Job Interview Questions Key Terms

Learn the key terms involved in the job interview process
By Raechel L. Conover Job interviews can be stressful not only for the job candidate, but also for the interviewer. When you prepare to interview a potential job candidate, be sure you know what questions you want to ask to get the answers you are looking for. There are some key questions you need to know the meaning of. For example, make sure you are asking a mix of situational and behavioral questions. Make sure you understand what you are looking for when you ask about diplomacy and self starters. It is important to know the purpose of a second interview and to also be aware of what illegal interview questions are.

Situational interview questions

Situational interview questions are questions to ask a potential employee in which you state a hypothetical situation and ask the candidate what they would do in that situation, or how they would handle the hypothetical situation.
Try:  Quintessential Careers discusses situational interview questions and some examples of what they would be.

Behavioral interview questions

Behavioral interview questions are questions that you can ask a potential candidate that will help to give you an idea on how they will react to certain situations based on their past behaviors.
Try:  Career Services Virginia Tech offers a great explanation of what behavioral questions are and how they help you gauge how a potential employee might react in certain situations. It also gives examples of behavioral interview questions.

Diplomacy skills

Diplomacy skills exhibit a person's temperament when working with other people. To find out if a potential job candidate has diplomacy skills, you might want to consider asking questions about their temperament and professionalism when dealing with customers and co-workers.
Try:  JobBankUSA has excellent examples of diplomacy questions that you can ask potential job candidates and what you should look for in their answers.

Second interview

A second interview means that you have established that a few potential employees have the skills to do the job, now you need to conduct a second interview to see who will fit in best with your business. Use this time to ask specific questions as well as to try to get a feel for the candidates personality.
Try:  CollegeRecruiter.com talks about what a second interview is and what the difference is between a first interview and a second interview.

Self starter

You might want to ask a potential employee if they consider themselves a self starter. A self starter is someone who can work with minimal supervision, will stay up-to-date on the skills needed to do their job and overall will be independently successful unsupervised.
Try:  Resumagic.com further defines what a self starter is and how future employees might answer that question.

Illegal interview questions

There is no list of illegal interview questions, but you still need to be careful when preparing for an interview. Illegal interview questions are any discriminating questions that do not help you determine the person's ability to do the job, such as questions about age, religion or sexual orientation.
Try:  Job Interview Questions give you examples of illegal interview questions and alternative legal questions to ask.