Be careful what you say when interviewing potential employees: Various federal and state laws protect job applicants from discrimination related to their nationality, family status, disability, sex, age, or religion. Phrasing a question incorrectly — even if you’re simply making small talk — could put you at risk of a lawsuit.

You’re working to fill a high-level position and have narrowed the field of job applicants to three promising candidates.?It’s time to bring them in for interviews. Your goal is to move beyond their glowing resumes and get a peek at their professional souls. But you’re unsure what types of questions will help you accomplish this. The Intuit Small Business Blog recently talked with a few hiring managers and small-business owners about the key questions they like to ask when interviewing potential employees. Here’s what they said.

When did you begin to work and why??This question can tell you a lot about your candidate’s work ethic. “The best responses are those where the candidate began doing a job such as cutting grass, shoveling snow, or working retail in high school or before,” says Bill Humbert, owner of the recruitment website?RecruiterGuy.com. Research shows that an individual’s?work ethic is typically developed during childhood, so early jobs are a good indicator that the candidate will be a dedicated worker. If the interviewee didn’t do paid work, ask what he or she did instead. If he spent 20 hours a week at football practice or caring for four younger siblings while his mother worked, he’ll likely have the drive you’re looking for. If he tells you he watched?I Love Lucymarathons every afternoon, he’s probably not the one you want.

 

What is the biggest mistake you’ve? ever made on the job??Anyone can brag about past successes, but an employee who learns from her mistakes is a valuable asset. Thus, it’s important to be able to discuss failures openly and honestly. Ask the candidate for details about what she did wrong, and encourage her to reflect on what she’d do differently next time around. If a candidate can’t come up with a response, “they are either lying or they have never taken chances — and thus are unlikely to? help grow the business,” says Guy Smith, principal and chief consultant for?Silicon Strategies Marketing.


What do you ?find most and least attractive about this position??To best fill that open position, you want a candidate who isn’t looking for?a?job — he’s looking for?this?specific job. This question will help you determine how well the candidate understands your company, what’s required in the role, and his attitude toward it. “If the ?least attractive thing is one of the job’s main functions, it probably won’t?be a good fit down the road,” says Crissy Gershey, vice president of sales and marketing for?Parties That Cook, a company that stages team-building cooking parties for Fortune 500 companies.

How many windows are there in New York City??Sara Schoonover, vice president of the legal service?TicketKick, asks this question to potential employees, knowing that they can’t answer it on the spot. However, their responses provide valuable insight into how they approach difficult questions. “It gives ?the interviewer a way to see how the candidate deals with [solving] problems,” she says. “Did they? attempt to figure it out at all, or did they immediately give up?” These types of questions are legendary in Silicon Valley for helping to measure how well candidates think on their feet.

 

by?Kathryn Hawkins

How good an interviewer are you? The questions you ask during the interview process are your only real chance to get to know the person you’re about to give tens of thousands of dollars per year to.

With that in mind, here are three of the best interview questions you can ask during the interview process… and three of the worst. Remember, of course, that good interviewers will prepare for all kinds of questions, so you may have to tweak these queries or dig deeper to get a true and natural response.

Best:?What’s your ideal job?

A recruiter once suggested that this single question tells a lot about a person. Someone who answers, “No more than 45 minutes from my house and being allowed to telecommute part of the time” indicates one type of candidate. But here’s an answer you might hear: “I like a challenge, so my ideal job is one that challenges me. I like people, so I’d like to work on a team. But I also like being given responsibility for creating something, so ideally I’d like to work on my own part of the time, too.” If you want to find a candidate who will be an asset to your organization, make questions like this a key part of your interviewing process.

Best: What do you do in your free time?

This is a standard interview question, so candidates may be expecting it and have a prepared, half-true response. But, like the ideal job question, the answer (if legit) can tell you a lot about the person, namely whether they’re well-rounded.

Best: What have your colleagues said about you?

This is another question to help you learn about a candidate, but it lets you get away from the overdone and boring “Tell me about yourself.” It’s also enlightening to see stories what the person picks to relate to you.?You might?follow that question with “Why do you think they said that?” to learn even more.

Worst:?What’s a problem you’ve encountered and how did you solve it?

There?has to?be a business book promoting this question, because it’s a favorite among interviewers. Granted, how a candidate answers this question reveals a lot about him or her as a problem-solver. But not everyone has had a huge enough problem to relate. What is that person supposed to say? A better question is “Tell me about a memorable experience you had on the job.” We’ve all had one of those.

Worst: Where do you see yourself in five years?

Candidates usually know that to be on the safe side, they should answer along the lines of, “I would hope to be promoted during that time as a result of my hard work.” ?It sounds as if the interviewer is fishing to see if the person plans to stay around and the answer rarely has any value.

Worst:?What kind of animal are you most like?

Some prospective employers actually ask this question (and others like it), probably because they’re trying to be creative or see how creative the candidate is. But it reveals very little other than what exhibits the candidate may like to check out at the zoo. There’s just no rhyme or reason for including this question or similar ones.

by?Patricia Olsen