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Interview Question Pool
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Interview Question Pool

Questions below from CultureSmart attachment, Lever, Fast Company, and TopGrading

New article

This Is Why Your Hiring Process Isn't Working

If you want to make better hiring decisions, you might need to change how you interview.

www.entrepreneur.com

This Is Why Your Hiring Process Isn't Working

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • For each candidate, someone should look to cover
  • Behavioral Interview Questions
  • Growth Mindset
  • Internal Emotional Intelligence
  • External Emotional Intelligence
  • Creative Thinker
  • Communication
  • Positivity / Resilience
  • Other Questions
  • About the role
  • Software Proficiency
  • Career Goals
  • More Information
  • Reference Checks
  • Additional Reading
  • Exit Interviews

For each candidate, someone should look to cover

  • Why the candidate took the job?
  • What were their particular successes and how were they achieved?
  • What were their main weaknesses or mistakes?
  • What was liked/disliked about the job?
  • What was the name of their supervisor, and what were their strengths and weaknesses?
  • What would that supervisor say about the candidate in return? What would that supervisor say were the candidate’s plus points and particular areas of need?
  • What were the reasons for leaving the job?

Behavioral Interview Questions

Behavioral Interview Questions & Competencies

KEY: Blue Text are Vinnie's Favs

Growth Mindset

(Operating in Chaos & Fast Pace)

  • Imagine you are in your first few months on this job. What questions would you first ask and to whom?
  • What drives you?
  • Tell me about a mistake you made in your last job, what happened and what did you take away from that experience?
    • Tell me about a time you expanded your knowledge in a subject area. What interested you to do that and what did you learn?
  • Describe a time when you had a strong win at work?
    • Lack of compelling story may indicate lack of drive. Steer clear of candidates that do not mention contributions of other people
  • When was the last time you changed your mind about something important? What happened and what was the result?
  • When was the last time you changed your mind about something? What happened and what was the result?
  • Tell me about a time you really messed something up. How did you handle it and how did you address the mistake?
  • Tell me about a time you took unexpected initiative.

Internal Emotional Intelligence

(Self-Awareness and Self-Regulation)

  • What is the biggest misperception others have of you?
  • What do you want to do differently in your next role?
  • Tell me about a time you’ve been really frustrated at work.
  • What are your best qualities? Tell me about a time when these qualities made a difference in the workplace.

External Emotional Intelligence

(Social Awareness and Relationship Management)

  • What’s been the most difficult project you worked on, not because of the subject matter, but because of the people involved?
  • Tell me about a time you took initiative to improve something at work. What was the result?
  • Tell me about a time when you received feedback that stung or hurt your feelings?
    • If they don't give an example, likely not experienced enough. Steer clear of candidates describing a trigger or defensiveness
  • Tell me about a time you felt demoralized at work and what it was like?
    • Look for resilience (to help avoid ppl that quit or bringing victim mentality)

Creative Thinker

(Innovation)

  • What’s the difference between someone who’s exceptional in your role versus someone who’s just good?
  • Tell me about the last time that you encountered a rule or norm in an organization that you thought made no sense.

Communication

  • What qualities do you bring that add value to a group or a team?
  • What do you need from others on your team in order to succeed?
  • Tell me about a time you reached a consensus and forged a path forward after having a disagreement with a teammate.
  • How do you ensure that your team collaborates effectively together?
  • How do you handle conflict within a group or a team?
  • What’s been your proudest accomplishment when it comes to communication with a client or colleague?

Positivity / Resilience

  • What's one part of your previous company's culture that you hope to bring to your next one? What is one part do you hope to not find?
  • What is one of the hardest things you have ever had to persevere through?
  • Who do you admire and why from your previous company?

Other Questions

About the role

  • Why <company name>?
  • Tell me why you applied for this specific position
    • Looking for evidence they know about org/specific position. How do they connect the job with their life and career goals.
  • What’s most exciting to you about this role?

Software Proficiency

  • What tools do you love (email/cal/todo/comms/etc)

Career Goals

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What is your proudest accomplishment in [role]?

With each chapter of their career, Jordan says one of the most powerful questions is, ‘What is your proudest accomplishment in that role?’ Depending on the response, Jordan may ask a series of follow-up questions that dive into one anecdote. “When somebody shares what their biggest accomplishment is, I want to know specifically what their role was in delivering that accomplishment, how it compared to expectations, and how it compared to peers. I’m looking for the net impact the candidate made in their role. When candidates talk about accomplishments, they often get stuck in the ‘We’s’ – we did this, we did that.

I think it’s great when people acknowledge team effort, but I like to follow-up with a question like ‘What was your unique contribution to that?’ or ‘What wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t there?’ Those are really powerful ways to tease out their individual effort. If someone struggles to talk through what they added to it, they may be riding the coattails of their colleagues.”

  • How do you see the role of praise and criticism in your work?
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Why did you make each transition in your career?

