Revealing and Thought Provoking Questions to Ask Applicants at Job Interviews

It's very challenging for any hiring manager to devise insightful, thought provoking questions that reveal important qualities about the job applicant.

Questions like What is your greatest strength?", "What is your greatest weakness?" and similar questions that were once considered to be very revealing are now routine interview questions. In fact, headhunters and various employment web sites and countless books and magazine articles actually coach job applicants how to answer questions like these

That's why hiring managers need to develop a repertoire of questions that help them gain valuable insights into applicants, their values, attitudes and above all, the way they will interact with customers and co-workers. Here are a group of questions that have proven to be effective in providing these insights and opening up informative avenues of discussion during job interviews:

"If you took over running company tomorrow, what is the first thing you would do?"

"Your brother or sister ... or best friend works for this compay too. You have to fire him or her because of poor performance. Describe how would you would conduct the termination meeting."

"Describe the toughest employee situation you've ever had to deal with."

"Do you believe the customer is "king" and the focus of all a company's business activities?"

"How far would you go to get or retain any customer?"

"Do you believe it is alright to "stretch the truth" in advertising or a sales presentation? If so, how far?"

"Would you describe yourself as a team player or a super star?"

"In terms of meeting profit objectives and sales goals, do you believe that 'the means justfies the end'?"

"What would you do if you discovered that a team member of yours was not acting in accordance with company policies or acceptable business behavoir or practices? "

"Which is more important your job or your personal life?"

Happy hiring.