The first few minutes of the interview will set the tone for the rest of the conversation, so you want to start strong. Follow these tips for how to start an interview as the interviewer, and use the following sample script to facilitate a positive and productive interaction. 

Instructions for Starting the Interview

1. Begin with a warm greeting

Greet the candidate by name with a warm smile and a firm handshake. Thank them for attending, and let them know your time is valuable. 

While you don’t want to waste too much time before diving into the interview, a bit of small talk can help break the ice and make the candidate feel at ease. Consider asking them about their morning, their commute to the office, or another polite topic of conversation. 

2. Introduce yourself

A good candidate already has done their homework and knows who you are. However, formally introducing yourself and other people participating in the interview is still a professional courtesy. Give your name and title and briefly explain your role at the company. Do the same for each additional interviewer, or give each person the chance to make a brief introduction. 

3. Outline the interview structure

Interviews are most effective when they follow a predetermined structure. This helps keep the conversation on track and ensures you can cover all of the important topics during the allotted time. 

Outlining a rough timeline breakdown at the start of the interview sets expectations.

Here’s an example timeline for a 40-minute interview:

• 5 minutes: Introductions
• 10 minutes: Candidate’s background
• 10 minutes: Strengths and skills
• 10 minutes: Personality and culture
• 5 minutes: Questions from candidate

Be sure to point out that the candidate will have a chance to ask questions at the end of the interview so they can be thinking of what they want to ask. 

Additionally, suppose you’re using a format other than a traditional one-on-one interview, like a panel. In that case, it helps to explain briefly how the interview will be conducted.

4. Start with a general question

To transition into the interview and help you get to know the applicant, ask a question that prompts them to talk broadly about themself as a candidate. It can be helpful to bring up a specific detail from their resume to give them a starting point. For example, “I understand you’re currently in a sales associate position. Tell me about how you found yourself in that role.”

First Questions to Ask in a Job Interview

While you’re probably eager to hear about the candidate’s big success stories and professional ambitions, starting with a more generic question is best. This allows for a natural segue from small talk to deeper topics and gives the candidate a chance to give you their elevator pitch. 

Here are some good examples of questions to begin an interview.

• Tell me about yourself.
• Walk me through your background.
• Why were you interested in this position?
• What do you know about our company?
• What skills would you bring to the role?

Sample Script to Start an Interview

Hi, [candidate name]. It’s nice to meet you. I really appreciate you coming in today. Thanks for taking the time out of your schedule. I hope your day is going well so far.

I’m [your name], and I’m [job title] here at [company]. My job is to [give a brief explanation of your duties]. 

This interview will last about [interview length]. We’ll cover [topic #1, topic #2, topic #3]. At the end I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have. 

Let’s get started. Your resume says you’re currently a [candidate’s current job title] with [company name]. Tell me about what you do there.

Example Interview Introduction

“Hello, Mirabel. Thank you so much for meeting with us today. We’re excited to chat with you. Did you have any trouble finding the office?

My name is Keith Sommers, and I am Mead Corporation’s VP of Operations. I oversee the development department, as well as our finance and marketing teams.

Two other interviewers are joining us: Kathy Hix, our head of HR, and Michael Hernandez, our web development manager. If you were to join our team, Mike would be your direct manager. 

This is a panel-style interview, so each of us will take turns asking questions and might follow up on one another’s questions. The interview is divided into three main topics: technical skills, prior experience, and work style. We’ll spend about 10 to 15 minutes on each topic. At the end, you’ll have about 5 minutes to ask any of us questions. 

Ready to get started? Back-end programming knowledge is one of the main criteria we’re looking for for this role. What skills do you have in this area?”

Tips for a Strong Start to an Interview

Allow ample time

Don’t try to conduct an interview when you’re rushed. Avoid scheduling your next meeting back to back with the interview’s end time; instead, build in a buffer to gather your thoughts, jot down notes, and complete candidate scoring. If the conversation runs long, this will also give you a few minutes of flex time. 

Check the space

Before the candidate arrives, prepare the interview space. Make sure the room you plan on using isn’t double-booked and is clean and presentable. Check that there are enough chairs, that it’s not too hot or too cold, and that you have water available for yourself and the candidate. 

Review the candidate’s resume

You’ve presumably already seen the candidate’s resume, but it’s a good idea to review it again just before your conversation. This will ensure that the correct details are fresh in your mind and will remind you of any questions you want to ask this particular candidate. 

Communicate important details

Head off any anxiety by addressing topics about which the applicant will likely have questions. For example, if it’s a Zoom interview, let them know whether it’s being recorded and if so, how the recording will be used.

Keep it positive

Maintain a warm tone even if the interview isn’t going well. Remember, for a strong employer brand, you want all candidates (even the ones you don’t hire) to leave the experience with a positive impression. Interviewing is stressful, and you’ll make the experience a smoother one for everyone involved if you keep a professional and enthusiastic demeanor. 

Starting an interview strong as the interviewer fosters a constructive dialogue and helps you build rapport with potential future team members. With an inviting greeting, clear communication, and a tone of respect, you’ll create an environment where you can have a meaningful conversation and make an accurate hiring decision. 

Related: How to End the Interview as the Hiring Manager

What is a One-Way Interview?

A one-way interview is just another word for an asynchronous interview. These interviews are pre-recorded by the hiring candidates based on questions sent to them beforehand. The potential hires will record themselves on video answering the questions in order, simulating a regular interview experience.

Why Do Companies Use One-Way Interviews?

Oftentimes, one-way interviews aren’t final interviews. They are usually used as a pre-screening move to see who should and shouldn’t move forward in the hiring process. It helps eliminate much of the first round of interviews and saves time trying to schedule multiple interviews. Pre-recorded interviews are used more as a first step in the hiring process, and they’re often like introductions to each potential candidate.

What are the Pros of One-Way Interviews?

There are many benefits to one-way interviews for both the company hiring and the potential hire themselves. If you’re considering the use of asynchronous interviews in your hiring process, here are the pros of one-way interviews:

Saves time

Perhaps the number one reason people use one-way interviews is that they save so much time. Between your schedule and the potential hires’ schedules, trying to hold 20 different interviews with 20 different candidates could take over a week. This delays the hiring process immensely—especially if it’s just the first round of interviews.

Instead, pre-recorded interviews save a lot of scheduling and time. You can send out the interview questions to all candidates in under five minutes, and then you wait for their videos to come back. You might spend a few hours watching the pre-recorded videos, but that’s a huge improvement versus the week it could take to interview them all in person.

Widen your pool of candidates

Another reason to use pre-recorded interviews is to widen your pool of candidates. You can interview people from multiple areas rather than just nearby. This is especially helpful if you’re hiring for a remote position or a current work-from-home job due to the lingering effects of the pandemic. 

People can record this video on their own time, which means they won’t miss out on an opportunity due to scheduling conflicts. It also allows candidates who may have been busy during regular interview slots to still participate in the hiring process.

Helps screen candidates

There’s nothing worse than having an interview after an interview, only to wonder how these people qualified for the job in the first place. Simple questionnaire forms can give you a few precursors for candidates to check off, but they still don’t do enough. You can’t see what these candidates are like until you have them in front of you. Well, until now.

With pre-recorded interviews, you’re able to see how they’re qualified for the job. It’s easier to screen them, and you can ask more about their skillset. If you want them to be fluent in another language, you can ask them to speak it on camera. If you need them to be a skilled customer service rep, a video will allow you to hear what they sound like and how they’ll interact with customers.

Gets rid of the nerves

It’s no secret that the interviewing process is overwhelming for potential hires. They can get very nervous, and an interview where they record themselves can cut down on their nerves. But, how does this benefit the hiring of a company? Sometimes, even the most qualified candidates can bomb an interview because they are nervous. 

By allowing them to record their answers, you get an upfront look at what type of candidate they truly are. This benefits you because a great candidate you may have overlooked in an in-person interview can shine on camera.

Everyone can see them

Oftentimes, it’s not just one person who is making the final decision on a potential hire. However, you can’t crowd more than two or three people into a conference room to interview a potential hire. That means the rest of the hiring team is reliant upon the debrief that the interviewer gives to them. With pre-recorded interviews, everyone on the hiring team can watch the interview. That means everyone can have an opinion on who is the best pick for the company. It’s easier to discuss the candidates and who would fit well on the team when everyone’s involved.

Spices up structured interviews

Being objective in interviews is one of the most important things you can do. One way to do this is by using structured interviews. This means you’re asking the same questions in the same order to each candidate. However, this often comes across rigid as an interviewer because you’re used to going through the motions. However, with pre-recorded interviews, you can still have structure without it coming off as monotonous.

Related: The Difference Between Structured and Unstructured Interviews

Allows for better preparation

While in-person interviews are good for testing a candidate’s spontaneity, it also puts them on the spot to come up with examples of their past work that shows their skillset. Potential hires often feel rushed in in-person interviews, which makes them blurt out the first example they can think of. It’s not always the best example. But, with pre-recorded interviews, they have time to think about their past work and skillset. You end up getting a better picture of who they really are and what they’ve done in the past.

What are the Cons of Pre-Recorded Interviews?

One-way interviews aren’t without their problems. In fact, there are more than a few downsides to them as well. Here are the cons of one-way interviews:

Camera shy candidates

Some people aren’t good on camera, and they actually perform worse. While it can help those with social anxiety, it may be bad for those who regularly talk to people but rarely record themselves. 

Limited information

With pre-recorded interviews, perhaps the biggest limitation is that you can’t respond to them while they’re answering the questions. This makes the information you receive a bit limited. With in-person interviews, you can ask to follow up with questions that will help you find out even more about a candidate. Without this ability, you’re stuck with just the information that they answer in the interview questions.

Miss out on company promotion

Another thing is it’s hard to promote your company in a pre-recorded interview. Sometimes, as hiring managers, we forget that the people coming to interview are interviewing our company as well. They may not know enough to decide whether or not the company is the right fit for them. While you can send a company description with the interview questions, it’s not the same as being in-person and sharing more company information.

It’s not enough to make a decision

Most companies find that there simply isn’t enough information to base your decision on regarding one-way interviews. While they make a great first-round interview, it’s hard to hire someone just from watching them answer a few questions. So, even though they save you time initially, you’ll probably still need to schedule interviews regardless.

Some software is stressful

Depending on the software you use for the one-way interview, it could be stressful for the candidate. If you allow them to record everything and send it to you, they can have multiple takes and get their nerves out. But, if you use software for a pre-recorded interview, it can create even more stress than regular because the potential hire only has 30-60 seconds to think of an answer, which doesn’t allow for better examples or the ability to really think out what they should say.

It can be dehumanizing

Sometimes, one-way interviews look like just another algorithm to a potential hire, and they may think your company doesn’t truly care about anything more than filtering out people based on an algorithm. This is a common complaint.

Should You Use Pre-Recorded Interviews?

Though one-way interviews have pros and cons, whether or not you should use them depends on your company and its goals. They’re a great first step in screening candidates, and if done right, they can save you time and effort in hiring. Just be aware of the cons going in so you know what to prepare for.

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One-Way Interview Software to Use

VidCruiter

VidCruiter is a video interview platform offering robust tools to make the interview process easier for recruiters. In addition to pre-recorded interviewing capabilities, the platform can facilitate live interviews and assist with scheduling. 

Willo

Willo helps companies hire at scale with pre-recorded interviews that can be set up in minutes. It’s designed to fit seamlessly within your existing tech stack, integrating with over 5,000 applications, and is guaranteed to work on any device.

Hireflix

Hireflix allows recruiters to create one-way interviews for video and text-based responses. The built-in interview builder makes it easy to add custom intro and outro videos that provide more information about the company and the job. 

HireVue

In addition to facilitating asynchronous interviews, HireVue uses artificial intelligence to analyze and score candidate responses. An advanced algorithm evaluates aspects of a candidate’s answer, such as speech, tone, pronunciation, and pauses, to assess quality and even flag possible cheating. 

Harver

With Harver, combining one-way video interviews with other assessment tools like skills tests and reference checks makes it easy for recruiters to gain a holistic view of candidates. 

Common One-Way Interview Questions

Asynchronous video interviews are best used as a screening tool to aid in pre-qualifying candidates. Thus, the best one-way interview questions should help you get a broad idea of the candidate’s capabilities and reasons for applying. Save more targeted questions for the next conversation with a live interviewer, where you’ll have the chance to ask follow-up questions and prompt the candidate to expand on anything you found interesting from their recorded answers.  

Here are some good one-way interview questions to ask candidates. 

Tell us about yourself.

No matter what kind of interview is taking place, a candidate should be prepared to concisely summarize their background, career path, and qualifications. This question will help you understand how the candidate arrived at their current professional situation and will also give you a feel for their personality. 

Why are you interested in this job?

It’s a good sign when a candidate is interested in a role for a particular reason, like the opportunity to apply specific skills or being passionate about the company’s mission. This question can help weed out candidates who are applying for dozens of jobs without any real investment in the company or role. 

What skills or experience make you a good fit for this job?

One of the most important goals of a one-way interview is to verify the required skills. Use this question to ensure a candidate checks off all the minimum requirements on your list. Bonus points if they mention relevant experience that has prepared them to succeed. 

What’s your ideal work environment?

Alignment on the work environment is an important aspect of culture fit. You want to identify candidates who are positioned to thrive in your office, both in terms of their physical characteristics and the team dynamic. Having a candidate describe their preferred work environment will give you clues about whether they will be happy as part of your team. 

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Learning about a candidate’s career aspirations can help you decide whether they’ll be challenged, engaged, and satisfied in a role. All of these are important components of a successful hire. Asking applicants to describe their five-year vision will illuminate their professional ambitions.  

Hit a Staffing Home Run With 4 Corner Resources

Do you need help with talent acquisition and interviews? Our staffing and recruiting experts are here to help! During our fifteen years of business, we have established an extensive talent pipeline that allows us to match top talent to various employers. We offer a variety of staffing solutions, such as direct-hire placement, contract staffing, and contract-to-hire recruiting.

Schedule your free consultation today to learn more about how we can help your staffing efforts.

Email templates can make the process of setting up interviews less tedious and more convenient for both interviewers and interviewees. We’ll explain how to draft an interview scheduling email that contains all the relevant details and builds excitement about your upcoming conversation. 

Why Use Email to Schedule an Interview?

Offer convenience

Most professionals are busy. Receiving a phone call, especially in the middle of the workday, can interrupt other important activities. Email is the platform of choice for scheduling interviews because it’s accessible yet noninvasive. It gives the candidate time to look at their calendar and respond at a convenient time. 

Facilitate automation

Interview scheduling emails are highly conducive to automation. With your ATS or a specialized scheduling application, you can sync your team’s calendars and streamline the process of finding a suitable time slot for all parties. This reduces multiple back-and-forth messages and frees up time to work on other tasks. 

Create a paper trail

Email is great for creating a permanent record that all parties can refer back to. Rather than relying on their memory or a note scribbled in their planner, an interviewer or candidate can easily reference the email thread to confirm the date, time, and other important details of the interview. 

What to Include In an Email Scheduling an Interview

• Job title and company. Make it clear which position the interview is for since candidates are likely to have applied for multiple jobs. 
• Proposed date and time. Offering a few available slots for the candidate to choose from makes it more likely that you’ll find a suitable time with just one message. 
• Name of interviewer(s). Include the full name and job title of each interviewer who will be participating. 
• Interview purpose. Explain what this interview aims to accomplish, like if it’s a screening call to verify basic qualifications, a first-round interview, a final interview, etc.
• Interview location. If you’ll be speaking in person, be sure to provide a precise address. 
• Interview format. Specify whether it will be a one-on-one, panel, group, or virtual format. 
• Interview length. Help the candidate adequately prepare by giving a start and end time. 
• Other helpful details. Provide any other relevant information that will assist the candidate in attending the interview, like parking details, public transit options, what to bring, and so on. 

Tips for Writing an Interview Invitation Email

1. Use a straightforward subject line

This is an email you definitely don’t want candidates to miss. Help ensure your message is opened by using a subject line directly stating what’s inside. Here are two options:

Invitation to interview – [job title] at [company]

Interview availability 

2. Maintain your brand voice

Interview scheduling emails can be short and casual or longer and more formal. The most appropriate option for you depends on your brand. Maintain consistency by using the same style, voice, and tone as the rest of your recruitment materials. 

3. Express enthusiasm

In many cases, this email will be the candidate’s first interaction with a real person in the company. Make the most of it and build excitement on their end by expressing your enthusiasm about their candidacy. 

4. Encourage additional engagement

This is a great time to expand a candidate’s knowledge of your employer value proposition. Offer additional opportunities to engage with your brand, like a short video that showcases your company culture or a checklist of how to prepare for a successful interview. 

5. Follow up promptly

Once a candidate responds to your email, don’t delay in moving forward. Keep the recruiting process moving and increase your ability to hire your first choice by carrying out the interview in a timely manner. If you don’t hear back within a day or two, send another message to follow up. 

Interview Scheduling Email Template #1 – Post-Application

Subject line: Interview invitation – [job title] at [company name]

Hello [candidate name], 

Thank you for submitting your application for the [job title] role with [company name]. After reviewing your resume, we believe your qualifications could make you a strong fit for the position. We’d like to schedule an interview to share details of the job and learn more about your experience. 

Please review the following time slots and let me know if one of them would work for a 30-minute conversation with [interviewer name, title]. The interview will be held at [location name, address]. 

• [Interview date and time 1]
• [Interview date and time 2]
• [Interview date and time 3]

If the times above do not work for you, please propose a few alternatives that would be suitable and we’ll go from there. 

We are eager to speak with you!

Best regards,

[Sender’s name]

Interview Scheduling Email Template #2 – Cold Candidate Outreach

Subject line: [Job title] opportunity with [company name]

Hi [candidate name],

I hope this message finds you well. My name is [sender’s name] with [company]. I came across your LinkedIn profile and your qualifications stuck out to me. Based on your skills in [skill area] and background in [background area], I think you could be a strong candidate for a [job title] position we currently have open. You can get a feel for our company mission by watching a one-minute video here [provide link]. 

Are you interested in learning more about this opportunity? If so, please let me know when you’re available for a 20-minute call. The purpose of this conversation would be to outline the requirements of the position, give you a chance to talk about your previous job experience, and answer any questions you might have about the role. 

Here are some times I’m available this week:

• [Interview date and time 1]
• [Interview date and time 2]
• [Interview date and time 3]

Please let me know if any of these options work, or if there’s another time that would be better for you. 

I look forward to your response.

Best,

[Sender’s name]

Interview Scheduling Email Template #3 – Confirmation Email

Subject line: Interview confirmation for [date]

[Candidate’s name], 

Thank you for providing your availability. Your interview is scheduled for [date] at [time]. Here are the important details:

• Interviewer: [name, title]
• Interview location: [location]
• Interview format: [format]
• Interview length: [duration]

Please bring [items to bring] and be prepared to discuss [topics of discussion]. You can learn more about our company and find other helpful information to prepare for your interview here [provide link]. 

If for any reason you are unable to attend the interview or need to reschedule, please call me directly at [phone number]. 

We look forward to speaking with you soon.

[Sender’s name]

Interview Scheduling Email Template #4 – Follow-Up

Subject line: Following up – invitation to interview

Hi [candidate’s name],

I wanted to follow up on my previous email inviting you to interview for the [job title] position with [company name]. Are you still interested in being considered for the role?

If so, kindly let me know of your availability this week for a 45-minute Zoom interview. This would be a panel interview with [interviewer 1] and [interviewer 2], who are looking to learn more about your strengths and qualifications.  

I look forward to your response. 

Best,

[Sender’s name]

Interview Scheduling Apps

Many applicant tracking systems have scheduling capabilities built in. However, a range of standalone apps can also streamline interview scheduling, communications, and reminders. Here are a few of our top picks:

• Calendly. With over 20 million users in 230 countries, this tool is one of the simplest and most universally understood scheduling platforms. 
• YouCanBookMe. Get up and running within minutes and send scheduling invites by email or SMS. 
• TimeTap. Use a dedicated booking page to streamline scheduling across team members and locations. 
• GoHire. Organize interviews with dozens of candidates in a few quick clicks. 

The email to schedule a job interview is one of the first direct interactions a candidate will have with your company. This makes it an important opportunity to set a positive tone, communicate expectations, and generate excitement about the job. By sending a friendly, professional email to request an interview, you’ll keep your hiring process on track while contributing to an enjoyable candidate experience. 

Related: Top Recruiting Apps

We commend you for taking the time to read this article. It shows that you care about your company and are devoted to improving your interviewing skills. Before we begin sharing some of the questions to ask in an interview, we wanted to clarify a few things:

‘Candidate,’ ‘Interviewee,’ and ‘Applicant’ refer to the person who is interested in a new job.

‘Hiring Manager,’ ‘Interviewer,’ ‘Recruiter,’ and ‘Employer’ refer to the person hiring for the new job.

Quick Tip: It’s important to spend a minute or two building rapport before asking the interview questions. Something as simple as asking, “How’s the weather in (city name)?” or “How has your day been so far?” can go a long way toward making your applicant feel comfortable and open to dialogue.

The Best Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

Please tell me about yourself.

Some candidates may choose to share information about their personal life, work life, or both. This question can be used to gauge the values, personality, and depth of the individual you are interviewing while gaining an understanding of what they are (or aren’t) comfortable talking about. If they share absolutely no information about their personal life, it may make them uncomfortable if you talk about yours. And vice versa. Their answer can be used as a baseline to set the tone for the rest of the interview.

What interests you most about this position?

This question is a great indicator of the interviewee’s preparation and passion. Did they take the time to review the job in detail and understand the role? Are they passionate about the type of work they’d be doing, or do they just want a job?

Based on the candidate’s answer, you should gain a strong sense of whether or not they understand the position and are passionate about it. If it’s clear they don’t understand the position, but you think they’d be a good fit, now is a good time to explain it to them.

What are your strengths/weaknesses?

This interview question is extremely common and has almost grown to become expected by job seekers. Asking about your candidate’s strengths and weaknesses can be useful for various reasons.

1. It allows you to evaluate the applicant’s self-awareness.
2. It’s reassuring to hear strengths that align with the type of work you are hiring for.
3. It can help weed out potential underperformers if their weaknesses are essential to perform the job.

