Interviewing candidates for your various roles is already tricky. But what do you do when you have to interview experts in recruiting?
Recruiting a recruiter will involve getting past the initial interview questions, and asking more situational or competency based interview questions. Doing this will help you identify which recruiters will be the best hires for your company.
Below you’ll find our list of the best interview questions for recruiters.
Interview questions for hiring a recruiter
When looking at the best interview questions for hiring a recruiter, you’ll need to focus on competency and situational questions. Reviewing how they handled past situations will give you enough data points to make the right hire.
Situational Interview Questions for a Recruiter
Situational interview questions are similar to behavioral based interview questions, and are even used interchangeably. However, situational questions focus on the candidate referring back to exact situations that they experienced.
Situational Interview Questions for Recruiting
- Think about the last job you filled. Describe the exact process you went through to identify and attract high-performing candidates.
- Think of the last senior member of your company you hired (engineering, sales, marketing). What was their job title. What actions did you take to bring them to your company?
- Tell me about a time where you had to sell a candidate on a job at your company. What did you say to make them consider it. What was the outcome?
- Describe a situation where you failed to fill an open position. What went wrong? What would you do differently?
- Take me through the steps you take to build a talent pipeline.
- Tell me about the most challenging role you’ve ever worked. What was it and what made it difficult?
- Tell me about the last interviews you’ve conducted. What was key in determining if candidates were a good fit?
- During your interview process, how do you typically structure your interview?
Situational Interview Questions for Collaboration and Teamwork
- Describe a situation where you mentored a junior recruiter. What did you do and how you help them develop?
- Tell me about a situation where you needed to work with your team to fill a role. How did you collaborate? What was the outcome?
- Tell me about a time where you and a teammate had a disagreement. What steps did you take to resolve the issue?
- Tell me about a time where you worked with a difficult to please hiring manager. How did you ensure a functional working relationship?
- Tell me about your current (or past) job. How involved are the hiring managers in your recruiting process?
Situational Interview Questions for Culture
- Tell me about a time where you worked somewhere where the culture was not the best fit for you. Why was it a bad fit and what would you have changed to make it better?
- Tell me about a time where you worked in an unmotivating environment. How did you motivate yourself to continue your responsibilities?
- Tell me about a time where you worked in a fast-paced culture. What did you do to ensure you met project/task deadlines? Any specific tricks or tools that you used?
- Tell me about a time where you knew something at your company needed to change. Did you do anything to drive the change? How did your team/company react?
Other Interview Questions for Recruiters
- What tools do you use for sourcing? Why do you choose those over others?
- What’s your preferred ATS. Why?
- What are your favorite roles to recruit for? Why?
- Do you consider yourself to have any speciality when it comes to recruiting?
- What are your favorite interview questions to ask candidates? Why?
- What do you think is key for a successful recruiting process?
- Are you responsible for checking references? What’s your typical reference checking process?
- Have you ever recruited anyone who wasn’t qualified for the job?
Final Thoughts: interview questions for recruiters
Recruiting a recruiter is often more difficult because they’re familiar with the tactics and questions you’ll use. By leveraging situational interview questions, as well as general interview questions about their processes and tools, you’ll be able to discover which recruiters will be the best fit for your company.
Learn how to build a candidate relationship management strategy that leads to a higher interviewed-to-hired conversion rate with LeverTRM, our native TA suite for talent teams.
