The interview question you REALLY SHOULD BE ASKING...
When it comes to interviewing, you often leave knowing a lot about the candidates background, but not much insight into how it will REALLY be like to work with the candidate. 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 that might lend well to assessing their ability to fit into the "we".
Here is one question that can hopefully help clear that up.
"Tell me about a time when your team had a "win"?"
HOPEFULLY, the candidate will chose a relevant situation, giving you the lead to further explore how the candidate works within a team.
Some follow up questions to explore include:
Did the initiative start from 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 teams initiatives overlap with the candidates example can shed additional insight into how the candidate would handle situations your team faces.
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