How has your past experience prepared you for this role?

One of the most important goals of an interview is to learn whether a candidate’s prior experience qualifies them for the job. Whether they have direct experience in a similar role or indirect experience that can translate, you need to discern the duties they’ve held in the past that will set them up for success in this position. This question gives them a chance to elaborate on that experience. It will also help you gauge how well they understand the job requirements.

Why are you leaving your job?

Understanding why the candidate is leaving their current job (or has recently left) can save you from devastating surprises and poor team fits.

Worst case scenario: you find out that the interviewee was recently fired for some unforgivable act (which, of course, is a good thing to find out before making an offer).

Best case scenario: You find out that their current employer is simply failing to meet your company’s standards in a category that is a strength.

Whether the candidate is underpaid, underappreciated, overworked, laid off, or has hit a glass ceiling, it’s important to understand their situation to determine whether your job opportunity will provide what they are looking for.

What is your ideal work environment?

We often emphasize the importance of company culture, but culture fit is a tricky thing to analyze when hiring. It’s easy to place too much focus on likability or similarity when culture fit is really about whether a candidate will thrive in a given environment. This question is an effective way to assess a candidate’s alignment with your workplace. It gives them a chance to describe their preferred physical environment, work conditions, and level of interaction with colleagues, all of which are important elements of culture fit. 

Tell me about your leadership experience.

Developing and retaining talented employees is one of the best strategies to build a skilled, knowledgeable workforce. Thus, it pays to identify people who will be motivated to grow into leadership positions with the company (if they aren’t in a leadership role already). Allowing candidates to discuss their leadership experience can help you identify growth potential and learn how comfortable a candidate is with duties like delegating, project management, and giving constructive feedback.

Related: Strategic Leadership Interview Questions to Ask

What do you consider to be your biggest professional accomplishment?

This is a great question because it helps you gather many different pieces of information about a candidate. First, it gives them the chance to talk about a job-related win, which gives you an idea of the results they can achieve. Second, it tells you what kind of accomplishments a candidate views as important, which sheds light on their values. Finally, it forces the candidate to think on their feet, which helps identify adaptability and resourcefulness. 

Do you have any questions for me?

This question is arguably the most important to ask the interviewee. When you have finished with all the others, this should be your final interview question. Allowing the candidate to ask you questions after the interview is crucial to a positive applicant experience.The last thing you need is an uninformed candidate accepting a job offer without knowing what they are getting into.

Other Questions

Before we get into the bad interview questions to ask candidates, here are a few more good ones.

• What was your greatest failure, and what did you learn from it?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
• Are you interviewing with any other companies?
• How would your friends describe you?
• Have you ever had trouble working with a peer or manager?
• Why have you changed jobs so frequently?
• If hired, what would be your 30-60-90-day plan?
• What can you tell me about this industry?
• Are you willing to relocate?

Worst Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

Knowing what not to ask candidates in an interview can be just as important as knowing what questions you should ask. Do yourself and your company a favor by quickly refreshing yourself on some no-no questions to avoid asking during a job interview.

Off-the-wall questions

Questions like ‘If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be and why?’ might seem like a unique way to assess candidates’ creativity and quick thinking. In reality, though, these questions tell you little about the skills that are actually relevant for the job and can even alienate some candidates. 

Instead of asking wacky questions just for the sake of being wacky, keep questions focused on qualities that are tied to performance. There are ways to do this while still asking out-of-the-box questions. For example, ‘If you had an unlimited budget, what would you change about our industry?’ is a unique question that will no doubt get you some unique answers, but it’s still relevant to the job and field. 

Risky questions

Some interview questions aren’t just bad, they’re illegal. Employers in the U.S. are not allowed to discriminate in hiring based on a person’s race, religion, sex (which includes gender identity and sexual orientation), age, parental status, citizenship status, national origin, or disability. In some states, asking about a candidate’s prior salary is also illegal.

The following questions are problematic:

• What is your salary history?
• Are you married?
• Are you pregnant (and/or do you have children)? Where do you live?
• Do you have any disabilities?
• What is your nation of origin?
• Are you a citizen?
• Have you been convicted of any crimes?
• How old are you?
• What is your race?
• Are you religious?

It’s important to note that these questions are frowned upon and could expose you and/or your company to serious legal issues if you ask them. While this list is not exhaustive, these are some of the most important questions you must avoid.

You also want to avoid questions that hint at any of the above topics or could be viewed as a roundabout way of asking them. For example, ‘Where is your accent from?’ might be something you ask out of genuine interest, but it’s a red flag because you’re prompting the candidate to disclose their national origin.

Closing Thoughts: Tips for Interviewers

Beyond the interview questions, we wanted to leave you with a few closing tips:

• Be conversational. Don’t blast question after question without allowing the applicant to ask questions or seek clarification.
• Be open-minded. Don’t assume these open-ended questions have only one right/wrong answer. Seriously consider the candidate’s answer without any bias.
• Be real. The interview experience is an equal opportunity for both parties to learn more about the company and the people they will be working with. Try to be yourself during the interview; it can be as formal or informal as you decide.

All in all, interviewing is an essential key to hiring and retaining top talent. The best recruiters and hiring managers know how to interview well, and many choose to use the questions provided above in this article. We hope that we can provide you with some useful interview questions to ask candidates.

Related: How to Be a Good Interviewer

If you have any additional questions, please contact us! 4 Corner Resources is a team of headhunters and recruiters that will assist with your hiring needs. We offer direct hire recruiting, contract staffing, and payrolling services.

Personality interview questions can help you uncover important characteristics, preferences, and soft skills that can ultimately help you decide on the best candidate. 

What Are Personality Interview Questions?

Personality interview questions ask about topics that aren’t directly related to a person’s technical skill level–for example, how they would approach a task or how they would react in a given situation. Personality interview questions also cover areas of life outside of work, like a candidate’s interests, habits, and hobbies.

Personality interview questions can help you better identify whether a candidate would be able to get the job done and if they’re the person you want on your team. 

What Is the Purpose of Asking Personality Interview Questions?

Identify soft skills

Personality questions can help you learn more about non-technical skill sets, also known as soft skills, like communication, organization, punctuality, and professionalism. Depending on the role, soft skills can be just as important or even more important than hard skills for a new hire’s success.

Related: How to Assess Soft Skills in an Interview

Learn about work preferences/habits

Personality interview questions can help you gain perspective on how a candidate thinks and works. Details like how they keep track of tasks and their preferred communication style will help you understand how they might collaborate with the existing members of the team.

Assess culture fit

Team dynamic impacts how enjoyable it is to come to work every day, heavily impacting employee engagement and retention. Ideally, you want a new hire to “mesh” with the rest of the team, which will help them be more successful at their job and find greater satisfaction in it. 

What to Look for When Asking Personality Interview Questions

Personality interview questions differ from other types of interview questions in that there may not be a correct or incorrect answer. It can be trickier to assess candidates against one another because one answer isn’t necessarily ‘better’ than another. 

Overcome these nuances by using personality interview questions to supplement your list of questions about technical skills, behavioral, and situational questions. If you’re deciding between two candidates with very similar resumes, personality questions can help you decide which would be the better fit for your team and company. 

The Best Personality Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

Questions about team dynamics

Describe the role you take when working on a team

The word ‘leadership’ comes up often when hiring, but not everyone on a team can be the leader. The fact of the matter is that effective teams need people in all capacities: leaders, executors, innovators, planners, communicators, and so on. This question helps you understand where a candidate might fit within your team dynamic. 

Tell me about a situation when you had a conflict with a colleague. How did you resolve it?

Conflicts come up even within the most positive team environments. The healthiest teams are those whose members can successfully handle the inevitable conflict with constructive rather than destructive strategies. 

Tell me about a time when you had fun with your team.

We don’t focus on fun in interviews, and it’s a missed opportunity. What a candidate considers ‘fun’ will determine their happiness on a team and their ability to develop camaraderie with their colleagues. While these aspects might be secondary to hard and soft skills, they’re important ingredients for a thriving culture. 

Questions about problem-solving

Describe your approach to problem-solving. 

Everyone approaches problems differently. A candidate should be able to walk you through their decision-making process, citing steps like gathering information, asking for input from others, weighing pros and cons, and mapping out an action plan. 

How would you handle a situation where you aren’t able to deliver on a deadline because of circumstances outside of your control?

From time to time, unavoidable circumstances can throw deadlines out the window. Power outages take down computer systems. Illnesses make team members inaccessible. This question helps you understand how a candidate would do damage control in the event of a missed deadline, which can give you insight into their broader ability to overcome challenges. 

A customer calls you at 4 pm on a Friday and says they need something urgently. How would you respond?

Customer-facing roles require balancing great service with the practicalities of business operations. Use this question to assess a candidate’s skills in this area and see if their answer aligns with how you would resolve the same problem. 

Questions about work style/habits

Describe your communication style.

Asking candidates to describe their communication style can provide insights into their interpersonal skills and self-awareness. It helps assess whether their approach aligns with your team’s standards, which will foster effective collaboration. Understanding a candidate’s communication style aids in building a cohesive and communicative work environment, enhancing overall team performance.

How do you deal with stress?

This question provides valuable insights into a candidate’s emotional intelligence and coping mechanisms. It can help you assess their ability to manage pressure, prioritize tasks, and maintain composure, all of which are necessary to perform in challenging situations.

How do you handle constructive criticism?

A candidate’s response to constructive criticism tells you a lot about their ability to take feedback and adapt to changes, which will define how easily you can manage them. It also showcases their ability to learn, grow, and collaborate effectively, shedding light on whether they can contribute positively to the team.

How do you adapt to changes?

Being adaptable is one of the most desirable characteristics in any type of role. It means a person is resilient and won’t be thrown off course when things don’t go according to plan (which is bound to happen sooner or later). A candidate’s response to this question reveals their ability to embrace innovation and thrive in a dynamic environment.

Questions about values

What motivates you?

Asking about what motivates a candidate can help you uncover their personal and professional drives, ambitions, and goals. The specifics of a candidate’s motivation don’t matter as much as the fact that they have motivation—something beyond the paycheck that keeps them showing up for work and striving to do a good job each day. 

What do you consider to be your greatest professional accomplishment? 

This question is dually helpful. First, it helps you to ascertain what types of accomplishments a candidate considers important, which should be aligned with your own perspective. Second, it gives you a glimpse at how they’ve created positive outcomes in previous roles, which can help predict the impact they might have on your company.

Personal questions

What do you like to do outside of work?

Inquiring about a candidate’s hobbies outside of work gives you a more complete understanding of who they are as a person, which can help you make the most accurate hiring assessment. A candidate’s interests, personal activities, and sense of work-life balance can all contribute to their suitability for a role. 

What are you reading?

Asking about a candidate’s current reading materials can give you insights into their curiosity level, intellectual interests, and pursuit of continuous learning. Generally speaking, people who are avid readers also tend to be strong communicators and are more open to new perspectives than people who don’t read often.

Important Tips for Asking Personality Interview Questions

Questions should serve a purpose

While some personality questions can feel a bit like ice-breakers (i.e., ‘What do you like to do for fun?’), there’s a noteworthy distinction between these questions and the off-the-wall queries that are simply meant to throw the candidate off (‘What fruit would you most like to be and why?’). The difference is that personality questions serve a purpose pertaining to the job opening–they’re meant to help you identify traits that make a candidate a stronger fit than others. The most appropriate personality interview questions will be different for every position, so they should be chosen for relevance with the job description in mind.

Some topics are off-limits

Some things just aren’t fit for discussion during a job interview. Some topics, in fact, are outright illegal to bring up. Keep yourself safe from legal repercussions by avoiding questions about candidates’ age, race, religion, sexual orientation, and family/children. Even questions that could be construed as probing about these topics should be eliminated. 

Be mindful of bias

One downside of asking personality interview questions is that they can invite personal bias–the tendency to prefer candidates who seem most like ourselves. A person can be likable while not being well-suited to a role. Keep subjectivity out of the hiring process by focusing on identifying traits that are relevant to performance and team dynamics rather than prioritizing a candidate for being personable. 

When used as part of a well-rounded interview process, personality questions can be a useful tool for assessing culture fit and identifying soft skills that aren’t always obvious on a resume.

Related: Beware of These Hiring Bias

What is Topgrading Interviewing?

Topgrading is a system for interviewing candidates that focuses on filling a team with top-tier talent. The strategy was devised by Dr. Brad Smart, one of the world’s foremost experts on hiring. 

Smart calls the target talent pool for topgrading “A Players”–people who fall within the top 10% of available talent for a given position within a given location. Smart advocates that building a workforce consisting primarily of A Players should be the top priority of a company’s leadership since the company relies on its talent to fulfill its business strategy.

Topgrading takes a more holistic view of candidates than a traditional interview. Whereas a regular interview focuses primarily on identifying a candidate’s skills and experience, topgrading dives more deeply into who the candidate is as a person, including their hard and soft skills, personality, values, ambition, and resourcefulness. Topgrading can help organizations hire more effectively and optimize business results. 

Benefits of Topgrading Interviews

Adopting a topgrading interview strategy can impact various aspects of a company’s operations and performance. Here are the top benefits of this approach. 

Stronger leadership

Your company’s leaders hold the proverbial keys to the kingdom. Their decisions guide the actions of their team, and their teams’ activities, in turn, determine the company’s performance. When you hire leadership team members using topgrading, they can then use topgrading to make their own hires. This results in an ever-strengthening talent base. 

Improved operational performance

The additional effort it takes to hire A Players pays off in the form of increased output in almost everything those employees do. Topgrading results in better productivity, customer service, innovation, quality, and speed, all demonstrably impacting company KPIs. 

Increased value

Talent isn’t the only factor driving a company’s value, but it’s among the biggest. Increasing the quality of your workforce can lead to increased revenue, decreased costs, and better market positioning, which will set the organization up for lasting success. 

Example Topgrading Interview Questions

Topgrading interview questions probe a bit deeper than the typical “tell me about yourself.” These questions aim to learn about all aspects of a candidate’s aptitude, motivations, and personality. Here are a few good topgrading questions to ask.

• Who were some of the most influential people in your early life?
• What were your earliest career goals?
• What are your current career goals?
• What are you looking for from your next position?
• Describe your biggest successes in your current job.
• What has been your biggest failure in your current role?
• Knowing what you know now, would you have done anything differently?
• How would your current supervisor describe your strengths and weaknesses?
• Why are you leaving your current job?

12 Steps of Topgrading

1. Assess your hiring process

Begin by examining your current process for interviewing and hiring. What methods are working, and which ones are falling short? Where are you experiencing turnover or skills gaps that indicate weaknesses in your hiring? 

2. Create a job scorecard

This is a thorough framework for the criteria you need in a candidate. It should be developed before you begin recruiting and should guide you in creating the job description. Here’s an example interview scorecard for a company CEO. 

• Intelligence: Able to rapidly perform quick analyses
• Vision: Can create and communicate a strategic vision
• Leadership: Initiates necessary change and can “sell” that change to the organization
• Drive: Passionate, high energy level
• Resourcefulness: Able to find creative ways to overcome barriers
• Customer Focus: Sensitive and adaptive to stated and unstated customer needs
• Hiring: Hires A Players
• Team Building: Energizes others, can create focused and driven teams
• Experience: Track record of delivering results that exceed expectations
• Integrity: Unequivocally does the right thing
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills

3. Recruit candidates

Use the job scorecard you created to write a compelling job description and begin recruiting candidates. Prioritize internal candidates and referrals. 

4. Create work history forms for candidates

In the topgrading system, work history forms are used in lieu of resumes to assess candidates’ work experience. Distribute questionnaires for candidates to fill out that prompts them to provide a detailed account of their work history, their reasons for leaving each job, and their strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes for each position. These forms should be used to create a candidate shortlist for your interview process. 

5. Conduct phone interviews

Conduct phone interviews with your initial shortlist. Use this opportunity to weed out candidates whose actual qualifications don’t match what they submitted on their work history form. Only those candidates who qualify as potential A Players should move on to the next round. 

6. Conduct competency interviews

Interview your narrowed-down pool of candidates with a list of questions developed based on your job scorecard. The goal is to identify proficiency in the required skills. Give candidates a chance to ask questions of their own. 

7. Conduct topgrading interview

A topgrading interview is much more thorough than a traditional interview, typically lasting several hours. It’s an in-depth exploration of a candidate, their personality, their various jobs, and their experience in each one. Multiple interviewers should take part. 

8. Give interviewers feedback

Once the interview has wrapped up, interviewers should take the time to offer one another feedback. This helps to continuously refine the topgrading process.

Related: How to Give Interview Feedback

9. Create candidate summaries

Create executive summaries of candidates, referring back to the job scorecard to analyze strengths and weaknesses. Compare summaries between interviewers, looking for similarities. For a candidate’s weaknesses, identify whether they can be easily remedied or if they’ll be more challenging to overcome.

10. Check references, make offer

In the topgrading system, candidates coordinate their own reference checks. The idea is that an A Player should have positive relationships with their former supervisors. Speak with references and make an offer to your selected candidate. 

11. Provide coaching

Use the weaknesses you identified in your candidate summary to provide constructive coaching. Set expectations for success and provide an environment that’s conducive to growth.

12. Measure performance

Once your new hire has had a chance to get acclimated, gather feedback about their experience with the topgrading process. Once a year, assess your overall topgrading progress and pinpoint areas for improvement. 

Tips for Topgrading Interviews

Prepare candidates ahead of time

Topgrading isn’t your average interview process. It’s more in-depth and is a heftier time commitment for both candidates and recruiters. Some candidates may not be comfortable with certain aspects of the system, like the fact that they’ll need to reach out to their former bosses personally. Ensure applicants’ willing participation by letting them know what to expect from the start. This allows candidates to opt-out if the process isn’t for them. 

Use it selectively

Topgrading isn’t a fit for across-the-board hiring. If you’re onboarding a high volume of seasonal staff or hiring for an entry-level position, spending multiple hours interviewing every candidate is not practical. The process is most suitable for high-impact roles like leadership positions and core business functions where the stakes are higher to find an excellent fit. 

Incorporate beneficial elements

You don’t have to use the entire 12-step topgrading process to benefit from its philosophy. Incorporate individual parts into your broader hiring strategy, like using job scorecards to define the requirements for your openings or using holistic interview questions to gain a more comprehensive understanding of candidates. 

As your business evolves, so should your hiring process. Embracing the topgrading interview methodology can be a transformative step in improving the quality of your workforce. By prioritizing in-depth assessments of candidates’ past experiences, performance, and potential, topgrading ensures a strategic and thorough approach to hiring that not only enhances the accuracy of hires but fosters a culture of continuous improvement. 

The Importance of Being a Good Interviewer

Interviews aid the hiring process in numerous ways. Here are a few of the biggest implications interviews can have. 

Assessing skills

Reading a candidate’s resume is one thing, but it’s often not until you hear a person talk about their qualifications in their own words that you really get a feel for their knowledge. An interview is an important opportunity to assess a candidate’s skill level and hear their pitch for why they’d make a strong hire. 

Judging character

Speaking with a candidate face to face or via video call gives you a better idea of who they are as a person, which is just as important as technical skills when hiring. To build a strong team, you want to hire people who are trustworthy, dependable, and considerate. Being a good interviewer helps identify these characteristics. 

Gauging interest

The best hires are those who want to work for your company, not just any company. They’re more likely to be engaged in their work and to remain with the organization for a longer time when they have a genuine interest in the job. A great interviewer can get a sense of a candidate’s interest level and find out how many other companies they might also be talking with, which can influence a potential job offer. 

Providing a positive candidate experience

Poor interview skills can make a conversation with a candidate dull, awkward, and uncomfortable. The interview is one of the only chances a candidate has to speak with people inside the company. If the experience is a negative one, they’re more likely to withdraw from the hiring process or choose another employer over you. Being a good interviewer helps the interaction flow smoothly, which is much more enjoyable for the candidate.  

Boosting hiring efficiency

Being a good interviewer isn’t just about having good conversational skills. It also requires strong time management, like sticking to the allotted time frame and completing all of the necessary interviews in a timely manner. Maintaining momentum is crucial for an expedient hiring process, which helps in controlling costs and securing top talent. 

Qualities of a Good Interviewer

Diligence

A good interviewer has a genuine investment in the process and a willingness to put in the work that’s required. This includes researching candidates in advance, gaining knowledge about various positions, and completing thorough, timely assessments. 

Warmth

While there’s some benefit to seeing how a candidate performs when they’re “on the hot seat,” you’ll get more honest answers and a much more accurate read if you can make them feel relaxed and at ease. A friendly attitude and warm demeanor can help the candidate perform their best, which helps you make a correct assessment.

Precision

A little small talk is always welcome, but strong interviewers keep the conversation on track. Sticking to topics that are directly relevant to the job will help you identify key skills and stay within the allotted time. 

Active listening

A good interviewer demonstrates interest and gives the candidate their full attention. This is not only respectful but helps with remembering essential details.  

Punctuality

To keep the hiring process moving, an effective interviewer shows up on time, conducts an efficient interview, and scores candidates promptly. 

Objectivity

One of the hardest skills to learn as an interviewer is judging candidates objectively rather than based on your gut feeling. The best interviews (and the most successful hires) happen when the interviewer keeps their assessment free from personal opinions and biases.

Organization

Interviewing comes with a hefty side of admin work. You have to stay on top of multiple candidates, keep track of where they’re at in the interview process and maintain consistent communication, all of which require strong organizational skills.

Ability to identify potential

A great interviewer can discern the unique set of qualities that make a candidate likely to succeed. This skill takes time and practice to acquire, but if you can develop it, you’ll be a better interviewer than most and will optimize your hiring success rate. 

How to Be a Good Interviewer

1. Prepare in advance

Very few interviewers can go in cold and make it seem natural. Showing up unprepared gives a negative impression to candidates and makes it much harder to zero in on the necessary skills. Avoid this by preparing in advance. Review the candidate’s resume, browse their LinkedIn profile and other social media pages, and reread the job listing so the requirements are fresh in your mind. 

