What Is The Worst Conflict Youve Managed
Whats the worst conflict youve managed between two subordinates or work colleagues? How did you resolve it?
A great candidate will actively work to manage through conflict on their teams. If theyre able to find a way to mitigate negative feelings or behaviors, they do, and if they cant, they assist team members in coping to the best of their ability. The right candidate isnt afraid to enlist the help of their boss in monitoring and improving team dynamics and can provide thoughtful input to help resolve the situation.
What Is The Biggest Challenge The Team Has Faced In The Past Year
While the interviewer might be trying to paint a pretty perfect picture of what working on the team might look like, asking this question will help you uncover some of the realities the team has been facing recently.
If you end up joining, you’ll inevitably hear about these challenges and you may have to help solve them, too.
How It Helps You
It really helps to know what challenges you could find yourself or your team up against ahead of time. In some cases, it could affect whether you accept the role.
Learning about these challenges could give you some great insights into the steps the team has taken to overcome these challenges already.
Describe A Time When You Had To Work With Someone Whose Personality Or Work Style Was Very Different From Yours
Being able to work well with other people with different backgrounds, communication styles and personalities is an important part of nearly every job. This question gives the candidate a chance to show off their teamwork, interpersonal and problem-solving skills, including how they compromise, communicate and collaborate to achieve a goal or task. It can also give you deeper insight into their personality and work style.
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What Type Of Questions Are Asked In A Business Interview
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Business interviews typically include questions related to the specific job duties and responsibilities. For example, an interviewer might ask what experience you have in the field, what you know about the company, and how you would approach certain situations. They may also ask about your communication and problem-solving skills, as well as your ability to work in a team environment. In addition, an interviewer may ask questions related to your strengths and weaknesses, what you have accomplished in the past, and your future career goals.
Whats One Thing Youve Done In Your Professional History That You Wish You Would Have Handled Differently
Many interview questions focus on a candidates best traits and professional accomplishments. On the other hand, theres much you can learn about a professional based on their past failures or opportunities they missed. Asking this question gives the candidate an opportunity to demonstrate their self-awareness, ability to learn from past experiences and dedication to self-improvement. Example Answer:When I started making more progress in my career, I gave up some reliable business relationships to make room for new ones that seemed more lucrative. Looking back, I wouldnt have been so rash, and Ive learned to place more value on consistency and reliability.
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The Top 15 Interview Questions To Ask Job Candidates
15 Questions for an Interview
Its time to fill that vacancy on your team, and the pressure is on to find a job candidate with all the skills and professional experience you need. But can you determine that and more from just an interview? Its possible if you pose smart queries.
Whether youre meeting virtually or in person, you need to prepare thoroughly as an interviewer. You should ask questions that will help you gauge an applicants interest in the job and company, enlighten you about their work history and career plans, shed light on their values and work habits, and reveal their strengths, weaknesses, knowledge and skills.
Of course, youll also want to ask questions specific to the role youre looking to fill. There are also other types of interview questions that help you dig deeper, such as close-ended and open-ended interview questions.
But with these questions for an interview, you should be able to get a good sense of whether this potential employee could be a successful member of your team. So, lets jump in with 15 of the best questions to ask an interviewee, and why.
Unique And Weird Ice Breaker Questions
Ice breaker questions help candidates relax at the beginning of interviews, give them a chance to warm up their communication skills and give them a fun first impression. They can also be a good way to test for culture fit and general candidate attitudes.
Use these questions to help candidates warm up at the start of interviews and to give them a taste of your companys culture.
- If you were stuck on a deserted island what 3 personal items would you bring?
- What fictional character do you identify the most with? Why them?
- If you could go to any country where would you go and why?
- If you were a superhero or supervillain, who would you be? Did you choose this character because you are like them or because you arent and would like to be?
- What was the last present you got for somebody?
- What language would you like to learn one day? Why?
- Would you rather ride a giraffe to work or an elephant? What are the advantages and drawbacks of your preferred method of transportation?
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How Did You Hear About The Job
Ask applicants where they learned about the job to track your advertising. If candidates are predominately citing one source, such as one of the online job sites, that might be the best place to advertise future jobs. Creative responses from candidates such as calling after reading a company article can show their resourcefulness, a highly desirable trait.
