- ‘What’s been your best job and why?’
This question is easy for candidates to answer as it merely involves remembering a happy period, and also tells you a lot about what kind of culture they like to be in and the things that motivate them.
- ‘How do you like to be managed?’
Again, it tells you what your candidates respond to and how your clients can get the best out of them. It also means you’re not placing anyone into environments that are unproductive to their working style or general happiness.
- ‘If you could go back to the beginning of your career, what would you do differently?’
This question is not an open door for your candidates to start berating themselves or pointing out their shortcomings, but instead gives them the opportunity to display their learnings and self-awareness.
- ‘What’s been the most successful relationship with a colleague or client, and why?’
This question is a great insight into how your candidate conducts relationships with other people. It also tells you how they operate on a day to day basis, and when you’re interviewing for cultural fit, this matters.
- What makes a good boss?’
Based on your candidate’s likes and dislikes, they’ll find it easy to answer which in turn will give you lots of answers. When the person you’re interviewing doesn’t have to think about the question too much, it often relaxes them and keeps them nice and lose, which help keep information flowing. This questions also highlights the personality traits and skills that are important to your candidate, as well as the things they value.
- ‘What frustrates you?’
This allows you to see beneath the veneer of professionalism and glimpse into their diplomacy skills and ability to work with other people as well as their problem-solving skills.
- ‘How do you like to communicate?’
It sounds like a pretty basic question, but the answer can tell you an enormous amount about how the candidate will integrate into the company. It will give you a peek into their limits and what they’re comfortable with, as well as some of their boundaries and dislikes.
One question NOT to ask is the standard, ‘where do you see yourself in five years?’ It’s over-used, people will always give generic blurb and the real answer is always, ‘somewhere on a beach, sipping a cocktail and not working while I’m living the life of a millionaire.’ Obviously!