Also read: The Importance of Recruitment and Selection Process
The interviewer’s job is to draw the candidate out, at the same time ensuring that the information required is obtained. To this end it is desirable to ask a number of open-ended questions – questions that cannot be answered by yes or no and that promote a full response. But a good interviewer will have an armory of other types of questions to be asked as appropriate, as described below.
Open questions are the best ones to use to get candidates to
talk – to encourage a full response. Single-word answers are seldom
illuminating. It is a good idea to begin the interview with one or two open
questions, thus helping candidates to settle in.
Open questions inviting a response can be phrased as
follows:
- I’d like you to tell me about the sort of work you are doing in your present job.
- Could you give me some examples of…?
- What do you know about…?
- In what ways do you think your experience fits you to do the job for which you have applied?
- What have been the most challenging aspects of your job?
- How have you tackled…?
- Please tell me about some of the interesting things you have been doing at work recently.
Open questions can give you a lot of useful information but
you may not get exactly what you want, and answers can go into too much detail.
For example, the question: ‘What has been the main feature of your work in
recent months?’ may result in a one-word reply – ‘marketing’. Or it may produce
a lengthy explanation that takes up too much time. Replies to open questions
can get bogged down in too much detail, or miss out some key points. They can
come to a sudden halt or lose their way. You need to ensure that you get all
the facts, keep the flow going and maintain control. Remember that you are in
charge. Hence the value of probing, closed and the other types of questions
which are discussed below.
Probing questions are used to get further details or to
ensure that you are getting all the facts. You ask them when answers have been
too generalized or when you suspect that there may be some more relevant
information that candidates have not disclosed. A candidate may claim to have
done something and it may be useful to find out more about exactly what
contribution was made. Poor interviewers tend to let general and uninformative
answers pass by without probing for further details, simply because they are
sticking rigidly to a predetermined list of open questions. Skilled
interviewers are able to flex their approach to ensure they get the facts while
still keeping control to ensure that the interview is completed on time. A candidate
could say to you something like: ‘I was involved in a major business process
re-engineering exercise that produced significant improvements in the flow of
work through the factory.’ This statement conveys nothing about what the
candidate actually did. You have to ask probing questions such as:
- What was your precise role in this project?
- What exactly was the contribution you made to its success?
- What knowledge and skills were you able to apply to the project?
- Were you responsible for monitoring progress?
- Did you prepare the final recommendations in full or in part? If in part, which part?
The following are some other examples of probing questions:
- You’ve informed me that you have had experience in…. Could you tell me more about what you did?
- Could you describe in more detail the equipment you use?
Closed questions aim to clarify a point of fact. The
expected reply will be an explicit single word or brief sentence. In a sense, a
closed question acts as a probe but produces a succinct factual statement
without going into detail. When you ask a closed question you intend to find
out:
- what the candidate has or has not done – ‘What did you do then?’
- why something took place – ‘Why did that happen?’
- when something took place – ‘When did that happen?’
- how something happened – ‘How did that situation arise?’
- where something happened – ‘Where were you at the time?’
- who took part – ‘Who else was involved?’
Hypothetical questions are used in structured
situational-based interviews to put a situation to candidates and ask them how
they would respond. They can be prepared in advance to test how candidates
would approach a typical problem. Such questions may be phrased: ‘What do you
think you would do if…?’ When such questions lie well within the candidate’s
expertise and experience, the answers can be illuminating. But it could be
unfair to ask candidates to say how they would deal with a problem without
knowing more about the context in which the problem arose. It can also be
argued that what candidates say they would do and what they actually do could
be quite different. Hypothetical questions can produce hypothetical answers.
The best data upon which judgments about candidates can be
made are what they have actually done or achieved. You need to find out if they
have successfully dealt with the sort of issues and problems they may be faced
with if they join your organization.
Behavioral event questions as used in behavioral-based
structured interviews aim to get candidates to tell you how they would behave
in situations that have been identified as critical to successful job
performance. The assumption upon which such
Capability questions aim to establish what candidates know,
the skills they possess and use and their competencies – what they are capable
of doing. They can be open, probing or closed but they will always be focused
as precisely as possible on the contents of the person specification referring
to knowledge, skills and competencies. Capability questions are used in behavioral-based
structured interviews.
Capability questions should therefore be explicit – focused
on what candidates must know and be able to do. Their purpose is to obtain from
candidates evidence that shows the extent to which they meet the specification
in each of its key areas. Because time is always limited, it is best to
concentrate on the most important aspects of the work. And it is always best to
prepare the questions in advance.
The sort of capability questions you can ask are:
- What do you know about…?
- How did you gain this knowledge?
- What are the key skills you are expected to use in your work?
- How would your present employer rate the level of skill you have reached in…?
- Could you please tell me exactly what sort and how much experience you have had in…?
- Could you tell me more about what you have actually been doing in this aspect of your work?
- Can you give me any examples of the sort of work you have done that would qualify you to do this job?
- What are the most typical problems you have to deal with?
