Latest Strategic Interview Questions To Ask Applicants Guide

Tricky Strategic Interview Questions To Throw Applicants Off Balance: Career, Questions about Teamwork and leadership position and Personal

While preparing for a job interview, both the applicant and the employer must prepare for the interview. The employer (interviewer) is expected to prepare and research relevant questions to ask the applicant (interviewee) during the interview. As the interviewer, you wouldn’t want to repeat the same questions or wrack your head to come up with questions where there are none. It is essential and expected that both the interviewer and the interviewee do their homework and prepare adequately. While the applicant is prepared to answer questions, the employer should also be prepared to ask questions.

The decision to hire someone into your company has its fair share of challenges, one of which is “the right questions to ask your applicant.” This is a general problem every employer faced. This is primarily because questions are ways of getting to know someone better, search their inner mind, understand why they can/cannot do, area of expertise, and what you should expect. That is why it is essential to ask the right questions from your applicant so that at the end of the day, you would have had an incline into their world and know whether they are fit for the role or not. Apart from this, during the few hours, you spend asking questions from your soon-to-be employer, you will also be able to read their nonverbal expressions. The way they respond to a question, their comportment, body language, and language fluency is also significant.

Every employer would love to hire the best hands, professionals, and the right fit for the job, but for you to get the best, there’s a need to ask them the top strategic interview questions. These questions will guide you in selecting the best candidates as you already know that tons of applicants will be waiting for the interview. The first step an employer needs to take during his preparation for the interview is to “hunts for interview questions,” which will guide him. in this article, we have compiled a long list of interview questions for employers who needs them. These questions require applicants to think deeply, quickly, and out of the box. Most applicants are familiar with the common, general questions and can give you answers offhand without thinking about it. These questions you’re about to read are meant to stress the applicants and bring them outside their comfort zones.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Table of Contents | Strategic Interview Questions

Top strategic interview questions to throw applicants off balance:

1.1 Career Questions

1.2. Behavioural questions

1.3. Questions about Teamwork and leadership position

1.4. Questions about past works and experience

1.5 Questions about the role they’re applying for

1.6. Personal questions

1.7 Questions about self-awareness

1.8 Questions about passion and skills/abilities

1.9. Questions about company research

1.10. Situational questions

Career Questions

These are questions that give you an idea and let you know how ambitious your soon-to-be employee is. It will also help you understand their future dreams and where each candidate wants to be in some years. The truth is, not everyone is ambitious or has a long-term goal; some applicants are only looking for a simple way to make money at a particular time. They might not necessarily want to continue on that path. Career questions will help you know a candidate’s long-term goal if they have one, how proactive they are, and whether they’re ready to grow alongside the company.

Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?

A candidate who is sure of what he wants and wants to be in the nearest future won’t have a problem answering this. But one who doesn’t have the foresight or future goals will find it challenging. This question will also help you know if your company will be part of their future if you eventually appoint them. Apart from that, it will also help you to choose candidates with better offers, long term goals, and foresight.

How far are you willing to go to achieve your long-term goals?

1. For candidates who are hell-bent on succeeding, they will do anything legally and humanly possible to achieve their goals.
2. Here is a question that will help you understand your interviewee’s personality, whether they are goal-getters or just goal-setters.
3. Your candidate might want to become a CEO soon, but how far are they willing to go to achieve this? Do they give off a vibe that shows they are desperate? Are they ready to work hard for it?

What do you want to do differently in this job role that is different from the last one?

This interview question will give you an incline into what your ideal candidate is aiming at, what he’s willing to do for the company, and how they performed in their past job role.

In the next two years, what do you hope to have achieved in this job role?

Asking a candidate what they hope to have achieved in the coming years will show how ready they are to grow the company and themselves. From the answer they give, you will be able to deduce their vision for the organization and how willing they are to perform those tasks.

Behavioral Questions

1. These interview questions are modeled at helping you understand your applicant’s behavior and cognitive actions. 
2. They also help you analyze and understand how the applicants handle situations, other people, unpleasant experiences, and how fast/effective they can make decisions.

Tell me about when a customer publicly harassed you; what did you do, and how did you handle it?

Listen attentively to your applicant’s answer because it will help you to understand their personality. Do they retaliate with aggression, abuse, or emotionally? Did they tackle it diligently, and if such should happen again, will you accept the same approach?

If your boss or junior yelled at you over a work you didn’t attempt well, and as expected, what will be your reaction?

Well, your candidate might not be able to retaliate aggressively with their boss, but they might if it’s a junior worker. This question gives you an incline into their behavior, what they can do, and whatnot. This will also guide you, so you don’t appoint a hot-tempered worker for your organization.

Tell me about a time when you set a goal for yourself. How were you able to achieve it?

1. Is your ideal candidate able to achieve goals set by themselves, how fast, or do they give up easily?
2. The answer to this question will help you understand how organized, ready, and the plans your applicant will make to achieve the company’s goal.

What is your biggest fear relating to this position you’re applying for?

Everybody has a hidden fear, which they don’t usually talk about. You shouldn’t judge or blame your applicant if they tell you their fear. Your candidate might be scared of not performing up to expectations. 

If your coworker takes credit for a task you perform, how will you tackle it?

It hurts when you work tirelessly on a task, accomplish it, and another person takes the credit you deserve. Here is a question that will help you understand your applicant, how they react to things, and how they resolve issues. Do they take it too personally, mourn about it, gossip to others, or call the person ill names?

Tell me about a time you had a complicated working relationship with a colleague. What was the challenge, and how did you resolve it?

From your applicant’s response, you will learn how they resolve issues, relate with others, and how they will handle future occurrences.

