267 Hire Tough Proven Interview Questions

Rating:
Summary: A Really Valuable Resource
Review: Even in today's seller's market in employment, we need to screen prospective employees before we hire them. The interview process becomes particularly important as we strive to select the right people to work in our environment-that cultural match thing.

So, we've sorted through the resumes, applications, and referrals. We've done some good work with selection instruments. Now it's time for the interview. What shall we ask? How do we open conversation to learn more about the preferred applicants? Oh, sure, we have the old standby questions we've been asking for years. But, there's this nagging feeling that we should have even more questions-better questions-to really draw out the core of who these applicants really are.

If you're looking for answers-er, questions, Mel Kleiman's handy guidebook is fully loaded. It's a small book, 5" by 8", saddle-stitched, 44 pages. But that almost throw-away packaging is deceiving. I've seen lots of interview questions in my time, but this book has some really good ones that I've never seen before. And the questions Kleiman considers key to a good interview are in boldface type. The book is easy to use.

The book begins with a chapter on planning the interview. Kleiman builds his approach on his four CAPS categories. The CAPS acronym represents the Capacities, Attitudes, Personality traits, and Skills needed to fulfill job responsibilities. He explains what each area of concern means, and why each is important. Of course, different weights may be placed on each aspect of an applicant's qualifications, depending on the job.

The second chapter, shown in the table of contents as "Structuring the Interview," is actually titled "The Best Interviews are Conversations, Not Inquisitions." The purpose of the job interview is not interrogation, but facilitation of open discussion. The emphasis is on information gathering. Kleiman points out the importance of getting the applicant to talk, rather than the interviewer. He also warns us not to explain questions asked, to avoid unintentionally giving away the answer you're looking for. His advice to stick to short, open-ended questions will be worth at least the price of the book to many readers . . . and we haven't even gotten to the questions yet!

The questions themselves are loosely organized around the CAPS design. I say "loosely" because Kleiman offers more than just the four principal categories. The chapters all have equal weight, with the CAPS categories mixed in with the others-not quite the organization I might have expected, given his emphasis on CAPS.

Categories of questions are Capacities (17), Education (29), Current Work Experience (21), Past Work Experience (17), Corporate Culture (15), Personal Effectiveness (17), Attitudes (31), Personality (29), Insight (34), Situational (36), and Skills (13). Now, with that knowledge of his categories . . . quick! Write 267 good questions to ask applicants!

Can't do it can you? How many did you come up with? Probably nowhere near 267. Did you remember "Have you ever been discipline on the job or at school? Explain?" That's number 9 in the first set of questions (each category is separately numbered, rather than 1-267 running through the entire book). How about "How did your education prepare you for the real world?" Have you ever asked for a copy of an applicant's most recent performance appraisal?

"What distinguishes a good employee from an average one" will certainly open some discussion and, no doubt, create opportunities for some interesting follow-on questions. "Since everyone in an organization doesn't necessarily like everyone else, what would the people who don't like you say about you?" Intriguing question?

Reading the book, I came up with an interesting idea which we have implemented in our organization. During our weekly staff meetings, we now toss out one of Kleiman's questions for all of us to answer. We're all getting to know each other even better!

Rating:
Summary: A great resource
Review: Here at your fingertips you can have a great list of questions to choose from in interviewing candidates for your positions. It is an important part of the selection process and here it is supplied to you in one place. I like the variety of the questions and the stategy behind them. Good job.

Wayne D. Ford, Ph.D., author of "How to Spot a Liar in a Job Interview" and "How to Spot a Phony Resume" [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: A great resource
Review: Here at your fingertips you can have a great list of questions to choose from in interviewing candidates for your positions. It is an important part of the selection process and here it is supplied to you in one place. I like the variety of the questions and the stategy behind them. Good job.

Wayne D. Ford, Ph.D., author of "How to Spot a Liar in a Job Interview" and "How to Spot a Phony Resume" [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Great questions to find great people
Review: The process of interviewing and selecting great employees is one of the most difficult tasks in business. This book helps ease the process by providing some great questions to ask job candidates. The book also begins with some great information on planning and preparing for an interview. The adage "a failure to plan is a plan to fail" is never more true than when you are trying to hire good employees. If you don't think your employees are the key to your success, you are fooling yourself and asking good questions that will require some thought-provoking answers is a big step forward. The only weakness of the book is that it doesn't explain how to interpret answers but I'm not sure any book could do that. If you ask the right questions, you'll soon learn the acceptable responses and this book is a GREAT tool for asking the question.