| Interview questions 16:53 - Apr 7 with 5680 views | Jon_456 |
Going to be interviewing some candidates for a new role at my work next week and want to get some decent questions in there. It's mostly office based and requires to work both in a team and individually.
What are the hardest questions some of you have either faced or asked others? |  | | |  |
| Interview questions on 05:47 - Apr 8 with 1018 views | Dolly2.0 |
| Interview questions on 00:37 - Apr 8 by J2BLUE |
Sniping? Why so thin skinned? I wasn't having a go at you. I just think those 'questions' are ridiculous. Nothing to do with being creative. They just seem stupid to me. That's my opinion. I didn't take any shot at you at all.
As for me I haven't achieved anything and quite frankly i've given up. I don't say that so you give me a pep talk or anything it's just a fact. I've applied for loads of jobs, none of which have been anything that great, and I still don't even get an interview. You'll now reply that i'm not trying hard enough and that you make your own luck or something similar. I'm just going to stop going on about my situation and accept it. |
"Nothing to do with being creative."
They're designed to test how creative you are in the way that you answer them. So your response of "Nothing to do with being creative" couldn't be further from the truth. |  |
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| on 06:45 - Apr 8 with 998 views | _ |
| Interview questions on 05:47 - Apr 8 by Dolly2.0 |
"Nothing to do with being creative."
They're designed to test how creative you are in the way that you answer them. So your response of "Nothing to do with being creative" couldn't be further from the truth. |
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| Interview questions on 07:08 - Apr 8 with 981 views | Dolly2.0 |
Good for him. | |
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| Interview questions on 08:46 - Apr 8 with 960 views | J2BLUE |
| Interview questions on 05:47 - Apr 8 by Dolly2.0 |
"Nothing to do with being creative."
They're designed to test how creative you are in the way that you answer them. So your response of "Nothing to do with being creative" couldn't be further from the truth. |
Fair enough, I bow to your superior knowledge of the industry. |  |
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| Interview questions on 08:59 - Apr 8 with 947 views | Throbbe |
| Interview questions on 17:02 - Apr 7 by BanksterDebtSlave |
What's the point ?
Chicken or the egg?
Favourite cheese ?
Who killed Liddle?
Why do we bother ?
Do you really love me?
Does my bum look big in this ? |
Who loves orange soda? |  |
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| Interview questions on 09:16 - Apr 8 with 931 views | MJallday |
I interview 20+ people a year for various junior/senior roles in my company - which is a multinational.
I always start with one question
"tell me about you"
then when they start on about qualifications/experience, I stop them, and ask them to tell me about them specifically. what they like, where they grew up, what they are into, what they like doing
I have a conversation with them
the cv is the place for all the formal stuff, I know all that before they get in the roo . what I don't get from a cv is how good they are as a person, what their personality is like, how well they'll gel with the team, how they'll lead, how they'll react under pressure of deadlines and sometimes in the face of stupidity
youll get much more out of them with a conversation, rather than structured questions
so my advice is "have a chat" |  |
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| Interview questions on 09:26 - Apr 8 with 918 views | Steve_M |
| Interview questions on 09:16 - Apr 8 by MJallday |
I interview 20+ people a year for various junior/senior roles in my company - which is a multinational.
I always start with one question
"tell me about you"
then when they start on about qualifications/experience, I stop them, and ask them to tell me about them specifically. what they like, where they grew up, what they are into, what they like doing
I have a conversation with them
the cv is the place for all the formal stuff, I know all that before they get in the roo . what I don't get from a cv is how good they are as a person, what their personality is like, how well they'll gel with the team, how they'll lead, how they'll react under pressure of deadlines and sometimes in the face of stupidity
youll get much more out of them with a conversation, rather than structured questions
so my advice is "have a chat" |
Haven you ever asked anyone to draw a map of the office in MS Paint?
That question caught me out once, I had done soon much preparation on the work part that I didn't know what to say. It didn't help that I was mid-20s and it was basically beer and football in those days. |  |
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| Interview questions on 09:36 - Apr 8 with 910 views | MJallday |
| Interview questions on 09:26 - Apr 8 by Steve_M |
Haven you ever asked anyone to draw a map of the office in MS Paint?
That question caught me out once, I had done soon much preparation on the work part that I didn't know what to say. It didn't help that I was mid-20s and it was basically beer and football in those days. |
its a valid question.
I hand picked my entire technical delivery team. I asked every single person if they liked football and which team they supported (their choice wouldn't have influenced it)
the thinking was it was something they could bond over - and it absolutely works - it creates a team rapport you just cannot buy | |
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| Interview questions on 09:38 - Apr 8 with 907 views | AdmiralFunge |
| Interview questions on 09:16 - Apr 8 by MJallday |
I interview 20+ people a year for various junior/senior roles in my company - which is a multinational.
