Page 114 - Boost Your Hiring

100 Boost Your Hiring IQ

ANSWERS
The Strongest Answer
(C) This answer provides a good example that explains the situa-
tion and then goes on to explain the action this candidate took
in order to solve the problem. From the action steps in this an-
swer, it’s clear that this candidate can act quickly in a tight sit-
uation, work well on with a team, and take responsibility for
actions that caused a problem. In other words, this person was
able to learn from his mistake.

The Mediocre Answer
(A) Although this answer gives a specific example, there are no de-
tails. If the company stood behind the price quoted, there must
have been some discussion about the incident. Also, the candi-
date states that he “did not get fired,” so you will have to probe
to find out if there was policy violated or ignored to make this
a serious problem. Some of the probes you might use are:

• What did you do when you discovered that you had mis-
quoted the price?
• Did you have to deal with an angry customer?

• Was a policy or procedure violated?

The Weakest Answer
(B) This is the weakest answer because although the candidate
says the right words about “not dwelling on mistakes,” there
are no specific examples given.This could be a possible red flag
because you do not know if the mistakes were frequent or
what they involved. It will be necessary to probe or to restate
the question. Try asking, “Could you give me a specific exam-
ple of a mistake you made and how often you made the same
mistake?”

RATE YOURSELF
If you chose answer (C), give yourself 5 points.
If you chose answer (A), give yourself 3 points.
If you chose answer (B), give yourself 0 points. _____