In addition to learning about a candidate’s accomplishments and mistakes in each role, Jordan advises learning the candidate’s motivations for taking on new roles, and leaving old ones. Jordan likes to ask “Why did you make the transition from role X to role Y?” for each transition point because it gives him interesting insight into how realistic their motivation is for seeking out an opportunity. “Let’s say that the candidate is primarily motivated by money – if that’s counter-culture, it would be a concern,” says Jordan. Asking about career transitions is another way to discern motivations for a strong candidate. For example, if you know the candidate’s most recent two to three job changes were related to lack of autonomy, and that your opportunity offers autonomy, you can tailor your selling message to the candidate’s motivations when you make an offer.

‣
What did you like most about each role, and what did you like least?

You can also learn about candidate motivations by asking for each role, “What did you like most about this role, and what did you like least?” Jordan says, “Typically things people like most about a job are things that are inherent motivators, and you want to see a correlation between those elements and what you have to offer in your role. On the other hand, people typically underinvest in the things they like least about a job, and may therefore do them poorly. So if somebody tells you their least favorite part of their last job was having to do cold calls, and there’s a big outreach component to your role, you can bet they’re going to be prone to underinvest in that.”

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Tell me about your ultimate career goal and your ideal next step.

Rather than ask, “Why do you want to work at our company,” Jordan recommends, “Tell me about your ultimate career goal.” By asking for their ultimate career goal, you can see whether the job you have to offer is aligned with where they’re headed in their career.” For example, if you have an individual contributor role and the candidate’s goal is all about leading teams, it’s likely that they see your opportunity as a stepping stone or short term job that they’re not going to want to stay in for long. It’s questionable as to whether they are really pursuing your opportunity for the right reasons, whether they’re going to be fulfilled, and how long they will stick around if you won’t be able to offer what they want quickly enough. He suggests following this discussion by asking “What is your ideal next step?” to allow them to paint their own picture of what they are looking for today. He says, “Most candidates have prepared an answer when you ask why they want to work at your company, and will regurgitate information from your website. Also, this question tends to be overused across an interviewing team. This can be annoying to a candidate, and can also lead them to artificially tweak their answer as they digest cues from one interview to the next.”

More Information

Reference Checks

👨‍🚒External Reference Check Questions

Additional Reading

  • https://www.emcap.com/thoughts/our-go-to-list-top-30-interview-questions
  • https://www.lever.co/blog/behavioral-based-interview-questions/
  • Attachments
    • CultureSmart Interview Questions.pdf87.8KB
    Top_Interview_Tips_the_Employers_Essential_Handbook copy.pdf1355.3KB

Exit Interviews

When someone is exiting

  • Quickly tell team
  • Be transparent
‣
How to conduct the exit interview (not direct mgr)
  • Make sure the person conducting the interview is at least one step removed from the employee; not their direct manager or close colleague. A more senior manager or HR manager is a better choice.
  • The interviewer is asking quite upfront questions, so they should remember to approach the meeting with a spirit of friendliness and respect. The interviewer should listen more than they talk.
  • Express that although their feedback will be used for company improvement, their responses will not be shared with the wider company.
  • Follow a structured set of specific questions. If you only ask generally about feedback, you’ll likely get only a general response.
  • Document the interviewee’s responses. Using tools like Employment Hero’s meeting features can help you securely note feedback.
  • Leave plenty of time for an exit interview. Doing it too close to the employees’ last day when they are trying to wrap up loose ends could be stressful for them.
  • At the end of the meeting, thank the employee for their time and reiterate that their feedback will be used for company improvement.

Exit Interview Q's (when they choose to leave)

  • What are some things that we are doing really well here?
  • What did you like most about your job with <company name>? What did you like least?
  • What could be improved from a cultural perspective for future hires?
  • Could <company name> have made any changes that might have influenced you to stay?
  • What were the main factors influencing your decision to leave?
  • What does your new job offer that is more appealing than your current role?

Additional Exit Questions

  • If you were in my position, what would you do differently?
  • Anywhere you wanted to grow in your role that <company name> didn't provide?
  • Was compensation a consideration?
  • What are we doing well that we should keep doing?
  • What would you recommend we do better?
  • Would you recommend <company name> to friends as a great place to work? (yes/no/maybe)

Employment Hero Exit Interview Template

  1. Was there any particular reason/event that made you decide to look for a new role?
  2. What does your new company or role offer that made you want to work there?
  3. What are your thoughts about management and leadership within this business? Do you have any thoughts on the management style?
  4. How do you feel about the team that you’ve worked within? Do you think there could be any changes to help your team work better together?
  5. Have you enjoyed the culture here? Why or why not?
  6. Do you feel like you have been well equipped and well supported to do your job here? What else could have been provided for a better experience?
  7. Did you enjoy your role here? What do you think of the structure or responsibilities of the role?
  8. Are there any red flags in the business that you think we should be aware of?
  9. Do you have any other feedback or suggestions for what we could be doing better as a business?
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