Author Archives: Joey Biera

Time to fill the vacancy in your team and the challenge is to search for professionals with the key qualities required. The question is how can you identify them from just an interview?

What’s important are the questions you ask. These 15 questions will provide you an idea of the candidate’s skill level and bearing in order for you to be convinced of your judgment.

#1 Do you know anything about our company? Why do you want to work with us?

You’d assume that with the online access nowadays, these candidates would do their research, but this is not always the case. Not all applicants may even know the line of business the company is into. Ask this interview question and you are sure to quickly find out who really are interested in working for you and who aren’t.

#2 Having difficulty in finding the suitable candidate?  We are here to help.For this position, what skills and strengths do you have?

Did the candidate blindly apply to your vacancy, or did they consider if they suit your needs. This question will show which applicants should be able to think critically of how their abilities will benefit your team.

#3 Tell me about your current job?

While gaining insights to the interviewees background that stretches beyond their resume, this question can help assess their communication skills.

#4 To be more successful, what could your current company do?

From this inquiry can get you an idea if the interviewees see the big picture at their organizations. This may also show why they want to leave their current jobs.

#5 Tell me about a time when you had a disagreement with your boss or a colleague and how did you handle it?

One of the more valuable queries to ask interviewees because you will be able to see their conflict resolution abilities, personality and potential for future problems. You will also know what tone does the person use when talking about the other people involved. Were they able to handle the situation described properly? Did they find common ground? In almost every job, emotional intelligence is highly needed.

#6 Do you love working alone or working in a team?

It reveals to you how the candidate performs when chosen for the position. Also, this helps identify if they are match to the tasks assigned to them. Someone may enjoy solitary work and long stretches of continuous time at their desk and may not thrive in a job that needs collaboration or multi-tasking.

#7 What is your reason why you want to leave your present job?

Does your company and position give an alternative to the factors (lack of professional development, management problems, etc.) that made them unhappy in their current role?

If so, showcase those benefits. Be careful with candidates who have unrealistic expectations, and bear in mind that an employee who leaves an organization for petty reasons may not be a good long-term fit for your team.

#8 Tell me about your ideal work environment.

Asking this question can help determine if they’ll flourish in your company. For example, if your office has an open floor plan, hence, a candidate may prefer a private workspace may not be the best fit; the reverse is also true.

#9 How do your colleagues describe you?

Another question that can help predict how an interviewee will work with the other members of your team. Understand the personalities of your current staff members and be on the lookout for a candidate who will complement those. For example, Type A employees may thrive with an assertive new team member, while this may prove challenging for quiet, introverted employees.

#10 What about your boss, how can he describe you?

This reflects the candidate’s relationship with past managers. Reliable? Prompt? Efficient? Keep in mind, though, who you’re asking. Their answer will be simply their opinion of what the boss might think. Therefore, it’s still critical to check with references. It is best that you require a list of contacts and call former employers a call to hear if  their impressions align with the candidate’s.

#11 In five years’, time, where do you see yourself?

Their professional drive and career aspirations are essential. One should look for someone who is engaged in their career and has goals. Perhaps, consider mentioning how your organization can help them achieve those goals. Prospects who are attracted in career advancement and see opportunities with your company surges the chances that they’ll be happy in the long run.

#12 Describe a time when you were faced with tight deadlines?

Does your team or company frequently encounter time constraints? Would you need someone who can work promptly and accurately while under pressure? These questions show you how they handle stress and whether they can keep up with the pace of work at your company. For follow up question, you could also follow up by checking if they’ve ever missed a deadline and, if so, how they handled the situation.

#13 Describe a time you had to overcome a significant challenge, in your most recent role.

In order to get a sense of an interviewee’s critical thinking and analytical skills ask this question.  Always pay attention to how the candidate describes their behavior when faced with a challenge. Some would panic and shut down, or some would come up with an action plan and see it through?

#14 Tell me about the most interesting project you’ve worked on in your previous position?

