Interview Questions to Ask

Nobody loves job interviews. A dance as socially complex as picking up dates in bars, both parties need to know what to say in order to make the proper personal connection. Unlike dating, however, a job interview is a meeting of unequal parties. As the person conducting the job interview, you hold the upper hand.

However, it can be difficult feeling confident in this when you’re trying to plan which interview questions you’re going to ask. Conducting job interviews can be a difficult, confusing task. You want to try to hire the best possible applicant, of course, but you also want to project the best possible face of your company.

It can be tricky to avoid sounding like a stereotypical cliché corporate head while still getting to the bottom of what makes the applicant tick. You want this to be the start of a lasting relationship between the best applicant and your company. To do this, you need to keep a balance between attracting good applicants and weeding out bad ones.

The key to walking this line lies in knowing which interview questions to ask. In order to make your company seem like the exciting, innovative place to work that it is, avoid the silly questions you remember from your days of job seeking and ask these five questions instead.

1. Icebreaker Interview Questions to Ask

You should spend the first few minutes of your interview discussing a neutral topic. Doing this will put both of you at ease and warm up conversation. You will also build a level of trust with the applicant, enabling more natural and honest answers from them.

Try to make your icebreaker question about something that interests you, so that you can talk about it for a few minutes. Don’t ask “How about those Mets?” if you’ve never watched a baseball game. Applicants will peg you as a phony pretty quickly.

Also avoid cutesy, quirky icebreakers like “If you were a box of cereal, what kind of cereal would you be?” These questions usually come off sounding as forced lines of fake corporate culture. Instead, ask a question such as, “How are you dealing with the recent cold snap/heat wave?” or “Did you see the new blockbuster movie this weekend?”

2. Interview Questions to Ask About Their Past Performance

This should actually comprise a series of interview questions to ask. Ask a question such as, “Tell me about a time when you faced an obstacle on the job?” You can even make it specific and ask about a report that a past boss liked or a time they had to discipline an underling.

Many people interview better than they actually perform on the job, so don’t be afraid to use this series of questions to tease out a longer story from the applicant. If they’re overly eager to paint themselves as a hero or a victim, this is probably a red flag that the story they’re telling is probably either partially or totally a fabrication.

3. Ask How They Feel About Your Company

Finding this out may help you discover the applicant’s level of loyalty to your company or your company’s brand or product. Ask the job candidate what initially interested them in applying for the job in question. Most likely, if it is an entry-level position, they read about the job in a classified ad or on a job-seeking website, and this is fine.

However, if the applicant offers up an extended narrative about a positive history with your brand/product, or your company’s role in their community, or any other more personal answer, this may show a built-in capacity for loyalty to your company. An applicant who has always loved your product or who was helped by your company’s service to their community is more likely to stay with you for the long haul, as well as more likely to treat your company well.

4. The Non-sequitur

Asking a strange question here can shed some light on what kind of thinker the applicant is, and how they deal with life throwing them a curveball. Ask them something along the lines of “Why do you think people climb mountains?” or “How do you think they get the cream filling inside a Twinkie?” (However, be careful to avoid questions that might seem like it’s mocking of personal or religious beliefs.)

The non-sequitur question will force your applicant to abandon their well-rehearsed answers and think on their toes instead. It will also show clues as to their general attitude. If they act flippant or blow off the question, they may have behavior problems in the future.

However, if they embrace the sense of fun embedded in this type of question they’re more likely to approach difficult problems or unexpected situations in the workplace with a similar sense of joy.

5. Interview Questions About Their Values in Comparison to Your Company’s Values

This can be a tricky one to gauge. Ask a question such as “When did you realize this would be the career for you?” or “What keeps you coming to work every day?” You may get a long, drawn-out answer here, but that’s okay.

The objective of a job interview shouldn’t be finding the candidates that are exactly the same as you, or people with similar backgrounds or life stories that led them to seek employment with you, but people who share your company’s values and motivations. What you’re looking for here will depend on what your company wants in an employee, but keep an ear out for clues as to the applicant’s work ethic, how professional they are, or how “fun-loving” they are.

With these five basic interview questions to ask, conducting job interviews with confidence should not only be a breeze but should actually result in choosing the best applicant for your open position. Make sure to close the interview by allowing the applicant to ask questions of his or her own. Also, feel free to touch on your icebreaker subject once more before they leave.  Good luck!