Best and Worst Interview Questions
Blog Post October
The BEST and WORST interview questions to ask candidates
With only 7 seconds to make a solid impression on someone, good interview questions are key to making an informed hiring decision. Not only is the candidate trying to impress the employer, but the employer needs to ensure they relay their qualities properly to insure there is a cultural fit. The interviewer should ask questions that are concise and encourage the candidate to give fact based real history information that gives insight into the candidate themselves and they way they think, not hypothetical questions or topical questions that don’t really dig in to what a candidate is all about.
Check out our guide to the top 5 BEST and top 5 WORST interview questions to ask, which will help you really get to know a candidate and their potential behavior, and avoid asking questions that really have no value and are a waste of time.
One thing to note: the gold standard for interview questions is to elicit a STAR response, which means the candidate will tell you a situation, task, action, and response as the answer to your question. The reason this method is so highly valued is that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, so when a candidate can tell you what they actually did in the past, you can get an idea of how they will behave in the future. Some of our best interview questions will include STAR response questions, but we have also included a few that don’t.
Top 5 WORST Interview Questions
5. Tell me about yourself
I have been guilty of this one. This one is usually the first question we ask a candidate. That is what will help break the ice and help us get to know the candidate right? WRONG! First of all, it demonstrates a lack of interest, skill or preparation on the part of the interviewer, which doesn’t leave a good impression on the candidate; I mean you’ve been in a room with this stranger for 10 seconds and you’ve probably already looked at their LinkedIn and Facebook page, so what more do you need to know, other than having silence filled by mindless jabber? Secondly, interviewees are already nervous, and this question is so open-ended no one knows where to begin. It almost always leaves the interviewee needing to ask a follow-up question like, “Where would you like me to begin”? Candidates are never sure how much to share, and sometimes end up talking about situations or info that is best kept private, or giving such a vague description of themselves you’ve really just wasted everyone’s time. Add some context to this question such as “tell me about your career journey, what education and job have brought you to this point” “What are your hobbies, what is unique about you?”
4. Describe how you would _______________ (fill in the blank with a mundane task: Wash a car, make Kraft Dinner, do the dishes, etc)
If you are asking a question like this what you are probably trying to figure out is how detailed and process-oriented the candidate is. Typically though this type of a question will throw a candidate completely off and they will likely just stumble through the answer because they have no clue what you are getting at. Correct this question by asking “I want to see how you would walk through a process step-by-step, so describe how you would _______________” (fill in the blank with a task related to the job position or business function like “accept a returned item from a customer” or “create a testing process for our line of soap”)
3. Do you have kids?
What you are probably wanting to know is if the candidate is willing to work overtime, or maybe you have a family-friendly workplace and want to tout the worklife balance? It is a serious no-no primarily because of Human Rights, as you cannot discriminate against a candidate based on their family status. Most candidates know this, and you lose credibility right away if you ask. Avoid asking this question as it does pertain to their work. Sometimes candidates offer up this information, and then you can feel free to speak conversationally about their family.
2. Any question that starts with “how would you _______________?”
This type of question is hypothetical. It completely opens up the opportunity for the candidate to shape their answer into what they think you want to hear, vs telling you about what their actual behavior would be. It is a subjective question and not based on real behavior. Change the start of your question to “tell me about a time you ____________” and you will get a much more informative response
- What is your greatest weakness?
This is a perfect question to ask if you want to get a canned, fake, topical answer that has no value at all. Candidates will just say something that is the least incriminating or make them sound good. Answers you may hear will be “I work too hard, I just can’t stop working, I sacrifice everything for my job” or “I’m too much of a perfectionist, I want everything to be right.” Not only are these answers probably not even true, but what have you actually learned about that person?
Top 5 BEST Interview Questions
5. Your education and experience caught our attention. That’s why we wanted to meet you. Tell me something about your background that you feel we should know as we consider you for this position?
This question shows the candidate you’ve actually read their resume, and it also allows the candidate to show what kind of research they have done on the company and the culture. It avoids them having to talk about their under water basket weaving hobby, which is of no value, and allows them to focus on what parts of them actually FIT your position.
4. In researching our company and this job posting, what skill do you feel like you are missing?
Here is a great way to find out a persons’ “weakness” that actually matters to your company. It will allow the candidate to once again match themselves to your corporate culture and inform you on where you may need to invest some training in the candidate. It also might identify a total deal breaker for you and help you easily make the decision that the skill they are missing is too essential to your job posting.
3. What project/goal would you consider to be your greatest accomplishment to date and why?
This question allows candidates to highlight some of their best work and offer a sense of ownership, as well as show you a behavioral based way they met a goal. Make sure you ask a lot of follow up questions to this one to ensure you fully understand the process they went through to make this accomplishment.
- Tell me about a time you had a difficult working relationship with a colleague and what was your response?
A major part of the employment experience is working with others. Even if you work remotely from home you will have to interact with other people at some point. This question will give a behavioral answer that will give you insight into how much ownership the candidate takes in their role in the poor working relationship, as well as their approach to repairing it (or not repairing it).
1. What is the work environment in which you have found the most success for yourself or your career?
This question will give you all kinds of information about your candidate. Firstly, it will tell you the type of place they are best suited to working in (corporate office, retail setting, sales setting, production work, etc). Secondly it will give you insight into the type of company they match well with. You can easily research the values and mission of the company they say they were most successful in and determine if that matches your company values. Thirdly the answer to this question will give you an idea of how your candidate measures success and what they personally value. Did they find success because they got big raises? Maybe money is their motivator. Did they measure their success by the number of customers they converted? Maybe closing deals is their strength. Do they talk about how often they were promoted? How much they loved the people they worked with? How many customers asked for them specifically? This all shows you the TYPE of person you are hiring, which is really what you need to know to get a great fit
Must have/unavoidable questions
There are other questions in an interview that will give you no real insight or STAR response but must be asked, like anticipated start date, salary expectations, reference checks, and availability. These are tactical and necessary questions so don’t be afraid to ask them!
Happy Hiring!