First is to accept that the interview process is quite hard. Figuring out complicated insights into the person’s ability and working style is a challenge before truly working with them. No single question would get at everything a hiring manager can learn everything on a candidate. However, the full interview process can be summed up into 3 questions -in this order:
What things are you excited about this job?
If a candidate has done research, they would be familiar about the role and the company. It would show that they are knowledgeable what they applied for and would mean they really care about the job. This gives the candidate ahead of the others. This will qualify the candidates to the next step.
Describe a time when you had [insert problem relevant to the role].
At this time, it is distinct that the candidate is interested in the role, hence, it is the best time to learn if they are competent enough for the job. Things like, how they handled challenges in their career and life, if have learned a valuable or transferable skill, or better yet, if they have shown how fast they adopt.
What would your approach be if our business is experiencing [this specific problem]?
The question must be something specific to your company that may have remained unresolved and almost something that the candidate has not solved in his career. The aim is to see their applicability of their approach at the current time not how they solved things before. You would know then what data they think they need, the questions they asked and the interpretations they make with a missing information.
The candidates could have likely resolved similar problems in the past, but then has not worked in your company, in the industry, or perhaps your specific application, the suitable candidate will then need to bend their problem-solving ability regularly. If the candidate reaches far enough in the process, you will also want to imagine how it would look like with them while they are faced with new challenges.
Are you in sync with your principles?
The question is a good way to identify two candidates who may be similarly competent and most importantly being able to determine whether this person is a prolific contributor in your company culture. Their answers can show you a lot about a candidate.
Your questions are solely dependent on your company’s values. To get at our belief the value of working together, here you might ask “When was the time when you had done something impossible?”; or to get the importance of working together you might want to ask if there a time you have to collaborate with others to work on a problem. My favorite would be is “How has luck played a role in your life?” This is tricky because all candidates want to show their competency-that they are solely responsible for their success. It would say about a person’s sense of gratefulness, positivism and willing to work and learn as a team to see them acknowledge some of their successes to standing the shoulders of giants
