only half the challenge), then you’re trying to understand how this person thinks about life and work and how they might be . . in this role, in your company.
It's no easy feat.
Interviews are also hard for the person being interviewed. Sometimes it can feel like rapid machine gun fire . . one after the other. It's no wonder good interview questions are such a rarity and so many of us struggle to find meaningful ways to connect with candidates.
Here are a collection of Interview Questions that might help you get started. We're building a question bank of the best interview questions we can find so be sure to check back and see what else we've added to the list.
In the meantime, we hope these are helpful to get you started.
We’re collecting great interview questions & approaches here to share.
Some of the things we’re asking ourselves are:
What sorts of questions are most helpful at which stage in the process?
What is the real benefit in surprising candidates with questions?
What if . . we told candidates the kinds of questions we were going to ask in advance, so they could reflect, consider and prepare to answer thoughtfully?
What if we suggested great questions for candidates to help them interview the companies as part of the process?