When preparing to interview candidates, employers often revert to typical questions: "Tell me about yourself," and "What is your greatest weakness?" They can also tap into some of the 50 Most Common Interview Questions recently published by Glassdoor.
Dig deeper to responses
In addition to traditional questions, employers who probe a bit deeper can unearth employees' traits in action. They may inquire about a difficult project that didn't end well or about a customer relationship that turned sour, inspiring a storied response that reveals problem-solving, resiliency and/or an ability to turn lemons into lemonade.
The interviewer's goal is multifold: to see if the employee-owned the difficulties they encountered, or if they instead placed blame. They also want to know if the candidate bounced back quickly from the failure or if the failed effort crushed them.
Moreover, they want to see if the candidate took the initiative to resolve the issues instead of simply relenting. In other words, did the candidate enable a practical optimism amid adversity, employing intellectual and emotional determination that converted a (potentially) failed outcome into new opportunities?
In addition to the above prompts, interviewers can employ a variety of questions to uncover reasons behind candidate failures or those workplace situations that resulted in difficult scenarios and less-than-ideal outcomes.
Expand inquiries with follow-up questions
For example, employers can extend inquiries with follow-ons such as, "What was involved in the project or process?", "What specifically went awry?" and, "How did the outcome affect the candidate or the company going forward?"
Further, inquiring as to what the employee learned (if anything) and how they applied their learnings to future initiatives is helpful. Perhaps the candidate simply learned how to swiftly move on and gain traction in a more positive initiative versus staying stuck in a long-term drain. Or perhaps not.
The gist of spurring them to tell a more complete story is to determine if they are the type of employee who will maintain productivity amid adversity. It might also uncover how they respond to their boss, their co-workers, their customers and others while navigating chaos or catastrophe.
In some cases, it means prompting the candidate to unfold stories where they ultimately had more control than they initially perceived. As such, the employee discloses how they chose to surmount versus just relent to the roadblock.
For example, perhaps after undertaking a wealth management consulting role, an employee realized his young age was an obstacle to gaining client trust accustomed to more experienced consultants with a few gray hairs.
Rather than seeing age as an obstacle, the proactive candidate described how they deepened knowledge through reading, including ramping up their vocabulary and conversational skills. As well, they talked about using differentiating skills such as a special curiosity in analyzing and breaking down numbers, enabling the numbers to tell a story. By employing those distinctive advantages to bridge the age gap, this candidate not only overcame objections but also showed special traits in action.
Employ thoughtful digging skills
In other words, an employer interviewing a candidate to discuss failures or difficulties on the job should use thoughtful digging skills, just as they expect their candidates to proactively employ similar characteristics.
Rather than leading the candidate to the right answer; i.e., asking them for a bad situation that they transformed into a success story; or steering them into a storm, where true talents are quashed by the employer's interview tactics, the interviewer should home in on attaining the candidate's true value proposition as well as naturally uncover weaknesses.
Through the nuanced trail of a savvy interviewer's who, what, where, when, why and how, the candidate successfully can unveil their strengths – and weaknesses -- and how they will (or will not) fit into the company culture and meet performance expectations.
Enabling employees to steer the conversation
Conversely, employers can encourage candidates to take the conversation helm at any point during the interview. Persuading employees to ask questions about the company's current situation, including marketing, operations or financial performance or even requesting the employer's opinions on specific cultural matters can open up more nuanced doors of conversation.
By doing so, the conversation continues to expand into new territories, where the employer can gauge the candidate's reactions to articulate opportunities and challenges and further determine fit and performance capabilities.
