what the hell, I have to interview someone?!

Status
Not open for further replies.
A

Anonymous

Anonymous

So um, what are your favorite interview questions???

This is absolutely not in my job description but two people up the chain can't make the interview so it somehow fell to me now.
 
strawman

strawman

It depends completely on the job. But essentially you want to find out a few things:

- can the person perform the work required, with the training that will be provided?
- does the person have a work ethic that will get them to work on time, and keep them working productively throughout the day with a normal amount of oversight?
- is the person going to fit in with the company culture and other employees?

There's a lot more I'd personally want to find out (do they actually want the job, or is this just a stepping stone or gap filler? What do they know about the company, it's products and services and its customers?) but I think the above three are pretty universal regardless of the position.

Rather than asking questions directly, ask for examples of times they would have fulfilled what the question intends to find out.

For instance, if its a waitstaff position, rather than asking "can you handle waiting 4-5 tables during evening rush?" Ask "tell me about a time when you felt overwhelmed waiting on tables." Then proceed to ask follow up questions about that experience. Did they seek help? We're their customers happy? How did they manage to meet everyone's expectations while being overwhelmed? It would be suspect if they've never felt overwhelmed, or didn't want to admit to feeling that way, for instance. One of my favorites is "tell me about a time you made a mistake." Then follow up with questions about the mistake, the impact it had on others, what they tried to do to fix it, etc. how they handle themselves under pressure and when the have failed can tell you a lot about their work ethic.

Open ended questions generally tell you more, and more interesting anyway, than simple yes/no questions. You don't want to be bored, and you don't want them to be bored.

Ask them if they have any questions. Depending on the position and job, it can be telling to find out whether they think they know everything, or have particularly interesting questions about the position, company, or people they'd be working with.
 
A

Anonymous

Anonymous

It's over, they were um. Kind of unprofessional. And not super prepared.

They straight up asked the other interviewer "Are you hispanic?" and also our ages. Which is obviously verboten for us to ask, but they could, but it was just... kind of weird. Maybe nervous blurting out? Who knows. I recommended "not hire".
 
Covar

Covar

When I was interviewed for a Co-op Position the architect of the project spent a good chunk of time explaining his job, the product, and what he was looking to use me for. He then asked about a bunch of different technology's to see where my skills were. I found out later that one of the things I was completely unfamiliar with was completely made up. Apparently I was the only interviewee that said they didn't know the "technology" and had no idea what it was. Needless to say I got the job, which greatly contributed to my being offered/taking a full-time position when I graduated.

Moral of the story interviewers: check their honesty it speaks volumes. Interviewees: be honest, it pays off and bullshitting will only get you in trouble, even if it's down the road when you find yourself out of your depth.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

If you're female, wear a low-cut top and see if the interviewee is professional enough to maintain eye contact throughout the interview, or at least make an honest effort to.

Also doable if you're male.
 
T

The_Khan

Terrik said:
I heard this was a thing. I dont know WHY this is a thing.
Click to expand...
Seriously?

Ask them many follow up questions about concrete things they have done. As an example, If they say they have negotiated multi million dollar deals ask them how the deal happend. What did they say, what was the response, how long did it take from negotiation to signing to delivary of whatever deal was being discussed. You will quickly find out if they were the negotiator, or the guy holding the briefcase as it gets harder and harder to lie about these things the further down the rabbit hole you go.
 
Terrik

Terrik

The_Khan said:
We have weibo renren we chat momo etc

If companies are doing this in n America I weep openly for the state of the union.
Click to expand...
To be fair, I did read it off a cracked article, but:

From cracked:

In case you needed another reason to worry that those photos you posted on Facebook from your last drunken house party (half-nude, duck lips -- you know the ones) would one day come back to haunt you, here you go: A recent survey showed that 92 percent of employers are checking out your social networking profiles during the recruitment process. And if you think you're getting around this by not providing links to your profiles, think again, because 73 percent of potential employers will track them down anyway.

What are they looking for, exactly? Well, the obvious stuff: drug use, sexual posts, drunken activity, My Little Pony cosplay. But you might be surprised to find out that the biggest sin of all is apparently spelling and grammar errors -- more employers were turned off by the public butchering of the English language than by references to alcohol. If the world needed another reason to abolish textspeak (it didn't), there you go.
But you can just fix this whole mess by not having social networking profiles in the first place, right? Nope -- if nothing comes up for you, that just makes employers think you've got something to hide.
But, but ... that's what privacy settings are for, right? Well, privacy settings don't do you much good when employers don't have any qualms about requiring applicants to provide their Facebook usernames and passwords. Luckily for your swear-ridden, booze-addled (but locked down) timeline, state governments have started stepping in with laws to prevent such practices.

and so on (@ cracked)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top