Interview questions that will freak you out

I saw a story online recently that had this great tip for getting rid of negativity in the workplace: Hire better employees.

Cue the eye roll.

Excellent point, but hey. A little help on how to do that would be greatly appreciated, right?

If you’re a business owner manager with a vacancy to fill, you want to hire someone quickly, because you’re probably doing all the extra work yourself. As a result, the longer the process goes on, the greater the temptation to hire anyone with a pulse. We all know how disastrous that can be.

The problem is If you really want to find out if a job candidate is the right person for your vacancy, the typical “What is your greatest strength? Your greatest weakness?” interview questions just are not going to cut it. And the answers you get are pretty much guaranteed to produce more eye rolls: “My greatest weakness? It’s that I get so involved in my projects that I don’t hear conversations going on around me.” Barf.

What you need are behavioral interview questions that will help you hire better employees and go a long way toward eliminating negativity (and other less-than-stellar attributes) in the workplace.

And if you’re looking for a job, understand that questions like these are probably going to crop up. Do not freak out. There are no right or wrong answers (hiring manager may wish to tell interviewees this). It’s OK not to have a ready response.

It is not only the answers to these questions, but how the candidate handles them, that will reveal much to the interviewer.

Regardless of the answers, you’re guaranteed a more meaningful picture of the person who wants to come to work for you.

Drive and ambition

If you want to find out if a job candidate is a slacker, ask these questions:

• Tell me about one of your best professional accomplishments. What are you proudest of? What makes you especially proud of that?
• Tell me about a time when you really wanted to quit a project, a job or assignment. What was going on? Why did you feel that way? How did you express your feelings? What did you do?
• Describe some situations in which you gave your all, but failed.

Learning and adaptability

If there’s one thing we all need to do these days is become a lifelong learner, and someone who can adapt quickly to changing conditions. Here are some questions to help you asses those qualities.

• What has been the most difficult lesson for you to learn in your career? Why was it difficult? How did you learn it?
• Tell me about the biggest professional risk you’ve ever taken. What was at stake?
• Tell me about a time in your life when you really felt as though you were learning a lot. What was happening? Who was involved?
• How have you changed in the past year? What outside influences and events contributed?

Leadership

Don’t discount leadership questions out of hand if you’re looking for someone to handle front-line responsibilities. For one thing, anyone can be a leader, regardless of their title in an organization. For another, these questions will help you decide whether someone has potential to grow in your organization.

• Tell me about a time when you had a difficult challenge getting someone to do something they did not really want to do. How did you handle it? What was the outcome?
• Describe a time when you were trying to get something done with a group that had a leader, but was really doing a lousy job with it. What did you do?
• Tell me about a time when you had to decide whether to stand up for what you believed was the right and proper thing to do, or go along with your peers or people above you who disagreed with your view.

Questions to avoid at all costs, unless you’re interested in putting some lawyer’s kid through college:

• What year did you graduate from college?
• Who will take care of your children if you’re hired for the job?
• Where do you go to church?

Regardless of which side of the interview desk you’re on, a coach can help.