2. Put the candidate at ease

Greet the candidate by making eye contact, smiling, offering a firm handshake, and thanking them for their participation. Use personal conversation (‘How’s your day going so far?’) or give a brief overview of the position to help break the ice and ease into the more serious topics of discussion. Be sure your phone is silenced and any other potential distractions, like Slack pings, are muted. 

3. Stick to a structure

Don’t wing it. It’s a surefire way to get off track and miss out on asking the questions you really need to ask. Instead, follow a consistent structure that’s the same for each candidate. Here’s an example:

• 5 minutes: Greeting, introductions
• 10 minutes: Questions on candidate background
• 10 minutes: Questions on technical skills
• 5 minutes: Questions about culture fit
• 5 minutes: Candidate questions, wrap up

Keep in mind the structure is just a framework; you don’t want to appear as though you’re reading from a script or cut off a candidate’s answer because you’re approaching six minutes instead of five. Let the conversation flow naturally, using the structure as a guide to make sure you cover the most crucial topics. 

4. Ask tailored questions

Again, you’ll want to plan ahead of time. In advance, work with other stakeholders, like department heads to develop the list of questions you’ll ask candidates. Each question should serve a purpose that’s tied directly to the job. 

Asking a mix of behavioral and situational interview questions and using open-ended questions can help you make a thorough, well-rounded assessment. 

Related: The Best and Worst Interview Questions To Ask Candidates

5. Listen

If you’re doing most of the talking, there’s a problem. Once you’ve asked a question, sit back and let the candidate have the floor. Give them your undivided attention and focus on what they’re saying, taking notes about key points. You might even consider recording the interview to aid in your later assessment (provided that you’ve obtained proper consent from the candidate, of course). 

6. Clarify key details

Even when you’re following an interview structure, you should allow some wiggle room to deviate if the candidate says something you want to know more about. Ask follow-up questions like ‘Can you tell me more about _____?’ and ‘Could you clarify what you meant by _____?’ to ensure you have an accurate understanding of the interviewee’s qualifications. 

7. Allow the candidate to ask questions

Don’t underestimate the importance of this interview step. Candidate questions allow you to address any areas of concern the candidate may have and allow them to bring up additional strengths/skills you may not have asked about. Candidates may surprise you with the questions they ask, and their topics of interest can give you additional context on their values and interest level in the position. 

8. Use a standardized scoring system

Assess all candidates using a consistent set of scoring criteria. Not only does this ensure you’re comparing applicants equally, it also helps keep subjectivity and bias out of the interview process.

Interviewing is one part skill, one part art. By continuously improving your interviewing skills, you’ll become a stronger leader, provide a better experience for candidates, and, most importantly, hire with greater success. 

Below, we share the benefits of conducting a phone interview, tips on preparing for a phone interview, sample questions to ask, and those to avoid.

Benefits of Conducting a Phone Interview

Phone interviews are a vital part of the modern hiring process, offering convenience for both the jobseeker and hiring manager alike. While in-person interviews will remain an essential part of the hiring process, most applicants have come to expect an initial phone screening before an in-person visit. 

Being able to conduct a phone interview offers the following advantages. 

Convenience in scheduling

It’s much easier for someone to find 30 minutes to conduct a phone interview than to find the time to go into an office for an in-person interview.

Higher volume screening

By starting the interview process with a phone interview, you can filter through a higher volume of candidates in a shorter period of time.

Decreased travel expenses

It’s not uncommon for multiple people to participate in a phone interview. If different members of your organization are in other locations, a phone interview quickly becomes the most convenient solution.

With years of experience running a top staffing agency in Florida, we know how to conduct phone interviews that leave candidates excited and eager to move forward in the interview process. 

Preparing to Conduct a Phone Interview

Hopefully, by now, you have a clear view of the benefits of a phone interview. The next step is learning how to prepare yourself or your team to conduct successful interviews via the phone.

1. Research the interviewee

To prepare for a phone interview, start by researching the individual you will be interviewing. We recommend reviewing their resume, LinkedIn profile, job description, and any other supplemental information provided. This will come in handy later when you are preparing phone interview questions to ask.

2. Find a quiet place

Conduct your phone interview in a quiet space. Conducting a phone interview while in a public or noisy space is not advisable. You could be interrupted, and it could be viewed as disrespectful to the interviewee. These background noises might be okay for you, but they may distract the applicant. This could cause them to stumble in what otherwise could have been an excellent interview. 

3. Prepare relevant interview questions

While there is definitely some value in preparing general interview questions to ask all of your applicants, candidate-specific questions are highly advisable. Candidate-specific questions allow you to dig deeper into the information on their resume. It also shows the applicant that you have done your homework and that you’re seriously considering their request to work for you. 

Related: How to Prepare for a Phone Screen as a Hiring Manager

Good Phone Interview Questions

When conducting a phone interview, your questions will either make it worthwhile or a complete waste of time. By asking good interview questions, you should learn enough about the candidate to decide whether or not they should move forward in the interview process.

The goal of your phone interview should be to gain a deeper understanding of the candidate’s background, credentials, and career expectations. If all of these align with your offer, you have a great match! 

1. Why are you looking for a new position?

Understanding why the applicant is looking for a new position is crucial to the interview process. No, this isn’t meant to be a catch-all where the applicant is forced to disclose that they were recently fired or laid off. While that may arise, there is a more important reason to ask this question. That is, to determine if they will be happy in the position you are interviewing for. If they just left their job because they hated working long hours, and you know your job requires long hours, it’s probably not a good fit. On the flip side, if they left because they felt they hit a glass ceiling, and you know the position you are hiring for has much room for growth, it could be an excellent opportunity to sell the role.

2. What prior experience has prepared you for this role?

Relevant experience is a significant predictor of likely success. So, you want to understand whether a candidate has experience with similar or adjacent duties to the ones they’d be responsible for in the role. This question gives the candidate a chance to tell you about their background in their own words, which can be more informative than merely reading a list of jobs on their resume. Pay attention to the experiences they point out, as this will be a clue to the type of duties they feel most comfortable and confident with. 

3. What is your preferred work environment?

With this question, you’re looking to identify the defining workplace characteristics that a candidate sees as ideal: collaborative versus independent, quiet versus bustling, conventional versus creative, traditional versus nontraditional, and so on. While you don’t have to be an exact fit for all of a candidate’s preferences, you want to ensure that most of them align with the company’s actual work environment to prevent a hiring mismatch. 

4. What is your biggest professional accomplishment?

This question serves three purposes. First, it gives you a chance to hear about the accomplishment itself, which on its own may be an impressive reason to hire them. Second, it gives you perspective on what kind of achievements the candidate views as valuable, which will help you decide whether they can accomplish the goals you need them to meet in the position. Finally, it tells you whether a candidate has researched the position. The accomplishment they mention should be something that’s relevant to the job. If they describe something that seems totally unrelated, it’s a good sign they didn’t research the job thoroughly or have an incorrect understanding of what the responsibilities are. 

5. What are your salary expectations for this role?

While this usually wouldn’t be the first question you’d ask in an interview, it can be an excellent filter to narrow down an extensive list of potential candidates. It would be a massive waste of time to go through multiple interviews only to discover that the salary expectations were not aligned. This happens repeatedly but, in most cases, can easily be avoided.

6. Your resume mentions that you were responsible for a 60% increase in sales at your last company. How did you achieve that?

This is an example of a custom interview question. As we mentioned above, it’s important to review the interviewee’s information and prepare a couple of completely unique questions. This allows you to gain a better understanding of their background and fact-check some of their statements.

7. Are you interviewing with other companies?

A cat-and-mouse element to hiring can complicate the process. On one hand, if a candidate is interviewing elsewhere, it could indicate that they’re a desirable asset and increase their value in your eyes. On the other hand, it also increases the likelihood that you’ll face competition to get them to accept an offer, which could be more expensive and time-consuming. Either way, it’s an important question to ask so that you have all of the details necessary to make an informed and strategic hiring decision.

If you would like to get help with the recruitment process and relieve your team of the initial hiring administrative tasks, such as conducting first-round phone interviews, we can help.

Related: The Best Behavioral Questions to Ask Candidates

Phone interview questions to avoid

Bad phone interview questions can create a poor candidate experience, waste hours of time, and potentially have legal implications. With such a severe downside, it’s worth learning how to avoid these potentially damaging interview questions.

Questions that ask for personal information

You must avoid asking questions related to the candidate’s age, marital status, religion, ethnicity, citizenship, disability status, sexual orientation, plans to conceive, etc. In addition, you should avoid sharing any of this information about yourself. Doing so may make the candidate feel uncomfortable and could also open you or your company up to legal action.

Questions asked for the sake of passing time

While this is rarely intentional and typically happens due to a lack of preparation, it’s important not to ask questions just for the sake of asking. It can be tempting to go online and Google “interview questions to ask candidates” and then incorporate those questions into your phone interview. However, consider each question and its significance in the interview process. There are enough quality interview questions to fill a 30-minute time slot. 

Related: The Best and Worst Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

Tips for Conducting a Phone Interview

Schedule interviews promptly

Speed is a great asset when you’re competing for top talent, and phone interviews are conducive to moving quickly. Scheduling interviews on the same day or the next day helps you engage qualified applicants while their interest level is high and also reduces your hiring time.

Set candidate expectations

If you set up the interview with vague language like “Do you have a few minutes to chat?” the candidate might incorrectly assume it’s a quick, casual conversation when it’s really a full-length, formal interview. Avoid this–and give them adequate opportunity to prepare—by setting clear expectations ahead of time. Explicitly state that the call will be an interview. Tell them how long you expect the call to take and who they will speak with. 

Review resumes ahead of time

While phone interviews may feel more informal than in-person interviews, the stakes are just as high. So, you owe it to the candidate and your company to thoroughly prepare. Review resumes and application materials ahead of time versus glancing at them as you dial the phone number. This will help you ask more focused questions and have a full picture of the applicant you’re speaking with. 

Use standardized questions

Avoid the urge to ‘wing it’ and ask questions on the fly. It’s much easier to assess all candidates equally when you ask each of them the same set of questions. This will ensure you gather all of the relevant information and help you avoid veering off-topic or going over your allotted time frame.

Related: Guide to Interview Scoring Sheets

Keep the conversation focused

With phone interviews, time management is paramount. It’s too easy for attention and energy levels to drop when you’re not sitting face-to-face with a candidate. Stay focused by sticking to the questions you’ve decided on ahead of time and try to keep the call from dragging on too long; 20 to 30 minutes is a good benchmark. 

How to Conclude a Phone Interview

The best way to conclude a phone interview is with some level of transparency. If the applicant is worthy of moving forward to the next round, let them know someone will contact them to schedule a follow-up. Should they not be deemed a good fit for the position, tell them why or tell them that you have other candidates who are a closer match. When you have mixed feelings and need some time to think about it, let your applicant know a definitive time frame when you will get back to them with an update. Interviewing is a two-way street. Refrain from assuming an applicant will wait for your response and not continue interviewing elsewhere.

Need Help Hiring?

Here at 4 Corner Resources, we are eager to assist your company with any hiring needs. We offer professional staffing services that will save you time and effort in your hiring process.

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Conduct a Phone Interview FAQs

We are regularly asked questions related to phone interviews. For your convenience, we have compiled some frequently asked questions as well as our answers.

Here, we’ll share some of the top interview questions to ask IT candidates to help you find the strongest candidate for your role. To help structure your IT job interview, we’ve divided them into three categories: questions about the candidate, their approach to work, and their technical expertise.

Questions About the IT Candidate

Some questions are helpful to ask regardless of the role you’re interviewing for. Asking IT interview questions about the candidate that covers a broader territory than their technical expertise will help you get a feel for who they are as a whole person and whether you can see them thriving at your company.

1. Why are you interested in the position?

This one is a no-brainer to help you gauge whether the candidate understands the requirements and functions of the job for which they’re applying. From their answer, you should be able to tell not only whether they’ve done their homework about the role and the company but whether they’re enthusiastic about the opportunity. The best employees are those who are excited about making a meaningful contribution to the organization.

2. Tell me about your background.

It’s always beneficial to hear a candidate explain their career progression in their own words. This gives you the chance to learn how they got to where they are and hear about the twists and turns on their professional path thus far. A strong candidate should call out a few career highlights that are closely aligned with the role, whether it’s prior experience with similar job duties, specialized knowledge of a desired technology, or past successes that mimic what you’d like the ideal candidate to achieve. 

3. Describe your ideal work environment.

Their answer will be huge in helping you assess whether the candidate can succeed in your workplace, both logistically and in terms of company culture. Do they prefer lots of structure or a less rigid workday? Do they work best solo or as part of a team? Are they looking for flexibility, like the option to work remotely? All of these aspects and more will indicate whether their expectations align with the reality of working for you.

4. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Candidates in tech, perhaps more so than any other field, have an unprecedented opportunity to create solutions that can change the world. How does the candidate view their place in this landscape?

With this answer, you’re looking for the candidate to demonstrate ambition while having realistic expectations about where the role might take them. You’re also looking to see if their goals align with your company’s. For example, if the candidate says they see themself immersed in software development. Still, your five-year plan revolves more around infrastructure development, it may indicate it’s not the best fit. Or, at the very least, additional clarification is needed.

5. What motivates you?

When a candidate describes their motivations, they tell you pretty clearly whether the job will be fulfilling to them. This is an important factor to ensure the greatest chance of new hire success and retention. Understanding the motivations of your top candidate will also help you craft an offer that’s compelling to them. For example, suppose they say they’re motivated by the desire to one day lead a department. In that case, you might highlight the many advancement opportunities that would be available to them in your firm. 

6. Why are you leaving your current job?

This is a great “sniff test” question that will help you avoid bad hires. Many legitimate reasons people leave jobs include being burned out, disengaged, or just plain bored. What you’re looking for are red flags, both in the content of the candidate’s answer and their delivery. If they tell you they’ve handed in their notice because they’re always getting into fights with their coworkers or if they seem evasive in answering, it could be grounds for taking a closer look at their background and probing their references for more information. 

IT Interview Questions to Ask About Their Approach to Work

Success in IT requires a unique blend of being able to work on a team and being able to work independently without being micromanaged. Use these questions about the candidate’s work style to see where they fall on the spectrum.

1. How do you manage your time when juggling multiple projects?

IT professionals are often pulled in many different directions and must be able to prioritize tasks. What you’re really asking here is, can your manager trust you to stay on top of your workload without dropping the ball? Look for answers that show a strategic approach to workflow management. List-making, time management apps, and spreadsheets are good signs of a candidate’s response.

2. Describe a time when you had to take a leadership role on a project. Were you successful?

Even if the position you’re hiring for isn’t a management role, you should look for leadership skills in your IT candidates. The field frequently requires taking ownership of projects and seeing that they get done on time. What’s more, it’s always great when you can identify talent that may be a good fit for a management track down the road.

3. How would you explain your job to your grandmother?

It’s an old cliché that IT people are bad communicators. Still, breakdowns in communication between the tech team and the rest of the company can cause problems. Your IT pros must be able to convey complex technical concepts to other departments without losing patience or having important details get lost in translation. This exercise will help you gauge their ability to do that.

4. How do you handle failure?

Everyone experiences failure, and IT is one industry where trial and error is an inherent part of the job. Knowing how a candidate reacts in the face of a setback will help you determine if they have the character and perseverance to be an effective member of your team. A strong answer to this question will point out how the candidate learns from the failure and what they do to move forward from it. 

5. Do you work well under pressure?

Whether it’s completing a set of code on a tight deadline or troubleshooting a glitch that’s causing a system outage, performing under pressure is a common challenge in many IT roles. A candidate’s answer will give you clues about how they react in stressful situations. Look for a response that indicates the candidate can keep a cool head and focus on the task at hand rather than letting the pressure get the best of them. 

6. What’s your preferred communication style?

Communication might not be high on your list of required skills for your IT role, but it’s a lot more important than you might think. What good is technical support if no one can understand it? The best IT professionals have a gift for breaking down technical topics in language their colleagues can comprehend, whether that’s verbally or in writing. This question is important to assess candidates in this critical area. 

7. What role do you prefer to take in a team setting?

This is an excellent question to help you understand how and where an IT candidate might fit in with your existing team dynamic. While there’s no right or wrong answer, some responses may be preferable. For example, if you already have strong department leadership, you don’t need another teammate who always likes to be in charge. On the flip side, if you’re lacking leadership, you might be looking for a candidate who says they prefer to take the reins and give direction to others. 

8. What type of people do you work best with?

When hiring IT professionals, culture fit is often neglected in favor of technical credentials like programming or security capabilities. However, a candidate’s ability to mesh with your existing staff can make or break their success. Pay attention to a candidate’s response to see if it sounds similar to the people on your team. It may be worth speaking with additional applicants if their description sounds way off base. 

Related: IT Recruitment Challenges and How to Overcome Them

IT Interview Questions to Ask About Technical Expertise

This part of the interview can prove the most challenging for hiring managers, particularly those who aren’t well-versed in IT. Use these technical interview questions to better assess whether a candidate’s hard skills align with the role’s requirements.

1. What skills make you the best fit for this role?

This great open-ended question will help you discover what the candidate thinks are the most important qualities for success in the role. Some might talk about specific programming languages or technical credentials, while others might talk about more general skills like critical thinking or problem-solving. Look for answers that correspond with your own version of the best candidate.

2. How do you keep up with the latest technology advances?

The world of IT is fast-paced and constantly changing. In addition to mastering the duties of their job as it stands today, the ideal candidate will help your company keep pace with the shifting landscape and anticipate the skills that will be necessary for success 6 months, 12 months, or 24 months down the road. Look for candidates who prioritize ongoing learning through technology blogs and forums, industry publications, online courses, and even tech hobbies outside of their 9-to-5.

3. What are your favorite technical tools to use in your work?

This might include hardware, software, apps, cloud-based services, the list goes on. This question will help you uncover what the candidate considers to be “quality” technology—and whether it gels with your company’s perspective on the same topic. This question can also identify potential pitfalls, like if a candidate reveals that they hate Windows but your organization has an exclusive software license with Microsoft.

4. What was the biggest project you worked on in the last six months?

Here, you’re turning the mic over to the candidate and giving them the floor to make a case for their technical and non-technical strengths. Look for the candidate to talk you through how they solved a problem or overcame a challenge and the steps that were involved along the way. Ideally, you’ll get to hear about a mix of hard skills, like programming logic, and soft skills, like teamwork and communication.

5. Describe your process for quality control.

No matter the specifics of your IT job, it no doubt comes with a certain level of expectations about the quality of the work or product. How will a candidate meet these expectations? What prior experience do they have in this area? You want to see that quality isn’t an afterthought but a core part of the candidate’s approach to their work.

6. Let’s say the CTO comes to you with [insert common challenge candidate would face in the role]. How would you handle it?

This situational interview question requires the candidate to think in hypotheticals about how they’d react in a future situation. It will help you understand how a candidate thinks through problems and whether they’re able to take a bigger task and break it down into smaller, achievable parts to get the job done.

7. One of the goals we’re looking for the right candidate to achieve is [insert KPI for the role]. How would you go about achieving this?

This question allows the candidate to talk through their process for achieving goals and expand upon how they would apply their skills in this role. A good candidate should be able to confidently explain how they’d approach the challenge and name the action items they’d check off along the way. This demonstrates a critical thinker who’s comfortable solving problems, which are necessary qualities in an IT role. 

8. How do you measure your success?

One big challenge with IT jobs is that success can take time to define. Performance is often subjective, and technical professionals may have different ideas of what success looks like than the company leaders who are assessing them. Thus, it’s a great idea to ensure you’re on the same page from the beginning, and you can start by discussing it in the job interview. 

9. What new software or technology have you used recently?

IT professionals play a crucial role in helping companies innovate. You look to them as a source of knowledge for what’s new and coming next. A strong candidate should have no problem naming off a few pieces of tech they’ve tested out and telling you how they performed. Even better if they speak about the topic with enthusiasm. 

10. How do you provide support remotely?

With millions of employees working offsite, the modern IT professional must possess the skills to do their job–and help others–remotely. Look for an answer that demonstrates the candidate is comfortable using various forms of technology (or even a good old-fashioned phone call) to support people in another location. 

11. What questions do you have for us?

Don’t forget to leave time at the end for this all-important IT interview question. This not only helps contribute to a positive candidate experience, but it can also help you see where their head is at after their first face-to-face interaction with your company.

Are they asking questions about what success looks like in the role or the department’s biggest goals for the upcoming year? Great! Are they asking basic questions they should already know the answer to or probing about your time off policy? Not so great. This question is a good way to get one last read on a candidate’s preparedness and the likelihood of accepting the job should you decide to make an offer.

Hiring for an IT Role? Let 4 Corner Resources Deliver Top Talent

Information technology plays a critical role in every field. That’s why it’s of utmost importance to hire the very best IT professionals available. Consider partnering with an IT staffing agency to recruit top IT professionals for your hiring needs.  4 Corner Resources got its start in information technology staffing, and though we’ve grown a lot since then, IT remains a core expertise.

Let us fill your hiring funnel with IT candidates who can help keep your business fast and agile. We have experience filling various technical positions, including data architects, DevOps engineers, software developers, network administrators, and much more. Get started by contacting us to speak with one of our IT hiring experts today.

However, you can also ask many common questions to assist you in your selection process. The interview is the applicant’s chance to showcase their abilities and personality. With the right questions, you can use the interview to understand better who the candidate is, their goals and motivations, and how well they might fit in with your team.

Here are some common, effective marketing interview questions to ask candidates, along with notes on why the question should be asked and what kind of answers you should expect from your candidates.

80 Marketing Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

General marketing questions

These questions allow the candidate to show you their industry knowledge and explain what interests them about marketing. They give the candidate a chance to talk about their prior experience and successes, and they should be able to give several concrete examples of their skills in action. These are important topics to cover since past performance is the strongest indicator of future success.

Here are some good questions to ask:

• Why are you interested in a marketing career?
• What do you feel are the three most important skills in marketing?
• What are the components of an effective marketing campaign?
• How do you stay current on the latest marketing trends and techniques?
• How do you measure your success?
• Discuss a challenging project you worked on that required collaboration from other teams. 
• Tell me about your greatest marketing success.

Social media questions

Any marketing professional should recognize the importance of social media in the modern marketplace. If the role includes social media responsibilities, the candidate should be competent in using most or all major social media platforms. They should be able to give examples of how they’ve used social media to increase online presence and brand awareness in a previous job or internship. 

