10 Interview Questions That Are Passé

As a hiring manager, you have to ask the right interview questions to ascertain the soft skills of job candidates and determine if they are the right fit for your company. The right questions also help you get to the heart of what they can do for your company.

Why Should You Stop Asking Certain Interview Questions?

Thanks to modern technology, social media and computer software, hiring managers and HR professionals can determine someone's skill set quickly. During a job interview, hiring managers and recruiters commonly use scripted interview questions that generally lead to candidates stating information about themselves employers already know. A better strategy is to make interviews feel like real conversations.

To accomplish this, hiring managers can tell job candidates about a company problem, and the candidate can respond by providing details on how he plans to solve it. To make interviews sound less scripted and more natural, review this list of irrelevant interview questions and the reasons why you should ditch them.

1. What's your greatest weakness?

Although this question forces prospects to display honesty, it's best to stick with questions related to a candidate's strengths.

2. Why should we hire you?

The answer is obvious: the candidate wants a job at your firm.

3. What would your last boss say about you?

Rather than worry about what former bosses think, create your own preliminary assessment of the candidate during the meeting.

4. What was your college GPA?

This question is fine for new graduates, but not people with years of experience behind them.

5. Use three adjectives to describe yourself.

People are much more complicated than just three words can describe, which is why it takes one or more interviews to get to know someone.

6. What's your five-year plan?

Don't ask interview questions about five years unless you have a five-year contract in hand.

7. What is your current salary?

It's only appropriate to ask about salary requirements if you're truly interested in hiring the candidate.

8. What other companies are interviewing you?

Interviewers don't need to know this information, and candidates should not feel obligated to answer this question.

9. Why do you want to work here?

By paying close attention to the candidate's responses during the job interview, you'll easily find out why the candidate wants to join your team.

10. If you could be a kind of animal, what would you be and why?

This question is better left for managers looking for creative or artsy individuals, not business professionals.

The overall goal of eschewing these 10 interview questions is to save you time and effort and get straight to the purpose of the interview. Instead of asking irrelevant questions, and ask questions that help you determine if the candidate's skills can benefit your company.

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