Questions to consider asking prospective employees

Past Jobs

1. How did you get your last job?

2. What were your specific responsibilities?

3. What did you like about the job?

4. What did you dislike about the job?

5. What did you learn from the job?

6. Did you run into any difficult situations? How did you handle them?

7. Tell me about the types of interaction you had with other workers.

8. Tell me of an accomplishment you are particularly proud of and what you did.

9. What kind of supervision of other workers have you had?

10. Do you have persons from your former job who would provide a professional reference?

11. Why did you leave your past jobs?

12. Why do you want to leave your current job?

13. What is the compensation at your current job? What is your salary expectation for this position?

14. Describe a typical day in your current job.

15. If you are accepted for this position, do you plan on keeping two jobs?

16. Name 1 person whose career you have fundamentally improved. Explain how.

The New Job

1. What would be your specific goals for this job?

2. What experience do you have that you think will be helpful for this job?

3. This job will require a lot of [describe]. Will that be a problem for you?

4. This job will require interacting with [describe the types of people]. What experience do you have working with such people?

5. What would you like to get from this new job?

6. One requirement of this job is writing various types of reports — e.g., weekly, monthly, projections, goals, employee evaluation, etc. What relevant experience have you had on your previous job? Do you have any writing samples you could provide us with?

7. This job will require a certain amount of new client development. Have you had much experience? Tell me how you have gone about this?

Education

1. What subjects did you do well in school?

2. What was your major?

3. Where did you attend high school, college or post-graduate school?

4. Did you work at an outside job while going to school? Describe the job.

5. Are you interested in continuing your education?

6. Did you have any school honors?

General Information

1. What do you consider your strong points?

2. What do you consider your weak points?

3. What specific kind of work do you particularly enjoy doing?

4. What is your long term career objective?

Physical Condition

1. Do you think you will be able to handle the physical aspects of this job?

2. Do you currently use any illegal drugs?

3. If offered a job, will you submit to a medical examination?

4. This job requires annual medical evaluation which includes urinalysis for drug testing, etc. Do you have any objection to this?

Experience and Skills

1. What special skills do you have?

2. How proficient are you in using PCs?

3. Are there software applications you are particularly familiar with?

Outside Activities

1. What kind of job-related organizations or professional societies do you belong to (you may omit those that indicate your race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex or age)?

2. How will your involvement in these activities affect your job here?

Nepotism Information

1. Do you have any relatives already employed by our company? If so, who are they and what is their relationship to you?

2. Do you have any relatives employed by a competitor of this company? If so, who are they and what is there relationship to you?