Interviewing FAQ: What Are The Right Questions To Ask?

Job interviews are essential to find the best person to join your team. But how do you know what to ask potential employees to learn about their qualifications, skills, personality traits, and career goals? Whether the interview is in person or virtual, the experience can be just as unnerving for the interviewer as it is for the interviewee. Can specific questions give you a more accurate picture during the hiring process?

In this article, we discuss the best interview questions and our top recruiter tips to make the recruiting process go more smoothly for hiring managers and small business owners.

Best Interview Questions for Candidate Assessment

Your interview questions should be “open-ended” and inviting, so candidates are encouraged to be expansive about their background, qualifications, and unique qualities that help them stand out from other job seekers. The more honest and forthcoming, the deeper your understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.

What are interview questions you could ask your candidates? The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) recommends questions that elicit more detailed responses during job interviews. They range from qualifications and career goals to successes at their prior job and what they believe they can contribute to your organization.

1. Why are you applying to our company for this position?
2. Discuss your work experience and describe how you believe it relates to the job opening and our organization.
3. What qualifications make you the best person for this role? (certifications, training, and related work experience).
4. What recent accomplishment are you most proud of?
5. Describe your short-term and long-term career goals.
6. What skills do you bring to this role?
7. Discuss your main contribution(s) at your last job and greatest challenge.
8. What do you know about our organization? What would you like to know?
9. What else should we know about you to help us make our hiring decision?
10. Do you have any questions about our company or the position? 

You can also ask about their willingness to travel as part of their job duties and where they would like to see themselves in a year from now, should they be hired.

Qualifications and Personal Fitness

What types of questions can recruiters ask to understand a candidate’s qualifications and fit for the role? Interview questions fall into six primary categories: technical, behavioral, motivational, skills-based, cultural, and situational. Following are examples of each:

• Technical – “Explain how you solved a complicated technical problem and what your approach was.”
• Behavioral – “Discuss a specific instance at work when you had to overcome a difficult challenge.”
• Motivational – “What is it about this position that most interests you?”
• Skills-based – “Talk about a specific instance when you had to learn something new quickly to meet a work requirement.”
• Cultural – “What company culture do you most thrive in?”
• Situational – “Imagine if you had a tight deadline and an unexpected problem arose. What would you do?”

These types of questions will give you insight into how a person works and what their strengths are.

How to Determine Creativity in Job Interviews

What is a creative question to ask an interviewee? This type of question assesses their innovation and creativity. If you’re hiring for a leadership position, you may ask about their survival strategy if they were stranded on a deserted island with their work team. The question should align with the role. Look for creativity and critical thinking in their responses and be ready for the unexpected! Use follow-up questions to learn more about the candidate’s thought process.

The question should connect to the role whenever possible. Avoid relying on riddles or trick questions that reward a specific answer. Instead, give candidates enough room to demonstrate curiosity, resourcefulness and critical thinking. Pay attention to whether they ask clarifying questions, consider multiple possibilities, explain their assumptions and adjust their approach when new information is introduced.

You can also use realistic scenarios to assess practical creativity. Describe a common workplace challenge, such as a limited budget, a tight deadline or a sudden change in customer expectations and ask the candidate to propose several solutions. Then, add a new constraint and see how they respond. This can show whether they remain flexible under pressure or become attached to their first idea.

Use follow-up questions to explore the candidate’s thought process. Ask why they chose a particular approach, what alternatives they considered and how they would measure success. There may not be one “correct” response. Look for originality paired with sound judgment, clear reasoning and the ability to turn an interesting idea into a practical plan. Be open to unexpected answers but evaluate every candidate using the same role-related criteria.

Top Recruiter Tips

Effective interview techniques for assessing candidates include keeping a conversational flow, engaging in active listening, and taking notes during your interview. Intersperse basic questions about background and skills with unexpected questions, such as asking what they’re passionate about. It also helps to observe body language while candidates are answering questions.

Culture, Coaching and Team Fit

Understanding a candidate’s preferred work environment can help you determine whether they’ll thrive on your sales team. These questions explore how they respond to coaching, work with colleagues and contribute to a positive culture.

• What type of coaching helps you perform at your best? Ask the candidate to describe their experience with one-on-one meetings, call reviews, role-playing, deal strategy sessions and formal training. Their answer can help you determine whether their learning style matches your coaching approach.
• What team structure and management style do you prefer? This question can reveal how much direction, independence and access to leadership the candidate expects. It may also help you understand what they need to remain engaged and grow within the company.
• Tell me about a time you collaborated with another department to move a deal forward. Look for examples involving marketing, customer success, sales operations or product teams. Strong candidates should be able to explain how they communicated, handled competing priorities and helped the group achieve a shared goal.

Questions About Compensation and Targets

Questions about quotas and compensation can help you understand the candidate’s previous performance, earning expectations and motivation. They can also reveal whether the candidate is comfortable with the expectations and structure of the role.

