10 powerful interview questions

It’s no easy task trying to hire the right person for your team. Candidates sometimes have great presentation skills and interview well. Asking good interview questions gives you an opportunity to start weeding people out of the process. The better your questions, the better the pool of candidats that will be left to choose from. There are many types of questions you can ask. The ten that I choose allow candidates to speak about past experiences and require them to tell a story. Their stories should provide clear information about their past performance.

Here are the ten powerful interview questions;

Tell me about the last time you….

1) Made a mistake

2) Failed to complete a project on time

3) Found a creative solution to a problem

4) Learned a new skill

5) Exceeded your own expectations

6) Had to think on your feet

7) Dealt with a difficult customer

Were frustrated at work

9) Aimed to low

10) Dealt with a difficult co-worker

What you want to hear from the candidate is how focused and specific they are about answering the questions. Keep probing and asking for more specifics, more examples, who said what, who did what, what were the results, what would you do differently now, what do you need to change or do better in the future, what have you changed, and so on.

If the candidate cannot provide specific examples or dances around the question then this is a red flag and you may want to probe a little deeper. Chances are you will discover that you have just eliminated someone from the process.

In the next exerpt called “What you want to hear” I talk how to assess if the candidate answer the question correctly and what you are looking to hear.