Dover is here to make interviewing easy! Dover Interviewers ask interview questions that you can customize in the Dover App. Here’s how you can phrase questions to get actionable answers from candidates:
👍 Do
Ask questions that target actionable information from candidates
Include the key information you want the candidate to provide within the question
👎 Don’t
Ask only broad questions that can go in any number of directions.
Examples
❓ Experience & Behavioral Questions ❓
Common Question | Desired information | Focused question |
Please tell me about yourself | What’s the candidate’s professional experience? | Can you walk me through your resume? |
| What does the candidate do now? | Can you tell me about your most recent role? What are you most and least proud of? |
| What are the candidate’s day-to-day responsibilities? | What are your day-to-day responsibilities? What % of your time is spent on each? |
| Why is the candidate interested in the position or company? | What entices you about our mission? |
Tell me about a time you got critical feedback | Does the candidate take feedback well? | How do you feel when you receive critical or challenging feedback about your work? |
| Has the candidate learned from the feedback they’ve received? | Can you talk me through an example of a time when you received critical feedback and what you learned from it? |
| What skills does the candidate need to develop? | Can you tell me a consistent piece of feedback you’ve received from your manager or peers? |
❓ Technical Questions ❓
Common Question | Desired information | Focused question |
What programming languages do you know? | What languages does the candidate know and how long have they used each? | What backend programming languages do you know best? How many years of experience do you have with each of them? |
| What tools does the candidate use regularly? | What tools/technologies do you use for your role? |
| Is the candidate familiar with my tech stack? | How proficient are you (if at all) with the technologies of our data stack (x, y and z)? And if you’re not, what technologies are you proficient in that you believe would transfer well? |
Can you talk about your experience using X? | What does the candidate typically use X for? | Do you have experience with X? What do you typically use it for? |
| How comfortable is the candidate with X? | How would you rate your fluency with X? What are your typical use cases? |
| What has the candidate used X for? | Could you give me a quick overview of your most relevant project using X? |
While you can never guarantee that a candidate will answer your interview questions with the information you want, these tweaks will product more useful responses!