Interviews are such an interesting thing – you are meant to predict future performance, as well as fit, from a candidate whose goal it is to present themselves in the best light possible, revealing only the information that highlights their supposed strengths. It can be hard to glean the truth from the confident and polished package presented from you. And it can be hard to determine how much of someone’s future employability can be revealed from what they chose to share of their past employment.
That leaves a lot to the strength of the questions you ask; interview answers are only as good as the interview questions.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of standard and not-so-standard interview questions out there, some vastly more useful than the others. And I am sure we all have our favourite standby question to ask potential employees to try to gauge their suitability for the position in question as well. Mine?
“What would make you quit a job?”
Here’s why I love this question:
- It’s novel enough that most people haven’t heard it before, and therefore rehearsed their response;
- You get insight into what they find unsuitable work behaviour, which gives you a valuable glimpse into their values; and
- It often leads them into a story about a former work environment that will offer you further opportunity for an interesting, and spontaneous, conversation. I find they often reveal times when they quit jobs that you otherwise would not have known about.
A skilled interviewer also need to know when to break free from a script and follow their intuition about what line of questioning will be the most revealing. But this all starts with a great question, and a willingness to find out, from both parties, whether you have found a suitable match. What makes someone leave a job is one of those questions, in my experience, that leads to honest discourse and better hires.
