Here are some of the typical questions I’ve used in group interviews. Keep in mind that I’m only looking for cultural fit and leadership at this stage.

• What are your favorite books/magazines?
• What is your favorite movie/why?
• What car is most similar to you & why?
• What was the most stressful time of your life and why?
• What was the most complex project you ever led and why?
• What stresses you out?
• Why do you want to work here?
• Who is the best candidate in the room?  Why?
• If we hired two people, who in this room would you want us to hire to work with you?
• When could you start and how much do you need to make year one? Year three?

I love this last question because candidates will actually give you the real dollar amount they’d work for versus an inflated number they’d give if no one else were around.

If you follow this process properly, you won’t overlook star candidates whose resumes you’ve already reviewed prior to inviting them to the group interview. The purpose of the group interview is to screen for cultural fit and leadership—that’s what gets candidates into a second interview.

I like to compare this process to a similar practice Steve Jobs initiated at Apple. He’d show a prototype of the Mac computer to prospective employees and if he couldn’t see the sparkle in their eyes when they first saw it, he didn’t bother interviewing them any further.

If you have hundreds of people applying for one job, how do you sort through all of the candidates to find the best of the best?

Easy. Group interviews.

It’s the fastest and most effective way to find the best cultural fit and identify the leaders in the group.

I studied a company called Mad Science out of Montreal that had a unique group interview process. It consisted of bringing eight candidates into a boardroom for 60 to 90 minutes. The candidates are told that they’ll be participating in a group interview in advance and then briefed on the group interview process before starting.  They advise the candidates that the interview is a ‘lightning round’ of sorts, and that they may be cut off once they answer.

When doing this, don’t appear disrespectful–although you want this to be a speedier process, a candidate should never be made to feel foolish. It’s a balancing act.

In a group interview of eight, you’ll usually find two to three candidates with whom you’ll want to do more in-depth interviews, and one that you’ll hire.

Let me know if you’d like 1 pager with the Group Interview system laid out for you.

The following interview questions are from a survey I found years ago and also include a bunch of my favorites.

I only listed the ones I really like best, categorized according to personal background, skills and abilities, academic preparation, and other topics.

This list of questions would be an excellent resource to use when preparing for interviews with prospective employees.

ABILITY TO DEAL WITH ADVERSITY, THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING

• What are your personal goals, and have you achieved them? If not, why?
• Who was the most difficult person you’ve dealt with? How did you respond?
• Describe a frustrating experience from work. How did you deal with it?
• What are some of the greatest personal challenges you have faced?
• How do you handle rejection?
• What aspects of your past jobs were most frustrating?
• What life experiences have given you the greatest reward?
• Can you tell me about the toughest job you’ve ever had?
• What was the most difficult aspect of obtaining a college degree?

CAREER GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

• What are your career interests?
• What are your standards of success/goals for a job?
• What are your goals and aspirations for the next three years?
• What are your long-range goals and how are you preparing to achieve them?
• If you could create the perfect job for yourself, what would you do?
• Please tell me about your plans for the future.
• What work would you like to do that really interests you?
• What is your timetable for achievement of your current career goals?

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

• What skills do you possess that will help make you successful in this job?
• Why should we hire you?
• Have you ever worked in a similar position with another organization, and what did you enjoy most about and least about it?
• Please discuss some of your past jobs and what you accomplished in them?
• What prior work experiences have you had?
• What were your accomplishments in these prior work experiences?
• Please tell me about the duties/requirements of your last job.
• Elaborate on one of the work experiences listed on your resume.
• What did you enjoy most about your previous job experiences? Least?
• In addition to your educational and professional experiences, what else would you like us to know about you in order to make an appropriate decision?
• What skills will you bring to the job that will enhance our team or company?

LEADERSHIP

• What are your major strengths and weaknesses?
• What did you see as your major strengths and/or weaknesses on this job?
• What would your last two employers say about you, good and bad?
• How would you describe your supervisory/leadership style?
• Who or what had the greatest influence on your life?
• Describe the difference between motivation and inspiration, and how these apply to you in the work environment.

INITIATIVE AND FOLLOW-THROUGH

• What are your greatest achievements at this point in your life?
• Tell me about your accomplishments during college that make you proudest.
• If friends/colleagues were to describe you to a stranger what would they say?
• What do you consider most important when evaluating yourself?
• What were your most significant achievements?

