[Closed] Interview Questions

Nice! Are they real?

wa wa waaaa!

A standard set of questions that you ask every interviewee. additional questions only in response to their answers and only to add clarity

Points score each candidate on the standard set of questions

No questions allowed about family or dependants

"Life moves pretty fast, do you think it's important to stop and look around once in a while? If so, why?"

No questions allowed about family or dependants

(Apologies, I've been sat in Kwik Fit for an hour)

Do you think the wearing of cycle helmets should be compulsory?

That'll weed out the undesirables.

Do you consider homosexuality to be a sin?

competency based questions ie take a topic from the person spec / job description and ask the interviewee to describe who they met this part of the person spec.

ie " we need a person who can operate a left handed therbilig - can you describe to us how you would do this?"

Or - "we need someone who can solve problems that arise - can you give us an example of a problem that cropped up in your previous working life, how you assessed the problem and the solutions you arrived at?"

Do you even lift, bro?

An old boss decided to research applicants on facebook. The next time one applied it was an attractive girl with photos of her latest night of drunken debauchery all over facebook.

For some reason boss decided that he would open the interview with the question of her how night out at *insert rubbish local nightclub* went on Saturday.

Unsurprisngly she was freaked out and ran away

"what 3 words do you think your closest friends would use to describe you?"

"what 3 words do you think your closest friends would use to describe you?"

Bit of a rebel. 😉

Classic question:

[i]"If I gave you a brick, give me a list of things you could do with it?"[/i]

Anyone who gives you a long list of prepared answers is a **** and should be thrown out.

"would you 'black up' if required to do so for the office christmas party?"

Do you have any pistols?

"what 3 words do you think your closest friends would use to describe you?"

Whats-his-name.

As mentioned google competency based, ask about problems and how they overcame them: Can you give me an example of when you had a tight deadline and were unable to meet it, what did you do. Have you ever had to deal with difficult people, how did you handle it? Do you have an example of when you have come up with an innovative solution, etc.

“What’s the best way for a guy to shave their legs?”

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

If you were a biscuit, what sort of biscuit would you be?

African or European?
APF

would you rather fight a duck the size of a horse or 20 horses the size of ducks?

Ask what you need to know in order to ascertain whether they can do the job. If you don't know, then you don't need to ask. You could sum up the rest in one question, "how proficient are you at googling clever answers to standard interview questions?"

Whenever I've interviewed staff, it's been in tandem with HR or another manager. I've handled the tech stuff and they've covered the [s]twaddle[/s] soft skills. "What is your greatest strength?" followed by "what is your greatest weakness?" for instance. (You get some great answers to the second one if they're unprepared; I had one guy blurt out that he had anger management issues and was sacked from his previous job for punching out his boss...)

There is a plane on a conveyor belt...

Otherwise competency based relevant to the job - examples of team work, deadlines, managing people, managing projects.

Ask some questions to see if they've done research - people will right they are a self motivated learner but haven't even googled the company they are coming to.

We also throw in some creative thinking questions as we are hoping for scientists who can come up with new ideas. We don't expect the right answer but some how they come up with an answer can be interesting. One from somebody else was about having a sheet of metal and a block of insulation foam in an oven. What would you do to keep the temperature of the metal as low as possible. Simple science but endless possibilities.

"what is your greatest weakness?"

"I'm too honest."

"I don't think that's really a weakness."

"I don't give a shit what you think!"

One from somebody else was about having a sheet of metal and a block of insulation foam in an oven. What would you do to keep the temperature of the metal as low as possible.

Don't turn on the oven?

What would you do to keep the temperature of the metal as low as possible.

Don't switch the oven on.

edit: Dammit, 6 seconds too late 🙂

Soft skills questions can include some like...
- How would you approach the first three months in this role?
- What would be your top 3 priorities if you were successful in obtaining this role?
- What is your biggest success to date and how could that be useful in this role?
- How will your biggest strengths enable you to be successful in role?

I like to conclude with "Do you know what happens to people like you in prison?"

Classic question:

"If I gave you a brick, give me a list of things you could do with it?"

Anyone who gives you a long list of prepared answers is a **** and should be thrown out.

I was once asked "Can you tell me 20 things you'd do with a concrete hedgehog? "

That was the exact point that I decided that I didn't want to work for them.

What Mr Man are you?
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39653431 ]Mr Man interview[/url]

Ask them what they do when they are not at work, hobbies/sports, that sort of thing. If they say that most of their time is spent honing knives and reading copies of Soldier of Fortune, then probably best make pleasant noises and smile.

You could also ask them who the best James Bond is/was and why they think that. That should be good for a discussion.

"Israel or Palestine?"

All the questions that are along the lines of "explain to me a time where you did x to overcome y" are where bullshit thrives.

If you want an answer to the question create a hypothetical situation and ask them what to do. Eg "machine is needed to be shipped in two days. List of tasks re x, y, z. Schedule says they take 4 days. What do you do?"

Listen to answers, listen to the questions that they are asking you about the scenario. Keep altering the scenario so that it blocks their solution. "You said bring in electrician from other projects but now he has phoned in I'll."

There is. No correct answer it is judging the response.

I think Google published a paper on how putting interview candidates on the spot with awkward and/or difficult questions didn't actually result in any meaningful insight from their interview, and they've now dropped the whole process and simply just ask competency based questions related to the role and try and build a rapport on a personal level to gauge team fit.

There's a whole book on question google ask. Interesting logic, puzzle, type questions. They also interview candidates about 5 times, and all job offers are still signed off by HQ. (At least, that's what the book says.)

Q - "Have you had a haircut?"
IF "Yes, but it's not what I asked for" EMPLOY else NOT EMPLOY
courtesy reeves&mortimer

team fit

Because essentially, this is the most important part.

Which wheel size?

Questions that show their thinking process is important for me, how do you go about problem solving
What have been the places you have enjoyed working the most and why?
Where you activly looking for this job?
What about the company attracted you to apply?
(For some of those honest answers will tell you a lot)
What would you do if you thought we/company/project were going in the wrong direction or heading for trouble?

As usual on here, some great answers....some not so! 🙂

Thanks all!

Interviews can easily become a script - you ask a question, prospective candidate tells you want they think you want to hear. Assuming you can sift/assess competency at CV and letter stage, then you can quickly test that candidate can do what they can say they can, and then an assessment of team fit/value add at interview. I have found, 'what will your first 100 days look like' to be good, and one that sadly stumps far too many people, 'tell us about a recent time when you were kind to someone at work'.