So, you’ve shortlisted your candidates, and the fortunate few have been invited to interview.

The interview is the make-or-break point of your Recruitment process. The interview is where you differentiate the ‘walkers’ from the ‘talkers’. The best interview questions can help you to achieve the best recruitment outcomes.

This is where a candidates’ CV comes to life.

The difficult part? Asking the right questions to get the best candidates.

Below are just examples of the type of questions you should be asking – the questions that you actually ask should align with the competencies that you are assessing against. Nail down your competencies – nail down the best interview questions.

Start Basic

You should start off with the most basic questions that allow you to explore the candidates’ previous experience and motivations for applying for this role.

“What’s your greatest achievement in your career so far?”
“What do you love about your current job?”
“Why have you chosen to leave your current job?”

Get to know the Candidate

Then, you should begin to create a personality profile for the candidate.

“Tell me about a time that you had to overcome a challenge.”
“Describe something innovative that you have come up with.”
“Tell me about a situation in which you’ve had to take charge of a group of people to achieve something.”

After asking a combination of the above questions – you know why they’ve applied for the role, and whether or not their personality will fit in with the Company culture. This is your opportunity, providing you’re happy with their answers so far, to add the finishing touches to their personality profile.

“So, where do you want to be in 5/10 years?”
“Tell me about the relationships you have built during your previous role.”

You now have almost an entire profile of the candidates’ personality, from which you can decide whether or not they are suitable for the Company. At this point, it would be advantageous to ask the candidate why they think you should hire them.

“How will your set of skills benefit this Company?”
“Why shouldn’t I hire you?”
“What are your strengths/weaknesses?”

Paint a Picture

Asking questions similar to the above will put you in a strong position to make either a hiring or a shortlisting decision. By now, you have an idea of a few things:

The personality profile of the candidate
How they will fit in with the Company culture
How they feel they will fit in with the Company culture

There are other methods that can be explored for for building a personality profile of a candidate so that, when the candidate comes to interview, you already have an idea of who they are. Decide which works best for you, and align it with your competencies.

To conclude – asking the best interview questions can mean that you are more likely to recruit the best candidates for the role. From an interview, you want to get an idea of what the candidate is like.

Asking questions that are similar to the above, which are aligned with the competencies you are assessing against, will allow you to do this.

Have you tried any of the questions above? Did they work? Or, do you find that other questions work better? Please, let us know!