Artisan Creative is celebrating 20 years of creative staffing & recruiting. Over the years we’ve learned a lot and will share our experiences with you in our 20/20 series:
20 blogs celebrating 20 years of creative recruiting!
Whether you’ve been interviewing candidates for a long time or hiring your first employee, you’ll probably agree that the interview is the most important part of the recruitment process. Therefore it’s critical to ask the right questions.
While our version of the Proust Questionnaire offers a few out of the box questions (designed to see how creative they can be), here are a few tips and questions every interviewer should be asking:
- Tell me about yourself. – This type of open-ended question is a great way to start your interview and put your candidate at ease. It should be easy to talk about yourself! It also gives you an opportunity to witness both confidence and communication skills first hand.
- Describe a time when something went wrong at work and how you dealt with it. – This question is ideal for learning about how your potential hire will handle the pressures of life and conflict resolution, as well as demonstrating problem-solving skills and culture fit.
- How would others describe you? – This is a great way to ask the “strengths” and “weaknesses” question without actually asking it. It also provides some insight into how your working relationship with the potential talent might be. Does the answer describe a person that would fit well within your organization?
- What role do you usually play in a team? – The answer to this question should compliment the previous answer – is the way your coworkers see you the way you actually perform on the team? This question also provides insight on personality and autonomy.
- Where do you see yourself in five years? – The perfect question for uncovering candidate motivations, answers help determine whether your company and the opportunity presented are a good fit for the interviewee. Will they still be with your team in five years or will they quickly outgrow your department or company? This also provides a good opportunity to see a candidate’s drive and how they can grow with the company.
- Tell me about a favorite project you worked on and why it’s your favorite. – Resumes offer a list of responsibilities and accomplishments. Answers to this question should reveal the story behind the bullet points, the passion for the project, and the genuine interest for the work.
- What does leadership mean to you? This is a good opportunity to learn about the candidate’s leadership style, especially for senior roles or when the candidate will be supervising others. Answers will also provide good insight about the candidate’s expectations of their supervisors.
- What questions can I answer for you? – This is the perfect way to “end” an interview as you turn the tables, engaging the talent to then interview you. Not only does it demonstrate your company’s appreciation for open dialogue, but also lets you know whether the potential job seeker is definitely interested. If they answer “no” – then they probably haven’t done enough research on the product or company.
Do you have any tips or interview questions to share? Share with us on Linkedin, Facebook, or Twitter.