I'm going to let you in on some big time interview questions that'll step up your recruitment game.
In today’s digital-savvy world, the competition to recruit the finest professionals is fierce.
That’s why it’s essential that your business takes extra measures to effectively sort through your list of candidates and find the very best.
One of the best places to start is right at the top.
Big famous brands have established themselves as the kingpins in their respected industries for a reason.
With a vast majority of them operating on a global scale, they not only need to continue producing quality services or products, they also need to find the finest employees on a mass scale too.
I thought finding one amazing candidate was hard enough, let alone hundreds and thousands!
The key to their recruitment success largely boils down to the types of interview questions they ask.
These brands don’t just follow the standard competency-based interview question rule book, they throw caution to the wind and mix it up.
Each and every question, however strange, is purposely picked to test candidates in a certain way.
The result?
Billions of pounds in revenue generated, high employee satisfaction levels and reduced costs on recruitment.
With this in mind, here are a few examples you can use in your own recruitment drive – how many of these interview questions do you ask?
“On your very best day at work – the day you come home and think you have the best job in the world – what did you do that day?” Facebook
According to an interview with Facebook’s head of recruitment, Miranda Kalinowski, this is the social media network’s most asked interview question.
The beauty of this question is that it allows candidates to open up and be enthusiastic about what makes them happy.
Interviews have the tendency to be dull and premeditated at times, so taking any opportunity to enable a candidate to showcase a bit of their personality into proceedings always helps.
You’ll also get a clear indication of what motivates that particular candidate and whether that aligns with your own company values.
From a candidate point of view, they should use this as a chance to show off an achievement.
“Describe AdWords to a 7-year-old” Google
Trust the search engine giants Google to use one of their own services as an interview question.
Nonetheless, this is an absolute humdinger if you’re on the hunt for someone with great communication skills and the ability to work well under pressure.
This particular question isn’t just a case of explaining what AdWords is and does, the candidate has to describe it in a way that makes sense to a young child.
Google uses it as a way of testing whether a candidate can make a complex subject into a simple one for people to understand – which is an essential quality when trying to market a product to your target market.
In your own business, you can simply adapt this question to focus on one of your own products or services.
At least you can then challenge a candidate to see if they’ve done their research on your company beforehand.
“What didn’t you get the chance to include on your resume?” Virgin
This is probably my pick of the bunch, which coincidentally is Virgin Boss Sir Richard Branson’s favourite too!
He explains in his book, The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership:
“Obviously a good CV is important, but if you were going to hire by what they say about themselves on paper, you wouldn’t need to waste time on an interview.”
This is a very profound way of looking at the interview process.
The truth is, the facts and figures stated on a CV won’t necessarily give you a true picture of a candidate.
In fact, the best parts are usually left off an application as it’s not a part of the ‘status quo’ to include information like that.
Give your candidates the chance to talk about themselves and explain what makes them tick.
Even if it doesn’t give you all of the answers on who to pick, it will certainly make the whole assessment process a lot more interesting and unique!
“On a scale from 1 to 10, rate me as an interviewer” Kraft Foods
The large American snack company not only have a knack for whipping up tasty foods, but they also love taking a direct approach towards attaining candidate feedback too!
It’s certainly an interesting way of testing how honest a candidate is.
However, I think this interview question is all about seeing how they manage an uncomfortable situation.
In every job, we all have to deal with tricky customers and challenging scenarios, so Kraft Foods want to ensure the candidate can handle themselves in such cases.
Ideally, you want them to remain calm, make a joke if applicable and give constructive feedback.
“Describe how you would change the culture of the company” Tesla
This final interview question in our list tests the ability of an individual to use their technical and soft skills to come up with a rational answer.
To qualify for a job at Tesla, a candidate needs to be quick-witted, intelligent and have an open mind towards problem-solving.
Elon Musk’s automotive company understand they must welcome feedback in order to innovate and improve.
As a candidate, they need to have conducted a lot of research on the company to give a well-balanced and educated response.
For your business, you can use this interview question as a means of finding a candidate who is forward-thinking and accustomed to your values.
Want to read more like this?
Learning from the best brands in the world is a great way to improve your own recruitment process and inspire your company to great success.
That’s why we’ve created an array of articles ready for you to tap into:
- 5 Interview Questions You Can Pinch From Microsoft
- 4 Recruitment Ideas You Can Pinch From IKEA
- 4 Recruitment Ideas You Can Pinch from Disney
- 13 Crazy Interview Questions That Awesome Companies Will Actually Ask You
To receive more recruitment and HR tips like this on a weekly basis, subscribe to our blog today.
