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As a young man looking for employment just out of college, I always thought interview questions were pointless. A question like “Why do you want to work here” just seemed so silly. I mean, seriously, what did they expect me to say? If I responded by telling them the truth – that I just needed a job in my field of study that pays well, the interviewer would most likely kick me out the room before I even finished giving my answer.
However, after over 15 years of being on the other end of the table as a recruiter conducting interviews day in and day out, what I eventually learned was shocking: I was actually right all along!
The funny truth is, most recruiters do in fact ask silly and pointless questions that don’t get them anywhere closer towards identifying the best possible hire among a group of candidates. Perhaps this explains why poor hiring decisions are made all the time.
In order to make the right hires, you’ve got to ask the right questions. This means doing your due diligence in coming up with a set of interview questions that will help you with your decision making. As someone who’s had to do this myself, here’s what you should keep in mind.
1. Does the question force candidates to lie?
Interview questions are often so awkward that they force the candidate to lie. A perfect example would be when interviewers ask the infamous question, “What’s your biggest weakness?” The reality is, no one is actually going to spill the beans on the fact that they always fall behind schedule or that they can’t get along with people they disagree with. Instead, they’re going to lie, and quite frankly, you can’t blame them for it if you’re asking questions that back them into a corner like that.
2. Does the question reveal something about the candidate worth caring about?
It’s strange. I’ve sat through many panel interviews where an interviewer would continually ask questions centered around learning whether the candidate has a skill that they quite frankly won’t need for the job. For instance, one time, a co-worker of mine kept asking questions centered around discovering whether candidates were able to work well in teams. Yet, the job position these candidates were applying for was a solo job that practically involved no teamwork or coordination at all.
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Moral of the story? Every question you ask should reveal something about the candidate that’s actually applicable to the job position at hand. Some seemingly thoughtful questions can turn out to be utterly pointless if they don’t serve the particular purpose you have in mind.
3. Is the question so common that candidates give premeditated responses?
Newsflash: candidates prepare for their interviews by looking through the most common interview questions and then coming up with preplanned responses to them that they can recite by memory when asked. If your goal is to pressure job candidates in order to learn who can take the heat of a tough question or to get a feel for their problem solving skills, asking common interview questions is not the way to go.
4. Is there such thing as a good or bad response to your question?
Some questions simply don’t have a right or wrong answer. However, sometimes recruiters mistakenly ask these questions thinking there is one.
Take for instance a question such as “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” The reality is, most people don’t have a clue, so they’re forced to take one of two approaches. Either they try to show off their enthusiasm and drive by giving an extremely ambitious answer like “I want to be sitting in your seat!”, or they play it humble and say “I just want to do my best and reach my full career potential, whatever that may be.” Either way, you’ve learned nothing about the candidate, and if you think that somehow one of these answers is better than the other, you’re likely being too close-minded.
5. Is the question illegal?
It’s easy to get so caught up with trying to learn every little detail about your potential new hires that you accidentally cross the line by asking a question that’s illegal. Questions that demand candidates to reveal their race, age, national origin, religion, arrest record, sexual orientation, financial status, or marital status are not allowed by federal and state laws. You might be surprised to hear you can’t even ask candidates if English is their first language. However, what you can ask is whether the candidate speaks any other languages. The key here is how you phrase your questions and learning the nuances of what makes a question off-limits.
