5 Questions to Help You Get To Know The Candidate – Part 2

In the second part of our series of questions that you can ask an interviewee to get to know them better, we concentrate on the questions that will help you determine the candidate’s attitude and approach.

1. Who do you admire the most and why?

This is a really good question to get an understanding of the candidate and how they think about their priorities.  As there isn’t a right or wrong answer to this question, it is good to understand their motivations by finding out who they look up to. Their answer might be a celebrity, relative, friend or successful business person but whomever it is, this question can give you an insight to the candidate.

2. If you had an unlimited budget and no responsibilities for a year, what would you do?   

This question alongside question 1 can really help you understand the motivations and attitude of the candidate. Would they want to travel the world or would they like to start their own business? As with question 1, there isn’t a right or wrong answer to this question but it can help you understand their mind-set.

3. If I spoke to your current colleagues, how would they describe you?

It can be difficult to get to the bottom of how the candidate perceives themselves and this question can help you to determine this.

4. Can you tell me about a time when you made a mistake in work and how you rectified it?

In any live business environment mistakes can, and will, happen. It’s therefore important to know that the candidate understands this and you get to know how they would deal with it. Did the interviewee acknowledge the mistake, take responsibility for the error and work hard to resolve the issue? Also crucial as part of this question is to find out what steps the candidate took to ensure that the mistake didn’t happen again.

5. Have you had a difficult working relationship with anyone and how did you deal with it?

In any organisation, not everyone is going to get along with one another all of the time. This question looks at this situation and allows you to understand how the candidate dealt with it.