Best Interview Questions to Ask

Interviewing is a skill that will determine whether a candidate is qualified to be your employee for the long term. But, as with any skill, it can be difficult to learn the best practices and come up with compelling questions on the fly.

This article helps you do just that by directing you to different interview question types. Once you’ve read through these, they will give you an idea of what questions may be appropriate to ask during an interview.

• What have you enjoyed doing in your previous positions or roles? What have you not enjoyed doing but still found a way to be successful at it? 
• What are the top 3 skills you possess that are valuable for this role?
• What skills do you have that were not listed here but can serve as an addition to these 3 core skills of yours? 
• What are 3 things that have helped / hindered your ability to get more/or get better at each of these 3 core skills listed above?
• Why did you choose to pursue this career path / field / profession / industry / job function over other options available to you at the time of entry into the workforce, or any other point in time thereafter? 
• What are three words that describe your work style and why?

• Have you ever let a customer down / failed at some mission / assignment of work related to this role? If so, how did you overcome this? How will you avoid letting this happen again in the future? 
• What is the one most important thing you learned in your life so far, and how did it benefit you?
• Describe a time when you were given a tough assignment that you did not think was possible for you to complete. How did you handle the task and how did your boss or supervisor react to your accomplishment? What steps did they take after knowing that you had accomplished this task? 
• Where do you like to work: in a team or more of a solitary nature?
• Describe an example of when you made your manager’s life easier and how it helped the department/team/organization.
• Which of your skills do you feel are most necessary to be successful in your intended role? 
• Describe a past situation where you had a problem with a coworker. What was the issue? How did you resolve it? 
• How much time do you usually spend doing each of these activities in a work day: working on projects, taking care of administrative duties, collaborating with colleagues on team projects, etc. ? 
• If you could design your ideal team, what would it look like and how many members would be on the team? Why is this the case? 

• What tasks do you find yourself procrastinating with? How do you get your work done when you are unable to focus on what you are supposed to be doing? 
• What type of work environment have you found most difficult to adjust to so far in your career, under what circumstances did this happen, and how did you handle it? 
• How do you handle conflict? What have you learned from your past experiences with conflict resolution and team building, and how would this transfer to a manager / leader role? 
• Describe a situation that represents your worst leadership / team building experience so far, what were the circumstances surrounding it, and how did you respond?