What are the best questions to ask when hiring someone?
Arda Helvacılar
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It's always eye-opening/enjoyable to see other companies' go-to hiring questions. What are yours? How did you decide on them?
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Lara Tankal@lara_tankal
"You’ve been given an elephant. You can’t give it away or sell it. What would you do with the elephant?" is a very interesting interview question I came across by ConnectWise. Definitely pushes boundaries and guides the candidate to think outside of the box. It is also quite fun :))
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@lara_tankal I also thought that I could give them some kind of riddle, but of course this is not always an indicator that you have a worthy future employee in front of you.
@vkhoroshkov I agree! I think when providing a riddle, it not important if the candidate gets the answer right or wrong. They are great for understanding the candidate's thought process and quick-thinking for sure.
I realy like the question "can you teach me something new in 5 minutes?". I believe it gives a lot of perspective on the candidate.
@ceyhun_aslan it is also the question that makes me nervous the most! It is prob a good idea to get an answer ready in advance...
@ceyhun_aslan can you? What would be your answer for this?
I was once asked. what distinguishes a clock from a watch...
@harry_redd haha what was your answer?
Anything but "Where do you see yourself in X years". I don't know. If I knew, why would I be trying?
I like the question - How they would improve the product they will be working on? It's a great way to see how much they have considered the business and if they can bring new ideas to the table.
@julia_putzeys this reminds me of a similar question where you ask the candidate what's an app they use a lot and how would they improve it.
My opinion is that it's more important to make sure that the candidate fits with you and your company, in terms of soft skills.
Hard skills can be learned and improved, personalities cannot (at least in this context).
If you decide to hire someone, and he/she turns out to be not as technically skilled as you thought, it will just slow you down.
It will be X times worse, if you or your team finds it difficult to work with him/her.
Question should vary depending on how high in the hierarchy the position is. Closer to the top and to me, more intimate my questions would be.
Here is a one I never miss asking: What motivates you?
The best question would be "What would be your most comprehensive answer to the question: "Why are we here ?"?"
What failure has set you up for success?
What are you trying to learn for yourself?
Which innovation in your field of application will you implement?
What do you believe in?
What do you consider to be false that everyone thinks is true?
This might seem obvious but making sure the candidate can do what they claim they can do -- this is especially important for hiring software developers.
For us we run a 20-minute timeboxed live coding exercise with our technical founder so he can see firsthand whether or not the candidate really knows how to code or codes on a regular basis.
We've seen developers with stellar resumes, but when it comes to the live exercise they struggle either because they actually aren't coding on a regular basis or they aren't as proficient as they claimed to be.