Questions to ask in a second interview

In My Humble Opinion
1

The other manager and I in our department are hiring for an entry level position. We’ve got it narrowed down to two candidates, and both are coming in tomorrow for a second interview.

We’ve done the meet and greet, why do you want to work here, how did you hear about the job, this is the salary range and these are the benefits routine. Now we need to get into the nitty-gritty.

I need a list of questions to ask to figure out which one gets the job. I plan to ask how they handle pressure and stuff like that, because this job entails working under deadline on a daily basis. Any suggestions? I haven’t done much interviewing, but due to a change in personnel it’s fallen on me and the other manager of the department to fill this position.

No, I’m not going to ask “If you were a salad dressing, what salad dressing would you be?” I need serious, maybe slightly “tricky” questions to get the applicants to reveal if they would be a good fit.

2

I use second round interviews as a way to test whether the candidate would fit into our work environment or not. The first round is all about can they do the job (I assume they want the job or they wouldn’t bother sitting there for 3 hours). Assuming they have made it to the second round it’s more about how they would fit into the company culture, what personality quirks they might have (we all have them), and would hiring this person be a good or bad decision based on everything I know about this candidate.

Some oddball questions I might ask include… How do you deal with stressful situations? What kinds of things really upset you? In what kind of environment are you most productive in?

In my experience I learned that one candidate couldn’t handle any noise in the office whatsoever. Another candidate needed a cublicle that had to be darkened (no overhead lights at all). Still another admitted to having problems working in a team and would much rather work alone or at home.

3

Don’t ask “how to you handle pressure?” since the answer will be “great!.” Ask, “tell me a situation at work when you were under a lot of pressure, and how did you handle it?” Very hard to bs the answer to a question like that.

For software people I always ask about their most interesting bug, and how they found it. Anyone who claims they never goofed will never work for me - unless they got a visible halo.

4

Why not start with a couple of “thinking outside the box” questions? i.e. I seem to remember one that asked how many pennies would you have to put together to equal the height of some structure. (I’m sure someone will be along here to quote the correct version of it. I think there’s a rumor that it’s a Microsoft interview question). The idea is to see if you can get the person to thing of using the pennies side by side rather than stacked up.

Otherwise you could simply ask a question about a situation that might come up in this particular position, and see how they would handle it. Even if there’s isn’t a hard & fast solution, you could see how they approach the problem.

Here’s another one to see how many solutions they can come up with. Supposedly to see how flexibile the candidate is at working through problems… i.e. You are in a building, and you want to know what the temperature is outside. How do you do it?
The way this riddle works is, after you mention a possible solution, the interviewer says that solution is not possible and asks what else you can do. So the scenario gets increasingly difficult, and it comes down to coming up with as many solutions as you can.

Example Dialogue:

You: “Well you could use X to find the temperature”
Them: “OK let’s say there are no X’s lying around”
You: “OK, perhaps you could try Y”
Them: “Y is broken, what else”
(copied from this site )

What about simple brain teasers. Two of my favorites are:
you have three boxes labeled “Oranges”, “Apples”, and “Oranges AND Apples”. You know that all three labels are incorrect. By only taking one fruit from one box, how can you correctly set the labels?

The other one is the classic socks puzzle. You have 20 black socks in a drawer, and 30 blue socks in a drawer. What is the minimum number you would have to pull out to be guaranteed a matching pair?

5

One question I wish people would ask is how do you like to be evaluated and how do you hate to be evaluated. That also gives you an idea of the person’s strengths and weaknesses. I’ve never seen it asked, so the first few hundred times you ask it, you’ll get an unprepared answer :slight_smile:

For example, I like being evaluated on whether I’ve achieved my goals - hate being evaluated by people who think that someone who works long hours is a better worker than someone who goes home on the clock.

Why? Because I’m fast, that’s why! I’ve been known to do in minutes work that others achieve in hours; or in hours work for which others take days. Not always, but often enough. I hate face time; I hate inflated work (one of my coworkers has written about 40 manuals, but there’s cases where two of them differ on 2 titles and a screenshot). So if you think that I have to stay in late whether I have work to do or not, you’ll just get a very bored and somewhat pissed-off employee, you won’t get better or more work.

6

I can’t fucking stand these questions. If I was asked these in an interview, I’d get more stressed and frustrated and feeling like I’m fucking up at every damned thing I’d say. They also sound like questions a new-interviewer sees online at http://www.awesome-thought-provoking-interview-questions.com and just copies them because they seem so clever.
And I also don’t get the oranges and apples thing. If there’s an “Oranges AND Apples” box, how can you correct the labels with only picking one fruit from one box, since an apple can be in 2 possible boxes and so can an orange?

7

I ask questions like:
Tell me about a project you are particularly proud of - and why.
Tell me about a time you have a failed - and why.
Is there anything about you that you think I should know that I have failed to ask in the interview? Now is your time to sell yourself, so tell me why you think I should hire you.

8

You know that all three labels are wrong, so the “Oranges and Apples” box must really contain either oranges or apples. Pull a fruit from that box to see which it is. Let’s say it’s an orange. In that case, the box labeled “Oranges” must really have apples (since if it had both, then the label would be correct on the box that said “Apples,” and we know that all three labels are wrong). By elimination, the box labeled “Apples” must have both fruits in it.

