Ditch These 3 Interview Questions NOW!

In hiring, recruiters and Human Resources professionals must remain one step ahead of the savvy candidate who knows all the tricks to putting on a terrific show at an interview.

Many of these “one-time-only dazzlers” have practiced enough to make their meeting an excellent one-person show.

By using online tools for research and networking, applicants on average have become better prepared for interviews. Often, they have memorized the answers to many common questions. This means HR pros need to be more creative—looking for different ways to get to the true nature of the candidate.

There are three interview questions to get rid of immediately—they are tired, clichéd, and have answers every candidate can deliver by heart. Try these instead, courtesy of The Resumator:

Tell me about yourself.

Yes, this is the most innocuous question, but it is also the most unexciting. Do you genuinely believe applicants won’t tell you something you didn’t already see on their resume or cover letter? Why waste time?

Replace it with: “What is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to you?”

When the exchange becomes an engaging conversation, the answers you hear will be compelling. It will occasionally be related to work — if a candidate says their marriage or the birth of a child was the most exciting thing to happen, that’s indicates reliability and commitment.

What’s your five-year plan?

The point of this question is to arrive at the applicant’s ambitions, but the fact is—there is NO satisfactory answer.

Replace with: “When you retire, what do you see as your job title?”

When you get rid of the time frame, the candidate will open up about what is driving them to succeed — and that is exactly what you need to know.

Talk about a time you resolved a problem.

One interviewing trends is the behavior examination; it may be popular, but few interviewers are genuinely adept at getting the results they want: learning how a candidate reacts in the exact job you are hiring for.

Replace with: “I am going to discuss a problem you might regularly find on this job. How would you solve it?”

Give the candidate a real-world question the job will call on them to answer; their response will be in an easily-relatable context for you—giving you the insights into the applicant’s abilities you actually want.