The Most Important Interview Question of All Time

The Most Important Interview Question of All Time

No alt text provided for this image

(NOTE - this is not the ONLY question, just the most important. Make sure you check out THE ANSWER (Part 2) post. Part 3 is for job-seekers on how to prepare for the interview.)

Over the past 30+ years as a recruiter, I can confirm that at least two-thirds of my hiring manager clients weren’t very good at interviewing. Yet, over 90% thought they were. To overcome this situation, it was critical that I became a better interviewer than them, to prove with evidence that the candidate was competent and motivated to do the work required. This led me on a quest for the single best interview question that would allow me to overcome any incorrect assessment with actual evidence.

It took about 10 years of trial and error. Then I finally hit upon one question that did it all.

Here’s it is:

What single project or task would you consider the most significant accomplishment in your career so far?

To see why this simple question is so powerful, imagine you’re the candidate and I’ve just asked you this question. What accomplishment would you select? Then imagine over the course of the next 15-20 minutes I dug deeper and asked you about the following. How would you respond?

  • Can you give me a detailed overview of the accomplishment?
  • Tell me about the company, your title, your position, your role, and the team involved.
  • What were the actual results achieved?
  • When did it take place and how long did the project take.
  • Why you were chosen?
  • What were the 3-4 biggest challenges you faced and how did you deal with them?
  • Where did you go the extra mile or take the initiative?
  • Walk me through the plan, how you managed to it, and if it was successful.
  • Describe the environment and resources.
  • Describe your manager’s style and whether you liked it or not.
  • Describe the technical skills needed to accomplish the objective and how they were used.
  • Some of the biggest mistakes you made.
  • Aspects of the project you truly enjoyed.
  • Aspects you didn’t especially care about and how you handled them.
  • How you managed and influenced others, with lots of examples.
  • How you were managed, coached, and influenced by others, with lots of examples.
  • How you changed and grew as a person.
  • What you would do differently if you could do it again.
  • What type of formal recognition did you receive?

If the accomplishment was comparable to a real job requirement, and if the answer was detailed enough to take 15-20 minutes to complete, consider how much an interviewer would know about your ability to handle the job. The insight gained from this type of question would be remarkable. But the real issue is not the question, this is just a setup. The details underlying the accomplishment are what's most important. This is what real interviewing is about – getting into the details and comparing what the candidate has accomplished in comparison to what needs to be accomplished. Don’t waste time asking a lot of clever questions during the interview, or box checking their skills and experiences: spend time learning to get the answer to just this one question.

As you’ll discover you’ll then have all of the information to prove to other interviewers that their assessments were biased, superficial, emotional, too technical, intuitive or based on whether they liked the candidate or not. Getting the answer to this one question is all it takes.

______________________________

No alt text provided for this image


Lou Adler is the CEO and founder of Performance-based Hiring Learning Systems – a consulting and training firm helping recruiters and hiring managers around the world source, interview and hire the strongest and most diverse talent. Lou is the author of the Amazon top-10 best-seller, Hire With Your Head (John Wiley & Sons, 4th Edition, 2021), The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired (Workbench Media, 2013) and LinkedIn Learning’s Performance-based Hiring video training program (2016). The latest edition of Hire with Your Head describes how to implement Performance-based Hiring to build outstanding diverse teams. 


Kelley B.

When the "Right Career Move" is so important #supplychain #3PL #IT #contractlogistics #warehousing #distribution #OSINT #talent #headhunter #mindful "Opinions are mine alone"

9mo

The Best, Lou.

Like
Reply
Akash Sharma

Strategic Sourcing Leader | Driving Optimum Cost Models | Organising the unorganised |

3y

The question is very apropos. Not just to be asked in an interview or to prepare to crack one, but I think every professional should ask himself every year what he has done in that year. The probing can definitively be on the dig-deeper pointers as raised by Lou Adler. In my opinion the questions like ‘aspects you didn’t like, your manager style, etc’ gives you a reflection of your own style and behaviour with your stakeholders. It gives your an opportunity to reflect and do the course corrections, if required.

Katherine Knapp

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE CONSULTANT We are a full service company, providing multiple options to improve your patient outcomes & create additional revenue at a surprisingly low cost.

3y

Lou - This is such a great interview strategy to get inside the mind of your candidate !

To view or add a comment, sign in

Insights from the community

Others also viewed

Explore topics