How To Get More Out Of Your Interview Questions

Simply put, traditional interviewing and interview questions can be an ineffective ways to measure a potential employee’s ability to do his or her job. Folks who are good interviewees may not be good employees and vice versa.

Inc.com’s Jeff Haden recently sat down with John Younger, CEO of recruiting company Accolo, who conducts interviews so frequently he has the process down to a science. Younger says he learns the most about candidates by asking three simple interview questions about each of their past jobs, often without prodding with follow-ups.

First, Younger asks each interviewee how they found out about each past job. The key takeaway from this question, Younger says, is not each individual answer, but whether or not you start to notice a pattern in their answers as a whole. Especially in this rough economic climate, many people people apply and interview just to get a job—any job.

What you want is someone who wants to work for your company, not just any company. If you notice the interviewee found out about each of his or her previous jobs via job boards or a similar posting venue, that tells you they’re probably not exactly sure what they want to do, and it might indicate they’re not invested in staying in it for the long haul. It also may tell you about their work ethic and level of competence; if they’ve failed to catch on somewhere in the past and bounce from job to job, they may not be a great fit.

Next, Younger asks what the interviewee what it was about the job they liked before they started. This should tell you a bit about the types of work environments the candidate thrives. Most people place more value on the type of work they’ll be doing and the environment they’ll be doing it in when considering a job opportunity than on its salary or title.

This makes it easier for the interviewee to tell the interviewer what kind of work climate they like, which the interviewer can then compare to the work climate of job being interviewed for.

After asking the interviewee the final question about each job, why they left the position, Younger says its tempting to jump immediately into follow-ups. But he suggests you hold off until the end and stick to the three-question format so the candidate isn’t immediately put on guard by your follow-ups.

Instead, Younger waits until the end of the employee’s job history to ask follow-ups. As mentioned before, these follow-ups should be pattern-based, not nit-picky. This will allow you to get a sense of what the interviewees real problems are, if there are any. Patterns of problems with cooperation, leadership or having issues with previous bosses should all raise red flags.

What are some of your favorite interview questions? Let us know in the comments below!