Best Interview Questions

Come from Interview Questions Preparation

So how do you prepare your best interview questions? And how do you know which are good interview questions to ask.

There are 3 essential ingredients in any effective recruitment policy; the job description, the person specification and the selection criteria.

Each document consists of the following:

The job description.
A job description outlines the essential requirements and responsibilities of the job. Those tasks or duties of a job that MUST be done. The individual duties are often 'weighted' or listed as a percentage overall.

For example the job description for a receptionist position might list professionally handling all incoming customer enquiry, as one of the duties. Then under total time spent, it may have 80%. The other 20% of the day might be made up of other duties such as filing, administration etc.

A job description may also include the salary, the hours worked and reporting requirements of the position.

The person specification
A person specification lists the skills and knowledge needed to perform the duties of the position. Any formal training or qualifications necessary are also listed here along with characteristics or attributes required.

For example some positions involve dealing with irate customers. So a personal attribute necessary for those types of positions might be, the ability to remain calm during conflict.

It must be stressed that there are laws governing what can and can't be asked of applicants during a job interview. For more details see illegal interview questions.

The selection criteria
The selection criteria outlines the necessary qualifications, skills, prior experience and abilities that are necessary to perform the position.

They are usually listed as essential and desirable criteria or important and less important.

Interview Questions Preparation

What I have learnt and what I would like to share with you.

I have been responsible for performing one on one interviews and have also participated on interview panels as the ‘chairperson’.

These positions ranged from junior labouring positions to executive level management positions and everything in between.

Whilst employed for the Department of Defence I advised others in the interview and recruitment process. This included assisting management in compiling job descriptions, person specifications and selection criteria.

One question that I was constantly asked was ‘is all this BS really necessary’.

Well that depends really on what your goal is. Do you want to:

• Provide the best product and service to your customers
• Surround yourself with staff that are efficient and capable of doing the job required
• Reduce your staff turnover
• Increase turnover and at the same time increase profits
• Be able to take time off and leave your business in the hands of staff that you know are capable of ‘doing the job’.

If you have answered yes to any of these questions (and hopefully you will have if you’re in business for yourself) then the answer is YES. This ‘stuff’ really is necessary.

Whilst these documents are necessary, the amount of detail that you put into them will depend on the size of your business and your overall business objectives.

Businesses waste valuable resources in time and money every year by employing people who can't, or wont, do the job that they were employed for.

These documents not only help you to draft the best interview questions, but if sent out or emailed to potential applicants they can help to weed out unqualified candidates.

Many people apply for jobs they are not qualified for. These same people usually think twice when they are presented with a prepared list of criteria from a professional looking organisation.

It is much more cost effective to employ the right person in the first place then to have to re advertise, re interview, re hire and re train when your first choice doesn't work out.

By doing some interview questions preparation you will ask the best interview questions of every applicant.

Best Interview Questions
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Best Interview Questions
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