3 Favorite Questions, Part 2: The Hiring Manager

The best advice I can give to someone wanting to improve their interview skills is to sit on the other side of the table. When your team is the one that needs another team player, always, always volunteer to be a part of the interview process. If you are going to work with them daily, you should contribute your personal opinions to finding the best candidate. Here are a few tips to try and "meet the real candidate" beneath the "suit and tie" mask.

1. What is your proudest achievement (work related or not) and why? What did you do to reach this achievement?
• I think you learn more from the positive questions than the "overcoming your greatest failure" questions because you can see what gets them excited rather than what makes them nervous. Pride shines in this one and knowing what makes someone arrive early and stay late is great to get the most out of them. If their answer has skills in it that you need, it could be a perfect match!
2. What do you do for fun in your free time?
• I love asking this questions because half the time it throws people off to "get personal". This is not a weird (or discriminating) question and whether they run marathons or watch movie marathons, love their pets or love to travel, you will see a spark of passion. How people passionately describe things will loosen them up and you might see some good (or bad) habits that simply let you know if you want to work with them or not.
3. Describe your dream job.
• If what they describe is not something that this position entails, they won't be staying long and you shouldn't hire them. If they describe the work that is a team weakness, they will compliment you well and be a great asset to hire. Be a bit wary if the answer is exactly like the job description because you may not be getting an honest answer - so ask this one towards the end of the interview after you've built up some trust.

The best thing you can do as an interviewer is to manage your time and leave time for the interviewee to ask questions. What they ask shows how much they listened, what is important to them, and how they share information. Some people come prepared with pre-written questions, some ask specific job-related questions, and some want to get to know you personally. Good luck!