Their own social media use is of interest, too. If they lack a social media presence, personally or professionally, then they might not be a good fit for you. 

Ask questions like:

• Which social media platforms do you personally use?
• Which social media platforms are most important for our brand?
• Describe your approach to managing a company’s social media profile. 
• How have you successfully used social media for marketing in the past?
• Tell me about a campaign you’re most proud of. 
• Describe your process for deciding what to post.
• What do most companies get wrong with social media?
• What do you consider to be the most important social media metrics?

SEO questions

Search engine optimization tactics have evolved dramatically over the last decade, and they continue to change month by month. A strong SEO candidate will have a strategy for actively staying on top of the latest shifts and trends. They should comfortably describe various aspects of SEO and explain how they would use them to benefit your business.

These SEO questions will help you assess their skills:

• What are your favorite SEO tools?
• How do you stay current with the latest algorithm changes?
• What are the most important ranking factors for a website today?
• How would you improve our brand’s search presence?
• In what areas are our competitors outperforming us?
• What role do keywords play in SEO strategy?
• Describe the difference between on-page and off-page SEO. 
• If you were to get the job, what would be your first priority regarding our SEO?
• Give some examples of SEO wins you’ve achieved in the past. 

Content marketing questions

You can’t have a comprehensive marketing program without content marketing. A strong content marketing strategy builds brand awareness and helps your company win customers’ trust. A strong candidate should be well-versed in various content marketing tactics, including long- and short-form content, blogging, audio, video, and downloadable content like infographics and white papers. 

Good content marketing questions include:

• What are your favorite forms of content marketing?
• What content marketing campaigns do you think could be most effective for our brand?
• How would you use content marketing to help us reach new customers?
• What do you think makes a great piece of content?
• How do you measure the success of a piece of content?
• What’s your approach to collaborating with other teams?
• What content do you think is lacking in our industry?
• How do you go about creating a content strategy?

Product marketing questions

Product marketing questions are a great way to test a candidate’s knowledge of the company and see if they came prepared. It’s not hard for a candidate to research before the interview. Those candidates who don’t bother better to understand your products, services, and target audience might show a lack of interest or passion for what your team does. 

Use product marketing questions to gauge a candidate’s communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. A strong contender will know the steps involved in managing a product launch and be able to hit the ground running with your current and upcoming campaigns. 

Here are some product marketing questions to consider:

• How would you describe our company’s target market?
• What do you think of our current product marketing?
• Who would you say are our primary competitors? What are they doing right/wrong with their product marketing?
• How do you manage the launch of a new product?
• How do you conduct market research?
• How would you help our brand reach [new audience group]?
• How would you respond to negative reviews of a product you were marketing?
• What role does customer feedback play in your approach?
• Can you give me an example of a product that you think was marketed incorrectly? How would you fix it?
• What products do you think have the best marketing? Why?

Design questions

Design and marketing go hand in hand. Even if a marketer’s duties don’t include design work, they’ll almost certainly work closely with designers to plan, create, and execute campaigns. A good marketing candidate must have a basic understanding of design principles, a strong grasp of different media types, and the ability to communicate with creatives. 

Assess their design knowledge by asking the following:

• What role does design play in a marketing campaign?
• What makes for a strong design?
• Is good design objective? Why or why not?
• Which brands do you think have mastered design?
• How do you communicate your vision to a team of designers?
• What’s your process for giving design feedback?
• What would you do if you were working with a designer who just didn’t seem to be executing on the vision?
• How do you ensure a brand’s design is consistent from one channel to the next?

PR and communications questions

Communication is the bedrock of a marketer’s job. Strong communication skills are a must in order to create campaigns that resonate with audiences, not to mention being able to communicate with the numerous team members required to get a campaign off the ground. 

Look for a candidate with strong written and verbal communication skills. Being able to communicate well under pressure is a plus. Pro tip–if a candidate cannot communicate well during the job interview, it’s not a good sign for their ability to communicate on the job. 

Here are some good interview questions about communication:

• Describe your communication style.
• What is your preferred method of communication with team members?
• Describe a time when you had a miscommunication at work. How did you handle it?
• How do you ensure your colleagues have the information they need for a marketing campaign?
• What are your favorite tools for communicating with customers?
• How would you communicate a piece of unwelcome news to our audience?
• How would you describe our brand voice?
• What role does PR play in a company’s marketing strategy?
• Describe a successful PR campaign you worked on in the past.
• How would you handle a PR crisis?

Data analytics questions

Analytics has become an increasingly important part of the marketing field. Data analysis can help you better understand your market, analyze your marketing efforts’ effectiveness, and increase your campaigns’ ROI. These questions will help you test a candidate’s data analysis skills and understand how they’d apply them in a real-world setting to help your business.

Ask questions like:

• What are the most important marketing metrics?
• What are your favorite tools for data analysis?
• How should data analysis be used to inform marketing strategy?
• How do you use data to segment an audience?
• Has there ever been a time when the data surprised you? 
• Have you ever had to use data to change a decision-maker’s mind?

Candidate-specific questions

In addition to probing to learn about marketing candidates’ skills, you also want to learn more about them as a person. Finding out things like what drives them and what kind of work environment they prefer will help you decide whether your company seems like a strong match for their preferences. 

Candidate-centric questions can also help you judge whether they’re likely to succeed in the role. For example, are they data-driven? Growth minded? Numbers oriented? All of these things could be defining factors in whether a candidate will be in alignment with the job’s requirements beyond just the technical skills. 

Here are some example questions to use:

• What motivates you in your job?
• Tell me about one of your hobbies.
• What makes you stand out from other marketing candidates?
• Where do you see yourself in five years?
• Why are you leaving your current job?
• What do you like/dislike most about your current position?
• What does an ideal day of work look like for you?
• What is your 30-second elevator pitch for why we should hire you?

Creative interview questions

A good marketer can make paint drying on a wall sound interesting. You can learn much about the candidate’s ability to pique an audience’s interest by asking unique interview questions and seeing how they respond. You’ll be able to tell right away which candidates are natural conversationalists and which ones might not be so polished and passionate. 

Creative interview questions are also a great way to find out how well a candidate can think on their feet. This skill is valuable when doing everyday marketing tasks like giving presentations and making important decisions on a deadline. 

• What is your most unique attribute?
• How would you market [name a random object]?
• How do you persuade a difficult audience?
• How do you overcome buyer objections?
• If you were given $1,000 to use on marketing our product, how would you spend it?
• Same question, but with $1 million?
• What would you do if you had to choose a career other than marketing?

Hire the Best Marketing Candidate With Our Staffing Experts

You can use these marketing interview questions to ask candidates or create similar ones and use questions specific to the job or company that you feel are important. Don’t only listen, but watch how each candidate reacts to the questions. Personality comes out not only in how a candidate communicates verbally but also in their appearance and demeanor. The candidates who stand out will have sharp answers and look and act professionally, regardless of what you ask them. 

If you’ve been struggling to hire the best candidates for your job, 4 Corner Resources can help. As an experienced marketing headhunting firm, we’ll interview and screen candidates so you don’t waste your time.

Contact us today to see how we can help you secure the perfect marketing candidate.

Creative Interview Questions, Explained

“If you were a pie, what flavor would you be and why?”

“How would you run our company if you were from Mars?”

“Would you rather have a dozen dog-sized dinosaurs or one dinosaur-sized dog?”

We’ve all heard of off-the-wall interview questions like these in water cooler conversations and job-seeker battle stories. They make for fun happy hour talk, to be sure, and they can break the ice in the normally-nerve-wracking environment of an interview. 

In theory, unique interview questions are meant to force candidates outside the bounds of the typical, formulaic interview structure and into uncharted territory to see how they respond and test their creative muster. In recent years, creative interview trends have stretched beyond just the questions asked. 

There is a rise in the number of companies incorporating a physical fitness element into their interview process. The CEO of Barstool Sports told the New York Times she has a practice of texting candidates at odd hours on nights and weekends to see how fast they reply as a litmus test for their responsiveness. 

With coveted positions at big-name companies in high demand, some employers see unique interview questions and other unconventional tactics as a way to peg down superior candidates and weed out those who don’t measure up. However, there’s a lot of disagreement among hiring experts over whether such methods are truly worthwhile. 

Pros of Asking Creative Interview Questions

Avoid stale, stuffy interviews

Your interview process contributes to your overall candidate experience, and something must be said about making the process memorable and enjoyable rather than monotonous and boring. Having a positive candidate experience contributes to a stronger overall employer brand, which can help you attract top talent. Creative interview questions can be used as a way to show candidates your lighter side, which may be important to you if that’s a big part of your company culture. 

Gauge creative thinking

Creative interview questions can work well if you can tie them to a specific job function rather than just being wacky for wackiness’ sake. For example, “Client X really wants to make a splash with the next project we’re working on. They’ve asked us to develop the most creative ideas we can think of for the campaign. What’s one idea you’d pitch?”

Asking a candidate to think outside the box in the context of the role they’re applying for can help you gauge the level of creativity they might bring to the position. 

Assess poise under pressure

Some positions require a person who can stay cool no matter what’s thrown at them. If you’re hiring for such a role, unique interview questions can help you learn whether candidates can think on their feet even under pressure. 

Do they maneuver through the question, even if it’s tricky, or are they totally thrown off? Depending on the position, this kind of poise under pressure might be a characteristic that’s important to identify.

Get a taste of their personality

Most candidates come into an interview scenario with their guard up. They’re in the hot seat, making it difficult to get a feel for their personality. And yet, personality—not just skill—is an important factor in deciding whether an applicant will mesh well with your organization’s culture. 

Sprinkling creative interview questions in with more technical ones can help break the ice and allow a candidate to let a bit of their personality shine through. 

Cons of Asking Creative Interview Questions

Creates unnecessary pressure

Even the most conventional interviews can be nerve-wracking for candidates doing their best to make a good impression and convey their selling points. Unusual interview questions seemingly out of the blue can throw candidates for a loop, causing otherwise strong contenders to falter. 

Aside from creating unnecessary pressure, candidates may feel an unfair question caused them to perform poorly, contributing to a negative candidate experience. With the prevalence of sites like Glassdoor, it’s too easy for the word to get around about such experiences, which can hurt your chances of attracting the best candidates. 

Irrelevant to the job

The biggest gripe hiring experts have with creative questions is that they’re not grounded in skills, experience, or any other proven predictor of job performance, so many see them as frivolous. While unique questions keep things from boring, your ultimate goal is to find the best candidate, not entertain them. Asking questions too far off in left field can distract from your purpose. 

Could set you up for legal trouble

To mitigate legal risk in the hiring process, companies are often counseled to avoid asking for information not directly tied to a candidate’s job ability. Asking whether an applicant has children, for example, or talking about religion, could be grounds for a future discrimination lawsuit. So, too, could asking unique interview questions. 

Dr. Brenda Fellows, an organizational psychologist and adjunct professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, spoke to Fast Company on the topic, saying not only are there “no true pros to [these] unusual interview practices, it often leads to legal challenges if you are unable to show specific job requirements whereas the practices demonstrate the job.”

Related: The Best and Worst Interview Questions to Ask in an Interview

The Best Creative Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

What would your colleagues say is the most unique thing about you?

This is a great way to learn about a candidate’s characteristics outside of a run-of-the-mill question like ‘What are your strengths?’ It can help you differentiate between similar candidates whose skills are comparable on paper. You may also learn something unexpected that could be an asset, like if the candidate speaks multiple languages or has overcome an interesting challenge. 

What do you like most about yourself?

Self-reflection is an important capability for job success. This question will help you understand how the candidate views themselves and shed light on the characteristics they value. 

What book has had the biggest influence on your life?

The books a person consumes can shape their outlook on life, so it’s a good idea to find out what those defining works are. While there’s no “right” answer, the book a candidate names can tell you about their interests and priorities, which may or may not align with your ideal candidate. 

Who is your biggest role model?

Again, this is a question that illuminates what a candidate considers important. Look for an answer that demonstrates the candidate shares your values and ideals. 

If you could eliminate one part of your job, what would it be, and why?

No one loves every single thing about their job. What’s important for success is that employees like most of what they do so they can power through those less desirable tasks. Ensure the candidate doesn’t name something crucial to the role, like interacting with customers if it’s a public-facing position or proofreading if they’ll be doing a lot of client communications. 

If you had to go back in time and pick a completely different career path, what would you choose?

This is a fun question that can tell you about a candidate’s interests outside of their profession and maybe even unearth some useful skills or untapped ambitions. 

Where do you find inspiration?

Inspiration powers creativity and helps keep us productive when we lack motivation. A candidate should be able to name a few successful sources that drive innovation–this tells you they’re engaged with and invested in the job. 

Pretend you just received a million dollars. You cannot quit your job. What would you do with the money?

Would the candidate do something pragmatic, like invest the money, or something spontaneous, like take a trip around the world? Would they spend it on a tangible purchase, like a house, or a noble pursuit, like donating it to charity? A candidate’s answer can illuminate more of their personality and help you understand how they make decisions. 

Describe your idea of the perfect day at work.

This question is all about ideals and alignment. In order for a candidate to be satisfied and effective in their job, it helps a lot if you’re on the same page about what a great day looks like.

Best Practices for Picking and Asking Creative Interview Questions

Be strategic

The most important guideline for asking creative interview questions is that they serve a purpose–you’re not just asking them off the top of your head for fun. The questions should be strategically chosen to reveal more about a candidate’s skills, personality, background, or any other characteristic you’re trying to identify. 

Be consistent

Ask the same question to all candidates. This is true for creative questions as well as standard ones like ‘Why do you want this job?’ If you fail to do this, you lack a solid way to compare answers and risk choosing a candidate for subjective reasons rather than selecting the best candidate for the job.

Be mindful of culture

In addition to learning more about a candidate, creative interview questions are a way to tell the candidate something about the company. Consider whether it’s consistent with your company culture for every question you plan to ask. For example, if you have a highly professional culture and take a no-nonsense approach to your work, it wouldn’t make sense to ask a frivolous question like, ‘What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?’ Instead, a question like ‘Who are your biggest role models?’ or ‘What is your favorite form of professional development?’ would be more appropriate. 

Tailor questions to the job

Your interview questions should be selected in advance and specific to each role. For a creative role, it might be practical to ask more unique questions to get a sense of the person’s creativity in their answers. For a financial role, you would probably want to focus more on questions identifying the person’s experience level and technical capabilities. 

Hire More Effectively With Our Staffing Experts

Any company will agree that hiring the right team members is critical to overall business success. And yet, doing it well takes a major investment of time and resources. The average time to hire across all industries is a whopping three to four weeks—a long timeline when you’ve got an important position to fill. To streamline this process and enhance the quality of your hires, incorporating creative interview questions to ask candidates can be a game-changer.

Hire faster and more accurately by partnering with the staffing professionals at 4 Corner Resources. We specialize in integrating innovative and creative interview questions into the recruitment process, enabling you to uncover the true potential of candidates. Our approach has proven successful across various industries, including customer service, marketing, IT, healthcare, and more, helping top companies make better hires and retain them longer. Schedule your free consultation today to create a staffing solution tailored to your needs and budget, and learn how creative interview questions can transform your hiring strategy

Emotional intelligence can show how well the candidate will excel at social interaction working in teams and how motivated they will be once hired. Ultimately, emotional intelligence could be the most important factor when hiring a candidate that will last. So, how do you weed out the wrong candidates and find those who are emotionally intelligent? Let’s discuss. 

What is Emotional Intelligence?

In the last few years, emotional intelligence has gained much attention. Emotional intelligence was first talked about in 1995 in a book by Daniel Goleman. Emotional intelligence is an overarching term used to describe how much a person excels at:

1. Self-awareness: A reflective understanding of how we feel and why we feel that way
2. Motivation: Our personal commitment to self-improvement and achievement
3. Empathy: Our ability to discern and internalize how other people feel
4. Self-regulation: Our ability to manage our thoughts, feelings and actions to achieve the desired outcome
5. Social skills: The skills required to connect, interact, and work with others

Together, these concepts summarize how well a person is able to recognize and control their own emotions, react to the emotions of others, and use this intelligence to inform their interactions with other people.  

Why is Emotional Intelligence Important for Hiring?

You hire people based on their experience and education or their intelligence. But, even if you aren’t aware of it, you’re hiring people based on their emotional intelligence. When emotionally intelligent people interact well with others, are comfortable working in a team environment, and can understand others. Those with high emotional intelligence are better employees and work well with customers.

This is especially important for industries that work in a social setting. Whether it’s customer service or sales, you need emotionally intelligent people. They can de-escalate customers who are upset, relate to those who are frustrated, and come up with an answer that will appeal to these customers. And for sales, those with high emotional intelligence will close deals quicker without pushy sales tactics. 

But even for those industries that work away from customers, emotional intelligence is still vital for hiring. For those in marketing, for example, they may not interact with customers but must understand them. Those in IT may not work with customers, but they will work with other team members. A team of people who get along and work together will benefit your company in the long run.

Related: Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

How is Emotional Intelligence Measured?

Emotional intelligence is often self-reported, and you can usually tell whether someone is emotionally intelligent or not based on the answers to the questions we’ll discuss below. However, there is also an emotional intelligence test called the Bar-On EQ-i. This test has over 100 questions that each person answers to assess how emotionally intelligent they are.

Emotional Intelligence Interview Questions

Though you probably won’t give every candidate a 100+ question test on emotional intelligence, you should look out for it when hiring someone new. Thankfully, there are emotional intelligence interview questions you can ask to get you out of your interview rut and hear new answers that let you see which candidates are best for your company.

1. What makes you angry at work?

Everyone gets annoyed about some things while working on the job. So, asking candidates what makes them angry is a great indicator of whether they’ll fit in your current work environment. Maybe they hate when people don’t set hard deadlines, and your company is pretty laid back. That will show you that this candidate probably isn’t compatible with the rest of your team. Those with high emotional intelligence will tell you what frustrates them, but they’ll also go above and beyond that answer to show how they accept these minor frustrations with sensitivity. 

2. What has been the proudest moment in your career?

This question shows you something good that the candidate has done, and how they phrase their answer will tell you a lot about their emotional intelligence. Those with high emotional intelligence often tell you of a moment when their team (themselves included) succeeded. Those with lower levels of emotional intelligence will focus on themselves, going away from “we” and more towards “I.” And while there’s nothing wrong with focusing on yourself in an interview, know that this answer shows less emotional intelligence.

3. Are you close with your coworkers at your current position?

It may not seem like it matters much if a candidate is close with their current coworkers, but it says a lot about their emotional intelligence. It may show that they can’t form strong relationships if they aren’t close with their coworkers. The best candidates will be close with their coworkers. If they choose to say something negative about their coworkers instead, this shows low emotional intelligence. 

4. Who inspires you as a person?

This question may seem surface-level, but it can also tell a lot about a candidate. If they need help thinking of someone, they may not be the best person to work in a team environment. Otherwise, hearing their answers is a fun way to find out who they’re inspired by and why these people inspire them. It can show you much about their character and what they value most.

5. When did you have to adapt to your work environment?

Not only does this question use some good critical thinking skills, but it’s more than just a one-liner. The candidate will have to describe the situation at work that made them adapt and give up their views for the overall picture of the team. This could be as simple as realizing they needed to treat the shy coworker with more understanding and less of their boisterous personality. Emotional intelligence is understanding others’ feelings and viewpoints, often leading to adapting based on them. Those who haven’t adapted may not have the highest emotional intelligence.

6. Have you ever hurt someone because of your mistakes? How did you recover from that?

Though these questions are a bit heavy-hitting, they can show a lot about a person’s emotional intelligence. We all make mistakes, which means most of us have negatively impacted someone’s life because of our choices. Being able to reflect and learn from your mistakes makes someone emotionally intelligent. Sometimes, we hurt people by accident and other times on purpose, but either experience validates this question.

7. When did you have a positive impact on someone?

A more uplifting question to ask is when an individual had a positive impact on someone else. This answer will be the easiest for those who are very emotionally intelligent. They’ll have plenty of experiences where they’ve positively impacted someone else. If this question stumps your candidate, it’s probably pretty clear to see that they don’t have the highest emotional intelligence. 

8. What is your greatest strength, and how did you use it to your advantage?

This question is frequently asked in interviews, and it’s one of the best for showing emotional intelligence. Being self-aware is essential, and choosing a strength of theirs to talk about is an excellent way to see their character. It reveals what they perceive as necessary in their life and lets you decide whether this attribute would apply to your team. Going slightly beyond the cliche question and asking how they used their strengths to their advantage is a great way to see whether they talk about themselves or their team. If they brag about themselves only and how they fixed the problem, it could be a sign of low emotional intelligence. Highly emotionally intelligent people will often talk about how they used their strength to their advantage and helped their team.

9. How would you handle a coworker who wasn’t doing their job?

Even if you aren’t hiring for a management position, this is a great question to assess an employee’s emotional intelligence. This will show you how they react to conflict and what they do to handle it before it becomes a problem.

10. Have you argued with a coworker? How did you resolve it?

Conflicts happen, and so do arguments with coworkers. While this is a negative question that the candidate may want to talk only a little bit about, it can teach you a lot about the person. They might have conflicted with a coworker if they were highly emotionally intelligent. How they resolve it will show their empathy and conflict resolution.

These questions can help you assess a candidate’s emotional intelligence but are still interview questions. Ultimately, get a good idea of each candidate and choose the best person for the job.

11. How do you recover after a failure?

While failure isn’t something most of us enjoy, it’s an experience we all deal with and one necessary for growth. Asking a candidate about failure will allow you to see their perspective on it, like whether they have an emotional response after not achieving their goals or if they can separate their emotions and come away from defeat with practical takeaways. 

When asking candidates this emotional intelligence interview question about failure, look for a response demonstrating an action-oriented mindset. This indicates a person who won’t waste time wallowing after a failure but instead will establish the next steps and move ahead armed with new information. 

12. How do you deal with difficult people?

Difficult people are seemingly everywhere, from the customer who can’t be reasoned with to the vendor who refuses to acknowledge a costly mistake. Dealing with these individuals is rarely a matter of following a playbook; instead, it requires the emotional intelligence to understand the other person’s mindset and use it to find common ground to move the situation forward. 

