11 recruiter interview questions to help you hire a real pro

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When it comes to recruiting employees, it’s important to have a human resource person capable of identifying and attracting ideal candidates. Thus, it is essential to hire a recruiter who is skilled in these areas, but before you hire anyone, you’ll need to ensure that they are a good fit for your needs. These recruiter interview questions will help you identify the right person for your human resources department.

Where to start with recruiter interview questions

While it is natural to begin with questions about experience and previous jobs, it is also important to get to the basis of what makes any recruiting professional an expert in their field: behavior. There is a way to spin those initial recruiter interview questions, so they help you identify the idea candidate for your human resources position.

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  1. For example, one great way to dive in is with a question about the events that led the person into recruiting. This question not only brings out details about the candidate's first recruiting job, but it also explains why they got into the business in the first place. This question will help you weed out individuals who sort of fell into recruiting out of necessity but lack any passion or raw skill for it.
  2. A good related question ties the person's goals to their position in the recruiting industry. By asking for an example of the person's professional and personal goals and an explanation for how recruiting fits into them, you'll be able to get an idea of whether they are truly in the business because they love it. Recruiters who are passionate about their work tend to do a better job than those whose goals fall outside the profession.
  3. One other thing that's important to know is why the person is thinking about leaving their current job. The best recruiters are in high demand, so in most cases, they will only leave a company because they are unhappy for one reason or another. Understanding why they want to leave their current position will show you where they are coming from and whether they are the ace recruiter you are seeking.
  4. The initial recruiter interview questions should also include experiential details. For example, you might consider asking about their most rewarding and most challenging recruiting experiences. These questions will give you an idea of what they enjoy about their job and what they find challenging about it. Knowing these tidbits will provide insight into whether they might be a good fit for your company or not. They will reveal whether the candidate struggles with the very skill you need most and what aspect of the job they enjoy the most.

Getting more information

After the initial getting-to-know-you questions, it's time to dig deeper into the recruiting candidate's thought process when it comes to identifying and attracting prospective employees.

  1. Recruiter interview questions should include a request to walk you through the steps the person takes to identify and attract candidates with strong job performance. This will help you understand how the person thinks and how they go about finding ideal candidates. It will also reveal whether their process would be a good fit for your company.
  2. It would also be a good idea to find out what kind of experience they have recruiting individuals for the kinds of jobs you have. You might want to ask about the actions they took to recruit someone for a top position in the field in which your business operates.
  3. Social media has become a great way for recruiting professionals to find candidates for the jobs they have to fill. Social networks offer a way to identify candidates in a particular field and research those who have submitted applications for a position, but they don't always work great. Thus, it's important to have a recruiter who knows how to work around social media's shortcomings. To find out if the recruiter you are interviewing knows how to do that, it's a good idea to ask them specifically about times when social networking did not work well for them. This will also give you an idea of how much they rely on LinkedIn and other social networks in their process.
  4. Recruiting professionals play an important role in identifying ideal candidates, but they don't have the final say on who gets the position. Nonetheless, they can make a manager's job easier by short-listing the candidates they believe would be the best fit for a position. To find out how well they do this, you can ask about a time when they prioritized certain candidates to help a manager make the best hiring decision possible.
  5. Sometimes it might be necessary to convince someone to come to your company, and recruiting professionals should know how to attract the ideal worker even if they don't want to leave their current position. Thus, your recruiter interview questions should include something about how they were able to sell an attractive candidate on a job they weren't initially interested in. You might also consider asking how they handled attracting someone who received another offer that was more money than theirs.

Recruiting professionals should also know how to work successfully with demanding and indecisive managers, so it's good to include a few questions about this.

  1. For example, you might want to ask about how they were able to work with a manager who had difficulties making decisions about which candidate to hire. Some managers are more demanding than others, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to ask the person about how they were able to support such a manager.

Your final recruiter interview question should put the finishing touch on your talk.

  1. A great way to end the interview is to ask them about how their own experience, skills and knowledge would cause the person to hire himself or herself. This enables them to display the skills they believe are the most attractive and to potentially convince you to hire them over someone else. It will also give them a chance to explain how their strengths make them a strong candidate for the job.

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