Confused about What to Ask When Hiring Employees for Your Company? We’ve Got You Covered.
Over the last 10 years over 100 people have worked with us to build Alux at different stages. Some of them have secured high quality jobs in related industries and a handful have stuck with us since the beginning.
There’s a secret to hiring talented people and keeping them engaged.
After battle testing multiple variations, here are the 15 Questions We ask when hiring people at Alux!
Go through them and see if you can use any of them in your company, or maybe you’d want to join ours!
As usual, here’s the video version of this article:
With that done, let’s jump into it!
1
I’ve Read Your CV but Tell Me Your Story
We actually go through every applicant we receive, no matter if they’re super young and just starting out, or someone with experience.
Only hire people who you genuinely enjoy spending time with!
The reason we love asking this question is that your CV isn’t who you are, we are the product of our life stories and although technical skills are a requirement for technical positions you’re better off hiring based on personality than just a spreadsheet.
A good hire is a mix of skills, personality and motivations, this question allows you to figure all 3 out broadly.
It’s also an opportunity for them to open up and don’t worry, they won’t take as long as you think they would.
2
What’s One Hard Moment You’ve Had to Overcome and How Did You Do It?
This one is all about character.
The sooner you determine someone’s true character, the sooner you figure out the fit.
Working in a fast-changing environment such as the one ALUX is in, will bring a constant flow of challenges.
You want people who are creative problem solvers and this gives you a glimpse into that.
3
What’s One Achievement You’re Really Proud Of?
The main reason we love asking this question is because it sets the bar on what they consider an achievement.
One of our core values is excellence and you can tell if they fit in with that.
It also gives you a glimpse into the things one is proud of and from this you can derive the things that motivate them. You can drill in a little bit and identify what exact roles they played in the process and what things didn’t go according to plan.
Great achievements always require great sacrifices!
A smart follow up is identifying what they had to sacrifice to get the achievement.
4
What Motivates You?
The secret to keeping people long term is aligning the company’s journey with that of their own.
Don’t accept superficial or standard answers, you want to dig as deep as possible, for the more you understand what drives them, the more effectively you can deploy their skill set.
In our experience here are the 5 most common motivators we’ve identified:
- Money & Rewards – people who say money isn’t important are either rich already or lying.
- Desire to excel – these are the people who want to continuously improve their skill-set and if your workplace fits that description they will join the ride as long as it benefits their growth.
- Having an impact & helping others – for them money is not the primary driver, they want to know they matter.
- Power, Fame & Clout – they want to feel important and they will leverage your company to broaden their reach
- Passion – these are the people who would do this even if they were not paid.
Figure them out!
5
What’s Your Superpower? What’s Your Kryptonite?
We strongly believe that every individual has a super-power. The sooner you identify their superpower the sooner you can deploy them to their full potential.
It’s always fun to see just how amazingly accurate people are at identifying their strengths.
Instead of wasting time, just be a straight shooter. Find their superpower as well as the thing they need to improve the most. As an example: Creative people are usually bad at structured tasks, so never give superman something to do in a room made out of kryptonite; you’ll waste everybody’s time.
6
Tell Me How You Deal With (Something You Worry about the Candidate)?
You can usually tell fairly quickly what kind of person someone is, especially if you’ve done this a couple of times before.
Some people are ideas generators, some are creatives and some are great executioners.
Their kryptonite is usually at the other end of the productivity spectrum.
Instead of having a predetermined impression about them and shutting them down, allow them the opportunity to win you over.
7
What’s the Biggest Mistake You’ve Made?
Let’s be honest, mistakes and failures – very much like thanos – are inevitable.
For some people this is a very difficult question. You want to see that they are able to comprehend, analyze and breakdown their past performance.
This will come naturally for people who are looking to self-improve; You want to hire them.
If you’re scared of making mistakes, avoid them by checking out 15 Biggest Career Mistakes.
8
What’s Something People Usually Misunderstand about You?
You might be surprised but this is actually one of the most valuable questions for the job in the interview.
We’re all misunderstood in some way and it’s the perfect opportunity to really get to know them beyond the facade.
This is where they reveal the other side of the coin that’s not on display all the time.
9
Who Was Your Best Boss? Who Was Your Worst Boss?
Everyone has a different style of leadership.
This question is designed for you to identify if they fit with yours.
Don’t be scared to drill them for details. What made that specific boss so great or so terrible?
This allows you to identify the leadership tools they respond best to and push the right buttons to motivate.
10
Will People Follow You Here?
One thing we’ve learned first hand is that:
Everyone in your company is a recruiter!
The people that stuck with us the most were those brought in by other happy employees.
They get us, they get the culture and there’s an undisclosed responsibility that comes with sticking your neck out for someone else.
If you want your company to grow, the best place to start is to expand from within.
11
How Do You Decide What to Do Next in Life?
We’re all constantly evolving individuals. What we found is that there are certain phases of someone’s career path: If you don’t promote them, if there’s not room for growth or to reinvent themselves in a different area of the company, they will leave you for some place where they can do so.
We like asking this question because they’re at an inflection point right now as they are taking the job interview.
Pay attention to what they answer, for it will determine the path they will take at the end of their current phase.
12
What Do You Do for Fun?
Let’s be real, building a company brick by brick is a lot of hard work. You need to understand the full spectrum of someone’s personality if you really want to get to know them.
At ALUX we want to be excited by the things that we’re building. Almost every new project we’ve challenged ourselves with, be it with the original travel videos or courses, we’ve had a blast putting them together.
A good team works effectively together, but it can also have fun as a group.
If you vibe together, you can build together.
13
What Do You like about Alux?
With this question we’re looking to see how much they understand what our company is. You want to hire people who are aware of the things you’re building, the feel connected to the vision you portray and want to be part of that process.
It also serves 2 secret purposes:
- It allows you to understand what external people appreciate about your company.
- It gives you a glimpse into your differentiator in the marketplace.
14
If You Could Improve One Thing at Alux, What Would It Be?
This is where you see if they have an eye for improvement. Builders can point immediately to a few things that they can sort out. This makes them seem serious and ready to put in the work.
For example, we know our instagram could be improved, so we’re looking for someone who’s embedded into the culture to take over that. Our courses are incredible, but we don’t have a dedicated person focusing exclusively on promoting them. Some of the scripts could always use a little more work.
We recently hired an incredible community manager in order to make sure there’s a human being answering your questions be it via email or in our mastermind groups.
You want people who are able to identify the holes in your boat and be willing to fill them up for you.
15
What Questions Do You Have for Me?
An interview isn’t a one way street. Best practice is to reserve 10 minutes in the interview and answer any questions they might have about the job. This is where you sell the vision for the company and make sure they understand where this boat is headed.
Never neglect the fact that they are interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them.
As a good rule of thumb, they should always have 1 or 2 questions about the job ready before the interview.
For interviewees, here’s a pro-tip: always ask how your performance will be measured and how you will know if you do your job right.
This clarifies the terms of the deal and what your focus is.
Question:
And since this is a conversation with our community, we want to pass the question off to you:
What’s your favorite question to ask in the interview when hiring someone for the job?
Let us know in the comments! We’re genuinely interested in picking up some valuable ones from you guys!
