Looking for that secret interview question that will unlock the perfect candidate? We’ve compiled a list or resources to help you plan the right interview questions for best results.
Whether you’re an HR pro who has interviewed more candidates than the entire population of Liechtenstein or whether you’ve a newcomer to the field, we think you will find some useful tools at Susan Heathfield’s excellent compilation of job interview resources at About.com Guide. Kudos to Susan on her 10 year anniversary – she’s been consistently providing quality online information for human resource professionals since 1990, and in this topic, she doesn’t disappoint.
Here are a few of the resources we found noteworthy:
Sample Job Interview Questions – pages of them for varying situations. Don’t miss reader suggestions.
Illegal interview questions
Candidate telephone screening
Using behavioral interviews to select the best
Unusual Interview Questions
One post that we particularly liked dealt with unusual job interview questions. She cites Microsoft, whose unorthodox interview questions (examples: How many golf balls does it take to fill a 747? Why is a manhole cover round?) have become the stuff of legend.
Microsoft is hardly the only tech company to use offbeat questions as part of the interview process. Tech behemoth Google may have gone them one better with their tough brainteasers. Check out 140 Google interview questions from various sources, including applicants who interviewed both successfully and unsuccessfully. Brainteaser questions are now common enough that they’ve spawned a cottage industry of tools to help candidates prep.
A case can be made for the oddball question. It lets the interviewer see how the applicant handles a curve ball and it can offer a window into the applicant’s creativity and problem solving when faced with something unexpected. It often isn’t so much whether an applicant can answer a brainteaser correctly (if there even is a correct answer) as much as how he or she approaches it.
For even more interviewing questions and styles, you get an insider’s view of the practices at various companies by reading interview reviews posted by job applicants at GlassDoor.