Article first published on Business Changing.

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Most people make it up when they ask a potential employee questions in their job interview — perhaps you google the best questions to use or you just wing it and make conversation and hope for the best… I asked recruitment expert — Mark Fisher from 84 Recruitment — to share his best interview questions:

The point of any interview is that you’re trying to understand who person really is. Don’t go with just the cliche questions. You want to reveal the real person.

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• A better way asking “What are your weaknesses” would be “What constructive feedback do you most often receive?”

It’s more comfortable saying, hey, look, you obviously get some constructive feedback time to time. We all do, right? My wife tells me all the time what I should do. What does your wife tell you? What does your boss tell you? Their response might be nothing major, or it might be something quite integral to the role. For us, that’s “I’m not too comfortable picking up the phone”. For you it might be “I don’t like dealing with conflict” or “I’m just late every morning” or “I have terrible attention to detail”. It could be anything, but how bad is that in context for you?

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• “What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?”

Again, that just shows a bit more real person, one big one we always use.

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• “Other than this opportunity, what else are you considering?”

That just gives you a taste of where else they’re going and you want to know, again, within the process, are they talking about other businesses? You want to get competitive at this point as well — “How can we win?” It’s really important to know so don’t forget to ask that question. They’ve probably got four or five different opportunities on the go so be real about that.

• “Who is the most difficult manager and why?”

This gets into the whole ‘what don’t you like about certain management styles or leadership styles?’

• “How would your friends describe you?”

That’s the best way to get a real answer on someone’s personality. People always sit on that one for five or 10 seconds and they’re like, “Oh man, they think I rush into things or or I say what I really think, or I’m too timid” or whatever it is.

• What are you passionate about?
  

• What do you value in life?

Don’t get too cliche with your questions. Your questions should really make them feel comfortable to answer in their full entirety of who they are as people, because there’s no wrong answer. Whoever they are as people is not wrong. It’s just that they might not suit you.