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Strategic Interview Questions To Ask Candidates

By Caitlin Mazur - Sep. 8, 2022
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When you’re hiring to fill a position, it’s important to ensure your interview captures the right data to adequately evaluate and choose the right candidate for the role, the team, and the company. The best way to do this is to develop strategic interview questions to ask candidates so you can determine who you’re most interested in.

Rather than asking generic interview questions, consider spending additional time developing strategic questions that will provide you with deeper insight into the candidate and how they might fit into your company’s culture. Interviews should help you better understand an applicant’s skills, personality, and future career goals.

However, for certain roles, you may also want to understand how they behave on an individual level or in a team environment. You may want to better understand how they navigate stressful or complicated situations or how they handle uncomfortable situations. By asking strategic questions, you can get insights into all of these things.

Key Takeaways

  • Strategic interview questions give you the opportunity to determine whether or not this candidate is suitable for the position you’re interviewing them for.

  • In strategic interviews, ask questions that are open-ended and allow your candidate to answer and follow up with questions. You will typically get more from a candidate if you allow them to answer something that is open-ended.

  • The three types of strategic interview questions you can ask are career development questions, behavioral questions, and situational questions.

How to Conduct an Interview With Strategic Questions

Conducting an interview with strategic questions is no different than conducting a regular interview. You should come to the interview prepared, having read the candidate’s resume and done some research on their job history. Be sure to come prepared to listen and consider the following.

  • Ask specific role-related questions. It’s important to include specific questions that will help you determine whether or not this candidate is suitable for the position you’re interviewing them for. Don’t be afraid to get into specifics if the experience is important, or attempt to feel out if the candidate could be trained in certain areas.

  • Ask the same questions to each candidate. It’s important to stay consistent when interviewing your candidates. The responses to each question will differ, which may help you make your decision about who is more suitable for the job.

  • Ask open-ended questions. This is where listening is key — ask questions that are open-ended and allow your candidate to answer and follow up with questions, if possible. You will typically get more from a candidate if you allow them to answer something that is open-ended.

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How to Develop Strategic Questions

It’s first important to decide what you want to know from your interview. Be sure to consider how much time you have with each candidate and be reasonable with how much you try to pack into the meeting. Having a general goal of what to focus on will help guide you towards the answer you seek.

As mentioned above, open-ended questions are the best types of questions to ask during interviews. They require a more in-depth response and can provide you with more information about the candidate than a closed-ended question can. When you’re developing your questions, try to compose them in an open-ended way.

For example, if you want to ask your candidate if they have management experience, you can ask, “Have you managed teams in the past? What has been the most successful managing strategy you’ve used?” or, “Tell me about a management experience you are most proud of.”

Types of Strategic Interview Questions

Most commonly, employers are looking to understand how their candidates may behave in stressful or overwhelming environments, how they handle client-facing meetings, how they handle adversity, and if they are a good fit for your broader team. There are three types of strategic interview questions you can consider off the bat.

  • Career development questions. These questions should be used if a candidate is looking to land a leadership role in your organization. Additionally, if you’re looking for an employee who is interested in staying with the company long-term, career development questions can be helpful to use.

  • Behavioral questions. These types of questions can help you understand how compatible your candidate is with your business, goals, and culture.

  • Situational questions. Situational questions will give you a better understanding of whether or not your candidate can handle the scenarios they may be faced with in the role they’re interviewing for.

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Strategic Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

  1. What is something about you not listed on your resume?

    A candidate’s resume is an important part of their job search as it lists the skills and experience necessary to perform a job well. However, this is a good question to ask if you’re looking to learn more about your candidate on a personal level to decide whether or not they’d be a good fit for your work culture.

  2. What is a difficult work situation you’ve faced, and how did you solve it?

    As an employer, it’s important to understand how your candidate might handle any adversity. This is an important question to ask, so be sure to listen to their response, as it will give you a glimpse into how they might face difficult scenarios on the job.

  3. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

    Although these are common questions for interviewers, it’s another important one to ask. You’ll want to understand how your candidates self-identify and how self-aware they can be regarding their experience and skill set. It may also give you insight into how well they take constructive criticism and their capacity for growth.

  4. Where do you see yourself in a year?

    This question can help you better understand if your candidate has future plans for growth or if they are actively goal-setting and thinking about areas of self-improvement. Whether their response is personal or professional, it’s good to understand their motivation for continued growth.

  5. How do the people you work with describe you?

    Although similar to strengths and weaknesses, it’s an important question to ask. This will give a better understanding of the candidate’s egos, their perception of working with a team, and their overall personality.

  6. How do you deal with tight deadlines?

    This is a great question to ask to better understand how your candidate handles stress. If the job requires tight turn-arounds, it’s important to ask them this question.

  7. What’s a project you’re most proud of?

    This is a great question to understand how your candidate defines success in their professional career. Depending on their answer, you’ll get a deeper insight into things they enjoy doing and what makes them feel accomplished.

  8. What is your ideal company culture?

    If you are interviewing for culture fit, it’s important to ask this open-ended question and give the employee an opportunity to respond how they see fit. You’ll better understand what they value in a team environment and what things may keep them happy in their role.

  9. Why do you want to work for this company?

    This question is an important indicator of whether or not the candidate has done their research on your company. It will also give you a better understanding if the candidate is just looking for any job or genuinely has an interest in your organization.

  10. Do you have any questions for me?

    This question opens up the floor for anything you may have missed during your interview. The employee may want to ask for more specifics about the job, the interviewer, or other opportunities within the company. If the employee doesn’t have anything to ask, this can also serve as a potential warning, too.

Strategic Interview Questions to Ask Candidates FAQ

  1. What are examples of strategic questions?

    Some examples are “Where do you want to go from here?” “What do you want to accomplish?” or “What obstacles will you have to overcome?”

  2. Why should you ask strategic questions in an interview?

    You should ask strategic questions in an interview to get a more in-depth understanding of your candidate and their ability to perform the job they’re interviewing for.

  3. Are open-ended or closed-ended questions better for strategic interviews?

    Open-ended questions are better for strategic interviews because it allows the candidate more space to answer how they see fit.

Author

Caitlin Mazur

Caitlin Mazur is a freelance writer at Zippia where she has written 140+ articles that have reached over 1 mil viewers as of June 2023. Caitlin is passionate about helping Zippia’s readers land the jobs of their dreams by offering content that discusses job-seeking advice based on experience and extensive research.

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