While you can learn a lot about a job applicant from their resume, interview questions are your company’s opportunity to dig deeper. This part of the hiring process helps you learn more about a candidate’s experience, what makes the candidate stand out, and how they handle conflicts or challenges.
If your business operates in a niche industry, has strict skill requirements, or asks for specific certifications, you’ll need to go beyond generic interview questions. Developing tailored, industry-specific questions will ensure you find the best fit for each of your open roles, promoting the health and reputation of your business.
Here are four top strategies for creating effective interview questions for your industry.
Revisit Role Requirements and Job Descriptions
First, ensure your public-facing job listings are up-to-date and accurate. Communicate required skills, education, or certificates early in the hiring process to attract quality candidates who are well-suited for the role.
Then, review the questions you ask during interviews and ensure they are aligned with and relevant to the roles.
For example, let’s say you run a dog toy business and you need to hire a new pet marketing expert. In this case, you might update the job description to something like:
Job Title: Marketing Manager for Pet Care Brand
Description: You will be responsible for creating and managing strategic marketing campaigns to promote our company’s brand and pet products. This role requires industry expertise, marketing knowledge and experience, and a passion for pets.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising, or a related field
- Work experience in marketing in the pet industry, ideally with a focus on consumer products
- Effective communication skills
- A comprehensive understanding of digital marketing standards, strategies, and tools, including social media, email marketing, and SEO content creation
- A passion for pets, animals, and pet-related trends
Understand Industry Trends and Standards
Next, research industry trends and hiring standards. This will help you understand the norms and expectations of hiring in your industry, enhancing your credibility as an employer. Plus, you’ll ensure you hire the most qualified candidates, allowing you to compete with similar businesses. To do so, consider:
- Reviewing job boards for your industry. Browse networking sites or job boards for your industry, noting the responsibilities, requirements, and qualifications top companies ask for. Consider these requirements when updating your job role descriptions and identify ways to gain deeper insights with your questions.
- Studying competitors’ hiring processes. Some companies publicize their interview process on their website or in job listings. Review these processes and make note of anything that would be useful to your company. For example, a competitor may have writers or graphic designers present a portfolio or complete a short sample project.
- Reading industry publications. Identify the most authoritative publications in your field and subscribe to them. These publications highlight trends, changes that could impact your business, and advice. For example, maybe a new law will require all future employees in your industry to hold a specific license or certification, and you learn about it early by subscribing to a credible newsletter. Then, you can update your hiring process more effectively and help your current staff get certified in time.
- Joining an association. Professional associations educate members on industry trends, best practices, training, and hiring practices. Consider the top organization in your field to get these valuable insights from experts and leaders.
Consider gathering feedback from current employees, new hires, and candidates by sharing surveys with them. You might ask them about their interview experience at other firms or whether the questions you asked were relevant to the tasks they practice each day. Then, use this data to improve your process.
Develop Tailored Interview Questions
Once you’ve researched the state of your industry, develop your initial round of interview questions. Get started by making a list of the top areas you want to evaluate with your questions, such as:
- Alignment with job requirements
- Responses to industry-specific hypothetical scenarios and behavioral interview techniques
- How the candidate will fit into your company culture
- Whether the candidate is tuned into industry trends, innovations, or challenges
Brainstorm questions related to each of these core areas. Include a mix of different types of questions to engage the candidate in various ways, such as open-ended responses, opinion-based questions, brief technical questions, and longer situations. Avoid asking too many long-form questions to ensure you receive high-quality responses and don’t overwhelm the candidate.
Industry-Specific Job Interview Question Examples
Here is a set of specific example interview questions for a marketing and branding agency looking to hire a graphic designer:
- What design software(s) are you proficient in?
- Can you describe a typical day in your work life or guide us through how you approach design projects?
- How will you balance your creativity with the deadlines agency life demands?
- What do you do to stay up-to-date on design trends? Can you provide a recent example of when you incorporated a trend into your work?
- Describe a time when your work received negative feedback—how did you respond?
- Do you have experience collaborating with a team of other creatives and marketing strategists? If so, please describe this relevant experience.
- What roles do accessibility and human-centered design play in your graphic design work?
Test Your Questions and Iterate on Them
Narrow down your interview questions until you have roughly 15 to 30 questions for the candidates. This can include basic background questions, in-depth interview questions, and final questions related to factors like cultural fit. The length of the interview may vary depending on whether the position is entry- or upper-level and how competitive the opening is.
Use these interview questions with real candidates and study how they impact the candidate and what kinds of answers you receive. Are you getting the answers you’re looking for? Are candidates struggling to answer certain queries?
Remember to revisit your questions and hiring process regularly or in response to major shifts in your industry. For example, a dog boarding facility may need to start asking candidates about their experiences with maintaining health and safety standards if there is an outbreak of a disease impacting animals at boarding facilities.
As you test and develop questions, remember one of the core benefits of conducting interviews: building relationships with top talent in your industry. Not only will fostering these relationships make the interviewing process more efficient and comfortable for your staff and candidates, but it will help you build a strong talent pool for both current and future job roles.
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