A candidate should be able to describe a time when they’ve successfully navigated an interaction with a challenging personality, explaining their thought process, rationalizing their judgment call, and sharing the tools they used to turn a negative conversation in a positive direction. 

Related: Best & Worst Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

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Your technical questions should be tailored to the specific position and its level within the company. For example, while it might not be feasible to ask entry-level candidates to explain the ins and outs of deferred tax liability, you should still ask them questions that assess their grasp of basic accounting and finance concepts like budgeting processes and financial statements. The higher up the command chain you go, the more nuanced you can get with your technical finance interview questions.

Use behavioral interview questions to shed light on how a candidate would react to actual scenarios they’d face in the role. While you can train for specific technical skills a great candidate is lacking, there are certain qualities, like critical thinking, that you want them to walk in with the first day on the job. Behavioral questions are a great way to get a feel for these characteristics.

Finally, incorporate more general interview questions that will help you gauge culture fit and soft skills. Leadership or the ability to work on a team, for example, may play an important role in a prospective candidate’s likelihood of success within your organization. You’ll also want to identify whether they have a firm understanding of the company and its position in the market.

Interview Questions to Ask Finance Professionals

1. What do you feel is the single most important document to gauge the financial health of a company?

This question will quickly tell you whether a candidate is comfortable talking through basic financial concepts. Several different answers could be considered correct, but the candidate should be able to clearly justify their reasoning for whichever document they pick.

For example, they might say they prefer the cash flow statement because cash is the lifeblood on which the company operates, the balance sheet because assets are what propel cash flow, or the income statement because it provides the insight needed to make decisions about the company’s future.

2. What’s the biggest financial hurdle for a company like ours in today’s market?

You want a candidate with a solid understanding of your field and its inherent financial challenges. If their prior experience hasn’t provided this knowledge, you want to see that they’ve done their homework to get up to speed on the market and the industry’s current events.

Look for talent to cite things like upcoming regulatory changes in the field, tax issues that affect the company, new technology that challenges the status quo, or the fight to control costs to compete with overseas labor—whatever’s relevant for your organization. The list of potential good answers is extensive, but the best candidates will be able to discuss challenges that are both specific and timely for your company.

3. Define and explain the importance of GAAP?

When you’re hiring for an accounting role in a publicly traded company, a thorough understanding of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, is a must. These principles govern how public companies record and report financial information. If your accountant sidesteps GAAP, it could lead to big financial problems for the organization down the road.

Your candidate should be able to comfortably explain GAAP principles like consistency, continuity, and periodicity. If you live in a state with additional guidelines for financial reporting in addition to GAAP, it’s worthwhile to ask about their knowledge of those, as well.

4. What’s the difference between cash and accrual accounting? Which method do you think is most suitable for our business?

When hiring someone in an accounting role, you need to feel confident that they not only have a firm handle on GAAP, but that they can translate their accounting knowledge into recommendations that are beneficial for the business. To assess their abilities in this area, ask them for their input on this basic accounting topic.

Though their answer may not have much bearing on which method you actually use, it should give you an idea of the method they’re most comfortable with and their high-level approach to measuring the organization’s financial health.

For example, they might say that since you’re a medium-sized business, they prefer cash accounting because it keeps things simple and lets you know how much cash you have on hand at a quick glance. Or they might say that since you’re an international organization with offices and payers all over the world, they prefer an accrual method because it gives you a more realistic picture of your actual income and expenses (and, it’s worthwhile to note, this is the required method for US businesses with revenue over $5 million).

5. Let’s say our company was considering a merger with [competitor name]. How would you decide if this was a good idea?

This is a finance interview question geared toward higher-level positions like CFOs, whose job is to steer the larger financial trajectory of the organization. Mergers can be great for achieving growth—but they’re not always in a company’s best interest.

A winning candidate should be able to list the factors they’d consider when making a recommendation on a merger. They should share how they gather and communicate the relevant information to the appropriate stakeholders so the right decision can be made. This is their chance to demonstrate their ability to conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis and to communicate with key members of leadership on important organizational issues.

6. Tell me about a financial challenge you faced recently and describe how you overcame it

We’d argue that every interview should include at least one question where a candidate can talk through how they dealt with a problem. Being able to navigate challenging situations successfully is an important part of any professional role, whether in finance or a related field.

There are any number of challenges a candidate might pick to talk about. Still, you should look for their answer to demonstrate critical thinking, solid decision-making skills, and poise under pressure. These qualities indicate an independent worker who will be able to find solutions rather than merely identifying problems. Look for the candidate to tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end, which will help you get a feel of their thought process when confronted with a challenge.

7. Describe a situation where a company could show positive cash flow but still be in financial trouble

There are plenty of situations where dollar figures on paper don’t tell a company’s whole story. You want finance staffers who can read past what’s on the page to glean a complete and accurate picture of where the organization stands financially.

A qualified candidate should have an answer that demonstrates their understanding of the various ways money flows within an organization. For example, a company that’s selling off large amounts of inventory while delaying payables might show positive cash flow, but the picture behind the scenes is likely problematic.

8. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Today’s professional switches between jobs more frequently than any other generation in modern times, especially in the first ten years of their career. So, depending on the job and seniority level, it may not be feasible to expect them to stay with your organization for the next five years. Still, you want to see a level of commitment that tells you they’re going to bring the utmost value to your organization while they’re employed with you.

We like this question because it not only gives candidates a chance to share their professional ambitions but it will helps you gauge their understanding of what advancement looks like in your field. Do they have a firm idea of what they’ll need to do to achieve success in the role? Do they have realistic expectations about how and when they might advance? Discussing these things in the interview helps ensure you’re on the same page about the progression of raises and promotions, which are always a good thing to set expectations for upfront.

9. How do you minimize errors in your work?

Everyone makes mistakes, but in the finance world, a single misplaced decimal or the failure to file a form in a timely manner could have major negative ramifications for a company. In this industry, you need professionals who are methodical and conscientious about their work with a strong attention to detail. 

A good candidate should feel comfortable talking about how they mitigate risk. They should be able to give you a few concrete strategies, like double-checking their work, asking a peer to review important documents, or taking breaks as needed to keep their focus strong. 

10. What would you do if you discovered a major discrepancy in our accounting?

From sloppy accounting to egregious embezzlement, the problems that can creep up in a finance role are of great consequence. Part of a financial professional’s job is to be watchful for these discrepancies; another part is to take action when they’re discovered. 

This question gives you the chance to assess a candidate’s problem-solving skills in a real-world scenario. It can also shed light on their views of right and wrong and help you decide whether their decision-making is aligned with the company’s. For example, would they alert the company leaders to the problem or try to fix it on their own? Would they get caught up in placing blame for the mistake or focus on finding a solution? 

11. Tell me about a time you simplified a process. 

We like this question because it invites the candidate to talk about a previous job, which can give you insight into their experience. It also gives them a chance to demonstrate their knowledge of accounting principles and show the value they can bring as a team member. 

A solid answer will describe reducing complexity in a process, streamlining workflows, making things easier to understand, or saving the company time/money.

Related: Behavioral Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

12. What are your favorite pieces of technology to help you do your job?

Tech tools are essential in the modern financial world. This question will help you understand the candidate’s level of proficiency with different software and applications and determine whether they know the systems you currently use. This can help determine the level of training they would require. 

Additionally, their answer will give you a handle on their overall attitude toward technology and their willingness to learn, which is especially important for positions that rely heavily on technology. 

13. How do you keep your skills sharp?

While core accounting principles might not change much from one decade to the next, other things in the financial field, like legislation and software, change rapidly. You want a candidate who’s invested in advancing their knowledge and skills, so it’s a good topic to ask about in the interview. 

Be on the lookout for mentions of specific websites, publications, news sources, learning platforms and events that the candidate uses to stay on the cutting edge of the industry. 

14. How do you feel about [current event in your field]?

Asking about a relevant current event, like Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover or the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates, can be illuminating in terms of a candidate’s knowledge of and interest in your field.

This question can be a tricky one because it requires a candidate to pick a side or at least speak eloquently about an event that may be complex or controversial. Their answer will help you gauge their critical thinking and communication skills, both of which are valuable in financial positions. 

15. What does integrity mean to you?

It’s hard to think of a characteristic that’s more important in a finance job than integrity. It reveals whether a candidate is trustworthy and defines how they’ll behave in a challenging situation where their values are put to the test. 

The right candidate should easily be able to explain their feelings on integrity and give you a glimpse of their morals and character. To probe deeper, consider asking a follow-up question like ‘Has your integrity ever been tested on the job?’ 

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To get the most out of your limited time with a candidate during their interview, asking the right questions is key. Read on to learn more about the type of questions that will shed light on a candidate’s thought process and behavior patterns: behavioral interview questions. We’ll share the best behavioral interview questions to ask candidates to assess a potential new hire’s problem-solving skills, leadership capabilities, and more.

What are Behavioral Interview Questions?

Behavioral interview questions probe into a candidate’s past behavior. In these types of questions, the interviewer asks the job seeker to describe certain situations they’ve previously encountered and how they reacted in those situations. This question style commonly begins with the phrase, “Tell me about a time when…”

Behavioral interview questions may ask a candidate about solving problems, thinking critically, handling stressful situations, planning and strategizing, managing subordinates, collaborating with peers, and more. On the candidate’s side, it’s a great opportunity to make a case to showcase strengths via a first-person narrative. On the interviewer’s side, it’s an illuminating look into how the candidate thinks and views themselves in their career.

Behavioral vs. Situational Interview Questions

Interview questions traditionally fall into one of two categories: behavioral and situational. Behavioral questions, as we discussed above, ask the candidate to describe past experiences. Situational questions, on the other hand, ask the candidate to hypothetically describe what they would do if confronted with a particular situation.

Behavioral questions cover past behavior, while situational questions address future behavior. Together, they can help you compile a complete picture of a candidate to assess their suitability for your role.

The Benefits of Asking Behavioral Interview Questions

There’s a lot to be learned from behavioral interview questions, which goes beyond the content a candidate shares in their answer.

When you ask a behavioral question, you’ll almost immediately be able to tell how well a candidate prepared for the interview. If they seem flustered, ramble on, or struggle to come up with examples that fit your question, it may indicate they didn’t spend time to think through the strengths they wanted to highlight.

Behavioral questions can tell us a lot about a candidate’s thoughts, which is useful in predicting whether they’ll succeed in a role. Their answers can tell you, for example, how they work with colleagues, what success looks like in their eyes, and what they consider a mistake. Are they aligned with you on these things, or do their perceptions seem askew? If it’s the latter, it may indicate they’re not the strongest fit for your organization.

Speaking of perception, behavioral questions are useful for gauging a candidate’s self-awareness. If they spend a lot of time discussing what a great leader they are but their resume shows only one year of experience in a leadership role, it may point to a lack of understanding about the true depth of their abilities.

Finally, though behavioral questions ask about the past, they’re a great way to determine how a candidate might act if employed by your company. After all, past behavior is the strongest indicator of future behavior.

Note that past failures aren’t necessarily a predictor of future failure—in these cases, the content of the candidate’s answer matters a lot. Do they understand why the failure happened, and have they learned from their mistake? You want to uncover This type of insight with behavioral interview questions.

Related: Best & Worst Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

The Best Behavioral Interview Questions to Ask During an Interview

If you’re looking for the best behavioral questions to ask during your next interview, the six below are a great place to start. To make your questions even more effective, try to map them to the core skills you’re looking for in the role for which you’re hiring.

For example, if customer service is a major part of the job, you’d want to gear your questions toward situations that deal with people, communication, and problem-solving. If the job is highly technical, you might ask about situations involving attention to detail, catching mistakes, and conveying complex information.

Behavioral interview questions about teamwork

The ability to work on a team is a critical skill in almost any profession. Asking about a candidate’s past teamwork experience will help you learn what role they prefer to take in a group setting, whether their work style aligns with your culture, and how they deal with competing perspectives, which are all important qualities for functioning effectively on a team. 

Questions to ask:

• Describe a time when you had to complete a project as a team. 
• What does it mean to you to be a team player?
• How do you respond when a teammate isn’t doing their fair share of the work? 
• How do you deal with perspectives that are different from your own?
• Are you more of a leader or a follower?
• Have you ever struggled to get along with a coworker?
• Have you ever worked on a team assignment that was a failure?
• How do you help onboard new team members?

Behavioral interview questions about customer service

Customer service jobs are very situational; the best course of action in a given scenario often depends on the person you’re dealing with and the context of the conversation. Behavior questions are great for understanding these situations’ details and learning how a candidate’s prior experiences have prepared them to succeed in this role. 

Questions to ask:

• How do you provide great customer service?
  Share an experience when you had to deal with a difficult person. 
• Tell me about a time you had to deliver an answer someone didn’t want to hear.
• Have you ever bent the rules when dealing with a customer?
• What do you do when a customer gives you negative feedback?
• What’s the best way to respond to an angry customer?
• Tell me about a time when you didn’t know the answer to a customer’s question. How did you respond?
• Describe a time when you had to make a judgment call during a customer interaction. 
• How do you convince a customer of something?

Behavioral interview questions about leadership

Leadership qualities can significantly impact a candidate’s success in a role where they’re required to oversee people, not to mention their success in achieving the company’s objectives. Thus, it’s important to ask questions to analyze how they’d behave in a leadership capacity and whether their decisions align with the organization’s thinking. 

Questions to ask:

• Describe a time when you had to motivate a team.
• How do you handle conflict among team members?
• Have you ever had to discipline one of your reports?
• Tell me about a time you made a positive impact on your company. 
• What’s your approach to building relationships with your employees?
• There are many different leadership styles. Which ones work best for you?
• How do goals influence your work?
• Tell me about how you delegate tasks on an important project.
• How have you encouraged employee development?

Behavioral interview questions about adaptability

Adaptability is necessary in many companies, particularly in fast-paced organizations and fields that revolve around innovation. Asking behavioral questions about adaptability can help you determine whether a candidate will thrive in a dynamic work environment.

Questions to ask:

• Describe a time when you had to respond to a significant change in a project’s direction.
• How do you respond if asked to take on responsibilities outside your typical scope of work?
• How do you stay up to date with the latest technology?
• Have you ever had to adopt a new piece of software or use a new tool quickly? 
• Tell me about a project that required knowledge or skills you didn’t have. How did you respond?
• Describe a time when you received new information in the middle of a project. How did it affect your approach?
• Have you ever faced resistance from your colleagues about a decision? What did you do?
• How do you use adaptability to your advantage?

Behavioral interview questions about communication

Strong communication is an essential part of pretty much any job. Ask questions to better understand how a candidate communicates with higher-ups, peers, customers, vendors, and others who will fall within their professional realm on the job. When listening to their answers, you should be paying attention to whether the candidate has skills for communicating positively rather than allowing miscommunications or lack of communication to cause damage to important relationships.

Questions to ask:

• How do you prefer to communicate at work?
• Have you ever had to communicate information that the recipient didn’t want to hear?
• Tell me about a time you dealt with a miscommunication. How did you respond?
• How do you deal with negative feedback?
• Tell me about a time you faced conflict at work. How did you handle it?
• What do you do when you disagree with a coworker?
• How would you describe your job to someone who knows nothing about the industry?
• How would you explain [complex topic] to a client?
• How comfortable do you feel voicing your opinion?
• Describe a time when you used your communication skills to achieve a goal. 

Behavioral interview questions about ethics and integrity

Behavioral questions about ethics and integrity can tell you so much about a candidate: how they view right and wrong, how they respond when faced with a difficult decision, and how they handle sensitive situations, to name a few. The “right” answer will vary depending on your company culture and the type of individual you seek in the role. This is a good aspect of work to ensure you and the candidate are aligned before hiring.

Questions to ask:

• Have you ever disagreed with your boss? How did you handle it?
• Tell me about a time you made a mistake at work. What did you learn? 
• Describe a time when you “broke the rules.”
• Have you ever seen a coworker do something they shouldn’t be doing? How did you respond?
• When faced with an ethical dilemma, how do you decide what’s right and what’s wrong?
• How do you feel about admitting your mistakes?
• Tell me about a time when your integrity was tested. 

Behavioral interview questions about time management

Everyone manages time differently, and our approach to time management isn’t always easy to articulate. Asking the candidate about their approach can show how they prioritize tasks and what kind of oversight, if any, they might require to ensure things get done on time.

Questions to ask:

• When you’re faced with a heavy workload, how do you decide what to work on?
• What’s your approach when you’re working on multiple projects at once?
• How do you handle competing deadlines?
• Have you ever missed a deadline? What happened?
• What do you do if you realize you’ll be late on an assignment?
• How do you limit distractions?
• What does your ideal schedule look like?

Behavioral interview questions about problem-solving

Asking about a candidate’s past decisions can give you insight into their analytical thinking skills. Can they gather the available data, even if limited, and then assess it quickly to resolve it? Can they do it while remaining cool under pressure? Problem-solving behavioral interview questions allow the candidate to illustrate that they handle stressful situations with poise—not only in the context of the scenario they describe in their answer but in how confidently they deliver the answer itself.

Questions to ask:

• Tell me about a time you had to decide under pressure.
• How do you make a decision when you only have limited information?
• Tell me about a time you set and achieved a goal. What did you do to achieve it?
• What do you do when your original plan isn’t working?
• Has a coworker’s mistake ever affected your work?
• Have you ever anticipated a problem in advance? What steps did you take?
• How do you respond when facing a challenge you’ve never dealt with?

Tips for Conducting a Behavioral Interview

Map job requirements to interview questions

Behavioral interview questions prompt candidates to tell a story so that they can take up a lot of time. Because of this, it’s important to keep the interview on track. Make sure each question serves a specific purpose by mapping the list of job requirements to the questions you plan to ask. Select questions that address multiple skills where possible and eliminate any topics that aren’t directly relevant to the role. 

Ask follow-up questions

Behavioral questions are all about detail. If a candidate’s answer is too generic, probe for more information by asking a follow-up question like ‘Can you tell me more about that?’ or ‘Could you clarify what you meant when you said X?’

Stick to a script

To get to every topic you must cover, adhere to a predetermined list of questions and use the same ones for each candidate. This also makes it easier to judge candidate’s answers against one another. 

Use an interview scorecard

Behavioral questions are largely subjective, meaning there’s no single right answer to each question. This can make it challenging to analyze an interviewee’s performance. Using a structured scoring system will help you identify whether a candidate’s answer demonstrates proficiency in a given area while minimizing personal bias. Each interviewer should use the same scorecard, which will aid in comparing assessments.

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What is a Structured Interview?

In a structured interview, an interviewer asks a series of predetermined questions that have been selected to assess specific traits and skills. Interviewers ask every candidate the same questions in the same order and use a structured rating system to score participants. 

In a structured interview, you’ll hear questions like:

• What skills make you a strong fit for this job?
• What is your preferred communication style?
• How do you manage your time?

What is an Unstructured Interview?

In an unstructured interview, an interviewer goes into it with a loose plan but lets the conversation happen naturally. They review the available information about a candidate and ask questions on topics they’re interested in learning more about or that organically come up. Each candidate may be asked different questions in a different order.

An unstructured interview may include questions like:

• Tell me a little about yourself. 
• I see that you worked as a [previous role]. What was that like?
• What are your goals?

Key Differences Between Structured and Unstructured Interviews

Format

Where a structured interview is very well defined, an unstructured interview is more fluid. A structured interview “feels” like an interview, with the interviewer spending most of the time asking the questions and the candidate answering them. An unstructured interview flows more like an everyday conversation, with both parties speaking or listening according to how the conversation unfolds. 

Length

Structured interviews are conducted within a fixed window, with the same amount of time allocated to each candidate. Unstructured interviews often go ‘as long as it takes,’ with some candidate conversations lasting longer than others. 

Formality

The rigid design of a structured interview can make it feel more formal than an unstructured interview, which can feel more casual. 

Flexibility

Structured interviews require interviewers to adhere to a fixed list of questions, with no flexibility to deviate from the script. Unstructured interviews offer much more wiggle room, allowing interviewers to meander from one topic to the next.

Benefits of Structured Interviews

Provides a level playing field

Because all candidates are being asked the same set of questions, it’s more likely that they’ll be evaluated on the same criteria. No single candidate receives an advantage because of an arbitrary detail like where they grew up or what hobbies they enjoy.

Facilitates time management

Structured interviews occur within a set time frame, like 9 to 9:30 a.m. This makes it an ideal format when you have many candidates to speak to and must manage your time effectively. 

Simplifies candidate comparison

When all candidates speak on the same prompts, it’s easier to identify when one of them outperforms the rest. Structured interviews lend themselves to objective scoring, which is helpful if you use an assessment system like interview score sheets. 

Protects against discrimination complaints

Structured interviews force interviewers to stay within carefully constructed bounds. This format makes it much more unlikely the conversation will veer into dangerous territory that could give a candidate grounds for a discrimination complaint. 

Aids less experienced interviewers

It’s hard for a newbie to screw up an unstructured interview; they must read what’s on the paper. This is helpful for novice recruiting teams that are still honing their interview skills. 

Downsides of Structured Interviews

Requires lots of advance planning

Though structured interviews are easier to conduct now, they require more planning upfront. Teams must carefully identify the most important characteristics for success in the role, then strategize interview questions that will help them discern the candidate’s aptitude in those areas. 

Doesn’t allow For deep dives

The “stick to the script” nature of structured interviews means there’s no room to deviate from the plan, even if a topic of particular interest warrants further discussion. This can cause frustration for both interviewers and interviewees. 

Can feel overly formal

It’s tricky for a candidate to understand a company’s culture when they’re facing one question after another. This inflexibility can make it hard to build rapport. 

Benefits of Unstructured Interviews

Offers greater flexibility

Unstructured interviews allow interviewers to explore topics that pique their interest and seem most engaging to the candidate. This can be useful in drawing out a candidate’s unique personality and allowing them to express their enthusiasm. 

Can help convey your culture

The interview is one of the only chances a candidate has to get a face-to-face impression of your company. If your workplace is more casual, unstructured interviews may feel more closely aligned with your culture, giving the candidate a more accurate representation. 

