Questions on career progression

These questions will not apply to those just leaving education but they will be relevant to everyone else. However, keep in mind that not everyone is career-minded and you may not be looking for someone career-orientated for your vacancy.

How career-orientated are you, say on a scale of 0–10?

If you are looking for a careerist then establish how career-orientated they think they are and you can then see if they have followed this.

Highlight where you have moved jobs for career progression.

Did this pay off?

I notice the last three jobs that you have had are all the same or similar, so what did you gain from moving companies?

Remember that job titles can be misleading and can mean different things in different companies, so allow your candidate to explain them.

What kind of career progression are you looking for here?

If a candidate is exhibiting a high level of ambition you need to ensure you can match that if you hire them.

What do you see yourself doing in five years?

Does this fit in with your company’s future business plans?

Questions about success

How is your success measured?

Success in some roles is easily measured. Salespeople will be deemed a success if they surpass their sales budget, but they may also be evaluated on how many new accounts they have opened, how many additional outlets they are selling into, and so on. By finding out how their success is measured you will learn where the emphasis is in their role, and it will also highlight areas that you may need to probe more. Perhaps opening new accounts is not a key driver for them, but it will be in your company. In some companies they will be measured by key performance indicators (KPIs), as we looked at in Chapter 1.

What does success mean to you?

Which was your biggest success, and why?

What have you gained from your success?

It’s useful to know if they are looking for monetary reward or if there is something else that motivates them.

Questions on their reasons for applying for your vacancy

Another interesting point is to ask why the candidate has applied for your job. You want to know why they are there, and whether you can meet their expectations.

What made you apply for this particular job?

Their answer will demonstrate what they know about your company and whether they have bothered to research it. Junior candidates may have a more basic approach such as its being near to their home! At their level that is probably as good a reason for applying as any.

Keep in mind that if the candidate has been headhunted they will not consider that they have applied for the job as they have been directly approached for it, so ask:

What made you decide to come to meet me?

With headhunted candidates you will need to ‘sell’ the job more as they are not necessarily looking to move.

Are you applying for other jobs? If yes, what? How do they compare to this one?

It may be that they have been prompted to apply by your advert or a headhunt call and you are the only company they are interviewing with. While this is admirable you need to make sure that they really will leave their current post if you offer them the job so find out what will motivate them to move companies.

You have been with your present company for six years, so why leave now?

What will make you decide to move?

What do you think we can offer you here?

Make sure that their expectations are correct and available.

Questions about their knowledge of your company and market sector

In this day and age of information technology you should expect even the most junior candidate to know something about your company and the more senior ones should be well briefed.

What do you know about our company? or

Do you know what our company does?

This may be all you need to ask a junior candidate. It will demonstrate if they have taken the time to prepare for your interview.

Depending on the seniority of the candidate you can use some or all of the following questions to gauge their understanding of your company and its market.

Our market has shrunk considerably in the last year. Why is that?

In which other areas do you predict expansion, and why?

What do you think of our products / services?

Which do you think is our bestseller?

Which of our products / services do you think will be our next bestseller?

Who do you think are our main competitors?

What do they do better than we do?

What do we do better than them?

What markets do we sell in?

Are you aware how we operate in international markets?

What are your thoughts on our price structure?

If you are interviewing a candidate from the same sector as your company they should be able to answer these questions through their knowledge of the market. If they are from a different sector they should have done some research, even if they cannot answer in depth.

• Establish if their ambition matches with what you can offer.
• Discover what motivates them.
• Find out how motivated they are to join you.
• Check if they have researched for their interview.