But I hate brain teaser interviews - I don’t think anyone learns anything useful about work from them. I’d rather ask questions like “tell me about a stressful situation at your current job and how you handled it,” or “tell me what you liked about the best supervisor you ever had.”

9

One question I like to use is “tell me about the best professional advice you have received – who gave it, what was the situation, how did it help you etc.” I’ve found that I get a good feel for someone’s personality with this one, because it’s not directly about performance or skills so the response is often less “scripted” sounding.

I’m not really looking too much for the answer (although some of the answers have been pretty interesting) but I like to see the way people talk about this situation – do they speak candidly about themselves needing advice (I had one person tell me he never needed advice because he was always the smartest person on the job), and it can also show how they respond to feedback and suggestions for improvement which is key for fitting in here in our office.

For entry level positions, if the person perhaps has not had a lot of professional experience, I frame the question so that the advice might have come from a teacher, a mentor, etc as long as it is applicable to the candidate’s professional behavior.

10

This doesn’t answer your question, but I humbly ask that you call all of the people who come in for a second interview to give them a yea or a nay.

Why not use actual workplace examples of problems and see how each candidate would handle them instead of apples and oranges situations.

(Some interviewers seem to have a need to be clever in asking questions rather than seriously assessing the qualifications of the applicants. As an applicant I was rarely impressed.)

11

I plan to ask how they feel about redoing work that’s been completed. Our department is dependent on other departments to get our work done, and frequently we have to redo stuff we’ve finished because the other departments haven’t been able to provide what we need.

That sound really bad, but trust me, it’s the nature of the business.

12

I don’t see the point to doing brain teasers. I find that open-ended questions intended to get the employee talking will be good things. At the second interview, you have to figure that they’re qualified on paper for the position. Now you want to find out if they are creative, smart, a team player, a good communicator, or whatever.

Ask them questions about how they have handled in the past a situation – for example, solving a difficult problem, creating an innovative solution, needing to work with a peer to get a job completed, experiences with management, how did they handle a stressful time, how do they multitask, or even just ask them their opinions about what a good leader is or what does being a team player mean. Really, the important part is to get them talking and they will either impress you, bore you, or set off red flags.

If they answer in only a few words, encouage them to talk more about the situation. If they can’t, that for me is a red flag. They aren’t thinking through the questions.

If they have a very hard time explaining themselves, that to me is also a red flag. You want to allow for people being nervous, but a good employee should always be able to tell you why they did something or when they succeeded. If they didn’t, they’re going to need handholding at least and at worst just have very poor job ethics and don’t care.

A good applicant will be prepared and able to speak up about what is good about themselves but without being overconfident (I am great at everything, I have no weaknesses, I don’t need help ever).

I always find that asking them why they want to work for your company is a positive question. Believe it or not, I’ve often found major concerns from that question – people who don’t really want the job and are reluctant probably are just going to keep looking. I’ve had some people admit even that they didn’t like the job and just needed money. If in doubt, follow up with asking how this job would fit into their plans for the next five to ten years. Usually, people who are lying about whether they want the job won’t be able to clearly answer this.

I also think it’s a really good idea to explain the good, bad, and ugly about the job also. What’s the point of going through the whole hiring process if they can’t handle it or won’t be able to stand it? Reasonable expectations should be set.

13

We’ve held the interviews and made a decision. Bottom line, one applicant wanted ANY job, and the other wanted THIS job.

I’m going to offer the position tomorrow…now I get to tell the other one that we’ve passed. Any suggestions? I was thinking of telling her we had a more qualified applicant, which is true, in that the winning applicant had some experience in the industry. I’d rather not get into anything esoteric.

14

It sounds to me like both were well qualified, i.e., if you hadn’t found a better candidate, the rejected person would have gotten the job.

So that’s what I’d tell him. Since that can sound a lot like a form letter, it will be very nice if you mention specific points that impressed you. Just one or two, simply as a way to drive home the fact that you’re not just giving a cookie cutter answer. I know that personalized rejections impress the hell out of me.

15

Yeah, I think I would have to get up and leave if I started getting asked questions like that. No offense, but that’s just obnoxious.

16

I HAVE ended interviews when asked shit like this. I already know I don’t want to work for this person - why waste both our time.

17

Don’t tell the one you didn’t select until the other has actually accepted!

18

She’s accepted. However, I’m waiting for her to pass the drug test and background check, then I’ll call number 2 and let her know, regretfully…

19

Three.

A question about interviews and hiring: Suppose a qualified person applies for a position and the potential employer flies him or her halfway across the country for an interview. Would a large corporation spend that kind of money just for an interview? Or would they not bother unless they were likely to hire that candidate?

20

Just means they passed the phone screen. And not all phone screeners do a good job. Remember, in a large company, it isn’t the money of the person doing the inviting.

I once interviewed with an IC company that was then a part of a defense contractor. I got flown across the country first class. I was sure I was a shoo-in, but it turned out they didn’t even want to offer me a job at the level acceptable to me - something I had made clear when talking to my contact, who I had worked with before. So, at the end of the day I said no and they said no, and I had a good dinner and flew home first class.
Moral - don’t assume competence at the interviewing company.
That said, the chances are better than in a phone screen, but it is nowhere near a sure thing.