• How were your quotas structured in previous roles, and how often was your performance measured? Ask whether their goals were monthly, quarterly or annual and whether they included revenue, new accounts, renewals or pipeline growth. This provides helpful context for evaluating their results.
• What were your previous on-target earnings, and what are your expectations for this role? This question can help you determine whether the candidate’s expectations align with the available compensation package. Be prepared to explain the base salary, commission structure, benefits and typical quota attainment.
• Have you worked with commission accelerators before, and how did they affect your performance? The candidate’s response can show whether additional earning opportunities motivate them and how they approach exceeding quota.
• Have you experienced territory changes, extended leave or market disruptions that affected your quota? How did you respond? This gives candidates an opportunity to explain challenging circumstances while showing how they adapted, communicated with leadership and continued working toward their goals.

Take a Closer Look at the Candidate’s Sales Process

As an interviewer, you’ll want to understand how the candidate handles a deal in practice—not just how they describe their sales philosophy. Ask them to walk you through a recent opportunity from the initial lead to the final close, including prospecting, qualification, discovery, follow-up, negotiation and closing. Listen for whether they follow a consistent process while adapting to the buyer and situation.

You can also ask the candidate to map out how they typically turn a lead into an active opportunity. Have them explain when they consider a lead qualified, when it enters the pipeline and what information they gather before advancing it. This can help you evaluate how organized and intentional they are about pipeline management.

If the position involves handoffs between SDRs and AEs, explore how the candidate manages that transition. Ask what information they share, how they coordinate the first meeting and what they do when an AE determines that a lead isn’t ready. Their response can reveal how well they communicate, collaborate and handle feedback across the sales team.

Follow-Up Questions to Ask

Use these questions to move beyond rehearsed responses and learn how the candidate manages their pipeline day to day:

• What CRM stages do you use, and what must happen before you advance a deal?
• Which sales metric do you review every day, and how does it influence your priorities?
• When several opportunities need attention, how do you decide which ones to focus on first?
• Tell me about a deal that stalled. What did you do to get it moving again?
• At what point do leads typically drop out of your process, and why?
• How do you keep your CRM records complete and accurate throughout the sales cycle?

Questions About Compensation and Targets

Compensation questions can help you determine whether a candidate understands performance expectations and is motivated by the company’s compensation structure. They also give you an opportunity to clearly explain how quotas, commissions and incentives work.

• What type of quota structure have you worked with, and how was your performance measured? Ask whether the candidate’s goals were based on monthly, quarterly or annual revenue, activity levels, new accounts or another metric. This can show how familiar they are with your performance model.
• What were your on-target earnings in your previous role, and how often did you achieve them? This can help you understand the candidate’s compensation expectations and verify whether their past performance supports the earning potential they are seeking.
• How have commission accelerators influenced your approach to exceeding quota? Ask the candidate to describe any higher commission rates, bonuses or incentives they earned after passing their target. Their answer can reveal how they respond to performance-based rewards.
• Have you experienced quota relief, and how was it handled? Ask about situations involving extended leave, territory changes, onboarding periods or major market disruptions. This can provide insight into how the candidate navigates changes that affect performance and compensation.

Closing Questions and Next Steps

Before wrapping up the interview, make sure the candidate understands what happens next and has an opportunity to address any final questions or concerns. These prompts can help you end the conversation with clear expectations:

• Do you have any questions about the hiring timeline or next steps? Explain when the candidate can expect an update and whether the process includes additional interviews, assessments or reference checks.
• Is there anything else you’d like to share about your fit for the role? Give the candidate a chance to address potential concerns, fill in gaps or highlight relevant experience that did not come up earlier.
• Do you know who to contact if you have follow-up questions or materials to send? Provide the appropriate person’s name and contact information so the candidate knows where to send a thank-you note, portfolio, references or other requested materials.

Questions to Gauge Career Advancement Fit

If you’re hiring a candidate who values long-term growth, use these questions to understand their career goals, motivation and readiness for increased responsibility. Their answers can also help you determine whether your company’s development opportunities align with what they want from their next role.

• How would you like your sales career to progress over the next few years? Ask whether the candidate is interested in senior sales, enterprise accounts, leadership or another path. Look for goals that are thoughtful but flexible, since their interests may evolve with experience.
• What types of mentorships, coaching or training help you perform at your best? Find out whether they prefer regular one-on-one coaching, formal development programs, peer mentorship or opportunities to shadow experienced colleagues. This can help you assess whether your management approach matches their learning style.
• How do you feel about taking on higher quotas and greater responsibility as you advance? Explore whether the candidate is prepared to manage larger territories, more complex accounts and increased performance expectations in exchange for greater earning potential.
• What skills would you most like to develop in your next role? Their answer may reveal whether they want to strengthen prospecting, negotiation, account management, leadership, data analysis or another area. Consider whether your company can provide meaningful opportunities to build those skills.

Supercharge Your Hiring Process

At CulverCareers, we help our clients build elite teams. From conducting a targeted search that includes passive candidates to guiding you through the interview process and consulting about employee retention, we’re a one-stop shop for your recruitment needs.
Looking to streamline your hiring process and find the best talent for your team? Get in touch with CulverCareers today and take your hiring process to the next level.