This determines if the applicant would relish the work available in your company. You will also learn if types of tasks will be fulfilling for them or even aligned with the job description for the position? If not, this applicant may not be the right one. One of the most important factors in retention is confirming that employees find their work professionally fulfilling.

#15 You have any questions for me?

This shouldn’t find this to be a tough interview question if candidates have been paying attention during the discussion. A blank stare in response would be an inappropriate response.

Have a great day!

Searching for workers but wanting to avoid the hassle of going through resumes of applicants who don’t qualify? Ideally, it is the aim of the employers to hire a pool of the highly qualified applicants who are highly skilled and the passion for the work.

To do this, you need a lot of reviewing, selection and get 10 % of those who applied. Don’t forget the rest of the process- phone interviews, tests and face to face interviews. With this tiring process, how are you to entice the best of the best?

Outline and link your specific needs from the start. Then, with a tight deadline you are to Develop relationships with potential candidates and you need to fill a spot. Here are tips on how to acquire the best candidates for your company.

#1 Capitalize on Professional and social networks.

One important career development skill you had to learn from the start is far from recruiting the best of the applicants. The variance simply is that you have created a strong network of industry contacts among others. This gives you a linkage to tap into searching for recruits who are best fit for your company.

Plus, you have access to your employee’s networks. Through employee referral, you are helping your colleagues increase their access to work opportunities and resources. They will be happy to assist you getting the right candidates. Inspire them to not only network but also participate in conferences, trade shows and industry groups.  As a matter of fact, sponsoring such events will benefit your company.

Be prepared with a contact plan to systematically reach out to preferred candidates with job description and information online, through email, mail and fax. Motivate employees to send an email of a possible candidate in their network as they will better fit the company culture.

Generally, companies and recruiters use social media as a hiring tool. Know this that:

85 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn.

55 percent of recruiters use Facebook.

47 percent of recruiters use Twitter.

To illustrate, Twitter lets you to take advantage of hashtags, and other social media platforms, such as Snapchat, offer unique snapshots into company culture as a recruiting tool. While many companies are posting directly on their page with real contact information to reach out to a live person on staff, Facebook lists jobs as other job search engines do.

#2 The best recruiting platform is your website.

You might be missing on an easy and effective recruiting solution because probably job seekers particularly, new graduates are checking on your website right now. They are also encouraged to looked for companies thoroughly as much as the employers are checking on candidates.

Your websites should show helpful information for job seekers like projects you are currently working on, staff recognitions in the organization and in the community. Have an open door policy is the prime way to encourage talents to reach out to your company. Adopt the reverse psychology of “Don’t call us, we’ll call you (if you’re qualified),” in pre-recruiting the best talents.

Invite talents in by posting “Join Our Team” area on your website that gives a short but in-depth overview of the company’s culture, values, mission and vision.

You will never know; you may even find the best freelancer you never knew you needed.

#3 Make job descriptions be an invitation.

Fun stories that show an employer’s ability to laugh do invite job seeker’s in but writing engaging and targeted job descriptions is more involved than throwing in funny one-liners.

Have you listed the basic requirements? Or preferred skills or helped the candidates see themselves in the role by writing these descriptions as “a day in the life of our new employee that could be you?” Include a description of their role’s daily tasks with realistic opportunities which are likely to come along the way. Also describe the company culture and work environment. Be creative in putting balance of uninteresting descriptions with glamour and honesty.

Aim for transparency and creativity. Headlines should be clear and concise. Between companies and candidates, job descriptions should be not creating boundaries but form connections.

Evade searching through endless applications and attract the best workers. Take advantage of professional and social networks. Your website should be your prime recruiting estate and highlight the vision, values and personality of our company which should be reflected in involving and targeted job descriptions. Job descriptions should be more than a list-let the employees see themselves in the role.

Candidates will come because you have nailed it. You will achieve a self-sustaining talent pool as you charm the best candidates who you will be inclined to retain because they have learned to love what they do and where they will be working at.

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