Written by Leigh Foster

Although the candidate market is easing, we still need to be vigilant in how we interview candidates and ensure we are hiring quality over a ‘quick fix’ just to fill the position.  What you are looking to achieve is an engaging candidate who can enlighten you about their work history, career path, strengths and weaknesses, skills, and general behaviours.

As an interviewer, you will always need to be just as prepared as the candidate when conducting an interview.  Below are some questions that I feel will give you a good gage of the candidate:

• Tell me about your current job. – An open-ended question that can help evaluate the candidate’s communication skills.
• Why are you looking to leave your current role? – Understand what is making them unhappy/uninspired – Is your role going to change things?
• What could your current place of work do differently? – You can get a sense of the candidate’s ability to see the bigger picture.
• What do you know about our company, and why do you want to work here? – Gage the commitment of the candidate, do they really know what we do as a company, have they read the company's core values and beliefs?
• How would your co-workers/Manager describe you? – Could help shed light on how they might work with members of your team – Will they complement your team?
• Ask for an example of a time when they had to overcome a difficult situation – Understand how they handle pressure. Are they calm in a tough situation?  Can they clearly break down the situation and demonstrate their behaviours?
• How do you deal with the pressure of deadlines? – Ask for examples of deadlines, and targets if applicable, and understand if they didn’t hit the deadline, and how did they handle it/learn from it.
• What skills would you bring to the company? – Understand if the candidate was blindly applying for roles? Did they really look at the job description – They should already know what value they can bring to the role.
• Tell me an interesting fact about you that isn’t on your CV – An open-ended question that can give more of an insight into the candidate outside of their working hours. It’s good to see if you can have other things in common that aren’t just work-related.
• Do you have any questions for me? – This usually concludes your question set and will allow the candidate to ask any questions that may not have come up during the interview but more importantly will evidence their commitment by preparing before the interview and conducting research. You can also tell by these questions what is important to the candidate when looking for their next career move.

 

Here at Pertemps Managed Solutions, we have a proven track record of successful placements due to our ability to screen candidates and ask them the right questions to ensure we are only presenting quality candidates that we feel will bring value to our clients. 

If you are struggling to attract the calibre of candidates that will drive your business forward, please get in touch at hello@pertempsmanagedsolutions.co.uk.