The Only Three Interview Questions That Matter

Estimated Reading Time 3 Minutes

One of the most important decisions you will routinely make as a manager will be the selection of a new team member.  This decision normally brings with it a certain amount of apprehension over making the “best” choice.  It is with good reason you feel this way given the dynamics of the interview and selection process, and the long term implications of inviting this team member to join you.

Understanding how to handle the interview process, what questions to ask, and how to feel confident in your selection, are commonly asked questions by managers, new and experienced. Today’ I’m going to share with you the three questions I attempt to answer in every interview.

Question #1:  Can They Do the Job?

Early on in your interview, you need to have some interview questions that are designed to help discern innate ability related to the work you are hiring this person to do.  If you are hiring a sales person, you will want to determine whether your applicant is able to engage strangers comfortably and if they have the ability to communicate well.

Depending on the job, and your willingness and capacity for training, you will also want to look at whether they have the necessary skills to do the job.  If you are hiring a customer call center representative for example, you will need to decide if you are willing to teach the basic skills or if you need someone who already has some minimum amount of experience working as a customer call center representative.

Having an applicant shadow someone doing the job that you are hiring for, will help the applicant better understand the job.  I always assume that if I do my job of showing and telling what the job requires, that most applicants will be honest with me about whether they feel they can do the job.

Question #2: Will They Like Us?

Once I’m confident that I’m talking with an applicant who can do the job, I next want to get an understanding of whether or not the applicant will like us.  Hiring someone who can do the job, but who won’t fit in with the team, is a rookie mistake.  Think long and hard about your current team members and why they like working as part of the team.

I think it’s a good idea to have applicants talk with members of the team to help them better understand what it will be like and who they will spend their time with.  Later you can ask your team members whether they think the applicant will fit in. Ultimately you want to make sure that the applicant has a good grasp on the workplace culture and that they are excited to be a part of that.

Make sure to consider how the applicant will like your management style.  If your style is to assign tasks and let your team members come up with the best way to accomplish it, hiring someone who will do better in a more structured and process-defined environment might be a mistake.

Question #3: Will We Like Them?

The final question is to honestly consider whether you and your team are going to like having this applicant on your team.  I’ve always considered that when I invite someone to join the team, I’m inviting them to be a part of my work family and that my team and I will be spending a lot of time each day with them.  Having people you look forward to spending time with makes going to the office everyday something to look forward to.

Checking All The Boxes Improves The Odds

After many years and many interviews, I’ll readily admit that there is no foolproof method for insuring you hire the right person every time.  I do think that over time, I got better at making good hiring decisions.  Framing my hiring decisions and interview strategies around these three questions proved to be a good formula for success.

Transformational Exercise

Do you have a written interview formula or plan?  Do you have questions and exercises you do each time you interview a candidate?  If not, start with that, and do it today.  Consider using these 3 questions as a way to organize your interview.