COMMUNICATION

• How would you describe your style of communication?
• Tell me about a time you had to sell an idea to someone else.
• What do you enjoy doing most?
• Tell me about a time you had to present information to a large group of people. How did you feel and how successful were you?

WORKING EFFECTIVELY WITH OTHERS

• How well do you work with others?
• What are some of the pros and cons of working on a team project?
• When have you led a team to achieve a specific goal, what were the results?
• What have you admired in people who have previously supervised your work? What haven’t you admired in these individuals?
• How would you resolve conflict in a group situation?

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

• What changes would you make in your school’s academic program?
• Tell me about a time you found a new and better way of doing something.
• What was the largest, most creative project you’ve been involved in to date?
• Tell me the most creative solution you have come up with to solve a problem.
• Tell me a time when you had to bring out the creativity in others.

DECISION-MAKING

• Please tell me about a conflict and how you resolved it.
• Tell me a time you had to make an important decision with limited facts.
• Tell me a time you had to make an unpopular decision.
• Tell me about a bad decision you made and what you would do differently?

DELEGATION AND ORGANIZATION

• How do you organize your day?
• Tell me about a time you delegated a project effectively.
• Describe to me a time when a supervisor delegated a task to you when you had a full workload. How did you handle the situation?
• Describe what your closets and garage look like today.

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SALES

• What personal qualities do you bring to this firm?
• Tell me about when you dealt with an irate customer.
• What does the term “the customer is always right” mean to you?
• What’s the best example of awesome customer service you’ve provided?

GENERAL

• What starting salary do you expect as an employee?
• When comparing one company offer to another, what factors will be important to you besides starting salary?
• Please tell me about yourself. How would you describe yourself?
• Name three people who have inspired you and why.
• What personal qualities do you bring to this firm?
• What do you know about our company?
• Why are you interviewing with us?
• Why do you want to work in the position you are seeking?
• What are your expectations of us?
• Why did you select us?

When interviewing job candidates, use what I call ‘The Reverse Sell.’

It involves being in a position of power throughout the interview and getting the candidate to sell themselves on the company and also on their skills in handling the job. When the interview is over, if the candidate is more excited than ever and really knows they can do the job and that you’ve raked them over the coals and might not offer them, then you’ve done your job.

Ensure any fears the candidate has are addressed during the interview.  Don’t handle them as they come up – instead, jot down their concerns or fears until later in the interview for just the right moment. This ensures you will handle them so the candidate isn’t worried about them and sees a few reasons within your system to minimize them.  “So, about an hour ago you asked about…”

Reverse selling occurs by emphasizing how hard a position will be and getting the candidate to sell you on why he or she is right for the job.

In addition, ‘reverse selling’ also occurs by stating the concerns you might have about a candidate’s weaknesses. For example, you might say, “It appears your computer skills are very poor and will hurt you. Can you address that with me?”

And all of your questions should be asked by the end of the interview. Leave no stone unturned.

Regardless of what department you’re hiring for, if someone can’t passionately sell themselves to you on why they’re what you’re looking for, walk away.  You’re doing them a disservice if you hire them.

By the way, this works in franchising too – don’t sell franchises, award them to qualified candidates who really sell you on their skills.

Most top performers work for really average companies.

Your job is to find the amazing people that work somewhere else and get them to work for you.

Don’t make a habit of recruiting and hiring unemployed people.  Find the go-getters that have jobs right now!

On the day Intrawest Ski Resorts were acquired by Fortress, I was on the phone to all the top people at the company telling them I wanted to hire everyone good because it was going to implode.

I eventually hired five of their key people over the next three months because I knew that these people had already been working for a high performance organization. I just went out and got them. It was as easy as that.

Getting the right people can be easy if you’re willing to make it happen.  I often see entrepreneurs struggle because they don’t know how to seek out exceptional people or they don’t work hard enough searching for the gems.

My grandfather, Cam Shortts, who recently died at 96, taught me how to hire great people. He owned a hunting and fishing resort in Northern Ontario called Lift-The-Latch Lodge, and he’d take me duck hunting as a teenager.

Grandpa always knew exactly what kinds of ducks he wanted before we set out to hunt: blue-winged teals, mallards, wood ducks and canvas backs. He also knew what kind he didn’t want: fish ducks. Before we set out on any hunting expedition, he made it clear what his goals were, and that our reward was only as worthwhile as the ducks we’d selected.