- Would you tell me about any instances when you have had to deal with an unexpected problem or a crisis?
The degree to which candidates are motivated is a personal
quality to which it is usually necessary to give special attention if it is to
be properly assessed. This is best achieved by inference rather than direct
questions. ‘How well are you motivated?’ is a leading question that will
usually produce the response: ‘Highly.’
You can make inferences about the level of motivation of
candidates by asking questions about:
- Their career – replies to such questions as ‘Why did you decide to move on from there?’ can give an indication of the extent to which they have been well motivated in progressing their career.
- Achievements – not just ‘What did you achieve?’ but ‘How did you achieve it?’ and ‘What difficulties did you overcome?’
- Triumphing over disadvantages – candidates who have done well in spite of an unpromising upbringing and relatively poor education may be more highly motivated than those with all the advantages that upbringing and education can bestow, but who have not made good use of these advantages.
- Spare time interests – don’t accept at its face value a reply to a question about spare time interests that, for example, reveals that a candidate collects stamps.
Find out if the candidate is well motivated enough to pursue
the interest with determination and to achieve something in the process. Simply
sticking stamps in an album is not evidence of motivation. Becoming a
recognized expert on 19th-century stamps issued in Mexico is.
Continuity questions
Continuity questions aim to keep the flow going in an
interview and encourage candidates to enlarge on what they have told you,
within limits. Here are some examples of continuity questions:
● What happened next?
● What did you do then?
● Can we talk about your next job?
● Can we move on now to…?
● Could you tell me more about…?
It has been said that to keep the conversation going during
an interview the best thing an interviewer can do is to make encouraging grunts
at appropriate moments. There is more to interviewing than that, but single
words or phrases like ‘good’, ‘fine’, ‘that’s interesting’, ‘carry on’ can help
things along.
Play-back questions test your understanding of what candidates
have said by putting to them a statement of what it appears they have told you,
and asking them if they agree or disagree with your version. For example, you could
say: ‘As I understand it, you resigned from your last position because you
disagreed with your boss on a number of fundamental issues – have I got that
right?’ The answer might simply be yes to this closed question, in which case
you might probe to find out more about what happened. Or the candidate may
reply ‘not exactly’, in which case you ask for the full story.
As mentioned earlier, questions about the career history of
candidates can provide some insight into motivation as well as establishing how
they have progressed in acquiring useful and relevant knowledge, skills and
experience. You can ask such questions as:
- What did you learn from that new job?
- What different skills had you to use when you were promoted?
- Why did you leave that job?
- What happened after you left that job?
- In what ways do you think this job will advance your career?
Focused work questions
These are questions designed to tell you more about
particular aspects of the candidate’s work history, such as:
- How many days’ absence from work did you have last year?
- Have you been absent from work for any medical reason not shown on your application form?
- How many times were you late last year?
- Have you a clean driving license? (For those whose work will involve driving.)
Questions about outside interests
You should not spend much time asking people with work
experience about their outside interests or hobbies. It is seldom relevant,
although, as mentioned earlier, it can give some insight into how well
motivated candidates are if the depth and vigor with which the interest is
pursued is explored.
Active interests and offices held at school, colleges or
universities can, however, provide some insight into the attributes of candidates
in the absence of any work history except, possibly, vacation jobs. If, for
example, a student has been on a long back-pack trip, some information can be
obtained about the student’s initiative, motivation and determination if the
journey has been particularly adventurous.
Unhelpful questions
There are two types of questions that are unhelpful:
- Multiple questions such as ‘What skills do you use most frequently in your job? Are they technical skills, leadership skills, team-working skills or communicating skills?’ will only confuse candidates. You will probably get a partial or misleading reply. Ask only one question at a time.
- Leading questions that indicate the reply you expect are also unhelpful. If you ask a question such as: ‘That’s what you think, isn’t it?’ you will get the reply: ‘Yes, I do.’ If you ask a question such as: ‘I take it that you don’t really believe that….?’, you will get the reply: ‘No, I don’t.’ Neither of these replies will get you anywhere.
Questions to be avoided
Avoid any questions that could be construed as being biased
on the grounds of sex, race or disability. Don’t ask:
- Who is going to look after the children? This is no concern of yours, although it is reasonable to ask if the hours of work pose any problems.
- Are you planning to have any more children?
- Would it worry you being a member of an ethnic minority here?
- With your disability, do you think you can cope with the job?
10 useful questions
The following are ten useful questions from which you can
select any that are particularly relevant in an interview you are conducting:
What do you think have been your most notable achievements in your career to date?
What sort of problems have you successfully solved recently in your job?
What has been your experience in…?
What do you know about…?
What have you learned from your present job?
What particularly interests you in this job and why?
What is your approach to handling…?
Is there anything else about your career that hasn’t come out yet in this interview but that you think I ought to hear?
Now you have heard more about the job, would you please tell me which aspects of your experience are most relevant?
Also read: Effectiveness of Structured and Unstructured Interviews