Some candidates will thrive

Some types of candidates excel within the conversational style of an unstructured interview. It can be a good format if you’re looking for an extroverted candidate or who thrives in uncertain situations. 

Downsides of Unstructured Interviews

Important topics can go undiscussed

Unstructured interviews are more susceptible to people going off on tangents. This means you might not get to cover everything you wanted, including important topics to make an accurate judgment. 

Makes side-by-side comparisons difficult

Think about any hometown bake-off. The contest requires ambitious chefs to enter their best apple pie or bowl of chili because it’s easy to taste one after the other and decide which you like best. It wouldn’t be so easy to name the “best” if you were tasting an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, and a blueberry pie. They’re different, so it’s tougher to compare them. 

Unstructured interviews mean you’re having a completely different conversation with each candidate, so it’s more challenging to weigh them equally against one another and declare a winner.

Related: How to Evaluate Candidates in a Job Interview

Greater risk of mistakes

When interview questions aren’t tied to specific skills, interviewers must rely on subjective judgment to identify the top candidate. However, having a great conversation with someone doesn’t qualify them to perform specific job duties. This can result in hiring under-qualified or misaligned candidates. 

Invites bias

The subjectivity involved in unstructured interviews can introduce unwanted bias, which reduces hiring accuracy and poses a compliance threat. For example, if you discover through the course of a conversation that a candidate attends the same church as you and they’re ultimately hired, you could find yourself in the tough spot of being forced to prove religion didn’t factor into your hiring decision. 

Tough to do well

It requires a very specific type of interviewer to conduct unstructured interviews successfully. It can take years to perfect the skill, which isn’t ideal when replicating the process across teams and experience levels. 

Should I Use Structured or Unstructured Interviews?

Most companies find that an interview process combining a blend of structured and unstructured styles works well. 

For example, suppose you have a multi-round interview process. In that case, you might use a structured format for the first conversation and an unstructured format in the later hiring stages when you’ve narrowed the pool down to only one or two candidates. 

The best type of interview for your organization will depend on your goals–how fast you need to hire, how many candidates you’re considering, the level of technical experience you need, and so on. Carefully weighing these goals against the pros and cons of each style will help you choose an interview format that not only leads you to the best candidate but also provides an experience that accurately represents your culture.

Virtual job interviews can help candidates feel at ease by allowing them to be in their environment without the stress of dealing with traffic jams and other logistics of attending an in-person meeting. Also, the potential for flexible scheduling makes it convenient for hiring managers who need to fit many interviews into a limited time period.

Still, conducting interviews remotely brings its own set of challenges. You are not alone if you’re wondering how to manage them to maximize your success in securing top talent for your organization. Fortunately, you can use some best practices for virtual interviews to help ensure you get the most from meeting with job candidates from a distance.

Benefits of Using Virtual Interviews

Flexibility

Virtual interviews allow greater flexibility for both employers and candidates. For applicants currently employed, it’s much easier to find a discreet location and participate in a video conversation with a prospective new employer than taking a full or half day off work to attend an in-person interview. Employers can be more accommodating because scheduling is less of a challenge. 

Efficiency

Because virtual interviews are typically easier and faster to schedule, recruiters can be more efficient with their time. They may be able to speak with more candidates than they would if relying solely on face-to-face interviews. Multiple rounds of interviews are less of a hassle for all parties if some or all of the meetings can be done virtually. 

Cost-effectiveness

Companies that traditionally covered travel and accommodations for out-of-town candidates can save significant money–and consider more applicants–by using virtual interviewing instead. 

Collaboration

Like many pieces of technology, virtual interviews facilitate easy collaboration. Not only is scheduling among multiple interviewers simplified but so is the process of gathering and comparing feedback. 

Expanded talent pool

Whereas budgetary and logistical constraints may have previously limited interviews to local candidates, the option to interview remotely greatly broadens employers’ talent pools. A company could feasibly expand its search globally to find the right candidate if necessary.

Cons of Virtual Interviews

Technical difficulties

Most people who have participated in Zoom meetings have had at least one technical mishap. From internet connectivity issues to malfunctioning hardware, technology is unpredictable and prone to going haywire at the most inopportune moment–a.k.a. in the middle of an interview. 

Accessibility issues

Remote interviews can present unique challenges for certain candidates, like people with disabilities that affect their communication or those who are less confident using unfamiliar technology. That can put these groups at an unfair disadvantage and limit your ability to hire diverse populations.

Greater likelihood of distractions

Dogs bark. Kids barge in. Salesmen bang on the door. Fire alarms go off. Since candidates usually participate in remote interviews outside of the workplace, they’re prime territory for distracting interruptions. 

Lack of nonverbal communication

While online interviews have many merits, it’s impossible to digitally replicate the connection you can make with a person when meeting them face to face. When using this interview format, there’s a greater chance you’ll miss out on important cues like facial expressions and body language that can be meaningful when assessing a potential new hire. 

Incomplete candidate experience

When a candidate interviews in person, it’s easy for them to get a feel for, say, whether the office is formal or relaxed or how much interaction coworkers have with one another. You can’t convey these same workplace attributes in a virtual interview, which may make it harder for both parties to assess cultural fit.

Top Virtual Interviewing Tips for Hiring Managers

1. Save the date and send an invitation

Suggest potential interview dates that will give everyone involved ample time to prepare. After scheduling the interview at a mutually agreeable day and time, send email invitations to the candidate and other participants to confirm they will attend. If you want to record the interview, inform the candidate in advance and obtain written consent that they know it will be recorded and have agreed to it.

Example of a virtual interview invitation

Hello [CANDIDATE NAME], 

My name is [RECRUITER NAME] with [COMPANY NAME]. I’d like to schedule a virtual interview to speak with you about our [POSITION TITLE] role. Below are some suggested time slots. If these are not suitable for you, please suggest an alternate date and time that would work.

[DATE AND TIME 1]

[DATE AND TIME 2]

The interview will be conducted via [INTERVIEW PLATFORM]. I will follow up with further instructions once we agree upon a time. 

I look forward to speaking with you!

Best,

[RECRUITER NAME]

2. Provide clear instructions

Virtual interviewing tips for hiring managers include giving candidates all of the details they need about the online platform you’ll use and directions for how they should access the virtual meeting. If they need to download an app or set up an account, they must know beforehand to ensure there are no technical issues to resolve at the last minute.

3. Choose a quiet location

Select a peaceful spot away from other people, pets, and other potential interruptions so that you can interview candidates without distractions. You might also consider using a headset to prevent any unexpected background noise from interfering with the video call’s audio quality.

4. Prepare for the interview

You expect job candidates to appear prepared when they meet with you. You, too, should devote time to making remote interviews as productive as possible.

Minimize the risk of technical difficulties by having reliable technology (desktop or laptop computer instead of a smartphone, strong internet connection, etc.) in place to conduct your interviews. If multiple people from your company will attend the meetings, encourage them to have their technical details in good order.

Before you begin online interviews, make sure you have all of the information and materials you’ll need in front of you. Your list of interview questions, the job description, the candidate’s resume, and other documentation the interviewee provided in advance should all be readily available.

In addition to your usual list of job interview questions, consider those below as well. When hiring for a remote position, they can help assess if a candidate possesses the right qualities.

Work-from-home interview questions

• Do you believe you’re good at managing yourself? Why or why not?
• Do you have a space in your home where you can work with minimal distractions or interruptions?
• What types of distractions might you face when working from home?
• How will you set boundaries between your work and personal life while working from home?
• What has attracted you to working remotely rather than in an office?
• How much do you rely on work for your social interaction? How will you balance your need for in-person interaction with working remotely?
• How do/would you prefer to communicate with your managers and colleagues when working remotely
• What online collaboration tools have you used in the past?
• What would you do if you lost your internet connection during the workday?

If co-workers attend the interviews, it may help to establish ground rules in advance so they don’t talk over each other or stray from your agenda. Share with them how you will structure the interview and be clear about when you will welcome their participation during the discussions.

Incorporating virtual interviewing tips for hiring managers can assist in maintaining a professional and organized environment during these remote sessions. Also, remind participants to keep their microphones on mute when they are not talking to ensure a smooth and efficient remote interview process.

5. Demonstrate professionalism

Virtual interviews are no less important than in-person interviews for allowing candidates to learn about your company and visualize how they might fit there. First impressions go both ways. Even when conducting interviews from home, treat them with the same level of professionalism that you would if meeting with candidates face-to-face in the office. Dress appropriately for your company culture, speak respectfully, always pay attention to the interviewee, and maintain eye contact by focusing on your computer’s camera rather than the screen.

As a hiring manager, you’re probably not as concerned as the candidate will be about what to wear. However, your appearance will be their main focal point, so looking professional and polished is important. Implementing virtual interviewing tips for hiring managers, including those related to appropriate attire, can be crucial. If your office is laid-back, you may want to throw on a blazer. Conversely, if you’re in a formal work environment, your attire should reflect that style to help convey your culture accurately. Adhering to these tips enhances your professional image and sets the tone for a successful virtual interview.

6. Talk about your company culture

It may be difficult for a job candidate to gain a sense of your business’s culture and overall work atmosphere without having the opportunity to experience the physical environment. Below are several ideas to help them gain a better grasp of those things when you’re doing remote hiring:

• Explain your company’s values and vision.
• Provide examples of how your company’s employees unite for causes (such as organizing fundraisers).
• Share what employees have said they like most about working for your company. (Examples from employees in the department or job specialty the candidate would be hired for can be especially impactful.)
• Discuss how employees have collaborated to solve several particularly challenging customer problems.

7. Be transparent 

Virtual interviews present added security concerns. Clearly communicate whether the interview will be recorded and, if so, how the recording will be stored and used. You should also disclose who will be able to view it. If you use an assessment tool like a scoring matrix, it’s a good idea to share that with candidates so they clearly understand how they’re being judged. 

8. Rate interviewees consistently

When interviewing candidates in person, use a rating system or interview scorecard that gives you a consistent way of evaluating prospective employees. By applying the same criteria to each interviewee, you can easily identify those who meet the desired qualifications and characteristics.

9. Watch for warning signs

Many red flags you watch for when interviewing job applicants in person are the same as those when conducting Zoom meetings. There are also additional warning signs to watch for when holding interviews remotely.

• The candidate is late or doesn’t show up. Candidates genuinely interested in the position will join the interview at the scheduled time. Being prompt and present demonstrates respect for your and your company’s time. While emergencies can and do happen, prospective employees should contact you as soon as possible to inform you of unforeseen circumstances preventing them from attending on time.
• The candidate exhibits sloppy behavior or grooming. A remote interview isn’t a license for candidates to show up in their pajamas or sweatpants and ignore speaking professionally. If interviewees act or dress overly casually, it may be a sign that they aren’t serious about the job or your company.
• The candidate seems uncomfortable with communicating. Being in front of a camera may cause some discomfort for candidates who are used to in-person interviews—still, communication skills matter. Consider if candidates are having trouble expressing themselves clearly or answering questions thoughtfully.
• The candidate didn’t minimize noises and distractions during the interview. This, too, can be a warning sign that candidates aren’t wholly interested in the position or your company. If they haven’t taken the time to prepare their environment for the interview, will they try to reduce distractions if hired and working from home?

10. Communicate what your candidate can expect next

Let your interviewee know what the next steps will be. This will enable them to feel more connected with the process despite the lack of a firm handshake after the interview. Share if you need anything else from them, tell them when you intend to select a candidate and explain how you will let them know whether you have chosen them for the position.

Example of a virtual interview follow-up email to a candidate

[CANDIDATE NAME], 

I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me on [DATE]. Transparency is important to our company, so let us know what to expect next. 

We intend to complete the interview process for this position on [DATE] and hope to make a selection shortly after that. We will communicate our decision with you via email, but I am also available at [PHONE NUMBER] if you have questions or concerns. 

In the meantime, please send over [REFERENCES, ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, ETC.]. 

Once again, thank you again for your interest in employment with [COMPANY].

Sincerely, 

[RECRUITER NAME]

Virtual Interviewing Tips for Hiring Managers to Hire With Confidence

COVID-19 has forever changed hiring processes, ushering in a new era where virtual recruitment is predominant. Fortunately, you don’t have to navigate these unprecedented HR challenges alone. We provide pivotal support and crucial virtual interviewing tips for hiring managers, assisting you in crafting a recruiting and hiring strategy that meets your unique needs, addresses the new hurdles brought by the pandemic, and remains within your budget constraints.

Contact us to schedule a free consultation and discuss how we can help you through every stage of the hiring process.

What is a Panel Interview?

A panel interview is a type of job interview where a candidate is asked questions by multiple interviewers–a.k.a. a panel–rather than by a single person. This hiring tactic is meant to incorporate feedback from diverse sources into the hiring process rather than relying upon a single individual’s assessment of a candidate. 

During this interview, members of the panel take turns asking questions. The questions cover various topics, from candidate background to technical capabilities to situational questions. Sometimes, certain members may be responsible for asking about designated topics. For example, a person who held the job previously may be appointed to pose questions about the job duties. 

Panel interviews are commonly used when hiring for highly technical positions or jobs that involve collaborating with different departments. They can occur at any point in the hiring process, from the initial screening to the final round of interviews. 

Who Should Be Involved in a Panel Interview?

A panel for an interview comprises of various company stakeholders, including people who will regularly interact with the new hire and people who are uniquely equipped to judge their preparedness for the role. 

These interviewers may include hiring managers, recruiters, team leaders, HR representatives, prospective colleagues, and sometimes even stakeholders from outside of the company. 

Advantages of Panel Interviews

1. Incorporate diverse perspectives

In a traditional interview, assessing a candidate’s job suitability accurately falls to one person. That’s a lot of responsibility riding on the shoulders of a single individual. 

With a panel interview, the responsibility–and, in turn, the outcome–is shared. It allows for different perspectives to be incorporated into the conversation, as each hiring team member can assess the candidate’s skills and qualifications from their unique viewpoints. 

The result is a more well-rounded assessment that can improve hiring accuracy.

2. Streamline scheduling

Scheduling is one of the most challenging parts of the interview process. The more rounds of interviews you have, the more back-and-forth is required, and the longer the process takes. Every additional day is one that a high-quality candidate could accept an offer from a competing employer. 

An advantage of conducting panel interviews is condensing scheduling between multiple stakeholders down into a single session, which can accelerate the hiring process and help you secure more accepted offers. 

3. Reduce bias

Individuals are highly susceptible to bias. With several interviewers, the influence of individual biases — whether they pertain to unconscious preferences, stereotypes, or past experiences — is diluted. When decisions are made collectively, it’s more likely that others will challenge or counterbalance any singular, potentially biased viewpoint. This dynamic promotes a fairer and more objective assessment, mitigating the risk of hiring decisions being clouded by personal prejudices.

4. Achieve a more comprehensive assessment

Each panelist comes to the table with a different set of expertise, which allows for a more robust assessment of the candidate. For example, a member who’s a team lead, may be apt at spotting the right technical skills. At the same time, an HR representative might be able to pinpoint a culture fit that aligns with the organization’s values. 

5. Simulate on-the-job conditions

A pro for panel interviews is that it can give you a firsthand look at how the candidate conducts themself in a group setting. For jobs that require managing disparate teams or juggling competing priorities, an applicant’s behavior can indicate their skills in these areas. 

Because this forces candidates to adapt to questions from different interviewers and possibly also different interview styles, it can shed light on their versatility and capacity to adapt under changing circumstances. 

6. Assess niche skills

Hiring for niche roles is challenging in large part because the person conducting the interview often doesn’t have a deep understanding of the position’s duties. So, this interview format allows you to bring in an expert with intimate knowledge of the job responsibilities who can more accurately gauge a candidate’s technical readiness. 

7. Showcase company culture

In a one-on-one interview, a candidate must judge the whole company based on their interaction with a single person. A panel interview allows them to interact with two or more company representatives, who will ideally convey a positive representation of the organization’s culture. This offers the candidate a more accurate understanding of the team dynamic and the company overall. 

8. Increase retention

Reducing bias and improving hiring accuracy helps reduce the incidence of bad hires. When a candidate is vetted and unanimously approved by a group, it often means that they’re a strong fit in terms of skill set and personality. Such congruence between the employee and the organization can lead to higher job satisfaction, greater engagement, and ultimately, increased retention. Which in turn creates lower hiring costs.

Disadvantages of Panel Interviews

1. Logistics challenges

When you’re dealing with busy people from different departments, it can be hard to find a single date and time that works for all parties. This not only prolongs the hiring process but can also lead to delays in decision-making. Ensuring that all panel members are on the same page regarding the interview’s structure, objectives, and evaluation criteria is crucial. Disparities in expectations or understanding can lead to inconsistencies in the interview experience for the candidate.

In some instances, the difficulty in synchronization might even deter quality candidates who may be looking for a swift interview process.

2. Candidate discomfort

Facing a group, rather than a single interviewer can amplify feelings of scrutiny and pressure. Some candidates might feel overwhelmed or even intimidated by the sheer number of professionals assessing them simultaneously. This heightened anxiety can affect a candidate’s performance, making them more reserved, hesitant, or even defensive. Beyond the immediate stress, there’s also the challenge of maintaining rapport and engagement with several individuals at once. Given the divided attention, candidates may find it hard to build a meaningful connection with any single panelist.

3. Requires preparation

It takes some practice to find a rhythm between multiple interviewers. Some panelists might habitually talk over one another, which can confuse the candidate. Varying interview styles and experience levels can also cause interviewers to work against each other inadvertently.

If you’re using this format, it’s important to prepare adequate time so interviewers work as a cohesive assessment body rather than individuals stirring for competing goals. 

4. Extended length

Since each panelist will have their own topics to address, this interview usually runs longer than a one-on-one. An extended interview may become taxing for the candidate, potentially affecting their performance. As fatigue sets in, they might struggle to maintain the same level of enthusiasm and alertness. Which inadvertently creates a skewed perception of their capabilities to the panel. Additionally, candidates might need to carve out larger blocks of time from their schedules. This can be particularly challenging if they’re currently employed or have other commitments. There’s also the added stress of enduring longer scrutiny, which can lead to a poor candidate experience.

5. Inability to dive deep

Since each interviewer has limited time to interact with a candidate, they have less of an opportunity to ask follow-up questions and probe deeper into certain topics. This can lead to an assessment that’s broad and lacks depth. Moreover, in trying to cater to the varied interests of all panel members, the candidate might be pulled in many directions, making it challenging to provide comprehensive answers. This surface-level interaction can be disadvantageous when hiring for roles that require deep technical knowledge or specific expertise.

6. Potential for “groupthink”

Panel interviews are designed to mitigate bias but, in some cases, can make it worse. These hiring authorities may inadvertently sway one another’s opinion of a candidate, or they may engage in Groupthink. Groupthink is the desire for group cohesion to be prioritized more highly than making the most practical hiring decision. Furthermore, dominant personalities within the panel can inadvertently steer the collective opinion, with quieter members acquiescing to avoid conflict. This dynamic can be especially detrimental if the dominating viewpoint is based on a hasty judgment or an unconscious bias. The true intent of a panel interview—to harness diverse insights and opinions—can be lost.

7. Decision dynamics

A major disadvantage of panel interviews is that panelists can disagree in their assessments. While one member might be impressed by a candidate’s technical acumen, another might emphasize cultural fit or soft skills. This divergence in perspectives, though valuable, can lead to prolonged deliberations, stalling the recruitment timeline and potentially frustrating both candidates and the hiring team.

Tips For Successful Panel Interviews

Prepare ahead of time

Don’t expect panelists to walk in cold and conduct a great interview. Preparation is required, both individually and as a group. Ahead of time, interviewers should be given interviewing scoring criteria and asked to submit questions for consideration. Then, one person should be designated to assemble the final questions and distribute them to each hiring team member.

Ensure consistency

When every candidate is presented with a standardized set of questions and experiences a uniform interview structure, it ensures that assessments are based on comparable data points. This level playing field prevents any candidate from having an undue advantage or disadvantage due to the variability of the questions asked or the topics covered. A consistent framework not only upholds the integrity of the interview process but also reinforces the organization’s commitment to fair practices and equitable candidate treatment.

Assess Promptly

Interviewers should submit their feedback as soon as possible after an interview is complete while the experience is fresh in their minds. Feedback should also be given independently, meaning interviewers shouldn’t “compare notes” until after they’ve submitted their initial assessments. 

With the right planning and careful execution, panel interviews can be a useful tool in increasing the objectivity and accuracy of your hiring while providing a more positive candidate experience.

Asynchronous video interviews can help you screen more candidates, speed up your hiring and provide a better experience for talent. In this post, we’ll share the pros and cons to consider as you evaluate whether to incorporate this modern interview format into your hiring process. 

What Are Asynchronous Video Interviews?

Most of us are familiar with video interviews, which take place via a video call instead of in person. Asynchronous video interviews, also called one-way interviews, remove the live interviewer from the equation, allowing candidates to record and submit their answers to a set of questions for the hiring manager to review at a later time. 

How Does a One-Way Interview Work?

In a one-way interview, a candidate is provided with a link that takes them to an asynchronous video interview platform and a window of time in which to complete the interview. At a convenient time, the candidate can click the link to begin the interview. 

Asynchronous interviews can be configured to an employer’s specifications, but here’s a basic example of how one might work: the candidate is provided with a question and has 30 seconds to review it. Then, they have two to three minutes to record and submit their response. They may be offered limited opportunities to delete and re-record an answer. Then, they advance to the next question until the interview is complete. 

Pros of Asynchronous Video Interviews

Expand your talent pool

Asynchronous interviews give you the unique ability to reach the best candidates regardless of their location. Even with standard video interviews, you face the challenge of finding a suitable time slot for all time zones involved. Prerecorded interviews eliminate this challenge.  

They also enable you to evaluate more candidates because you don’t have to set a live meeting with each one. With the ability to view interview responses on your own schedule, it’s easier to block off a chunk of time to assess multiple candidates, increasing efficiency. 

Promote a positive candidate experience

Scheduling is notoriously one of the most tedious parts of the hiring process. With asynchronous video, candidates can complete the interview at the most convenient time. 

There’s no need to take time off from their existing job or attempt to sneak in a clandestine phone call when they’re supposed to do something else; their attention can be fully focused on the interview.

