The Best Interview Question Ever, part one

I spend a lot of my time interviewing high quality candidates, as you might imagine. Candidates talk with me about their career progression, skills, and experiences. Usually, I am most interested in understanding what motivates a person. That discussion generally provides the most relevant information to screen, and to attract excellent candidates. When you interview a candidate, you will need to balance both objectives in order to make a good hiring decision.

Normally, I spend about two hours total interviewing a candidate. Ideally, these conversations are broken down into an initial phone screen and a face-to-face interview. We cover many topics, including personal ones, and a general career history. But what if you don’t have two hours to spend evaluating a candidate? What if you only have twenty minutes, or maybe only five? How do you get the most information in the least amount of time? In short, what is the best interview question you can possibly ask?

You must accomplish a number of things to make smart hiring decisions. You need to find out about the candidates’ primary skills, their general experience, their ability to synthesize information, their ability to present well and think on their feet, their people skills, and their fit into your organization. In truth, you will never fully evaluate a person until you work together. You can cover a lot of ground in a short period of time, though, using this question:

What is your most significant professional accomplishment?

This question has the advantage of leading to a very short answer, or a very long one. It may put your candidates at ease, or make them sweat. You may learn about your candidates’ values, their self-esteem and their cultural fit. You will certainly learn about their ability to communicate, and think on their feet, or prepare well for interviews. If you listen well, you may be able to sort out sincerity from pretense. You may be able to tell how they view themselves in relation to a team. You may also be able to learn about the person’s overall drive.

You can use this interview question for any level candidate, and use it according to your own style. If you prefer, you may remain silent after asking the question, or you may use it as a basis for many follow up questions.

Next time: How to use this question as the basis for a longer interview

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