EC
Intensive Interview Guide
From the question sets below, mark the questions that you like (apply best to your recruiting situation). Use the blank box to add questions that you see relevant to your hiring initiatives.
|
ATTITUDE
|
||
|
Ask Yourself |
Ask the Candidate |
Like? |
|
· Can he bounce back easily · What is her ability to compete |
1. Think about a time when you lost in a competition. How did you feel? What did you do as a result?
|
|
|
· Is he loyal · Is she a cooperative team player |
2. Think about your most challenging boss. How did you deal with him/her? Give an example.
3. Think about a time you were part of team. What was your role? How did you contribute to the success of your team?
|
|
|
· Does he take pride in his job |
4. Give me an example of a challenging task you were given. How did you go about completing it? What was the outcome?
5. What is your greatest accomplishment to date? How did you achieve this?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MOTIVATION
|
||
|
Ask Yourself
|
Ask the Candidate |
Like? |
|
· What is important to him · What rewards are most satisfying |
6. When and how did you develop an interest in selling? What do like most/least about selling? Why?
7. How will this job help you get what you are looking for?
|
|
|
· What level of effort is she willing to put in the job |
8. What obstacles might stand in the way of you achieving your goals? How would you handle these?
|
|
|
· Does he understand that success will be measured based on performance |
9. Tell me about a time when you did not achieve your goals for a given period. How did you feel and what did you do?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
INITIATIVE
|
||
|
Ask Yourself
|
Ask the Candidate |
Like? |
|
· Is he a self-starter |
10. How (or why) did you choose to get into sales?
11. What do you like most or least about selling? Why?
|
|
|
· How does she go about completing tasks · How does he follow through on assigned tasks
|
12. Tell me about a particular challenging task that you had to complete by a deadline.
|
|
|
· Can she work independently |
13. What is your preference for working alone or with others? Give me an example.
14. Tell me about a time when you had to complete a task on your own. How did you go about doing this and what was the outcome?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
STABILITY
|
||
|
Ask Yourself
|
Ask the Candidate |
Like? |
|
· Is he excitable or even tempered · Is she impatient or understanding · Is he poised or impulsive · Is she controlled or erratic |
15. What things disturb you most at work? Give me an example of how you handled (one of these things).
16. Think of a customer (or person) you dislike; how do you typically deal with him/her.
17. What was your most unpleasant work experience? How did you handle it?
|
|
|
· Will he rise or fold under pressure
|
18. Tell me about a make or break situation that your were in (sales or personal). How did you handle it? What was the outcome? What do you attribute to this outcome?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PLANNING
|
||
|
Ask Yourself
|
Ask the Candidate |
Like? |
|
· Ability to plan and follow through |
19. What do you do to plan for your work day?
20. What do you do to plan for your work week?
21. Do you consider planning an important part of a salesperson’s success? Why or why not?
|
|
|
· How does he plan and utilize time
|
22. Take me through how you spend a typical work day?
23. Give me an example of what you consider time spent at work wisely?
24. Give me an example of what your consider time spent at work wasted or unwisely?
|
|
|
· Where does she plan to be in the future |
25. Where do you see yourself 5 years from now? How do you plan to get there?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
INSIGHT
|
||
|
Ask Yourself
|
Ask the Candidate |
Like? |
|
· Is he realistic in appraising himself |
26. Give me an example of how you demonstrated one of your strengths.
27. Give me example of how you overcame one of your weaknesses.
|
|
|
· Desire for self-improvement
|
28. Given one of your weaknesses, what are you doing to improve in that area?
29. How will improving on one of your weaknesses will impact your job performance?
|
|
|
· How does she respond to constructive criticism |
30. What is the most useful constructive criticism that you have received? From whom? Why did you consider it useful? What did you do with this feedback?
31. What was the most useless constructive criticism you have received? From whom? Why did you consider it useless? What did you do with this feedback?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LEADERSHIP and SOCIAL SKILLS
|
||
|
Ask Yourself
|
Ask the Candidate |
Like? |
|
· Is he a leader or follower |
32. Tell me about a time when you had the opportunity to organize a group? How did you go about doing it? Did you consider it effective? Why or why not.
33. Would you prefer to lead a group or be led? Why?
|
|
|
· Interested in new ways of dealing with people
|
34. Tell me about a time when you had to convince someone or a group of people to do something your way? What methods did you use? Why was it effective (or why not)? Going forward would you use the same or different method(s)? Why?
|
|
|
· Can she adapt to all kind of people · Is he willing to be exposed to new people |
35. What kinds of people do you best get along with? Why?
36. What kinds of people do you least get along with? Why?
37. Do you prefer making new friends or are you satisfied just keeping old friends? Why?
38. If you were at a party where you knew nobody, what would you do?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SALES RELATED COMPETENCIES
|
||
|
Ask Yourself
|
Ask the Candidate |
Like? |
|
· Is he goal setting focused · Is she goal accomplishing focused
|
39. Give me an example of a time when you set a goal that you were able to meet or achieve?
40. Describe how you set your goals last year. How did you measure attainment of those goals?
41. Tell me about a time that you were assigned a goal that you felt was unattainable. How did you handle it? What was the outcome?
|
|
|
· Does he possess effective oral communication skills
|
42. Tell me about a time when you had to convey or communicate a very complex or difficult idea to someone (or a group). How did you explain it? Were you successful? Why or why not?
43. Give me an example of a time when you successfully communicated an idea to a customer that you did not like. How did you do this?
|
|
|
· Does she possess effective presentation skills |
44. Describe a time when, after a presentation, you were faced with a hostile questioner. How did you handle this? What was the outcome?
45. Describe a time when, while making a presentation, you could tell your audience was confused. How did you handle this? What was the outcome?
46. Describe the most important presentation that you ever had to make. What did you do to prepare? What was the outcome?
|
|
|
|
|
|