Related: Candidate Experience Best Practices and Why You Should Follow Them

Reduce time to hire

Without the back-and-forth that’s traditionally required to set up, conduct and analyze an interview, you can shave days off the hiring timeline. Every day makes a difference when competing for the best talent, so this is a net win for your workforce.

Related: Ways to Reduce Your Average Time to Hire

Allow for more robust assessment

Even when you take meticulous notes, it’s tough to remember the details of every candidate’s interview. Asynchronous video interviews can be viewed as many times as you want, and even in back-to-back succession to help you compare candidates against one another. 

They can also be shared with unlimited viewers, making getting input from multiple interviewers and other stakeholders easy.

Facilitates objectivity

The most fair interview processes are those that are standardized among all candidates. Because all asynchronous interviewees are given the same set of questions and requirements, it can promote more objectivity than when an interviewer who’s in a room with the candidate has a chance to go off-script.  

Cons of Asynchronous Video Interviews

Requires a dedicated platform

To provide a seamless asynchronous interview experience, you need a software or application that’s designed for the purpose. Your existing recruiting software may offer this capability, but if not, you’ll incur an additional up-front cost to get the platform up and running, plus any monthly fees. 

Comes with a learning curve

Some candidates won’t be familiar with this type of interview format, which may make it more time-consuming for them to participate. Those who aren’t tech-savvy may be less inclined to complete the interview.

Additionally, there will be a learning curve for recruiting staff to become fully proficient on a new platform. 

Limits ability to evaluate certain qualities

Some aspects of an in-person interview provide useful information but that can’t be replicated digitally, like a candidate’s body language. And, since the interview only includes one party, it doesn’t give you much to go on when assessing their ability to interact with others. 

Raises additional bias considerations

The expectations for in-person interviews are pretty well known: come dressed to impress, make good eye contact, etc. However, video interviews are still new for many people, and candidates might not behave in a way that aligns with your expectations. For example, some may wear attire that you consider too casual or may struggle with looking off-camera. 

Because of this, interviewers will need to consciously put aside biases arising from the nontraditional interview format to avoid alienating certain candidates.

Related: Beware of These Subconscious Hiring Biases

Doesn’t allow for follow-up questions

Some of the greatest insights come from pressing candidates to talk more about a certain topic. A one-way interview doesn’t give you this capability. Moreover, candidates can’t ask their own questions now, leaving them with lingering uncertainties about the position or the company. 

Tips For Conducting Asynchronous Video Interviews

Be transparent

Transparency is one of the most valued employer qualities among candidates. Let all interviewees know beforehand that you use asynchronous interviews and what they entail, for example, who the recordings will be shared with and how long you’ll store them. 

Provide thorough instructions

Many of the challenges associated with asynchronous video interviews can be alleviated by setting clear expectations and offering adequate instructions to candidates. For example, providing a suggested dress code, sharing helpful tips for proper lighting, and giving candidates a way to complete a test recording ahead of time can help things go more smoothly for them when they complete the actual interview.

Consider recording questions

Instead of merely displaying interview questions as text on the screen, it can create a more conversational environment if you have the actual hiring manager record themself reading the questions on camera. 

Stay in touch

Though prerecorded interviews are a great convenience, the last thing you want is for the interview process to feel cold and impersonal. To combat this, be sure to provide other lines of contact to candidates in the hiring pipeline, like nurturing email sequences and regular updates on the job search status.

Though they take a bit of additional education for staff and candidates, with the right technology and training, asynchronous video interviews can be a useful tool to supplement your in-person and live video interviews. 

We anticipate that we’ll be seeing more companies embrace alternative types of job interviews in the years to come. Deviating from the traditional interview format can offer many upsides, including lowering hiring costs, shortening your hiring time frame, and dealing with a higher-than-normal volume of applicants. 

As you continue to adapt your interview process for speed, quality, and safety, here are some of the most important things you should know about interview formats.

What is an Interview Format?

Interviews can occur in various ways, and the interview format is how you organize an interview. There are unique structures that can be useful for different interview scenarios. You can schedule the appropriate interview format depending on the job opening and the interview logistics. It’s important to let the candidates know what interview formats you choose so they can prepare and keep it consistent for each candidate for fairness. 

The Difference Between Interview Formats and Interview Styles

Interview formats define the where, how, and who of the scenario. People often talk about the importance of interview styles as well, but that refers to the method of asking questions. The interview style helps the person developing the questions determine the types of questions to be asked. You might use a goal-driven, question-answer, structured, controlled, or unbalanced interview style. While those are important to consider, the focus here is all about interview formats. The format should be locked in first, so this is a great place to start. 

Types of Interview Formats

Individual

This is the most common interview format and the one that most people are familiar with. It includes one interviewer, one interviewee, and a period of questions and answers lasting roughly 30 to 60 minutes. The traditional interview format is the most-used style of interview for many reasons. It’s straightforward, it gives you a chance to build rapport, and in most cases, it gets the job done to determine whether a candidate knows their stuff.

The traditional interview, however, isn’t without its share of drawbacks. For starters, the short window of time you spend with the candidate gives you a limited chance to assess them. You’re also limited to the views of a single stakeholder—the person conducting the interview—which can be subject to bias. All kinds of outside factors could influence how the interview goes, from the setting to how long you’ve had to prepare to the candidate getting in a fender bender on their way over. You must make a big judgment call based on a small moment. 

• The format is simple to understand and familiar to most people.
• Good for seasoned hiring professionals with a large pool of candidates and a good understanding of the role. 
• Screen candidates beforehand, and don’t spend the interview reviewing the resume information.
• Be careful of hiring bias. 

Group 

A group interview consists of one interviewer and multiple candidates in a round-table-like setting. These types of interviews are perfect for when you’re hiring to fill several slots at once, like seasonal hiring for retail positions or in cases where you want to see how the candidate interacts with others. 

In a group setting, the interviewer might direct specific questions to individual candidates or pose a question to the group and put it up for general discussion. In roles that require teamwork, this interview style can be a nice way to gauge whether applicants feed off the energy in a group setting or close themselves off when confronted with a collaborative environment. 

When conducted efficiently, group interviews can be a highly effective way to engage with multiple candidates in one sitting, which is especially useful if you’ve had a high volume of applications. Seeing the applicant interact directly with one another can also give you a clear picture of who might be a stronger candidate for the role.  

• Allows the hiring team to evaluate the differences and compare the candidates simultaneously.
• Provides an opportunity for candidates to interact with each other. 
• The group format saves a lot of time if completed effectively. 

Related: How to Conduct Group Interviews

Panel 

In a panel interview, the candidate sits down with multiple interviewers simultaneously. The panelists typically represent different parts of the organization or may even be from outside the organization. These interviews are an excellent tool for getting multiple perspectives on a candidate, which is a great way to minimize hiring bias. 

Though panel interviews can be more intimidating for candidates than a one-on-one setting, they offer the opportunity for them to get to know more than one person, which is useful in identifying culture fit. For senior roles or leadership positions requiring candidates to meet with multiple stakeholders, it can save you the time to schedule two or more separate interviews. 

Meet before the interviews to determine who will lead the interview. The leader will keep the interview on track. Review the roles of each participant ahead of time, and you’ll understand 

• A panel allows multiple perspectives on a candidate and reduces bias.
• The candidate can meet a few people in one sitting. 
• A superior format for high-stakes positions or niche positions that require technical skills.

Case

The case interview format requires the candidate to analyze and solve a business problem. Usually, the problem is something the interviewer has worked on in real life. The interview is more of a dialogue to work through the solutions. As the candidate solves the problem, the interviewer can ask follow-up questions. 

These interviews are common in management consulting positions and are gaining popularity in more operations and marketing positions. It provides a deeper insight into how the candidate thinks and works through workplace problems. Find out how they apply structured frameworks and creatively think outside the box. 

There are no correct and standard answers in these interviews. Each problem has multiple solutions, so this is an exceptional way to provide candidates with the chance to showcase a little more of their business acumen. 

• Give as much detail about the problem being discussed in the interview to avoid the candidate having to clarify. 
• Interviewers should take clear notes throughout the interview.
• This format is best when testing a candidate’s skills and knowledge in a certain field. 

Virtual

The virtual interview format is an interview that doesn’t require an in-person meeting. It has many more advantages than just keeping everyone socially distanced, but this format became incredibly helpful during the pandemic. Now that the majority of companies have increased their technical capabilities and can utilize this format for interviews. 

Video interviews can save you considerable money on travel expenses if you’re interviewing candidates from outside your geographical area. They can also save time since they can be conducted from pretty much anywhere. It’s easy to fit them between meetings or outside of normal operating hours and accommodate candidates in different time zones. 

Video interviews are highly useful when you have a large pool of applicants; use them as a screening tool before bringing candidates in for an onsite meeting. You’ll miss out on reading body language, but there can be a second round of in-person interviews to fix that. 

• Best format if you have candidates and interviewers in multiple locations.
• Know how to use the technology before scheduling interviews to minimize issues. Send clear instructions for the video conferencing platform ahead of time so candidates can adequately prepare
• Ensure you are in a well-lit space with no distractions and a strong internet signal.

Related: Virtual Job Interview Tips for Hiring Managers

Technical

The technical interview format is used for jobs requiring specific technical knowledge, like developers, IT, and engineering positions. This format includes questions and challenges that are relevant to the job’s seniority and skills. The interviewer is someone who possesses the knowledge and experience to assess the candidate’s responses properly.

Technical interviews may present the candidate with a problem they must solve using the skills required for the job. It can be harder to schedule these interviews because they require the interviewer to feel confident in their own capabilities and know how to conduct an interview. Without conducting an interview in this format, you may be at risk if you hire someone incapable of completing the job.

• Format the interview with the easiest questions at the beginning and have them get progressively harder.
• Any job opening requiring technical skills or in the tech industry should consider utilizing this format in their hiring process.
• Technical interviews are time-consuming, so screening the candidates before scheduling this round is best.

Multiple-Round

A multiple-round interview format involves a single candidate sitting down with multiple interviewers throughout the course of the hiring process. It allows the candidate to meet with multiple people in separate interactions, which can lower biased hiring. Each interviewer can develop their own opinions about the candidate and score their skills and interview responses to choose the best candidate. 

This is a fantastic method to determine a fit in the company culture. With each interview being conducted by a different person, you’ll get the chance to see the interactions with multiple personality types and communication styles. The decision typically requires a consensus among the interviewers before a job offer can be presented. 

• Multiple interviews are great for job positions that must interact with various other departments and positions.
• Set expectations up front as much as possible so candidates can prepare for the process. 
• Don’t wait too long between each interview. Candidates typically want to move through the process as quickly as possible.

Phone Screen

Phone interview formats are typically the first step in the hiring process. Suppose a job opening receives a high quantity of resumes and applicants. In that case, it’s important to narrow the pool of potential candidates to a reasonable number before bringing them in for traditional or virtual interviews. The phone screen allows a hiring authority or recruiter to talk to the candidate and get additional information to determine if they are a good fit. 

Determine ahead of time the qualifications you’re looking for and then schedule phone screens for the candidates who meet those qualifications. Verify the information on their resumes and have a set list of questions you want to ask during this phase. It’s a smart time-saving method. 

• Be consistent with the questions on phone screens to ensure fairness across the board. 
• Have the hiring manager/recruiter take detailed notes to pass along to the interviewing manager.
• Save some time to allow the candidate to ask questions to determine if they want to move forward in the hiring process. This will help avoid wasted time in the future.

Related: How to Conduct a Phone Interview

Informational

The most casual interview format is the informational format. This is a friendly conversation between a potential candidate and someone working in the organization they want to apply for. This lets people ask questions and hear more about the company culture and work environment. Often, these conversations come from networking events and can help build a bench of potential candidates. 

• Informational interviews involve more dialogue and allow the potential candidate to ask most of the questions.
• These might not be about a specific job opening but the company instead. 
• Communicate with your employees and give them some basic information to share with any interested parties to provide easily accessible information and make it easy for them to share with others in the same field. 

Hire More Efficiently with Help from the Staffing Pros

Choosing the right types of interviews to use with candidates is one path to hiring success. Working with a trusted staffing partner is another. 4 Corner Resources is an Orlando-based staffing agency that can help you hire more efficiently and at a lower cost than recruiting, screening, and interviewing candidates on your own.

Contact us today to learn how working with a professional headhunter can benefit your organization.

FAQs

1. Pre-Interview difficulties

Repeated requests to reschedule the interview or questions about information already provided can be signs the candidate is disorganized or lacks attention to detail. An overly communicative candidate (i.e., sending numerous emails before the interview) or not communicative enough could foreshadow communication issues down the road. 

If the applicant arrives late on the day of their interview, especially without bothering to call and let someone know, this is also a bad sign. 

2. Sloppy appearance

An interview candidate should come dressed to impress. If they’re underdressed, it could indicate a lack of professionalism, while a sloppy appearance (rumpled clothes, stained garments) may cause concern that their work will be sloppy, as well. 

Note that you can help candidates avoid wardrobe mistakes by sending a pre-interview message communicating the expected dress code. 

3. Rudeness toward admins and other staff

It’s an old adage that you can tell a person’s character by how they treat service workers–baristas, restaurant servers, etc. One hiring trick our recruiters like to use is checking in with the front desk staff after a candidate’s interview wraps up. 

Were they polite and patient, or disrespectful and demanding? If a candidate is less than kind to the front desk staff or anyone else they interact with, it’s a big warning that they lack empathy and compassion. 

4. Lack of eye contact

Making eye contact when you’re participating in a conversation is natural; it shows interest and engagement. If a candidate struggles to make eye contact, it could be a sign of apathy or disinterest in the position or even that the candidate has something to hide. 

A candidate might not make the best eye contact for other reasons. Their nerves could be distracting them from meeting your eyes. Also, some conditions like social anxiety disorder and autism spectrum disorder can cause discomfort with eye contact. 

So, consider this interview red flag with a grain of salt alongside the rest of the interview when making a judgment call. 

5. Failure to research the job or company

If the candidate doesn’t seem to grasp what the company does, it could reveal that they didn’t do the research that’s a basic prerequisite for a job interview. If they seem to misunderstand the role, this could cause concern because their expectations will be out of line with the realities of the job.

In either of these scenarios, it’s worth further discussion to understand the candidate’s motivations and confirm whether they have a genuine interest in the job. 

6. Has trouble explaining why they applied

“Why do you want to work here?” and “What made you apply for this job?” are standard interview questions; a candidate who’s invested in the process will have no problem answering them. 

If they struggle with these queries, it’s not a great sign. They might be applying for any and every open job, which doesn’t bode well for their future productivity or longevity with the company. 

7. Speaks negatively about current or former employers

Bad-mouthing a former employer is a huge interview, no-no. If applicants break this rule, they might lack professionalism in other areas, like spreading office gossip or being indiscreet with sensitive client information. 

8. Lack of accountability for prior mistakes

Employees who feel a sense of accountability are likely to take more pride in their work and correct errors when they’re made. If an interviewee struggles with questions like “Tell me about a time you made a mistake,” it could indicate someone who can’t admit fault, which makes for a challenging coworker. 

9. Dodging questions about short stints or employment gaps

Employment gaps and shorter work durations are more common than they used to be as people switch jobs more frequently. These interview red flags alone probably don’t cause you to rule someone out, but the applicant should be able to give you a valid explanation for them. They might hide unsavory information like being fired or habitual job hopping if they can’t. 

10. Explanations that don’t support resume

If a candidate’s resume indicates a high level of proficiency in a certain skill, but they have trouble discussing it in conversation, there’s a chance they’ve exaggerated their qualifications. 

This can be one of the toughest red flags to spot, especially if you’re interviewing for a highly technical position. Panel interviews are a helpful strategy to incorporate someone with subject matter expertise into the decision-making process. 

Related: The Top Resume Red Flags to Watch Out for When Hiring

11. Being overqualified

If a candidate’s experience seems to exceed the job requirements far, they might be in a bind and looking for the first job offer they can get. This type of candidate is likely less loyal to the company and could jump ship if a better opportunity arises. 

However, there are valid reasons why a candidate who’s overqualified on paper might apply for a job, for example, if they tried out a leadership role but decided they’d rather not be responsible for an entire team. This is a good topic to address head-on with the candidate with a question like, “Your resume makes it seem like you might be overqualified. Why are you interested in this position?”

12. Being overconfident

The interview is a candidate’s chance to sell their qualifications. However, if their answers give the impression that they’re the greatest at everything they do, it might be a sign of a challenging personality to work with. Overconfident employees may have trouble seeing their shortcomings or be unreceptive to feedback. 

13. Lack of questions for the interviewer

If an interviewee is truly interested in a role, they should have at least one or two questions for you at the end of the conversation. If they don’t, it might tell you that they’re not all that interested or that they’ve decided the position isn’t for them after all. 

This interview red flag alone may be innocuous, but again, it’s worth considering together with all the other factors in their candidacy. 

14. Asks inappropriate questions

If a candidate asks how much they’ll be making, how much vacation time they’ll get, or how quickly they could get a promotion, their priorities might be out of order. Topics like these are better left for later in the hiring process, ideally when an offer is on the table. 

However, remember that first-time job applicants might not understand that certain topics are taboo during an interview. If you give interview feedback, it would be a courtesy to let them know for future reference. 

15. Makes demands

Be wary of a candidate with a list of requirements right out of the gate, like only being able to work a certain schedule (if it’s different from the job requirements) or needing specific days off in the future. 
Remember, even if a candidate displays a few of these interview red flags, it’s not necessarily grounds for removing them from the running. However, it is a signal for you to probe further and do your due diligence to ensure the candidate is forthcoming, reliable, and qualified.

Related: The Ultimate Guide to Interview Scoring Sheets (With Template)

We’ll explain how interview score sheets can strengthen your hiring process and help you select the candidate whose skills and qualities most closely align with the position’s requirements. 

What Are Interview Scoring Sheets?

Interview scoring sheets, also known as interview scorecards, are a tool used to assess candidates. They’re typically formatted as a table, with skills or specific questions on the left and space for scoring on the right (we’ll show you an actual scoring template later on in this post).   

Interview scoring sheets help minimize hiring bias, which can contribute to inaccurate hiring. They’re also practical for keeping track of numerous candidates, comparing them equally against one another, and combining assessments from multiple interviewers.

Benefits of Using Interview Scorecards

Promotes consistency 

A structured scorecard helps ensure that every candidate is asked the same questions and judged on the same criteria. This is in stark contrast to an unstructured approach where interviewers ad-lib and might cover wildly different topics from one conversation to the next, which makes it impossible to judge candidates accurately against one another.

Increases objectivity

Scoring sheets force interviewers to focus on the criteria that are most pertinent to success in the role. This helps prevent them from overlooking skill gaps because they “like” a candidate. It can also help them recognize great candidates they might have underestimated. 

Helps keep track of candidates

An interview scorecard is filled out during the interview and immediately afterward, which means the conversation is fresh in the interviewer’s mind. This is a much more reliable method than trying to remember and analyze a pool of candidates after two or three interviews. 

Improves time management

A predefined list of questions keeps interviewers on track and ensures that the essential topics are covered. You can even assign each question a suggested time allotment to prevent the conversation from going off on a tangent. 

Facilitates collaboration

Interview scoring sheets make it easy to combine feedback from multiple interviewers; all you do is total up a cumulative score. This is much more straightforward than comparing multiple subjective assessments from different parties. 

Allow for data gathering

Scorecards create a paper trail of every candidate conversation, allowing you to analyze how well your interview efforts actually correlate to successful hires. For example, if you notice that new hires are consistently lacking certain technical skills, it might be a clue that you need to beef up the technical portion of your score sheet. 

Components of an Interview Scoring Sheet

• Assessment criteria
  • Interview preparedness
  • Hard and soft skills
  • Education
  • Experience
  • Culture fit
• A specific list of questions
• A well-defined scoring system
• A total score
• An area for comments

How to Use Interview Scoring Sheets

1. Create scoring criteria

If you’ve already taken the time to write a winning job description, this part should be pretty easy, because you’ll be pulling from the top requirements you’ve already identified. 

Outline the most important criteria candidates will be judged on. This will likely include technical skills, soft skills, education/professional credentials, experience, and culture fit. 

2. Develop interview questions

Now, create a list of questions to help you identify and assess the criteria you defined in step one. For example, suppose some of the most important skills for the job are communication and problem-solving. In that case, you might ask, ‘How do you communicate effectively with a team?’ and ‘Tell me about a time you solved a challenging problem.’

Every question should serve a purpose and relate to the job requirements. If you’re using multiple interviewers, you might find it helpful to ask each one to submit questions for consideration, then narrow it down to a final list. 

Related: The Best and Worst Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

3. Define your scoring system

This means choosing the system itself, i.e., a numeric score ranging from 1 to 5, and defining what each number signifies.

Don’t assume that everyone knows 5 is excellent and 1 is inferior; some people might think it’s the other way around. The same goes for the weight of each score. One interviewer might believe a 3 means the candidate is sufficient, while another might perceive 3 as a subpar score. 

Here’s an example of what your scoring system might look like:

1: A completely insufficient answer that indicates a lack of competence

2: A partially inadequate answer that does not demonstrate the required competence 

3: A satisfactory answer that indicates the minimum requirements are met 

4: A strong answer that indicates proficiency 

5: An excellent answer that indicates a high level of competence

Alternatively, you can define a limited number of scoring options and have interviewers check a box for the one that corresponds with their rating, like this:

• Below average
• Average
• Above average

4. Lay out your scoring sheet

Your interview scorecard can be laid out using any spreadsheet app or even in a word processing document. It can be as basic or as thorough as you like, but it should be easy for anyone to interpret at a glance. 

Simple interview scoring sheet

Here’s an example of a basic scoring sheet to compare three job finalists. 

In-depth interview scoring sheet

Here’s an example of a more comprehensive scoring sheet that covers interview preparedness and background as well as interview questions, using a separate sheet for each candidate. 

5. Prep interviewers

Provide each interviewer with the score sheet so they know what they’re looking for and have time to familiarize themselves with the scoring adequately.

6. Inform candidates

At the start of the interview, it’s a good idea to let candidates know that you’ll be using a scoring sheet so they understand why you’re looking down and taking notes. This also helps convey that your hiring process is fair and transparent, which leads to a more positive candidate experience. 

