20 Unique Second Round Interview Questions to Ask Employees
Unique Interview Questions to Ask for Drawing Out Authentic Responses From Candidates
You have wrapped up your first round of interview questions with the interviewees and several seem like a fit. It's now opportune to pose more in-depth questions during the second round of interviews. As a career coach and business consultant helping individuals ace interviews and business owner conduct great interviews to select the best candidate this article will provide you with unique and important second-round interview questions to ask candidates. Give them a shot when conducting your next interview with a prospective candidate for the job.
How Employers End Up In the Position to Hire People
In order to effectively conduct an interview it is important to understand the foundation or fundamental problem the interview is trying to solve for. The employer or hiring manager is hiring someone because they have come to the conclusion that hiring someone with a specific set of skills is the highest leverage opportunity for them. It is the highest leverage opportunity because the hiring manager or employer does not have enough time to perform the tasks or solve the problems themselves, and or they do not have the skills to do it. Therefore they can expedite their problem solving or remove the roadblocks to success by hiring someone.
Effective Interview Technique (Theory Behind the Questions)
Now that we understand how an employer has ended up in the position to hire someone it is important to understand the driving factor for how interview questions are selected. The Founder of DEI Consultants, Alex Lahmeyer, has been quoted saying that competency based interviews are the most effective interview techniques. Therefore interview questions are going to be designed to assess the important competencies for the role. The below examples I provide the interview question as well as the competencies they assess.
How to Evaluate Interview Question Answers
In order to effectively evaluate the answer provided by a candidate during an interview it is imperative that the interviewer understand why the question is being asked in the first place. I recommend as an employer you create a master interview template which can further be customized to each role. This interview template should provide the question to ask, as well as the subpoints of what the question is trying to evaluate. This template can be printed for during the interview allowing interviewers to write notes on each aspect the question is trying to evaluate. Some notes, specifically related to more technical skills, may simply be a check box of to indicate they have the specific skill. For soft skills like communication more detailed notes to demonstrate the style of communicate is important for later comparison between candidates.
20 Good Second Interview Questions to Ask As A Hiring Manager in 2024
Is there anything you would like to revisit from the last interview?
- This question allows the candidate to show their ability to reflect on their performance.
How have you helped someone succeed at work?
- Their answer gives insight to how well they work in teams.
How could our company do better?
- This allows a candidate to demonstrate their technical expertise and what initiatives they would be interested in learning more about.
What skills make you a standout candidate for this position?
- This question allows the candidate to clarify their unique strengths or selling proposition. It identifies the unique skills and experience they bring to the table.
What is your favorite way to be managed?
- This line of questioning focuses on team dynamics.
What tasks could I ask you to do that you would hate doing?
- Assesses direct fit for the role. If the tasks they mention are what the role will primarily consist of then the candidate is not a good fit. If the tasks they mention will never be done in the role this can indicate a good fit.
What tasks do you do at your current job that you won’t miss doing?
- Similar to the previous question allows you to assess what tasks may drive a candidate to leave.
How did you get into the industry?
- The answer to this question demonstrates what motivated them to get into industry. The underlying reason can indicate cultural fit. It can also indicate if the candidate is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated.
What is your ideal future role?
- This indicates Long-term goals. Misalignment with the company's growth or plans indicate the candidate may have a shorter tenure.
What did you impact the most at your last job?
- This question can assess technical skill and which skills the candidate has the most proficiency in.
How would you change things at your last position if you were a manager?
- This demonstrates leadership qualities. It also allows an employer to see if they focus on negatives.
Last quarter we experienced (Problem relevant to the role) How would you have solved it?
- This question assesses technical proficiency. Strengths, weaknesses, and problem solving ability.
What professional achievement are you especially or most proud of?
- A candidate's proud moment is likely tied to their biggest motivations. How they answer indicates their personal values which can inform cultural fit.
What are the most difficult decisions you have had to make on the job?
- This can show which type of decisions delegated to the candidate will decrease their satisfaction. Similar to question 6 and 7 it identifies what could drive the candidate away when they are an employee.
Have you ever been asked to do something that was unethical for work? What was it and how did you respond?
- A candidate's answer can demonstrate their personal values, team dynamics as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
What do you plan to do in the first year of this job to establish yourself?
- Similar to the first 30-60-90 days question, this question allows a candidate to show how they plan to take initiative and ensure success.
What is your Greatest Weakness?
- This question allows a candidate to show they are self-aware and introspective.
What type of management style best supports the way you work?
- This is a team dynamics question.
What questions or answers from today or the previous interview do you want to revisit?
- This allows the candidate to correct the record on anything from both interviews.
What questions should I be asking you that I haven’t?
- This question opens the door for a candidate to give a question they prepared for that touches on an aspect of their candidacy they do not feel has been addressed.
What questions do you have for me?
- This allows the candidate to learn more about you individually, the company or aspects of the job they feel have not been addressed.
How to Guarantee Success
The important thing to remember about everything in life is that the vast majority of things follow a pareto distribution or the rule of 80/20. If the business has the time, resources and patience to allow for a ramp up then the most fundamental thing an interview should be looking at is attitude. As summarized in the tweet below someone with a growth mindset attitude and the single skill of being able to learn/be trained is guaranteed to be successful.

Conclusion
It is important you find the perfect candidate. Have confidence in who is the best candidate by digging deeper with the second round interview. Using some of best second round interview questions is a great way to to help you find the perfect candidate.
Get help with finding great employees
This article covers some of the questions you can leverage to find the best employee, but the questions are just one part of the recruiting and interview process. If you have been conducting interviews or recruiting candidates with less success do not hesitate to seek help. Schedule an online session with Acquired Salary to find the perfect employee.
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