I always start with one question
"tell me about you"
then when they start on about qualifications/experience, I stop them, and ask them to tell me about them specifically. what they like, where they grew up, what they are into, what they like doing
I have a conversation with them
the cv is the place for all the formal stuff, I know all that before they get in the roo . what I don't get from a cv is how good they are as a person, what their personality is like, how well they'll gel with the team, how they'll lead, how they'll react under pressure of deadlines and sometimes in the face of stupidity
youll get much more out of them with a conversation, rather than structured questions
so my advice is "have a chat" |
I'd like to work for you, I think.
Would probably have to insist on some kind of separate toilet arrangements though. |  |
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| Interview questions on 09:42 - Apr 8 with 898 views | Dolly2.0 |
| Interview questions on 09:16 - Apr 8 by MJallday |
I interview 20+ people a year for various junior/senior roles in my company - which is a multinational.
I always start with one question
"tell me about you"
then when they start on about qualifications/experience, I stop them, and ask them to tell me about them specifically. what they like, where they grew up, what they are into, what they like doing
I have a conversation with them
the cv is the place for all the formal stuff, I know all that before they get in the roo . what I don't get from a cv is how good they are as a person, what their personality is like, how well they'll gel with the team, how they'll lead, how they'll react under pressure of deadlines and sometimes in the face of stupidity
youll get much more out of them with a conversation, rather than structured questions
so my advice is "have a chat" |
You make them have sex with a kangaroo during the interview? You are sick... but I suppose it's a good test of how much they want the job. | |
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| Interview questions on 09:50 - Apr 8 with 886 views | MJallday |
| Interview questions on 09:42 - Apr 8 by Dolly2.0 |
You make them have sex with a kangaroo during the interview? You are sick... but I suppose it's a good test of how much they want the job. |
it sorts the men out from the boys
also, it means I can weed out weirdos like rolf harris - if he ever decided to apply for an IT Development role | |
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| Interview questions on 10:44 - Apr 8 with 861 views | Durovigutum |
There is some really bad advice in this thread that would get you into a lot of trouble if someone were to complain that they didn't get the job on grounds of discrimination.
Your ground rule must be to only ask them questions relevant to the job they have applied for. For example ask them if the journey was OK but don't ask if they drive if the job doesn't involve driving. The commute is a very important question for me as IT can involve odd hours and having a long, difficult and unreliable journey makes it far more likely that person won't settle.
Before thinking about questions to ask think about what you want from the staff member. Is there an existing team, will this person be junior or senior, are they replacing someone, what is the company culture, what is the team culture, what are the skill set must haves for this person. Paint the picture of someone who is perfect for the role, a 100% fit, then step back and think that in an average grade permanent role you want someone who is about 70-75% there (junior can be lower, senior probably higher). Think about the must have and the questions you need to ask to extract that information but also think about the stuff you are willing to miss out on but train them into. In my most recent interview I needed a network specialist to fill a six month requirement - they needed to have the skills for the technology, a good attitude, to be light touch for me to manage and significantly have to fit the somewhat odd company culture. Questions I asked included "tell me what you know about <manufacturer> equipment, tell me about the team you worked with in <job>, how big was that team, what did you like about that team, what didn't you like, what was the management structure and how did it work out, what achievement are you proudest of within <job>. I don't tend to ask "how do you perform this technical task" as in "tell me how to configure a switch to block FTP passing at layer three" as experience tells me that asking a more generic question gets me the answer through conversation and conversation tells me more about the person, their depth of knowledge, how they work with other people - their aptitude and attitude - than a simple technical question list does. A list also contains many closed questions. Tell me about a team and how it worked gets you answers you aren't allowed to ask the questions for - so one good team answer was "we got lashed up and went to spearmint rhinos every Friday night", great for an advertising agency IT team full of under 30s but perhaps not for an MOD team in their 50s miles from anywhere?
Also,really important, you must sell the candidate you (as the boss) and the job. Tell them about yourself, your style, how you work, how your team works and also what the job involves and how it might evolve (that 20-30% they can grow into). Get them excited or turn them off - it is better to lose a candidate than for them to start and leave after three months as this puts you back six months and you might have missed out on a brilliant person you put second.
Also - vital this - decline all candidates if no one fits the bill. No candidate is better than a bad candidate as you are only as good as the people you hire. Go try again, feedback to the agency or HR on why you didn't like those you saw and what you want to see that is different next time.
I have had joba involving interviewing for 15+ years and still when people sit in with me for the first time they always come out and ask "why do you do it like that, it's a bit different to what I'm used to" and candidates who join ask me about the interview I gave them. Everyone says "I have learnt something today" and even those I don't hire have fed back that they "enjoyed the interview". The biggest "I would do it differently" I hear is about asking a technical question list - I do use these for filtering but would avoid it in the face to face section. Sometimes I ask a case study style questions, particularly of DBAs, but (for example) a "ten questions about Linux" I would give them for fifteen minutes before or after a face to face. |  | | |
| Interview questions on 10:50 - Apr 8 with 849 views | Wonky |
'If Jesus comes back. Will he still wear sandals?.' |  | | |
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