The HR Forum

Interview questions

Posted by Toril Simpson on June 5, 2014 at 1:18pm

Hi all,

Does anybody out there have some new and interesting interview questions, which hasn't been pre-googled to death? I find a lot of the traditional questions are out of date and people have 'studied' how to answer them. I would love to have some different questions to fire away!

I would like to know how a persons work ethics is as well as their personality and want to ask some questions which can make someone shine or show they are just not the right fit! (We are not using personality tests, and not keen to for the time being)

If anyone has any questions they would like to share, I would be very grateful.

Many thanks for your help and support!

Toril

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Replies

Darren Waring May 25, 2015 at 10:06pm

My question 7/14 is, would you rather know a lot about a little or a little about a lot?
Jess Crane May 18, 2015 at 4:17pm

Hi Toril

Your question and the answers have been great for me. I have my workshop on Friday for HRP L3 and we are having to conduct a mock interview for a Personnel Adviser role, I'm going to review my questions now!
Alison Simmons June 17, 2014 at 10:21pm

HahaRachel, your sales directirsounds fun, what sort of answer does he like?

I doubt his questions weasel out peoples ethics but he is probably selling himself as a fun guy to work for with those questions!

It would be fun to answer them - if i was a biscuit i'd be a ginger snap, sharp, sweet, spicy and snappy, but beware you need to be apt to successfully dunk a ginger snap!
best shop would be a book shop (any) or a shop selling scuba diving gear (only to be entered once in a blue moon) Reason - to get lost in thought and dreams also you always meet very interesting, often well travelled, people in both types of shop.
and most embarrassing music would be "merry xmas" by wizard, only ever to be dragged out at very rowdy xmas parties.
Rachel Weaven June 17, 2014 at 5:13pm

We always ask them to describe themselves in 3 words, if they could have any job in the world what would it be and my Sales Directors top questions he likes to ask are

If you were a biscuit what would you be?

Favourite shop and why

Most embarrassing song or album on your Ipod

Rach
Mike Collins June 9, 2014 at 12:44pm

Hi Toril,

You might find some inpiration or some different questions in this Slideshare

201 knockout answers to tough interview questions from Laukik Bajpai

Worth having a look anyway :-)

Let me know if you find any beauties...
- Amy Bowler > Mike Collins May 12, 2015 at 2:28pm
  
  This is also a great read! Thanks Mike.
  
  Amy
- Toril Simpson > Mike Collins June 9, 2014 at 12:59pm
  
  Thank you Mike! I also found this link very useful too:
  
  http://humanresources.about.com/od/interviewing/a/interview_odd.htm
  
  I will have a look at the slides, much appreciated!
  
  Toril
  - Amy Bowler > Toril Simpson May 12, 2015 at 2:25pm
    
    Great link Toril, thank you for sharing this. I am holding a group interview on Friday and will definitely take some tips from here.
    
    Amy
    - Blake Henegan > Amy Bowler June 2, 2015 at 8:06am
      
      Try some of these as well. Came from Glassdoor's top 10 oddball questions:
      
      1. "What would you do if you were the one survivor in a plane crash?"
      2. "What's your favourite 90s jam?"
      3. "If you woke up and had 2,000 unread emails and could only answer 300 of them, how would you choose which ones to answer?"
      4. "Who would win a fight between Spiderman and Batman?"
      5. "If you had a machine that produced $100 for life what would you be
      willing to pay for it today?"
      6. "What did you have for breakfast?"
      7. "How would you describe the colour yellow to a blind person?"
      8. "If asked to unload a 747 full of jelly beans, what would you do?"
      9. "How many people flew out of Chicago last year?"
      10. "What's your favourite Disney Princess?"
Alison Simmons June 5, 2014 at 2:57pm

Hi Toril,

I think that is a really good question.

I have only carried out technical interviews recently. I know you said you didn't want anything that had been googled to death and this may well have been, but I thought this was a decent selection of ideas from Monster: ethics interview questions

As an alternative you could draw up a few real live scenarios (maybe exaggerated a bit for effect!) and ask them how they would respond and why. Or you could ask for examples from them, of when they might have considered ethical problems, to see how conversant they are with the concept and to get a feel for their values. (the latter is included on the Monster list)