Welcome to issue #15 of Pondering Leadership: A Deliberate and Thoughtful, Yet Informal Look at Leading and Managing. Welcome to my new subscribers! Please like and/or share my newsletter if you find my content valuable. Last week, I wrote about working for Boards of Trustees. It is a skill to manage a board. I hope my tips were helpful to those working for a board or for people considering working for a board. In issue #2, I talked about the hiring process. Of course, hiring staff means interviewing candidates. This week, I am giving some examples of interview questions that I like to ask.
Where do you see yourself in five years? What is something you really screwed up and how did you fix it? What are your weaknesses and how are you working on them? UGH. These are questions I have been asked in interviews to which I did not really have good answers. Interviews are stressful enough for the candidate and the employer. Who wants to talk about the bad stuff when you are trying to get a job? There are ways to find out how a candidate would handle a difficult situation without asking them to relive a terrible experience.
There are many questions you should ask that are specific to your organization or industry. I am happy to help you create a list of questions for your specific open position. You can reach me on LinkedIn or here on Substack. Here are some more positive questions that I have asked of candidates that have given me the answers I am looking for. How do you handle problems? What do you want to learn? What is your work style? How do you handle yourself? What kind of co-worker are you? These questions are in no particular order.
What are some professional accomplishments you like to talk about?
What are some problems you have solved and how did you solve them?
Tell us about a time when you have been more flexible than you wanted to be.
What do you like most about your last job?
Why did you choose this career?
What kinds of projects have you worked on that turned out better than you thought they would?
What is an example of a valuable or a positive interaction you have had with your manager?
Who are your mentors and why?
How do you manage work life balance? How do you unwind from a rough day?
What professional associations have you joined or which ones have you found the most useful?
What was the last presentation you gave or last article or report you wrote?
What was the type of the last continuing education or training session you attended?
Where do you look for information?
If you run into a problem in a project, what do you do?
How did budget play into your last role?
You can pick and choose from this list depending on the role you are hiring for. I will post more questions in a future newsletter. If this is popular, I may make interview questions a series. Entire books have been written on interviewing. I do not plan on writing one. But I am happy to help you structure your interviews, including your questions, or manage the entire process for you. Find me on LinkedIn or here on Substack.
Let me know what you think! What are some great interview questions you have asked that have gotten the desired response? You can comment in Discussion.
Thank you for reading issue #15 of Pondering Leadership. I hope to see you next Thursday afternoon for issue #16 where I will write about managing people.
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