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56 Boost Your Hiring IQ

ANSWERS
The Strongest Question
(B) This question is the strongest because of the last three words:
“at this time.” Many candidates will answer the question,
“Why are you leaving your job?” by stating that they are
seeking a “new challenge.” By adding the words “at this time,”
you are asking for a specific piece of information.You are basi-
cally asking, “Why now?” You are looking for an answer that
will indicate if there was something specific happening at the
company that would make the person want to leave now.

The Mediocre Question
(C) The difference between asking, “Is there a particular reason?”
and,“How long ago did you decide?” is to find out whether this
person has been unhappy in his or her job for a while, or
whether something occurred recently that made him or her de-
cide to leave.
If candidates have been thinking of leaving for three or four
months or more, they may have burned out on the job or they
may be dissatisfied with the work or their boss or coworkers.
Those are good reasons to leave a job as long as candidates
don’t bring those problems to your company.
If, on the other hand, someone had a “blow up” or a specific
reason for leaving at this particular time, then you will want to
find out what happened. You will need more facts to find out if
there is a problem. Was it a mutually agreeable parting?

The Weakest Question
(A) This question is not a good one to ask because it can be an-
swered with a single number. It will require follow-up probing
to determine what the rating is about and the reason candi-
dates didn’t rate themselves higher or the reason that they
rated themselves as high as they did. It is much more effective
to ask a direct question about the candidate’s performance than
to try to determine what a score of 8 means. A better question
to ask would be: “What types of feedback did you get from
your last boss or on your latest performance review?”

RATE YOURSELF
If you chose question (B), give yourself 5 points.
If you chose question (C), give yourself 3 points.

If you chose question (A), give yourself 0 points. _____