What mistakes have you made when you hiring new employees? What have you learned from those mistakes?
The interviewer wants to know a bit more about your process when it comes to making hiring decisions. Discuss how you screen job applicants and why you hire the people you do. Even the most skilled Manager can make a hiring mistake, but the question remains if you learned from that bad hire and how you avoided making that mistake again.
Some common hiring errors include:
- Casting too wide a net in your description, resulting in a confused candidate pool
- Interviewing before you have a full scope of what your idea hire looks like
- Waiting too long to hire and then deciding out of panic
- Having too many decision-makers in the process
- Not asking direct questions, resulting in vague answers
- Failing to do reference checks
"Earlier in my career, I did not see the value in checking references. I trusted my instinct alone and made a bad decision a few times. Some people can interview incredibly well, but it doesn't mean their work ethic is there. Now, I call 2-3 references, without fail."
"I imagine that one of the bigger mistakes when hiring new employees is blindly hiring someone because you know them or because a reliable source referred them. I understand that referrals can be great hires, but they still need to be interviewed and vetted properly."
"The one mistake I made a couple of times earlier in my management career was asking vague questions in my interviews. I didn't know how to interview properly, and it caused my decisions to be less informed than they should have been. I have taken a couple of courses on effective interviewing and now have some tougher, behavioral-based questions in the pipe for each interviewee."
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
I worked at a start-up that was experiencing expansion, and I allowed the pressure to hire right away to affect my judgment. This resulted in hiring someone for a position he was not prepared to handle. It was unfortunate because, under normal circumstances, I knew this candidate could've worked out, but the pressure to produce fast results was too high for him, and I had to terminate his employment. What I learned was to know what questions to ask to help me determine how someone behaves under pressure.
Rachelle's Feedback
The pressure to hire fast is a predicament to which the interviewer will be able to relate. This is a very solid response.
Anonymous Answer
I did not have a good way of checking the integrity of the new staff, which in one case cost me some time and money. I have learned to advise HR to check on the employee backgrounds more carefully and in the interviews focused on the personality tests.
Marcie's Feedback
Good! Can you give more specifics about the case you mention? How did you realize that this hire was lacking integrity? Otherwise, you've done a great job of explaining how you went about fixing this problem for the future. The interviewer will be happy to see that you are a good problem solver. Great job!
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