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Posted By Peter MacDonald
Looking for some inspiration in the way of some tricky questions to ask a candidate in an interview for a safety managers role. I'm not looking for any pit-bull "apprentice" type questioning. I just can't seem to come up with anything other than the mundane.
Any suggestions appreciated.
note: this in not an invitation for agencies to contact me.
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Posted By CFT
Peter
Don't take this the wrong way, (it is not intended to be in the slightest bit disrespectful) but who is actually going to interview the candidates?
Will this be an existing safety manager, perhaps at a senior level; if so, an experienced professional such as I suggest, would easily be able to produce questions suitable for the position you are looking to fill.
If not then, and you are bringing this in as a new position, how will you know if the 'tricky question' has been answered accurately and as you would have expected?
If I'm completely incorrect in my assumption, please let me know.
CFT
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Posted By Ron Hunter
what's your industry Peter?
Will a presentation form part of the interview?
Do you have the topic area set for that?
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Posted By SBH
Why do you need to ask tricky questions? Interviews are tricky enough. Just ask competency based and experienced based, that should sort them out. Anyway heres some I have had:-
Tell me about a time when you lead a team.
What was the most successful team you were in and what was your role?
What was the biggest/longest/most complicated project you've undertaken?
Tell me about the stages in the project / tell me about how you manage projects.
What do you do when people haven't done things you've needed/expected them to do?
Tell me about a time when you had to cope with a major change at work and how you dealt with it.
What are you most proud of?
Give me an example of how you engaged with stakeholders.
Why should we give you the job?
What skills/traits do you think someone needs to do this job?
What do you think are our main accident types?
Have you ever had to tell someone they were wrong?
What do you know about us?
And some of the more bizarre/illegal ones:
How do you cope with working in a male dominated environment?
What machines do you imagine we'd use for the products we make, and how familiar are you with them?
How would you feel about writing manuals for machines.
Of course you will need to know if they give a good answer WOULD YOU???
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Posted By Adam Worth
Recently been attending lots of interviews. When asked that type of sterotypical interview question I give a sterotypical good answer!
It's not 'me' answering the question but the 'me' who is good at answering that sort of question... does that make sense?
I find when I'm casually asked about my CV, work and projects I reveal far more about my true self and how I work.
If you asked me a lame quiestion like if I were an animal what would i be, or can you give a presentation on this paperclip I would really think - Do I want to work for these muppets :) You'd get a good answer mind!!!!
I also turned down a job offer as I was left sitting in a corridor and not offered a cup of tea!
I suppose it all depends on what your looking for.
P.S. The jobs not in the Southwest is it :)
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Posted By Peter MacDonald
Sorry for asking such a simple question.
Peter MacDonald Bsc (Hons 2.1) PG Dip Safey and Risk Management, PG Cert, CMIOSH, AMIDE. Interim Safety Manager. 10 years experience.
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Posted By Peter MacDonald
Sorry
Thanks to those who answered the question.
I'm going to stop posting on this site due to the constant one-upmanship.
You can't possibly fill in all the details when asking a question. I just thought as a discussion forum someone could come up with something they had previously heard but no, what you get is people double guessing you and showing off.
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Posted By holmezy
Peter,
Dont get to upset by the responses just because they weren't exactly what you were expecting.... sometimes its difficult to give the right answer to a percieved question depending on how its read.
After reading your comments, my first thoughts for a question to ask was going to be;
Have you got a sense of humour?
Then I thought about it and looked at what I do, some of the things I say, and the responses I get, and decided that its a definite attribute to have in a safety related job!
No offence mean't by me or any others I expect...
Holmezy
Pedigree for me tonite....
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Posted By garyh
I have recruited safety professionals and have worked for a couple of large multinational companies and they used the competency driven approach.
Basically each job has a defined set of competencies (5-7) defined, examples include things like "Strategic influencing", "problem solving", "Team working" and so on.
For each a set of core questions was provided -you could reword these to fit so long as the gist was still there. The questions basically asked you to talk about when you had demonstrated this area of skill etc eg "give and example of when you had to deal with a difficult colleague, what was your approach" or "tell me about a time you had to solve a difficult problem" or similar question. It is difficult to make up rubbish to answer these questions if the interviewers have any experience.
So, it is not about "what would you do in situation x" but "give me an example of how you demonstrated your ability in area y".
You then interview as a team (2 or 3 people) and score the answers on an agreed scale (eg - 0 = no evidence of skill through to 4 = absolute expert).
You make notes, compare scores and add up at the end - it is amazing how closely the interviewers agree.
This technique works really well, is logical and has one other advantage - it mitigates against any bias or prejudice.
As someone who has held senior managerial positions it always saddens me how poorly managers are trained (if they are trained a all) and how amateurishly many organisations handle recruitment and development of personnel.
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