Questions To Ask -- and To Avoid -- During an Interview

While they aren't the only questions you should ask, they are questions you should strongly consider to help uncover the perfect candidate for your job opening.

Listen for thoughtful answers that reveal a candidates ability to handle challenging situations.

Choose a challenge employees in your business frequently face.

How they approached learning something new can measure the prospect's willingness to try new things and learn new skills to meet professional and business goals.

Think twice about the candidate if the position he describes at all resembles the job you're about to offer him.

Listen for clues into how the person works with others, his willingness to rally the troops, etc.

The following questions are sure to elicit canned responses that won't tell you about the candidate's true skills or interest she has in the position.

Questions regarding any of the above could land you in legal hot water.

Do you know where you want to be in five years? Enough said.

More specific questions about how they handle certain situations will reveal the candidate's strengths and weaknesses.

Besides making most candidates uncomfortable, this question rarely provides enough insight into what's truly important to the prospective employee.

Without having worked at your company, this question will only elicit answers that a candidate could have derived from your corporate website or a newspaper article.