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10 Candidate Questions that you, as a recruiter, must know how to answer


Finding and landing top talent is only going to get more difficult. A robust recruitment process and an investment in preparation for the interview are a twenty-first century leadership imperative.

Insights from “Great Candidates Ask Great Questions”
by John O. Burdett, Orxestra® Inc., © 2020

1. As a business, why do you do what you do?

  • Where and how are you striving for excellence?
  • How are you going about the latter?
  • How will you be different five years from now?

2. What makes the business special?

  • What are you doing to protect/nurture that capability?
  • What concerns you most about what the competition is doing?

3. How and in what ways is digitalisation changing the way the organisation does business?

4. Assuming you have built a scorecard for this role, where is the greatest “stretch” demanded to meet future performance goals?

5. Moving forward, what role specific leadership competencies define success in this role?

6. How good a coach is my new boss?

  • Does this role build on and extend my core capability: talent, skills, and leadership competencies?
  • Will I continue to grow and develop in this role?
  • How and in what ways?

7. What constitutes a great team in your organisation?

  • How do you assess team effectiveness?
  • How and in what ways is “team fit” central to hire and promotion decisions?

8. What are the organisation’s espoused values?

How do you live those values?

9. What culture do you need to succeed tomorrow?

  • How do you measure culture?
  • What are you doing to make tomorrow’s culture come to life in the room today?

10. How and what ways does the organisation give back?

How do you make a difference in people’s lives?

Find and land top talent »


Learn more about TRANSEARCH International and our wide-ranging approach to leadership acquisition, management assessment, our expertise and experience, and how to contact us » transearch.com

Insights from “Great Candidates Ask Great Questions”
by John O. Burdett, Orxestra® Inc., © 2020