16 Jan Job Interview Questions
We increasingly find ourselves surrounded by the new, the unfamiliar, and the unknown – an experience something like early childhood. The problem is not just rapid change, it is also the sheer volume of information rushing at us from all directions and sources. It has now become more important to question, experiment and connect ideas. Formulating questions, about ones work life, can be the spark that leads to dramatic change.
An employee may ask themselves: Why is my career not advancing the way I hoped? Or if it is advancing, and I am still not happy, why is that?
An employer may ask themselves: What changes are our client’s under-going and how can we expand our services to best meet those?
Right now, knowledge is a commodity, with known answers being everywhere and easily accessible. The real value is what an employee can do with that knowledge, in pursuit of a query. Clearly, it is an advantage to your firm to hire people who are naturally inquisitive. Yet during most job interviews employers make judgements about prospective employees based on their answers to a set of predefined questions like “What are your strongest practice areas?” or “Do you like working in a team?”. This method does a poor job of assessing the candidate’s ability to question, create and innovate.
What if a job interview also tested the candidate’s ability to ask questions, as well as answer them? What if they were great questions – hard enough to be interesting, but realistic enough to have a hope of being answered?
Traditionally, job interviews end with the standard “Do you have any questions?” which invites only practical responses like “When would I start?”. An alternative approach is to ask applicants to bring a few questions with them. Make it clear that these questions should be ambitious and open-ended “why”, “what if” and “how” questions. For example, a question might ask about different ways a firm could expand or improve its customer service.
The questions a candidate brings will reveal a lot about themselves. Are the questions ambitious and imaginative, or modest and practical? Do the questions indicate that the candidate did some research on current trends in legal practice or on your practice in particular?
For example – a candidate may ask you about your firms plans for growth. Your answer will give them a good idea of where your firm is headed and how they can assist. Or, better still, their question could be customized for your particular firm or the specialist area they are applying for. They may have done some homework your website beforehand – and those of similar firms. Perhaps they may identify a particular area for expansion that would be of benefit to the firm. They may also demonstrate their interest in this area.
If your candidate has come up with at least one interesting question and improved on the question during the interview, then they are likely to be a welcome addition to your firm after taking into account their other skills and experience.