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When you are looking to hire new employees, it’s likely you’ll have a number of candidates to decide between! The most important thing is finding someone who will be a great fit for your team while also demonstrating they are competent and able to learn. And on the flip side, great candidates may have a few interviews lined up! Therefore, employers need to be appealing to their candidates from the very beginning.
One of the most important parts of successful recruitment is asking the right interview questions. We’ve compiled a list of essential questions that will help you understand candidates looking for jobs and ensure they’re a great fit for your company!
It might seem simple, but this is a great place to start! It asks the candidate to be coherent and precise, while still being relevant.
You should receive a useful overview of the candidate’s career and interests, and hopefully some information about their strengths and weaknesses. This is a great jumping off point to ask more specific questions.
Following on from the above question, this one lets the candidate address experience missing from their CV. It may also allow them to give you an interesting fact about themselves!
This question is a little more interesting than standard interview questions, and may be something the candidate genuinely needs to consider before answering. It requires them to think on their feet and you’ll get something more genuine as a result.
It is important to understand your candidate’s motivations and desires if you wish to hire someone who will stick around. Essentially, you are trying to get a feel for how they will fit into your company in the long-term.
This should show you the candidate’s unique definition of success. Is it about teamwork or independence? Is it about ticking off tasks, or completing a larger goal?
The answer to this question will help develop a picture of what kind of worker and character the candidate is. It also will hopefully tell you how hard a worker they are. Do they even consider success in their work? This is all useful information.
This interesting question allows candidates to highlight a team situation and discuss the good parts, but to be realistic too.
It also leads you into discussing problem-solving and people skills. How did they handle the issue? Was it with personnel or the task? Were they the problem? If so, how did they adjust their behaviour? If at any point the candidate bad mouths their old colleagues, consider this a red flag. You are looking for professionalism at all times.
Similarly, you can use this to ask directly about problem-solving skills.
Most candidates will have prepared an answer to this question in advance, but it is still very useful to gain an insight into their working style. Every job demands a level of problem-solving, but this question allows you to see exactly how a candidate does it.
A candidate should have done a good amount of research before the interview. Asking about your company is a must, but it can also be helpful to ask about the industry at large. This can help you to see who has really brushed up and who has only spent time on your company website reading the ‘About’ section!
It is important that you hire someone who has a good work-life balance. Outside hobbies and interests are a great way to avoid burnout. You want your employees to be able to de-stress and enjoy life after working hours. It can also lead to finding common interests!
Everyone has had managers they liked and disliked. During an interview, though, this fact becomes an insight into how a candidate liked to be managed. Do they prefer a hands-off approach, lots of guidance, or somewhere in between?
Asking about their least favourite manager provides further insight into their level of maturity. Do they keep a level head, or begin grumbling? Do they have concrete critiques, or is it a petty dispute?
Finally, this question allows you to evaluate if you will have much competition, and which competitors are seeking out similar applicants to you.
Asking about specific roles they have applied for also lets you see if they are ‘playing the field’, so to speak, or are committed to this particular role. It also gives you a vague timeframe - do you need to act fast to hire them?
When interviewing potential candidates, you should have a solid list of prepared questions. However, don’t be afraid to go with the flow of the interview! Fintech can help you with recruiting high quality candidates in the financial and technical industries - reach out to us today and we can get started!
If you are a candidate looking for technical IT jobs or accountancy and finance jobs, you can also head to our website to see the latest roles available!