Questions about Teamwork and Leadership Positions.

If one of your team members keeps coming late to meetings or absenting themselves without a genuine reason, how will you tackle it?

You don’t expect every team member to cooperate with you, and you must be ready to have a challenger. This question will help you understand your candidate’s approach and how to work with others as a team.

What style will you adopt if you are given a leadership position to hold?

The question will allow you to know if he or she is fit to be a leader, the kind of leader they will be (dictator or authoritative), and how they will resolve leadership-associated challenges.

Have you ever held a leadership position or appointed as a team leader? What were your most significant accomplishment and challenge?

Listen carefully to their answers; you will be able to know their weakness and strength.

What are the top five traits a leader must possess?

Candidates who are fit to hold leadership positions must know the traits to possess. It doesn’t have to be arranged chronologically as long as they can defend each point raised.

Questions about past works and experience.

Before you can be sure that your application will perform as expected, you must know how they performed in their previous work. That’s what these questions hope to achieve.

What was your former boss like in your recent job post?

Be ready to listen to candidates talk about their bosses, whether they are good or bad. This will enable you to know the kind of person they are.

1. What did you miss about your past job?
2. What was your greatest accomplishment?
3. What skills did you develop from your past work?
4. What decision did you make in your past work that you regret now?
5. Why are you leaving your recent work and applying for this?
6. On a scale preference of 1 to 10, how would your previous employer rate your service and behavior?
7. If you could go back to your previous work, what would you change?
8. If there’s something you would learn from your past employment, what could that be?
9. Among your past coworkers, who do you like most and why?

Questions about the role they’re applying for.

How well does your candidate know the post they are applying for, and how ready are they to work? Here are questions that help you to know if your candidate knows their function duties and obligations they are expected to perform to the company.

1. What do you know about this role/position in this company?
2. Why are you applying for this specific role and in this organization?
3. What will you do differently from other candidates applying for this same role?
4. How will you go about your work?
5. Why should we hire you and not one of the other applicants?
6. In 6 months’ time, what would you have achieved in this company with this position?
7. What do you think you can offer this company that you can’t offer to another company?
8. What are the most important traits that you should possess if you want to work with this company and in this position?
9. Tell me about your dream job, and what relevance it has with this position and company?

Personal Questions

1. Don’t you want to establish some personal relationship with your soon-to-be employee and make them feel comfortable? These interview questions will help you understand the kind of person you are about to hire.
2. Have you ever failed before? What do you do when you fail?
3. What do you regret most in this lifetime?
4. What is the most important thing you’ve learned about life and from your past?
5. How have the decisions you made affected you so far?
6. Would you consider yourself a fast learner or a slow learner? How are you working to improve your learning ability?
7. Tell me about something you screwed up. How did you handle it, and how did you address the mistake?
8. Give me two examples of situations that made you lose hope and almost give up?
9. What is your motivation/inspiration?
10. Have you ever felt rejected and not good enough? Can you share with me one of such times?

Questions about self-awareness

1. How informed are your candidates about themselves? What bothers them or affects their mental ability. These questions reveal the truth about a candidate, how he perceives himself, and how he thinks others perceive him.
2. What is your biggest strength and weakness? How are you working to improve them?
3. What misconceptions do people have about you that you would love to change?
4. What are you exceptionally good at that can help promote this company and achieve its goals?
5. If you could wish for a superpower, what could it be and why? How will you use it for this company?
6. If you are asked to organize an event you have no idea about, how will you go about it?
7. If your boss is continuously harassing you emotionally, what will you do about it?
8. Do you think you are a people person or a loner? Why? 

Questions about Passion, Skills, and Ability.

1. It’s not surprising to see people applying for the job they have no passion or skills for. Some of the applicants are only after money and want to have a place to go every morning.
2. What skills do you possess that make you fit for this job?
3. Tell me about your passion and journey in this area of work.
4. How and when did you discover you could handle a job like this?
5. What are the topmost skills that you possess that others don’t?
6. What are some things outside of work that you’re irrationally passionate about?
7. Tell me what you do outside work? An organization you volunteer for?
8. What drives you to keep working?
9. What was the first job you ever did, and how did you do it?

Questions about Company Research

These interview questions will help you to understand how far an applicant has gone in his assignment about the company. Many candidates often apply for a job without thoroughly investigating and researching the company they plan to work for. If you want to know how far and how well your candidate knows about the company, ask them.

1. What does this company lack that you can help achieve?
2. Where do you see this company in the next few years? What will be your contributions to it?
3. What are the work etiquettes that this company prioritizes?
4. Tell me everything you know about this company.
5. What do you find fascinating about this company, and what are the loopholes of the company?
6. What would be your advice for the company, and how can this company serve you and other people better?
7. What attracts you to the company at first that made you apply for this post? Why not another company?
8. Describe this company in a short paragraph.
9. Tell me what this company does and sell the service to me.
10. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing this company, and how can we resolve it?
11. Would you lie in favor of this company to a customer?

Situational Questions

These interview questions allow you to analyze a candidate’s skills and ability. It gives you an incline about what they will do when they find themselves in a challenging situation.

1. What would you do if you were assigned to work with your team on a project, but your team isn’t performing as expected?
2. What will you do about a nagging boss?
3. If you are asked to work on your off days, what will you do?
4. Assuming you are on leave in another state outside your work environment and your boss calls you for a task that requires your presence, what will you do?
5. If you have to work on multiple projects within a limited time frame, how will you go about it?
6. What will you do if your boss and a customer need your help at the same time?
7. These questions serve as guidelines for you; feel free to change or add more if necessary. We wish you a great interview session with your candidates. 

Also read: Best Second Interview Questions