The interview question you REALLY SHOULD BE ASKING...
When it comes to interviewing, you often leave knowing a lot about the candidate's background, but often there is not much insight into what it will REALLY be to work with the candidate day to day. Many do a great job assessing can they do the job, but what is it really like to work with this candidate? Where do they rate on the humility scale?
With candidates typically taught to highlight themselves and speak from the "I" perspective, here is one question to assess their ability to fit into the "we".
"Tell me about a time when your team had a "win"?"
HOPEFULLY, the candidate will choose a relevant situation, giving you the lead to further explore how the candidate works within a team.
Some follow up questions to explore include:
How did the initiative start? Did the initiative form the team or did the team form the initiative?
Who was on the team, and who were the most important members, and why?
What did the team accomplish?
Who took leadership roles and how did that come about?
What roles did you play and how did that evolve over the course of the project?
Who were the most under-shadowed team members?
What was your contribution?
How was being on this team rewarding for you?
Probing into parallel examples of where your team's initiatives overlap with the candidate's example can shed additional insight into how the candidate would handle situations within your company.
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