Four questions to ask your candidate before you make a job offer

What are the final interview questions I ask before I make a job offer?

I’m sure that there could be hundreds of answers to that question, so I’m going to offer mine.

There are four questions I like to ask before I make an offer

• How important is money to you?
• What do you expect to achieve from having this job?
• What are the reasons you are saying yes to performing this job?
• What are the reasons you are saying yes to this job?

I don’t ask them in any particular order other than the last one is always.

Remember that recruiting is sales. You are selling a job opportunity and career.  They are selling themselves.  In order for this to be successful, both parties are to buy.

The reasons I like these questions is they tell me a bit about the focus of the person – are they focused solely on what’s in it for them?  Or are they more focused on being a part of a team and do they keep their attention on their outflow of service?

The last question gets them focusing on their reasons for saying yes.  After I ask that question, and depending upon their answer, I like to ask follow up questions like ‘What are you going to do when it gets hard?’ – I challenge them.  I’m looking to see the level of commitment they are making to themselves to perform.  This and other questions also keep their attention on their want.  Want is a very powerful motivator, and in decision making, it’s the want that wins.

The reasons behinds these questions

A lot of the reasoning behind these questions comes down to the Laws of Exchange.  The more a person focuses on the quality of the delivery of their service (their outflow), the more self-esteem they generate, because they know they are doing their best job.  This also equates to a buyer who will have a higher level of perception of value.  That means they will be more willing to exchange the reward that is asked for, and then you feel good.  This boosts self-esteem again and the process continues.

If we go the other way, and that person instead focuses on the reward they are getting (their inflow), then there is less attention paid to the quality of the delivery of their service (attention is not an unlimited commodity).  Right there, self-esteem drops.  Then, the perception of value of the buyer will not be as high (you can always feel it when someone isn’t delivering the service you know they can, can’t you!), so their willingness to pay the reward that is asked for is not as high, or not existent at all in the worst case.  Then the person delivering the service gets pissed off about the problem of not having money and people not wanting to pay, so they focus even more on the reward and the process accelerates.

I choose to make sure that the people we work with are focused on the delivery of their service, and these questions help me to determine that.