Employers often ask us at HRwisdom for good interview questions to select good candidates.

We have gone one better.

Robert WatsonThanks to long time HRwisdom Community contributor, Robert Watson, we have come up with a Top 10 List of Interview Questions to ask at job interviews.

However, rather than just give you some excellent questions to ask, Robert also gives you the type of answer you want to hear back from your ideal candidate.

And believe us when we say that Robert knows what he is talking about.

Although he started out as an engineer and quality systems expert, Robert also had many years in the HR field perfecting recruitment & selection systems for a variety of businesses.

Robert even did extensive travel overseas for the express purpose of studying world’s best practice for establishing greenfields (brand new) business operations in Australia – this included how to hire people for their skills, knowledge and attributes (and not just the stuff listed on their CVs).

Let’s look at the first question . . .

 

Good Interview Question 1

Q1. Tell us about the previous job that you had, and how you fitted in with the business.

ThGood Interview Questions from www.HRwisdom.com.auis question has two parts to it.

The first part, which asks them about their previous job, is really designed just to relax the candidate it gets them talking about themselves and what they did so it’s familiar territory and helps to settle their nerves.

But it’s really the second part which will help you to identify the candidates who have a little bit more edge to them in terms of business acumen.

 

Preferred Interview Answer – What You Want Hear

So, when you ask this question, I’m suggesting that you ask it just a full question, not in two parts and just listen to what they say.

Some candidates will tell you about their current job and you’ll hear in the answer that they give how they relate to the business as a whole and customers in particular.

If they have a sense of business, they will just sort of weave in to their answer how they connected in with the person up the line who was giving them information that they needed to use, how they may have interacted face to face with the customer, or over the telephone for instance or if they’re a bit more remote and they’re just filling an order, they might talk to you about products and how people might use those products in their daily lives and again, if they’re in a production-type situation or supply-chain situation, they might also talk about the next person down the chain.

Candidates or employees who have that sense of who comes before me, where do I fit in the organisation and who’s the next person along, they have a much better sense of business so an advantage to you is when you come along to announce major plans or cut backs because of difficult times or a new strategy or something like that, these types of people will fit in easily because they understand the connection between one part of the business and the other.

I don’t mean that they have to give you university-type answers. I just mean that they need to pepper their answer with things like customer in need of this or they needed this urgently or they need it tomorrow or there was a particular problem when they returned such and such to me. So keep your ears open for those sorts of things.

 

Want More Good Interview Questions Right Now?

Stay tuned for the next question in our Top 10 Interview Questions With Answers series.

  • Can’t wait to see the rest of the questions and answers?
  • Like to know Robert’s thinking behind these questions and how they fit into the overall interview process?

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