Additional Interview Scorecard Tips

Don’t go overboard. Your scoring sheet should easily fit on a single piece of paper. Five to seven questions is usually ideal. Focus on the criteria that matter most and eliminate questions that are too generic or have no bearing on the candidate’s ability to perform in the role. 

Avoid jotting down information that could lead to bias. Even if you’re taking notes to help you distinguish between candidates, details like ‘pregnant woman in pink blouse’ or ‘Asian man with gray hair’ can be grounds for unwanted subjective opinions to creep in. In a worst-case scenario, it could be used against you for being discriminatory. 

Giving feedback after an interview takes precious time out of your already-busy day, but it is more than just a show of kindness to candidates who went to the effort to prepare for interviews while navigating through your hiring funnel; it can actually help strengthen your hiring process. We will explain how to give interview feedback and its value. We will also outline some best practices for doing it effectively. 

What is Interview Feedback?

Interviews are a fantastic way to learn and grow your career, but it’s not just the interviews that land you the job that can be beneficial. Through positive and constructive feedback, candidates can learn from the experience and help craft their career path and professional development strategy.

As a hiring manager, headhunter, or recruiter at a professional staffing agency, providing candidate feedback for every interviewee is crucial to the post-interview process. Interview feedback is an opportunity for candidates to gain a candid assessment of how they convey themselves as professionals.

Why is Interview Feedback Important?

Interview feedback is valuable both from a candidate’s standpoint and an employer’s standpoint. Here are some of its key benefits. 

1. Professional courtesy

We all know that preparing for an interview is time-consuming for candidates. Providing timely feedback is the courteous and professional thing to do after someone has taken the time to interview. It shows that you respect them, value their time, and want to help them evolve and improve professionally.

Not only do candidates want you to view them positively, but your company also needs the skills, expertise, knowledge, and talent new candidates bring to your open positions. Demonstrating professional courtesy helps your company stand out from others who do not.

2. Candidate improvement

Whether the applicant is the ideal or a poor fit for your company, providing candidate interview feedback can help them improve their interview skills and grow professionally. When you provide detailed and informed feedback to a candidate, you help them learn what they are doing well while also identifying areas where they can improve.

This benefits your company because a candidate may have a lot of potential even though they are not exactly the right fit at this point in time. However, with a little improvement based on your interview feedback, they may become the ideal candidate when another position opens up.

Related: Reasons Why Culture Fit is Important for Your Hiring Strategy

3. Candidate experience

From the outside looking in, giving feedback after an interview improves your candidate experience, which is the blanket term for how candidates feel after going through an interview process. Nearly four in five candidates say a strong candidate experience indicates how a company values its people. In contrast, 83% of candidates say that a negative candidate experience has changed their mind about a company. 

4. Positive employer brand PR

A positive candidate experience contributes to a strong employer brand. It helps you spread positive word-of-mouth reviews among the talent pool and increases the likelihood that strong candidates will come back to interview again in the future. 

Candidates talk about their interview experiences on websites such as Glassdoor. Having positive reviews or recommendations from candidates who interviewed benefits your company’s reputation as a prospective employer. 

Related: How to Elevate Your Employer Branding to Attract Top Talent

5. Repeat candidates

Repeat candidates can be a great thing for your company. These interviewees have already been qualified as a potentially good fit for your organization, which saves you time in the vetting process. If you give solid interview feedback, they will return stronger and more prepared to succeed as candidates the second time. 

6. Strengthens hiring process

Giving interview feedback also helps refine your hiring process. A structured system for gathering and delivering feedback gives you a systematic way to sort out your thoughts on a pool of finalists and share them among all parties in the hiring chain. It can clarify which candidate rises to the top of the pool.

Related: Effective Methods of Recruitment and Selection for Hiring Top Talent

7. Identify hiring weaknesses

Interview feedback can be a useful tool in flagging recruiting weak spots. For example, if you find that you are consistently delivering feedback on candidates’ lack of experience, it may indicate that your job listings do not make the requirements clear enough. If most candidates are missing a certain critical skill, this might mean you need to tighten your pre-screening process to weed out candidates who lack this skill before they make it to the interview phase. 

8. Allows recruiter to solicit feedback

Providing thorough, detailed feedback as a hiring manager is critically important when working with a recruiter — the more the recruiter knows, the better their future candidates will be. This statement applies to both positive and negative feedback. It should not just be about what an interviewer did not like about an unsuccessful candidate — it is equally important to know what they did like about the candidate they selected.

How to Effectively Give Feedback After Interviews

Follow these steps to give feedback after interviews in the most effective way. 

Streamline your process

Before you even begin putting together candidate feedback, it is necessary to have a system in place. Who will be the point person for gathering and assembling feedback? How many people will be involved in the process? What medium will be used? In what time frame?

If you do not think these things through beforehand, it can result in an endless email thread of stakeholders throwing out comments willy-nilly, which is neither effective nor efficient. 

Consider implementing a scorecard system where everyone involved in your hiring process delivers interview feedback in the same standard structure and format. This will make compiling a single feedback letter for the candidate much easier. 

Additionally, implement a policy where individual feedback is submitted before it is discussed amongst the team. This will prevent bias from creeping into feedback (i.e., an off-handed comment from one person coloring the feedback of everyone involved). 

By streamlining your process for interview feedback, you should be able to provide feedback quickly and effectively. It’s important that the conversation is still fresh in the candidate’s mind to be able to implement the changes going forward.

Say thank you

Always begin feedback letters with a warm and sincere thank you. Recognize that the candidate took the time to prepare and show up for one or more interviews with you and cite that you value their investment in the process. 

If the candidate took extra measures to participate in the process, like traveling a significant distance, this is a great time to show that it did not go unnoticed. 

Cite their strengths

Interview feedback does not always have to be negative. In fact, if a candidate made it all the way to the interview phase, chances are there will be a lot you liked about them. Spend a few lines sharing positive interview feedback about the strengths you genuinely value. 

A few cautions here, though. Avoid giving positive interview feedback that is insincere or overly glowing, like ‘everyone here loved you!’ as it can cause mixed signals. After all, they did not get the job. 

Also, avoid making statements that could be misconstrued as a guarantee for future employment, like ‘the only thing you were missing was skill X.’ This could lead a candidate to believe that if they go out and acquire said skill, they will be a shoo-in for your next open role. That is not necessarily the case due to all sorts of external factors, like other candidates in the finalist pool, budgetary considerations, etc. 

Use clear examples

Now it is time for the toughest but most useful part of the feedback letter: providing constructive criticism. 

When approaching this part, it is helpful to remember the ultimate goal: to provide feedback that is actually useful and will help a candidate improve for the future. Blanket statements like ‘insufficient experience’ or ‘weak design skills’ are not actionable and can feel condescending.

Instead, focus on citing clear examples that illustrate where the candidate fell short, why it matters to you, and how they could make a stronger showing in the future. For example, ‘this role requires a heavy amount of interfacing with clients without oversight from management, so we are looking for someone with more than one or two years of client-facing experience.’ This tells the candidate that it is not just about putting in more time at their job but specifically focusing on client-facing activities and opportunities to show leadership in this area. 

When delivering constructive criticism, in most cases, you will want to keep it tied to tangible skills and the interview content rather than citing things that could be perceived as subjective, like ‘you came across as nervous.’ Or, you could spin this kind of feedback into more actionable terms, like ‘this role requires negotiating a lot of high-pressure, high-stakes situations, and we got the sense that you might not have dealt with many of these situations yet. Building on this skill could make you a stronger candidate in the future.’  

Do not compare

Sometimes, the simple fact is that a candidate was great, but another one was even better. Or perhaps they checked all the boxes on paper, but someone else materialized as a stronger culture fit when you conducted face-to-face interviews. Whatever the case may be, do not fall into the trap of making ‘we had a stronger candidate’ the only explanation you give a rejected candidate. 

While they might appreciate knowing they were beaten out by someone with more experience/specific skills/what have you, this knowledge is not beneficial and can lead to frustration on the candidate’s part (and, in turn, a negative candidate experience). Instead, keep most of your feedback focused on this individual and how he or she can become a stronger candidate. 

Offer next steps

The most useful part of interview feedback for candidates is the action items. These are concrete next steps he or she can take to make themselves a stronger fit for the role and a more marketable candidate overall. 

Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes. What might they be unaware of that is affecting their chances? Are there skills they don’t realize they lack? What insight could give them a leg up? Industry credentials, credible training programs, and professional organizations can also be useful to share here.  

End your feedback letter on a high note, inviting them to apply again (if applicable) and thanking them again for their interest in your company. If your organization uses a candidate feedback survey, this is a great place to link to it and ask for their input on their interview experience. 

Interview Feedback Examples

Now that we’ve covered the importance of interview feedback and some of the crucial elements of giving that feedback, let’s look at a couple of examples. These can help provide you with a template and help you understand how others provide this essential information.

Examples of areas for job candidate feedback include:

• Communication skills — Did the candidate communicate clearly?
• Feedback about their attire — Did they dress professionally or appropriately for the role?
• Preparation — Were they prepared for the interview? Did they research the company ahead of time and ask informed questions?
• Engagement — Did they make good eye contact and stay engaged?
• Professionalism — Did they shake your hand? Did they use slang? Did they provide a follow-up thank you letter or phone call?

Positive examples

• You did a fantastic job of showcasing your technical skills. Your portfolio of work samples proved that you have the skill sets we are looking for to handle the job’s responsibilities.
• It’s clear from the examples you provided that you have practiced dealing with difficult situations and managing an exclusively remote team. Thanks for walking us through your decision-making process and performance management background.
• We believe that you would be a great cultural fit with our team. It sounds like your values align well with ours.

Constructive examples

• After we’ve discussed and reviewed everything, we have decided not to move forward with you as your experience in this field is limited. This role requires in-depth knowledge and experience, but we’d love you to reapply once you have a bit more experience.
• We would have loved to hear more examples from your experience. In the future, consider using the STAR method to provide a more complete picture of the situations you’re explaining and how you handled them.
• The interview ended a bit earlier than we expected. We always leave some time for the candidate to ask any questions they have about the role and the organization. In the future, try and come up with some questions to help you learn more about the company and the position. 

Improve Your Candidate Experience for a Stronger Talent Pool

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FAQs

We’ll explain how to assess soft skills in an interview to make sure a candidate with a strong resume will translate into a strong part of the team. 

The Importance of Soft Skills

We’ve all come across that person who’s great at their job–maybe they’re a whiz at programming or know every inch of the production floor by heart–but they’re a total pain to deal with personally. These people have technical skills but lack soft skills.

Soft skills are what allow teammates to interact with one another (as well as customers) effectively. They facilitate creative problem-solving and enable people to adapt under uncertain circumstances–skills that are critical for success in most types of work. 

A candidate might have all of the right technical skills, but without soft skills, they will be A) pretty miserable to work with, B) ineffective in their role, or C) both of the above. That’s why it’s so important to consider hard and soft skills equally when interviewing. 

Challenges for Assessing Soft Skills

Soft skills are hard to screen for. 

Soft skills have many more gray areas than technical skills, which can be assessed via questions with black-and-white answers. For example, there can be more than one idea that will solve a problem, meaning there’s no single “right” answer to an interview question about problem-solving. 

Also, interpretations of soft skills can vary depending on who’s judging the candidate. One interviewer’s idea of creativity may differ from another’s, making setting up an objective scoring system challenging. 

And even if you do formulate a good system for assessing soft skills, it’s not always easy to get an accurate read on them during the hiring process. An applicant interviewing for a job is simultaneously nervous and trying to make the best impression possible, which is an unusual combination that can influence their answers and behavior.

In short, there’s no way to definitively grasp a person’s soft skills until you actually work with them. Still, it’s in an employer’s best interest to assess soft skills as closely as possible to ensure a strong fit and a successful hire. 

How to Assess Soft Skills in an Interview

Take a structured approach

To ensure fairness and objectivity, your strategy for assessing soft skills should be the same every time, with every candidate. Ask the same questions in the same order, incorporating follow-up questions as necessary to draw out more information. 

Interviewers should avoid “going with their gut” or deviating from the prepared questions, as this leads to less accurate hiring. 

Involve multiple interviewers

Additional interviewers can add diverse perspectives and help prevent hires from being determined by a single person’s opinion. 

You can incorporate multiple interviewers in two ways: either by doing multiple rounds of one-on-one interviews or by doing a panel interview in which a candidate takes questions from two or more interviewers simultaneously. 

Related: Interview Formats to Use When Hiring

Use a mix of behavioral and situational questions

Behavioral and situational interview questions can help you understand how a candidate might handle different on-the-job situations. 

In behavioral interview questions, a candidate is asked to give examples of their past behavior in specific scenarios, like “tell me about a time you had to communicate a piece of negative information.” These questions can be used to identify whether a candidate has experience successfully using the soft skills that are most important to the job.

Situational interview questions are similar, but deal with “what if’s.” They ask a candidate to explain how they’d react in a given situation in the future, for example, “What would you do if you had to cut our budget by 10%?” Situational interview questions give you a glimpse into how a candidate thinks and shed light on how their soft skills would influence their actions. 

Utilize a scoring system

While interview questions about soft skills don’t usually have a right or wrong answer, answers can definitely be favorable or unfavorable. Using a scoring system allows you to observe patterns and judge a candidate’s cumulative interview performance. 

One of the best ways to score soft skills is by using a points system, i.e., scoring a candidate’s answers on a scale of 1 to 5. This lets you see at a glance whether most of their answers were positive and also lets you compare different candidates against one another via their total scores. 

Leverage job auditions

Hearing candidates talk about how they’d handle a situation is great, but seeing them in action is even better. In a job audition, a candidate is asked to complete a task or assignment that mirrors what they’d be doing on the job. 

You can use job auditions to assess soft skills by incorporating them into the assigned task. Here are a few examples:

• Asking a sales candidate to pitch a product to assess their persuasive skills
• Having a customer service candidate role-play troubleshooting with a customer to see how they communicate
• Asking a design candidate to read a creative brief and explain how they’d approach the job to judge their creative thinking

Don’t rely on interview “tricks”

Some companies are known for using quirky interview questions like “What type of fruit would you most like to be and why?” The idea is to force a candidate to think on their feet and show their creative side, but in reality, such questions have little bearing on a candidate’s actual ability to do the job (which is what you’re ultimately looking to find out). 

If you really want to evaluate soft skills accurately, stick to questions that are relevant to the role and avoid trying to throw candidates for a loop. 

Ask references about soft skills

In addition to the interview, you have another great tool at your disposal to use when assessing soft skills: references. Ask references directly about the soft skills you value and prompt them to describe examples of how they’ve seen the candidate use them.

Related: Ace Your Reference Checks With These Sample Questions

Most Important Soft Skills to Look for

Here are some of the top soft skills to look for when hiring and example interview questions to use to identify them.

Leadership

• Describe your leadership style.
• How do you motivate a team?
• What would you do if there was a conflict between two of your team members?
• Describe how you delegate tasks.
• How do you coach employees?

Communication

• What’s your communication style?
• Tell me about a time when you had to communicate sensitive information. 
• How would you explain [complex concept] to a customer?
• What would you do if there was a misunderstanding about something you said?
• Do you prefer written or verbal communication?
• How would you deal with a coworker who isn’t great at communicating?

Teamwork

• What role do you take when working on a team?
• Describe a time when you worked successfully on a team.
• Have you ever worked on a team project that failed?
• What would you do if someone on your team was not doing their fair share?
• How do you see yourself contributing to our team?

Critical thinking

• Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision quickly.
• What would you do if you had to decide without all the necessary information? 
• Have you ever disagreed with your manager? What did you do?
• How would you handle it if you spotted a mistake one of your peers made?
• What’s the most difficult decision you’ve had to make at work?

Problem solving

• Tell me about a time when you solved a problem on the fly.
• Have you ever anticipated a problem in advance? What did you do?
• How do you deal with demanding customers?
• When you’re faced with a problem at work, what’s your first step?
• How do you solve a problem when there are multiple people giving input?
• Have you ever dealt with a work-related crisis?

Time management

• Describe your approach to time management.
• How do you juggle multiple important projects?
• What would you do if you knew you would miss a deadline?
• What’s your ideal work schedule?
• How long does it take you to do [task]?
• When you return from vacation and are swamped with to-do’s, how do you decide what to work on first?

Creativity

• What role does creativity play in your job?
• Give me an example of a time when you had to think outside the box.
• What’s the most creative project you’ve worked on?
• How do you encourage your team to be more creative?
• Let’s say a team member suggested a wacky, creative idea. How would you respond?
• When do you feel most creative?

Adaptability

• How adaptable are you at work?
• How would you handle it if your manager asked you to try a new approach on a project?
• Tell me about a time when you had to learn a new skill quickly. 
• Have you ever been asked to take on duties outside your job description?
• How do you respond to change?

Treating soft skills with the same level of attention you do when assessing technical skills increases the likelihood of landing on a candidate who will not only perform to a high standard but also fit in well on your team. 

When hiring for a leadership role, soft skills like communication and the ability to delegate often precede technical know-how. A good leader must be able to motivate their team and give effective direction while striving to meet organizational objectives. 

Use these tips and suggested questions to help identify leadership qualities in candidates for senior-level roles. 

The Purpose of Strategic Leadership Interview Questions

Being an effective leader takes more than just knowledge. The right individual needs to see the company’s vision and help others get on board with it. They also need a high level of integrity. Leadership interview questions help you discern whether a candidate has these qualities. 

For new leaders, the right questions can help you identify their strengths while pinpointing areas where they may need further leadership training. 

When you’re hiring for a major leadership role, like a director position, the questions you ask are crucial in getting the information you need to accurately compare candidates against one another and determine the strongest fit. 

Types of Strategic Leadership Interview Questions to Ask

Management

Look for an understanding of how they motivate team members and inspire them to work toward company-wide goals. Ask about how they identify strengths and weaknesses among their reports and how they approach employee training and development. 

Example questions

• How do you motivate your team?
• How would you describe your leadership style?
• What are your greatest strengths?
• How accepting are you of new ideas?
• How do you decide who to hire?
• What’s your process for giving employees feedback?
• How do you promote employee development?

Delegation

To be effective in a leadership role, a candidate must be able to separate the team’s daily tasks from their broader responsibilities as a manager. Ask questions to learn about their system for delegating work and how they strike a balance between empowering their employees and maintaining accountability. 

Example questions

• How do you delegate tasks?
• How do you set priorities?
• What tools do you use to monitor your team’s performance?
• How do you measure your own performance?
• How will you empower your employees?

Communication

Communication is one of the most important leadership skills. A winning candidate should be a strong communicator in the interview itself but should also be able to describe their strategy for conveying information to staff, company leadership, clients, and stakeholders.

Example questions

• How would you describe your communication style?
• What’s your preferred method of communication?
• How do you encourage your team to share feedback and concerns?
• How do you handle confidential information? 
• How do you go about delivering bad news?

Conflict resolution

One of the less appealing aspects of management is being the point person for resolving conflicts. How do they keep workplace disputes from interfering with productivity? What past experiences do they have that have prepared them to effectively control conflict on a team of this size or type?

Example questions

• How do you handle disagreements between team members?
• Describe a time when you made a mistake at work. How did you handle it?
• How do you respond to criticism?
• How would you handle a disgruntled employee?
• How do you keep office politics and other distractions from interfering with work?
• Have you ever had to fire an employee?

Decision making

Ideally, when interviewing for a management role, you want to get a glimpse of how a candidate’s brain works regarding their job. This will tell you a lot about whether their leadership style aligns with your company culture. Prompt them to describe how they make decisions and ask for specific examples of times when they’ve succeeded and failed.

Example questions

• What does your process for making decisions look like?
• Describe a time when you had to make an important decision at work.
• If you’re selected for the job, what’s the first thing you’ll do in the role?
• What changes would you seek to make on this team?
• Who else do you involve when making decisions that impact your team?

Values

Who the candidate is as a person matters a lot, especially for upper management roles. Values can make the difference between two well-qualified applicants who are similar on paper. Use the interview as an opportunity to drill down to what’s important to the candidate and why they felt compelled to apply for this job. 

Example questions

• Why do you want this job?
• What do you like about the company?
• How do you balance professional and personal responsibilities?
• What are the most important qualities of a good leader?
• Who’s a leader you admire?

More Tips For Interviewing Leadership Candidates

Use behavioral and situational questions

Most candidates for leadership roles will be prequalified with a certain level of experience, so your questions should focus less on their technical skills and more on how they’ll behave in a manager’s chair. Use behavioral and situational interview questions, which ask a candidate to ‘describe a time when…’ or to imagine how they’d react in a certain situation. 

Related: The Best Behavioral Questions to Ask Candidates

Example questions

• Describe a time when you had to manage a difficult employee.
• Company leaders order you to reduce your department’s spending by 20% by the end of the week. How do you make the cuts?
• What would you do if you disagreed with the instruction from our managing director?

Be creative

Creative interview questions serve a few purposes. First, they can help you assess a candidate’s ability to think on their feet and get a glimpse of how they react in unexpected situations. Second, they allow you to see more of their personality beyond what you get with the typical questions that a candidate can rehearse answers for. 

Example questions

• Recommend me a book.
• If you could have any superpower, which would you choose and why?
• When was the last time you did something totally out of character?
• What fictional character would make a great CEO?

Use alternative interview methods

Alternative interview methods are great for breaking up the lengthy hiring process and gaining additional perspective on a candidate, Panel interviews, for example, allow you to gather feedback from multiple company stakeholders, while a job audition can help you see a candidate’s leadership capabilities in action. 

Related: Interview Formats to Use When Hiring

Watch for red flags 

No matter what type of leadership role you’re hiring for, a few candidate behaviors are almost always a bad sign. Here are a few of the biggest red flags to look out for:

• Negativity in describing past jobs, employers, or experiences
• Inaccurate information in the resume, application, or interview answers
• Arrogance, know-it-all attitude, or condescending tone
• Rudeness to the interviewer, receptionist, or other staff

Finally, have a strong exit strategy to end the interview on a high note. Give the candidate a chance to ask their own questions, which can be another tool for identifying their priorities and learning more about how they think as a leader.

Related: Resume Red Flags