No one has unlimited time to interview job candidates, yet we have seen many clients spend a full hour interviewing individuals who could have been rejected in twenty minutes or less. Corporations which track hiring and personnel costs have identified enormous amounts of time spent interviewing inappropriate or unqualified people, but have rarely presented a solution to this management dilemma.

Here are our specific recommendations that will save you both time and money. A resume gives you a chance to make your first judgments about a person: their education, the number of jobs held over a period of time, the caliber of companies they have worked for, and the progress and promotions made during their tenure. These facts can be used to screen out obvious non-fits, such as people who have changed jobs every year, who have no logical progression in their career, or people who simply are not qualified. A simple and cordial rejection letter in response to those resumes will suffice.

For those candidates who get past the initial screening, an interview consisting of nine basic questions will allow you to gain a clear picture of whether or not the candidate is suitable for the position. Indications of a person’s character, drive, and competence can be gleaned from listening carefully to the candidate’s answers to these nine questions. When you put this information together with the impressions of their personality, ability to express themselves, and social presentations, your odds of a successful hire will increase dramatically. Be sure to let the candidates know that the first interview will be twenty minutes long so that their expectations are set appropriately.

Here are the 9 questions:

 1. Of the jobs you have had,which one did you like best? The answer to this question suggests specific areas in which the candidate can be of the most value to you. If he or she is noncommittal, or likes all of them, this may indicate a lack of direction or planning for future growth. It is normal to have preferences, but if their preference is for a job in no way related to the one you have to offer, you may have a disconnected newly hired employee after only a short time.

2. How did you get each of your positions? If your candidate sough out and achieved a position he or she wanted, this indicates a strong “go-getter.” If they were recruited into the position, find out what their dissatisfaction was with their previous position. This will indicate their level of loyalty, or “stick-to-it-ivenss” when the going gets tough. Generally, the response to this question is an indication or resourcefulness. Was it through their personal contacts or influential friends? Was it merely a means to an end? Will your job, also, be such a means? These answers, together with the short and long term goals questions, will give you an overall impression of their career direction and their ability to get what they want.

3. What are your short term goals for the coming two years? Every person should have definite plans for where they want to be and what they hope to be doing in one or two years from now. Failure to verbalize these goals indicates that the candidate has not assessed his potential or relationship with his chosen work. A definite plan will not only give the interviewer a chance to see if their goals coincide with the position, but also give the candidate a plus just for having specific goals, because many people don’t. A person who doesn’t know where he or she is going will probably end up someplace else.

 4. If you could do anything in the world, what would you choose to do? The answer to this question can give you deep insight into the candidate, if they answer truthfully. You may need to ask a second time, as many people will first tell you what they think you want to hear. I often add,” Really, let your imagination go, and think about it as you didn’t have to worry about money or what other people thought.” The surprising thing we have found is that when you get past the expected answers and the immediate gratification of spending a year on a sunny beach, what all people want deeply is to make a contribution to others. The answer you get, however, will indicate where a person fits in with your organization. Look for imagination meshing with reality and the individual’s capabilities and how what the person “really” wants to do match the job responsibilities you can offer them.

 5. Why are you interested in our company?  Alternatively ask, Why are you interested in leaving your present job? These responses will give you two sides of the coin: the positive desires and negative dissatisfactions. If the answer is “money” and this is the sole motivation, then caution should be exercised because another company can tempt this person away from your organization with a little more money later. If an applicant has researched your firm and knows why he feels that working for you would be beneficial to his career, knows how your company relates to the industry as a whole, or how he would be stimulated by the working environment, these are positive signs of a mature decision making process. This question is an attitude indicator, and the answer can go a long way in developing your evaluation of the individual.

 6. What are your hobbies?  What do you do in your spare time? The answers to these questions give you a view of an individual’s outlook on life and his or her aptitudes by talking about life outside of the workplace. A person who is involved in competitive sports will be competitive in their job and is a team player, an excellent characteristic for a salesperson, although perhaps not for a secretary. Individual sports such as running are an indication of a person’s dedication and concern for their personal image and health, or their preference to work alone rather than on a team. Chess or bridge players or those who engage in other activities which require mental challenges make excellent problem solvers or engineers. A person who spends every spare hour with his or her children will often make a good long-term employee because of their care for their family. Sales people tend to enjoy meeting others in their work which is often reflected in their off-hour activities and hobbies.

7. What are your long range goals? Where do you want to be in ten years? Taken with the individual’s short-range goals, this answer can give you great insight into the potential to be tapped and the degree of investment you may wish to make in this individual. Their response will also assist you in assessing his or her ability to plan in order to achieve specific long-range objectives.

8. What are your major assets and your major weaknesses? While you can’t expect a person to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets, you can expect the person to be able to recognize his or her obvious faults or deficiencies, whatever they may be. The more honest a person is while being self-critical will indicate their ability to handle criticism or correction from a manager (although this is not also so). One who can identify and correct their behavior has shown insight and thought in evaluating and improving their own progress.

9. How have you changed in the past 5 years? The answer to this question will indicate a person’s progress, both in their career and in their personal life. Follow up with the question, "How do you want to change in the next 5 years?" to see whether their own assessment matches what you can offer them. This will also indicate what kind of management style will work best once they are on the job. If a person has been making progress in their life, it is a good bet they will continue to do so. Other facts such as their job progression, salary progression, and increasing levels of responsibilities will give you a clear picture of how the person will fit into your growing organization. Also look for signs of personal growth, maturity, and positive feelings about those changes.

 Conclusion: While no single question can give you the magic answer as to whether a person will fit the job or your company, these nine questions and their brief answers can give you a clear picture of a potential employee's attitudes and character, which are often better predictors of success than a technical competency or previous experience. For most of the matchmaking which we do as executive recruiters, we find that once the basic screening has been done, the ultimate decision making factor is the chemistry between the employee and his or her manager and whether the gut feeling is that this is the "right" person for the job.

This series of questions will bring out the details of those feelings and will allow you to see the potential fit between you and the applicant. At the minimum, it will serve to identify the few individuals who have the potential for the position and require further, more thorough interviewing or testing. Finally, the degree to which the applicant is comfortable answering questions in general, and the level of preparation shown by their responses, will provide additional information about their self-awareness and maturity. Select Partners can help you in your recruitment efforts through our executive search services, or we can train your hiring managers how to become better interviewers. We can assist with testing and assessment on a consulting basis, or provide full recruitment services at any level of the organization.