What kinds of interview questions are most effective?
There are two main types of questions that are effective: past experience questions, and situational questions. • A past experience question is one where the candidate is asked to give an example where he/she used a particular skill, or dealt with a particular situation, in the past (e.g., “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a customer who was very upset. What was the situation and how did you handle it?”). In general, past experience questions are better since the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. • A situational question is one where the candidate is asked how he/she would handle a situation (e.g., “Suppose you were a supervisor in this department and one of your best employees said she was going to quit. What would you do?”). Situational questions are appropriate when the candidate may not have past experience in the competency area for which information is being collected.