Best Questions To Ask A Job Applicant
Your ideal candidate strides confidently into the room wearing a neatly pressed suit, offers a firm handshake, and tells you everything you want to hear. You ask a few generic questions, snag some talking points from their resume, and decide that theyre a perfect fit or are they?
Within the first year and a half of starting a new job, a shocking 46 percent of people will fail to fit in or meet expectations. During the job interview, managers may have had a sense that something was off, but they were too harried or overly focused on what was on the resume and not enough on the candidates subtle behavioral cues.
To avoid this scenario, its important to ask a job applicant the right questions. Knowing their technical competencies like the software programs they know how to use and the experience they have in their field isnt enough. Hiring managers need to dig deeper to avoid potential problems. Here are nine interview questions that can help.
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How Do You Manage Deadline Pressure
Technology projects often have very tight deadlines. So, asking your potential hire how well they perform under pressure can be worthwhile. Try to dig a little deeper by encouraging the candidate to offer an example of what they have done in the past to ensure a project stayed on deadline when it looked like it might miss the mark. Or, if the candidate could not meet a critical deadline despite their best efforts, how did they handle it?
What Do You Expect In Terms Of Salary
Aside from the fact this question is illegal in a number of states and cities, it’s problematic in a number of other ways. For example, some interviewers use this question as a way to determine the salary they will offer.
After all, if I was willing to pay $60,000 per year and you only expect $50,000, I “win.”
No, I don’t. Sure, I may get you for $50,000. But you’ll eventually find out you took a low-ball offer, especially if other employees are paid at or near the top of the scale. No employee wants to feel their pay is unfair compared with employees who hold similar positions: employees whose work is similar, expectations are similar, targets and deliverables are similar …
Once the employee finds out — as they eventually always do — that you took advantage of their inexperience, or naivete, or basic need to put food on their family’s table, they never forget.
And then there’s this. What a prospective employee earned at a previous job has no real bearing on their value to your company. The roles and responsibilities, while seemingly similar, may be dramatically different. Their previous salary may not reflect the skills and experience they’ve developed. Or they may not have realized that their previous employer low-balled them.
Ask nothing instead: Before you even start the interview process, decide what the job should pay. Decide what the job is worth to you and your company.
Then, don’t ask what an employee made at a previous job.
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What Are The Best Interview Questions To Ask Candidates
The best interview questions to ask candidates depend on the role and the type of candidate you hope to attract. At minimum, you should ask the most common interview questions such as:
- Tell me about yourself
- Why do you want to work for this company?
- What are your greatest strengths?
- What is your biggest weakness?
- Why should we hire you?
Additional questions should evaluate whether the candidate is a good skill and culture fit for the position. Feel free to tailor your top interview questions to suit your organization and industry.
Prepare Your Interview Questions
We cant talk about how to conduct an interview or interview questions if we dont know the specific skills we want to assess.
Interview questions will determine whether youll get enough useful insight to judge candidates suitability for the job. This means that your questions must be directly related to the job requirements. Otherwise, it will be challenging to compare one candidate to another on the criteria that really matter.
To do this, first determine what qualities you want to see in your new hire. Start with the job description . Ask yourself:
- Which requirements do I want to assess during the interview? Make a comprehensive list and select those qualities you can assess through interview questions. Some of your requirements can be evaluated more effectively at previous stages .
- What requirements carry the most weight? For example, you definitely want your salespeople to have great communication skills, but they might not need to have extroverted personalities. So, your interview questions should focus on communication skills, instead of extroversion.
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How Do You Deal With Tight Deadlines
For interviewees, their most ideal answer should be a version of this: I review a list of tasks and analyze what are the most urgent and critical matters. I put the most urgent ones on top of the list.
Next, I focus on each task with complete concentration until I finish it before moving on to the next urgent task.
Smart Questions To Ask At The End Of Your Next Job Interview
Job interviews arent just a chance for your prospective employer to get to know you theyre also a chance for you to get to know the organisation and people youre hoping to be devoting half of your waking hours to.
But the chance to ask questions usually comes at the end of an interview, which means that the questions you ask can have a huge impact on how your interviewers remember you.
So choose your questions wisely!