Recruiting the right people is just like duck hunting: you must have a crystal clear picture in your mind of exactly what you’re looking for, and good aim.

You also need to be sure that all new hires will truly impress every person they interact with, whether it’s customers, strategic partners, vendors, the media, or the public at large.

So know exactly who you want to hire, go find them, and shoot them out of the sky.

If you’re not currently setting goals to be in better shape, you know what you need to do.

Trust me – your back problems and evolving double chin will disappear faster than you think.

“Ya I just don’t have time to work out.” Neither does Barack Obama, but he’s hard in the gym for an hour in the morning, 6 days a week.

Don’t you hate it when I’m right?

Also, when recruiting, look for athletes and hire people who play sports actively.

Look for team players.  Look for those with athletic goals as adults.  Those who wake up working out hard will work hard in their jobs.  Those who sit on the couch watching TV that makes them dumber will produce similar results at work.

pic Eden Prairie News

How many employees do you need? When do you want them? Do you need to hire them all at once, or spread out over time? Perhaps you’ll want a few extra. What happens if someone quits? What about temporary staff? What if your employees leave for another company?

These kinds of thoughts and questions will arise with anyone who hires people.

Regardless of what you’re thinking, remember one thing above all else: If you scramble to hire, it’s game over. You lose.

To hire one truly remarkable person, I like to interview at least five to eight people. However I often interviewed many more to find truly stellar folk. On average, I’ve had 250 resumes and conducted 16 interviews to hire just one person.

But those numbers are only for top performing companies…

I once traveled to Boston with a colleague to hire for a position. After three intense days of back-to-back interviews, we ended up flying home empty-handed. We interviewed sixteen candidates, in multiple interview rounds. We combed through close to 150 resumes. Still, we walked away because we just didn’t find the right person.

There are 300 million people living in the United States and 35 million in Canada.  The right people exist for every role. You just have to keep looking. Trust your gut, too.  When your gut says, ‘no’ don’t let yourself keep trying to make it say ‘yes.’

Patience is a virtue when you’re hiring. Be willing to wait for the right person.

Most “A” players aren’t out there looking either, so you might just have to shake the tree a few more times…

The best potential employees aren’t looking for a job because they’ve already got one. That’s why you have to poach them.

In close to thirty years of my professional life, I’ve only had two job interviews. The rest of the time I was poached by one company while working for another.

I always advise the CEOs that I mentor that there are lots of reasons why finding the right people is hard, but if you want your business to be exceptional, your staff must be exceptional people. It takes work but it’s worth the investment of time.

I had to remind someone of this while on a multi-city speaking engagement. At a talk in Sydney, Australia, a member of the audience commented, “What you don’t realize is we have a really tight economy in Sydney right now, and there are just no employees out there. We have the lowest unemployment in forty years.” I replied that I felt her pain—in Vancouver, we were at the lowest in fifty years! But honestly, I asked, what difference does it make? Even in tight job markets the great employees still exist, they’re just working somewhere else.

Poach them!  Show them why working for you is WAY better!

Every company has them.  Most CEOs don’t know who they are.  In fact most companies miss the diamonds sitting right in front of them.

Instead of going outside your company and recruiting people, companies need to really get to know their own people first.  Every company has diamonds in the rough.

The other day I met with an employee from a well known Vancouver company.  The employee is fantastic.  Yet due to some internal politics they are being kept in ‘their box’ and aren’t getting any visibility with the CEO and leadership.  Shame.  Because if the leaders don’t quickly see what this person has to offer a) they’ll leave and b) someone else will ‘hire a superstar’ from outside.

I coach CEOs that they should be spending time each week getting to know the talent they have 2-3 levels beneath them on the Org Chart.  CEOs should be figuring out who they have on their bench that are not being challenged yet by their VPs & Directors.

Years ago I found numerous employees who were diamond in the rough but worked in completely different business areas than they do now.  By spending time with them on the floor, going for coffee with them, getting to know their personal dreams, and as Tom Peters challenged us to do in his book In Search of Excellence with MBWA (Management By Walking Around), I uncovered the diamonds.

Who are your company’s diamonds?  Who will find them first?  You or the competition?