Good Questions to Ask in an Interview

This list of good questions to ask in an interview can be very useful for every human resource manager when selecting job applicants whether he is qualified or not. After reading this list, you can make your own sample interview questions and answers easily. When selecting applicants, it would be nice if you will ask them about anything from personal information, goals and what can the applicant contribute to your company.

7 Good Questions to Ask in an Interview

When making questions, group your questions into seven (7) namely;

1. Personal Information
2. Family Background
3. Educational Attainment
4. Work History
5. Achievements and Awards
6. Goals, Career and Priority
7. Work Ethics and Attitude

Ask Personal Information

You can the applicant in an interview about his personal information, name, birthday and address. This should be the first step so that you can properly address the applicant using the correct name. If his name is John, he will get offended if you will call him Joey. And you will sound unprofessional if you mistakenly used incorrect names.

Photo: Samuel Mann via Flickr CC 2.0

Ask Family Background

A good questions to ask in an interview is about the applicants family background. Ask him the work of his parents, are his parents still alive, what his parents do for a living, how many siblings, is he the oldest child? Is he the breadwinner of the family? This will gave you information whether you will grant the applicant a job position or not. Because sometimes, it is worth having workers who are “breadwinners”. Most of them are hardworking and dedicated to their works. It is because they are working for their family not for themselves.

Educational Background

Ask the applicant about his education attainment. From which university did he graduated, what course and when did he attended the university.

This can guide you about the applicant if he is a “soon to become” professional. Also, it is a good question if you will ask the applicant about his eligibility. Example, is your applicant passed the board exam in civil engineering or is he a licensed architect.

Employment History

Another good questions to ask in an interview is the employment background of your applicant. Ask the applicant about the his latest employer, his duties and responsibilities, how many years did he working on that company, did he resigned or terminated?

These set of questions will guide you about the skills of your applicant. If your applicant is applying for a business manager but his previous work is barber or tattoo artist, will you accept him or choose another more qualified applicants.

Achievements and Awards

What are the achievements and awards of your applicant? Did he received “employees of the year” in his previous employer? Did he get the valedictorian when he was in high school and cum-laude when he graduated in college? Did he received the top seller awards from his previous company?

Let your applicant talk, it will be additional points for him if he will tell you all his rewards, accomplishments and achievements.

Goals, Career Growth and Priority

You can ask your applicant about his goal. Ask him the following questions;

1. If I will hire you, until when will you work for us? (Career Growth)
2. If the company need you on weekends, will you still work without complaining? (Priority)
3. What can you contribute to the company if I will hire you? (Goal)

You can make sample interview questions and answers using the “goal”, “career growth”, and “priority”.

Work Ethics and Work Attitude

You can simply ask your applicant whether he ,can work without supervision, or ask him if he experience angry customers and how did he deal with the angry and not satisfied customers.

Make Good Questions to Ask in an Interview

In the seven categories given to you by InvestmentTotal.com, you can build more questions on “goals, career growth and priority”. The first three categories are just the basic questions and answers. Don’t skip with the basic questions. You can make criteria for judging an applicant whether he passed the interview or not. Do not rely only to educational background, many people are skillful, deserving and can help your company grow without having a good educational background. That’s why it is necessary to ask the applicants achievements and awards, his duties and responsibilities in his previous job.

It’s up to you if you will accept the over confident applicants when answering your questions or accept those applicants with good employment history, awesome work ethics and nice work attitude. Most of the time, the silent people are those silent workers making good results that can can help you build a better company.

Did you find this article useful? Let me know your thoughts and reactions on these 7 categories when making good questions to ask in an interview. Leave a comment below and share this article with your friends! Thank you!