Time To Stump ‘Em With Trick Questions

To stump or not to stump…. Should you throw “curve-balls” at your candidates during the interview process?  Frankly, it is critical for a recruiter or staffing specialist to wear two hats when asking these types of questions.  The first hat, of course, is to assess the candidate. The 2nd hat, though, is of salesperson. NEVER forget that how they answer these questions for you will also likely be how they answer them for your clients (when you create a sendout with them). Therefore, I always make sure to ask the SAME question perhaps 4 or 5 ways. Ironically, I often either get very different answers each time OR I get new information each time. Since we try to glean their selling points in an interview, it is key that you have methods to pull out ALL of them. I hate to ask generic “strength and weaknesses”, but do like to ask:

* What would your boss say about you? What would they say is your best attribute? What would they say they have to work on with you
* What would your last performance review look like? What was good, what showed as needing improvement
* If I were able to do a documentary about you and interviewed all sorts of people who know you (friends, family, peers, bosses, etc), what would the main themes of the film me?
* If I talked to people in other departments about you, or people who work with you, what would they say? What would they say sets you apart? what would they say could be better?
* What sets you apart from everyone else?

ETC ETC …

Again, the key is to ask this the same way. If they are a good student of interviewing, then each of these answers should have come back to the same 3 or 4 selling points that they identified as being the KEY MESSAGE for their interview.. Of course, the majority didn’t study and that’s where you come in. Your notes should not only now have EVERY key hot button/selling points, but should also have notes about what you need to do on the brief/prep.

Re the questions that “trip” people up. I do agree that you likely want to throw one in there.. NOT that you are trying to be an SOB, but we all know that some of our clients, for whatever reason (ego, success, bad day at home, etc) DO ask these questions. So, you want to see how they do and then be able to coach them on your prep/brief. I do like to throw in an offbeat question like “If you could be any flavor ice cream cone, what would it be and why?”. I get a laugh, which is nice for the relationship, but it also shows their creativity and ability to think on their feet/on the spot. Now, again, I USE THIS FOR THE PREP! I also remind them that this answer should have been the same AS ALL OF THE OTHERS.. IT can be anything, as long as the answer somehow still ties back to their main selling points (IE “Chocolate”, because I am far from generic. I stand out because of x, y and z… OR “butter pecan”, because I am a bit nutty in that I always stay until the job gets done, even though my friends are out the door at 5. etc etc.

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Thanks. Neil