The Benevolent Society is one of Australias oldest and largest not-for-profit organisations, and one of the most popular employers on EthicalJobs.com.au, with jobs across NSW and Queensland and in areas like social work, family support, mental health and womens health & support.
We asked Talent and Attraction Specialist at the Benevolent Society, Aoife Brady, for her perspective on some of the best questions for candidates to ask at the end of a job interview.
The best questions Ive experienced as an interviewer are ones that show the candidate is interested in the role and want to check the opportunity is the right fit for them as a person, Brady says.
So what makes a good question? Here are 20 of the best ones to ask at the end of the interview for your next ethical job:
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Culture Fit Interview Questions
Building on the idea that hiring for personality is at least as important as hiring for experience , hiring an employee that fits in with the culture you are trying to establish is extremely important.
The right answer to many of these questions will depend on the culture of your business, or the culture you would like to build. What does your company look like, and what does ideal company culture look like for you? If youre just starting out, get a sense of how to answer these questions for yourself first, before you begin asking candidates.
For example, if you strive to create a company culture where employees are like family, and routinely grab a meal or a round of drinks after work, a job candidate who expresses distaste for workplace functions and social gatherings might not be a great fit.
Look out for areas where your style of running an office and their preferred work environment overlap, and where they clash. This can be the hardest thing to get right, because while someone may be a great employee on paper, the two of you also need to share a similar philosophy about what makes a place great to work for.
What Made You Want To Apply For This Position
This is one of the best interview questions to ask because it delves into specifics about the job role. It shows how carefully the candidate read the job description, and also gives them the chance to share why they feel theyd be a good addition to your team. A well-crafted answer will touch on skills the applicant has as well as skills they want to develop or improve.
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How Has This Position Changed Over Time
It’s easy to forget that someone might have once held the position you’re applying for or, more importantly, that the role might have evolved since it came on your radar.
Don’t be afraid to ask HR what this job looked like before you were interested in it. This can include what the responsibilities looked like, how many other people currently hold this position at the company, and even where HR thinks it’s going in the future.
Getting HR’s perspective on the history of your potential role can give you unbiased insight into your department, and let HR know that you’re interested in your future at the company not just your present.
Teamwork Behavioral Interview Questions
1. Describe a time when you had to work with a difficult coworker. How were you able to handle interactions with that person?
2. Give an example of when you needed information from a coworker who wasnt responsive? What did you do?
3. Describe a time when you worked as part of a team on a project. Explain your role within the team and the actions you took to contribute to the team.
4. Talk about a situation when your team members disagreed with you. How did you handle it?
5. Can you tell me about a time when a coworker was not doing their work on a difficult project? What did you do?
6. Describe a time when you and your team members were forced to compromise. Explain the results.
7. Have you ever been in a situation where you had to motivate others to take action to support a major reorganization? How did you handle that?
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If You Have A Disagreement With Your Team Member How Would You Handle It
A conflict can arise at any time and the response to this question shows how well the candidate will be able to manage this situation. There are certain things that need to be followed if there is a conflict with a team member and the answer from the candidate will let you know whether he/she can do during such a time.
What Do The Most Successful New Hires Do In Their First Month Here
This question shows that you’re the type of person who likes to hit the ground running.
It also shows that you recognize patterns of success and want to replicate only the most effective performers.
How It Helps You
Every company has its weird nuances, its own environment, and its own unspoken expectations. This helps you start with a little bit of the insider info so you don’t suffer a case of “if I knew then what I knew now” in six months.
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Work Habits And Working Style Interview Questions
Once youve gotten a sense of whether or not your employee is qualified to do the job you want to fill, take some time to determine what kind of worker they are.
This series of questions is a bit of everything: it looks at personality, the culture they work best in, and a little bit of their background as an employee.
Where it differs from the previous categories is by focusing on your potential new hires work style. Are they more detail oriented, or are they a big-picture thinker? What are their strengths and weaknesses as an employee? How do they deal with difficult coworkers? These kinds of questions inform what type of employee youre dealing with.
As with personality and culture, it comes down to a matter of fit. Do you prefer someone who works best collaboratively, or who keeps to him or herself? Do you want an employee who directly addresses a conflict with a colleague head-on, or who goes through you to resolve it?
There are no right answers hereit depends on the type of employee youre looking for.
