QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN YOU’RE INTERVIEWING SOMEONE | No BS Management Advice

QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN YOU’RE INTERVIEWING SOMEONE | No BS Management Advice

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
For you as a hiring manager, you want to probe more deeply than just simply reviewing accomplishments at a superficial level. After all, your success is predicated upon the quality of the team that you hire. Here are a few additional questions you might ask.

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I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. I’m a coach who helps people with managing and leading, job search hiring more effectively, you know, workplace-related stuff. And, for you as a manager, your success is often going to be predicated upon the quality of the team that you assemble. After all, when you think about it, being practical here, you’re going to be in situations where you’re going to rely upon people who report to you to accomplish the objectives that you have. And the statistics bear this out, as they tend to do, you’re going to be frustrated with your team within 18 months after you hire someone. The statistics show that 48% of hiring managers have buyer’s remorse within 18 months of bringing someone on board.

So, part of what I want to do is improve some of the ways that you interview I’ve got many more videos on YouTube, my blog. The blog is at TheBigGameHunter.us where I’ve got thousands of posts, organized through tags that will help you find the No BS Hiring Advice material. And there’s also No BS Management Advice stuff, as well. But for now, let’s look at hiring more effectively.

Here are some questions or areas to explore when you’re talking to people that go beyond the skills stuff. Some of this you may already know; just be patient. This is a reminder for those who noticed some of these questions, but I want to help you dig in a little bit deeper so there are no surprises.

Part of this also starts with the idea of you want people to know what they’re stepping into, rather than discovering it once they’re on board. Is this an aggressive team and they’re mellow or vice versa? What’s the environment like that they’re working with? What are the group’s strengths? Where can they use a little bit of a kick?

As you’re talking to people I know you know to ask about how long they’ve been working with a particular firm, some resumes obscure the amount of time a person might have been in a role. So, they play up that leadership role, but it’s only been for two months. So, I want you to be clear with them and ask them, once you found that how long they’ve been with the firm, how many roles they’ve had with the organization. How long they’ve held each?

Why did you choose to join that organization and what was your charter joining? What did you inherit? What was the environment like that you stepped into? Overall, what sort of things did you take on in inheriting this environment?

From an org structure perspective, where do you fit in? Now, they’re going to walk you through, if they’re very senior, they’re going to walk you through the C suite. If they’re your staff individuals, they’ll talk about the group that they’re in, within, what department, and everything that this department does.

You want to get a sense of their accomplishments., what they personally did and what the group did. So start by asking about what does your group accomplish? What was your part of that? How did you get that done? So what did you do? Right? You want to understand what they specifically did because sometimes people couch their, you know, what they did in the what WE were involved with was, and they’re basically climbing on someone’s shoulders who was actually responsible for it.

How was your compensation structured? If you want to get a sense of money if that’s a legal question in your part of the country. If it isn’t, eventually, you’re going to come into the desired salary question or the desired compensation, and make sure that they understand how comp is structured in your organization.

What was your biggest failure in the role? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? What was your manager’s style like and how well did the two of you work together? What did you like about working there? What did you wrestle with in the environment?

If I were to contact your references, what should I expect to hear? And of course, why they decided to change roles at this point, and what they’re hoping to accomplish in doing so. Some of these questions, get people off the script. Don’t just simply listen to what they say. But notice body language and discomfort that shows up as well. These are tells (if you know that term from gambling). There are tells about how sincere the person is with you, or whether they’re conning you. You’ll notice little things on their face when they get a little nervous or change their vocal style. Whatever it is, pay attention. Surprises are rarely good, right?

I’m Jeff Altman. Hope you found this helpful. My website, as I mentioned, is TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more in the blog that can help you. Subscribe to my channel on YouTube and you can do that by clicking on the small icon in the lower right or the picture of me in the upper left. You’ll get notified whenever I release something new.

Lastly, I hope you like this video. And if you did, I want to encourage you, if you need some help, reach out to me through the website. You can schedule time for one on one coaching, a free discovery call, or an introductory call if you prefer calling it that and we can get acquainted. Or you can dive right into coaching. Obviously, I’ll bill you for that.

Have a great day and take care

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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 2400 episodes. He also hosts Job Search TV on YouTube, and Amazon, as well as on BingeNetworks.tv for Apple TV and 90+ smart sets.

I do a livestream on LinkedIn and YouTube (on the JobSearchTV.com account) Tuesdays and Fridays at 1 PM Eastern. You can send your questions about job search, hiring better, management, leadership or to get advice about a workplace

issue to me through LinkedIn’s messaging. You can also message me through chat during the approximately 30-minute show.

Are you interested in 1:1 coaching? People hire me to provide No BS career advice whether that is about a job search, hiring better, leadership, management, or support with a workplace issue. Please click here to see my schedule to book a free discovery call or schedule time for coaching.

My courses are available on my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us/courses The courses include ones about Informational Interviews, Interviewing, final interview preparation, salary negotiation mistakes to avoid, the top 10 questions to prepare for on any job interview, and starting a new job.

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