The Interview Questions We Love to Ask
944,000,000.
That’s the number of results that pop up when you Google ‘interview questions’.
So, how do you know what interview questions to ask a candidate?!
We’ve listed our 10 favourite questions to ask, regardless of the role and level you’re hiring for:
1. Walk me through your current role - a day in the life. What are you responsible for and what do you love most about your work?
Sometimes there is value in going back a couple of roles as well if you want to dig into the same question for previous experiences too.
2. What does your team rely on you for beyond anything found in a job description?
This gives you a glimpse into how a candidate contributes to their teams and organization beyond their day-to-day tasks.
3. What are you most proud of in your career to date?
What elements of your candidate’s work light them up? This is important because it shows what motivates the candidate about the role they’re interviewing for.
4. How does your current role support your future career goals?
It’s all about alignment! Is the candidate clear on how they want to grow their career and can you provide support and opportunities for them? The only way a true partnership between a new hire and a company works out is if everyone is aligned from the get-go. Expectations are set and transparency is key.
5. Tell me about your favourite mistake and what you did to make it right.
Humility.
Can they own up to when they’ve been wrong and work to make it right?
6. If you were to leave your current role, what would your team not miss about you?
Two words: Self-awareness.
7. Tell me about the best boss you’ve had and what made them so great.
Managers! They make a huge difference in a person’s work experience. This question is great to see what kind of manager your candidate strives under.
8. In your current role, what has been your biggest contribution to the organization?
Ask this question to get an idea of the type of work the candidate does and how they can bring that to your business.
9. What was the best development tool/ course/ book you've taken on in the last 12 months?
How does your candidate develop a skill or a strength? Alternatively, you can also ask what’s a big goal they’ve recently hit and how they worked towards reaching it.
10. What wakes you up in the morning?
This is intentionally open-ended. It could be their child, an athletic dream, a passion project or simply an alarm clock. There is no judgement here, yet a person's morning routine says a lot about their productivity!
At Team Corker, we want to know what our team gets up to - how they sweat, what goals they’ve set out for themselves, and what gets them out of bed in the morning. If life works, work works.
We don’t care if you know the exact number of ping pong balls that fit into the city of Vancouver. Or if you can calculate what time a train will reach a station if a bridge collapses. We do care about your heart, health, and happiness. We want to know how you work, what drives you to work, and who you want to work for.
And if you need help getting the questions together or finding that hire, we’re here to help. Our Manager Essentials online training program specifically has a Talent Lifecycle module with examples of interview questions and how to evaluate the right candidate for you. Send us a note to hear more!