What’s Your Biggest Weakness? And Other Poor Questions!

Be it Interim or Permanent, we all want to attract the best candidates in the Food Manufacturing Sector to our company.  Attracting the best talent is challenging to say the least.  When you go out and find exceptional candidate profiles, can you honestly say you are doing your bit in making sure you get the best fit for your business?

Here are some questions we suggest you don’t ask prospective candidates and why.  We’ve also offered a few alternatives.

1.  “What is your biggest weakness?”

Every candidate knows how to answer this question: Just pick a theoretical weakness and magically transform that flaw into strength!

Here’s a better question: “Tell me about the last time a co-worker or customer got angry with you?”

Conflict is inevitable when a company works hard to get things done. Mistakes happen. Strengths do come to the forefront, but weaknesses also rear their heads. A person who tends to push the blame and the responsibility for rectifying the situation onto someone else is a candidate to avoid. You’d much rather choose candidates who focus not on blame, but on addressing and fixing the problem.
Every business needs employees who willingly admit when they are wrong, step up to take ownership for fixing the problem and most importantly, learn from the experience.

2:  “Tell me a little bit about yourself.”

The candidate’s CV and cover letter should tell you a lot. LinkedIn, Google  and contact feedback can tell you more.

So you should already know a lot about the candidate before the interview starts.

Your goal is to determine whether the candidate will be outstanding in the job and that means evaluating the skills and attitude required for that job. ‘Do they need to be an empathetic leader?’ Ask about that. ‘Do they need to influence board members?’ Ask about that.  Know as much as you can about the candidate ahead of time, and then ask questions designed to connect your own dots.

3:  “Out of all the other candidates, why should we hire you?”

Since a candidate cannot compare themselves with people they don’t know, all they can do is describe their incredible passion, desire and commitment. Way too many interviewers ask this question and then sit back, arms folded, as if to say, “Go ahead. I’m listening. Try and convince me.”

And you learn nothing of substance.

Here’s an alternative: “What do you feel I need to know that we haven’t discussed?” Or even, “If you could re-answer one of my questions, how would you answer it now?”

Rarely do candidates come to the end of an interview feeling they’ve done their best. Maybe the conversation went in an unexpected direction. Maybe the interviewer focused on one aspect of their skills and totally ignored other key attributes. Or maybe candidates started the interview nervous and hesitant, and now wish they could go back and better describe their qualifications and experience.

We have many more interview questions and advice we can help you with.  Have you seen our e book “The Seven Deadly Sins” – Seven questions you should never ask in an interview? Click here to get your free copy.

Regards

Denis & Zoe