Interview questions

[Tony Angelino]

Pretty simple question, if you ever interview what questions do you ask? I don't mean technical questions or ones about experience and qualifications, I mean more to find out more about the applicant as a person and find out their mindset.

One I use is tell us about your last weekend from 5pm Friday to bed on Sunday and don't miss anything out (if you are did you cook, if you went to football who with? If you went shopping what shops and what did you buy? This works quite well but I wondered if anybody had any other suggestions apart from the old "where do you see yourself in 5 years time".

Thanks

[Tony Angelino]

BoRED S2upid said:

Are you serious with that question? Don't leave anything out makes you sound like a proper perv especially if your interviewing a woman. It has nothing to do with the job or their ability to do it.

Just read it back and it does sound a bit creepy! We are generally interviewing people for sales based rolls in a building products distribution industry so we don't generally get any women applicants, it's very male orientated.

Don't people check their out their candidates on Facebook to try get an insight into them?

[Tony Angelino]

swerni said:

Willing right up until the point I realised i'm being interviewed by a moron who probably doesn't think much at all.

win win

Cheers.

[Tony Angelino]

swerni said:

edc said:

Tony Angelino said:

Pretty simple question, if you ever interview what questions do you ask? I don't mean technical questions or ones about experience and qualifications, I mean more to find out more about the applicant as a person and find out their mindset.

One I use is tell us about your last weekend from 5pm Friday to bed on Sunday and don't miss anything out (if you are did you cook, if you went to football who with? If you went shopping what shops and what did you buy? This works quite well but I wondered if anybody had any other suggestions apart from the old "where do you see yourself in 5 years time".

Thanks

What is the objective of asking such a question, and what are you looking to learn from the response?

When I worked in manufacturing, one manager would ask interviewees to describe an approach and process to some basic DIY such as fitting a lightbulb. The objective was to understand their approach to risk assessment, how methodical they are in their approach, what issues they foresee and how they address them.

OP can you address this point?
What are you trying to ascertain from a question like that ?

Couple of things really, first and foremost to see if they appear to have their head screwed on for want of a better phrase. One lad we interviewed told us how from basically 6pm on a Friday night right through to 2am on a Sunday he was constantly on the lash, then to work on a Monday morning. Booze was the central point in his life, even midweek sessions weren't uncommon. That made us reluctant to go much further with him as it gives the suggestion that he wasnt always going to be fighting fit first thing on a morning. Contrast that to another lad we interviewed who told us he liked to cook for the family on Friday night, spent Saturday morning taking the kids to football, played rugby on a Saturday afternoon before an evening on the ale and went to the coast on Sunday letting his Mrs drive just in case before settling down in front of the telly cos he wanted to be ready for work the next morning. We like to know if people play team sport, we find that those who have played football or rugby fit in our organisation a lot better than those who haven't or don't.

We also make some assumptions, if for example a guy who goes to Leeds Utd with their dad and grandad we would probably look on them more favourably than if they went with the service crew after meeting in town at 9am.

Secondly we like to see if they have a bit of personality and can talk a bit, it's a telesales role primarily so ideally you need to be able to strike up a conversation with people on the phone. We've had people who say basically 'nowt much' when asked, when the sales team on a Monday are encouraged to speak about their weekend to customers in an effort to build relationships.

I think when I said 'don't leave anything out' it may have come across a bit David Brent as some have said, but it wasn't meant I perverted way,

[Tony Angelino]

Thanks for all the comments good and bad. Few bits to think about.