Interview Questions

[milly143]

Whats the best question you have been asked in an interview? I have to do some recruiting soon and last year my efforts were less then impressive, just not good at this kind of thing. Any good questions you could suggest for a customer service based job (mostly students will apply if that makes any difference to you).

[luckystrike]

When going for a promotion, I was once asked to explain what additional things I had done for the company, above and beyond what is expected of me in my job description - for the majority of people this will be an impossible question to answer.

Also, questions on a person's creative, innovative and entrepreueurial qualities seem to be topical at the moment.

[Laura-sakura]

Whatever you do dont ask " What are your weaknesses?"  That is such a STUPID thing to ask someone who is appling for a job, they are going to lie every time.

[Sasha13]

I think the weaknesses question can be a good one as long as you are aware that the interviewee may be being economical with the truth... the best thing is to probe to find out an actual example of when this weakness has come into play and to find out how they are going about trying to resolve this weakness.

No questions that I've been asked in an interview have stood out as being "good" - as I do a lot of interviewing myself I can tend to predict most questions ok so not many catch me on the hop.

Good questions will be open questions (start with why, what, when, where, who or how for eg. - these types of questions can't be answered with a simple "yes" or "no" so encourage an interviewee to talk about themselves)

Other than questions which confirm details on a CV, like finding out about education/job history, good questions to ask are...

When have you been given good customer service lately?

What made it good customer service?

What is your definition of good customer service?

etc etc

Also, things like "Why do you want to work here?" can help you to see if the candidate is serious about the job or not. If you google "interview questions" you should get some other ideas although you may have to wade through a lot of sites that are just adverts for books etc. Hope this helps a little.

[Lillabet]

I don't know about the best question but the most revealing one (two) I've ever heard were 'Can you tell me about your worst day at work?' and 'Can you tell me about your best day at work?'

Most people gave fairly entertaining responses. The weaker candidates though tended to answer the first part by talking about errors made by others and how people had let them down and how frustrating the day was. In response to the second part they tended to talk about them doing really well and being praised.

Stronger candidates talked about systems breaking down but did not pick out people for blame and even acknowledged that they had been involved in things going wrong. They were also able to talk about how they had helped sort out the difficult situations - often saying that they stayed late and so on. Their best days seemed to be when thing s that had been planned / worked on for a long time went well and their pleasure seemed to be about more than individual performance - more about their team. It also didn't seem to depend on congratulations from a manager.

It gave you an insight into the sort of person they would be to work with. One guy even talked about 'banging his head on the desk in frustration' when discussing his worst day - you wouldn't want him sat next you!

[secretsquiz]

i was once asked what animal i would like to be reincarnated as!

i said a squirrel, because "it looks like fun hanging around in trees and running round the park all day"

for some reason he gave me the job!

[Solarjunkie]

"How would your best friend describe you?"

[Mrs_Pegasus]

What was the last book you read!  I have also used it in interviews and it was amazing how it reflected the individual - and then it was embarrasing when they had read a book I had recently read and when I asked a follow up question they hadnt a clue because they hadnt read the book!

I once went for a job at a 'secure' place which involved a great deal of security to get me on the place.  Photos, search, car search etc.  When asked what the most challenging thing I had done to date, I replied 'gettting into this place and trying to give a great interview while people are waving at me from helicopters hovering outside the window!!!!'  They loved the answer and offered me the job!

[Pinotage]

There's basically three things you want to know.

1) What sort of person they are:

- can they understand and answer questions and describe things to others in a way that can be understood. (important for customers service).

- do they have nay relevent experince or knowledge

 

- have they the personalilty to fit into the team

2) Are they worth the effort of offering a job:

- can they easily travel to the workplace,

- why do they want the job?

- what do they expect of the job

3) are they the best person from all the applicants

ask questions to elicit responses to those areas

[WoWo]

whatever you do dont ask "Where do you see yourself in 5 years".

Ask them to tell you of instances when they have received good customer service. This will give an idea if they actually know what good customer service is.

[Avocado]

HELLO!!!!! STUDENTS!!!!!!

As a student the most common thing I find that an employer wants to know is

a) can you do the job

b) can you present a good face to customers and colleguess( ie don't look like anyone who talks to you is satan and that you'd actually rather be using old ladies dead skin as facial scrub than be here)

Questions that deal with both are why do you want to work for THIS company(eg why Mcdonalds over burger King)

How would you deal with x situation. Giving a situation they don't know how to deal with is great. For instance when I was interviewd for a supermarket they asked the question, you see a lady in the car park drop a bottle of wine, she looks drunk and is trying to get into her car, what do you do. The way they respond may not be the textbook answer(if there ever one) but it will show you how that person deals with odd situations with little time to think about it.

References are the most telling for things like reliability etc and asking questions about them is devilish, especially with students(depending on age) who have only had scholarly commitments before where punctuality hasn't (really) been important and they have the dilema, be truthful or presentable, which is a horrible place to be put. 

Ask a fun question as well. eg what's your favorte flavour jelly, it relaxes them, especially in the middle of tough questions and makes them more likley ot want to work alongside people a company who supports them, not judges them.

[Mistopheles]

I was asked "tell me how your partner would describe you in 3 words". All about making you think on your feet! Must have given a reasonable answer as I got the job.