HR Snapshot #28: Our Top Tips for First Stage Interview Questions

By using the most effective interview questions, you can gain more of an understanding of the candidates. This is important when ascertaining whether they will be a good fit for the role, in terms of both the skills and experience they have and whether they are compatible with the culture of the company. 

 

Because of this, it’s important to ask questions that will reveal a little about the candidate’s personality, as well as questions that relate directly to the role they are being interviewed for, and the company as a whole. 

 

Here are a few areas that interview questions can focus on: 

 

To gain an insight into the candidate’s career history, ask them specific questions relating to their professional past. What was their favourite task? What were they most proud of? 

 

We have all found ourselves in a potentially tricky situation at work, how did the candidate deal with a situation like this when they did, and how did they stop it from escalating? 

 

People do have things going on outside of their professional lives and these things can really fill them with enthusiasm. This is a useful area to focus on as you can really see the personality of the candidate come through. 

 

Talking about our strengths and weaknesses can make us feel awkward, however, how a candidate views themselves in light of these can reveal a lot about themselves. 

 

This can be more in relation to the candidate’s past roles and the role they are interviewing for. These types of questions ask for honesty and can help the interviewer make an assessment on how the candidate’s perspective would fit the role and the company. 

 

To offer some assistance, Indeed have shared their best interview questions to ask candidates here: 

https://www.indeed.co.uk/hire/c/info/best-interview-questions-to-ask-candidates 

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