10 Strategic Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

In this competitive digital era, finding a candidate that fulfills all the requirements of a vacant position in your office is quite challenging.

You need to make a good effort to ensure that you find good employees by conducting good interviews and asking the right questions.

Making your interviews smooth and efficient is important to get good results and catch the right candidates for your vacant positions.

So many candidates are coming to the market to get the job, but finding the right candidates for your vacant positions is quite challenging.

Here in this article, we will learn about 10 Strategic questions you can ask candidates to make your vacant position get quality candidates.

10 strategic interview questions to ask candidates:

1. Tell Me Something That Isn’t on Your Resume
2. How Do You Solve Complicated Situations You Face?
3. Tell me About your Strength
4. Do you Have Any Weaknesses?
5. How do you Work for Self Improvement?
6. Would you be able to Manage Tight Deadlines?
7. What is your Most Favourite Project you have Worked on?
8. What do you Expect from your Workplace?
9. How does your Co-worker Describe You?
10. Do you have Any Questions for me?

1. Tell Me Something That Isn’t on Your Resume:

The resumes of potential employees are crucial to your selection procedure. You need to go through resumes to shortlist potential applicants before you can start conducting interviews. When deciding which candidates to interview, reviewing their resumes to formulate insightful questions is helpful.

However, a resume is only the beginning of the hiring process. It isn’t enough to make a final decision on a candidate.

The answer to this question can shed light on a candidate’s character. There are a plethora of possible responses to this inquiry.

They may discuss an internship or job experience that isn’t immediately relevant to the position but that they feel helped them develop the skills necessary for success in the role.

Perhaps they have a common interest that allows you to gain insight into their personality and behavior when they are truly invested in a subject.

This is a great strategic interview question since you can learn something about the prospect no matter what they say.

2. How Do You Solve Complicated Situations You Face?

This inquiry into your recent habits is multifaceted. How a job candidate deals with pressure is a crucial trait. Professional development often occurs in the context of trying circumstances.

Take the candidate’s reaction seriously. Pay attention to how they sound when they talk, not simply what they say. Did your question take them aback? Did they take a defensive stance in response?

Instead, they could have talked about how adversity shaped them into who they are now.

A job seeker’s ideal response to this situation is to highlight the soft skills they acquired.

3. Tell me About your Strength:

Even though it’s been around for a while, this is a fantastic interview question. Evaluating a candidate’s fit with the organisation and the position is crucial to learning about their skills, particularly the ones they highlight themselves.

It’s just as vital to know someone’s strengths as it is to recognize their faults. When you know a candidate’s strengths, you can better assess how those skills will transfer to the position.

4. Do you Have Any Weaknesses?

This is a reasonable follow-up inquiry to the preceding one. Asking job applicants about their strengths is fine, but getting them to discuss their faults is also important.

When interviewing a candidate, this might be a highly revealing question. Do they believe they have no flaws? Do they feel less certain of their answers after seeing this question?

Candidates should respond to this question by outlining the areas they feel need improvement and then explaining how they have worked to turn those areas into strengths.

You may learn a lot about a candidate’s self-awareness, flexibility, and ability to handle criticism from how they respond to questions like that.

5. Do you Work for Self Improvement?

If the candidate answers “yes” to this question, you’ll know that they recognize their own fallibility and are open to constructive criticism.

Their response will demonstrate their goal-setting skills and dedication to their career. Can they see themselves taking on greater professional challenges, or are they content with where they are right now? Do they plan to stay in their current field or pursue other opportunities?

Perhaps this person wants to achieve a certain goal, advance to a higher leadership tier, or learn specific skills. To determine if an individual is a good cultural match, it is helpful to learn about their goals. Will they be a good long-term fit for your business? If that’s the case, the prospective employee is more likely to be invested in a long-term relationship with your business.

6. Would you be able to Manage Tight Deadlines?

This is a good topic to ask any prospective employee, but it’s especially pertinent when hiring for a position that regularly must meet critical deadlines.

You should be wary of the candidate if you think they tend to procrastinate until the very last minute before submitting their work.

It’s also alarming if they admit to missing deadlines more than a few times. It’s not a deal breaker if they can articulate a plan for improving in the future so they never miss another deadline.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate a history of meeting deadlines and describe the steps they take to ensure they do so.

7. What is your Most Favourite Project you have Worked on?

This is a terrific interview question to ask if you want to discover more about the candidate’s professional background and hobbies.

You can tell if they will appreciate their job responsibilities based on how much they enjoy doing the things they want to do. When workers enjoy what they’re doing, they’re more invested in their jobs. When workers are enthusiastic about their work, they produce better results.

In addition, you can use this opportunity to sell the candidate on the work if the position allows for some leeway or autonomy.

Make it clear that the chosen candidate will have autonomy over scheduling and the ability to initiate their own initiatives.

8. What do you expect from your Workplace?

Does the applicant place high importance on a positive work environment? How do you define a “good” work environment? By asking this question, you can tell if your company culture is a good fit for the candidate.

You can also use this question to share insight into the company’s ethos. Explain the advantages and privileges that are available. Describe the culture of the locals. Provide the candidate with more insight into your corporate culture.

It’s possible that the candidate’s expectations don’t mesh with your organization’s values. Then you’ll both realize why the relationship isn’t working.

9. How does your Co-worker Describe You?

This is a great interview question since it encourages the candidate to view the situation differently. How self-aware they are is also revealed by their response.

The candidate will be prompted to discuss their character and how they got along with others on past teams.

If they are the kind who quietly take notes during meetings, they might do well in an administrative assistant or accounting position. This candidate may not be the best fit if you’re looking to fill a leadership or sales post.

10. Do you have Anything to Ask me?

Last but not least, you should ask this at the very conclusion of the interview.

This question invites the interviewee to ask whatever question they like.

Typical interview questions concern the nature of the work, the interviewer, and possible career advancements at the company.

They could surprise you with something unexpected, so be ready. Offer to get back to them with the information if you don’t know it immediately. (And make sure you do follow-up).

They will hopefully come prepared with several questions and use the time they have left with you to focus on the most pressing ones. A top candidate will use the interview as an information-gathering opportunity.

If the applicant doesn’t ask any questions at the conclusion, that’s a bad flag, but you shouldn’t immediately dismiss them. Did they inquire about something previously in the interview just as a matter of course? Do they check their notes and tell you you’ve already answered their concerns? When deciding whether or not to answer this last question, keep the entire interview in mind.