You want to hire for a new position and decide to interview your candidates using asynchronous video interviews.  After creating the job to post to your careers page, there’s always that one thought in the back of your mind: What are the best questions to ask candidates to see their fit with the position and the company?  Here, we answer this question so that both you and the candidates can make the most out of your time with the video interviews.  These questions are asked during the video interview so that you can narrow down the pool of candidates who will be invited for an interview in real-time.

Top Interview Question: Tell me About Yourself

This is a question that companies love to ask their candidates.  It not only gives you background information on the person, but it also helps you figure out why the candidate is the best one for the job.  They will be able to find out the hard skills, experiences, and soft skills the candidate has to bring to this position and how they will fit into the company.

Since this question is simply asking a candidate about himself, this question is a great opportunity to help the candidate relax.  If answered well, it’s also a great way for them to demonstrate clear and effective communication and professionalism.

Why Do You Want to Work At This Company?

This question is also a top one to ask candidates, because it will help you weed out the ones who are not passionate enough to research about your company.  It’s easy to spout something that could also apply to a bunch of other companies, but if the candidate is truly passionate about your company, they will point to specific programs in the company they’re excited about, will focus on how they can contribute to the company’s future growth, etc.  They will show their enthusiasm, and those are the hires you know will fit into the company.

What are Your Greatest Strengths?

This question is great because candidates can answer this question in a variety of ways.  The candidate can tie back their strengths with something they were waiting to mention but haven’t had the opportunity to yet.  Again, this question is very open, so the candidate may tie their strengths to an experience they’ve had or just list adjectives they think describes them.  If it’s the latter one, it may bring you to conclude that the candidate’s communication skills aren’t as developed.  However the candidate answers, you will be able to gain much insight into the candidate’s fit with the position.

What is Your Greatest Weakness?

Similar to the question of “What are your greatest strengths?,” this question helps you identify the candidate’s ability to be honest as well as their self-awareness.  A company cannot have a harmonious working environment if candidates are not willing to self-reflect and admit that they’re not always right and not always the best.  They need to be able to admit that there are still some things they need to improve on.  Of course, if there are any candidates whose responses raise major concerns, then it’s good you asked this question now instead of having this candidate create problems later down the line.

Tell Me About A Challenge or Conflict You’ve Faced at Work, and How You Dealt With It

This question is to make sure the candidate knows what to share and what not to share.  In the workplace, there are boundaries that need to be maintained⸺between an employee and a client, for example.  Pay attention to how they answer the question.  Do they overshare?  Do they show willingness to learn from their tough experiences?  Did the candidate try to resolve the issue or challenge?

Tell Me About A Time You Demonstrated Leadership Skills

Leadership is important in the workplace and can have a great impact on the group work required in a typical work environment.  If you’re thinking long-term, candidates with leadership skills have a higher chance of leading and being promoted within the organization.  Hiring people with leadership qualities, or even potential leadership skills will be able to help your company succeed in the long-run.  These types of people are more likely to move people towards a common goal, so if you want to see more motivation in your organization, leaders are an extremely important factor.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

It’s perfectly alright if the candidates don’t know where they’ll be in five years, but it is important that they see how this role will impact their direction.  If the candidates demonstrate that they have a clear goal in mind, then great!  It’s important to remember that although their goals should be realistic, it’s also fine if they show some ambition.

Conclusion

No matter what interview questions you ask, remember that this is your chance to narrow down the pool of candidates to interview.  You want to ask a combination of questions that will give you a holistic picture of how the candidate will fit into the position and into the company.  Happy hiring!

Interviewer.AI is a technology platform purposely built to support Recruiters and HR teams in finding top talent for their companies. Interviewer.AI is a state-of-the-art video recruiting software that uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) to screen in advance and shortlist the candidates that meet the criteria set. HR teams use the software to make the recruitment process more efficient and shorten the hiring cycle.  Learn more about how Interviewer.AI can help your business.

Increase your hiring team’s efficiency using a combination of resume scoring, skill assessment, and asynchronous video interviews. 

Hannah Ng is a Junior at Boston College studying Finance and Business Analytics.  She is currently an intern at Singapore for Interviewer.AI during the summer of 2022. 

Besides work, she is also very interested in hair styling and is responsible for her family’s hairstyles as a hobby.