Application Questions to Find the Right Candidate

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Creating a high-quality job application requires a lot of work, but taking the time to ask the right questions can save you a lot of time and effort in your overall hiring process.

In this article, we’ll go over why application questions are important and how to choose the ones that will help you find the right candidate.

Key Takeaways:

• Application questions act as an initial screening for job candidates, so focus on asking about the top qualifications you want your candidate to have.

• Ask questions that find out about the candidate’s personality and values as well as their work experience.

• Two of the top application questions to ask are, “What interests you in this role?” and “What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?”

What Are Application Questions?

Application questions are the questions you put on a job application. They’re the questions you’ll use to decide if you want to invite a candidate to an interview so you can ask additional questions.

Because application questions are used to conduct initial candidate screenings, they’re usually less in-depth than interview questions, but they’re just as intentional.

What Is the Right Candidate?

There probably isn’t one perfect candidate for your job posting, so don’t waste your time looking for someone who checks every box on your candidate wishlist. Instead, you should look for candidates who fit the position in a few key areas:

• Culture/personality fit. It doesn’t matter how experienced or skilled a candidate is, they won’t be a good hire if they don’t align with your company’s culture. They don’t need to – and shouldn’t – be a clone of all of your other employees, but they should be able to mesh well with their work style, sense of humor, and general vibe.

  Otherwise, they will quickly become frustrated and burnt out, and you may even see productivity lag.

• Values fit. Your ideal candidate will be able to get behind your company’s values. This means if you value excellence, they should be able to show you excellent work. If you value creativity, they should be able to describe their creative process and give you an example of their creativity at work.

  If a candidate can’t get behind your values, they won’t be able to contribute as much as someone who does. They may even be more difficult to manage if you have to constantly redirect their ideas and behavior.

• Experience fit. There are some skills that can only be learned through experience. A candidate with an extensive list of technical skills but little to no leadership experience isn’t a good fit for a supervisory or mid-level role, no matter how good their resume looks.

  The best candidate doesn’t necessarily have to have the exact type of experience that you were originally looking for, but they do need to have some kind of applicable background to pull from when they move into your role.

• Skills fit. It may sound obvious, but it’s important to not overlook this factor when considering a candidate. They don’t necessarily need to have every skill required to do the job – that’s what training is for – but they do need to have the ones you determine are key for success in this role.

  Think through what your nonnegotiable skills are and which ones you’re willing to teach. This goes for both soft and hard skills.

42 Application Questions to Help You Find the Right Candidate

Culture/Values/Personality

1. What about this role interests you?

2. Why do you want to work for our company?

3. What do you do in your free time?

4. What are you passionate about?

5. What are some of your hobbies?

6. What do you like to listen to while you work?

7. Who do you look up to professionally and personally?

8. Where do you hope to be five years from now?

9. Which one of our company values do you most identify with? Why?

10. What motivates you to do your best work?

11. What is your pet peeve?

12. What is your ideal work environment?

13. What would you add to our company?

14. What challenges are you looking for in this position?

15. What are you looking for in a job?

16. Why should we hire you?

17. Why do you believe you’d be a good fit for this role?

Soft Skills

1. What are your top two strengths and weaknesses?

2. Describe a time you had to deal with a difficult coworker. How did you respond?

3. What are three words your friends would use to describe you?

4. In your opinion, is it better to do work that is perfect but late or work that has a few mistakes but is completed on time?

5. What is the highlight of your past three years of work?

6. Describe your creative process step by step.

7. How do you keep track of your tasks and meetings?

8. Describe how you handle stressful situations.

9. What do you do to take care of yourself outside of work?

Hard Skills/Technical Expertise

1. Describe your experience in the field of insurance.

2. What programming languages do you know? How would you describe your proficiency in each one?

3. What skills do you want to develop?

4. Describe a work project you did that you’re especially proud of.

5. What industry publications do you keep up with?

Management/Leadership

1. What do you believe is the main role of a manager?

2. Do you have experience mentoring others? If so, describe it.

3. Describe a time you demonstrated leadership skills.

4. What is your management style?

Practical Details

1. What are your salary expectations?

2. Are you legally eligible to work in the U.S.?

3. Are you open to travel? If so, how much?

4. Are you open to relocating?

5. When is your earliest possible start date?

6. Are you open to working more than 40 hours a week?

7. Are you available and willing to work swing and/or overnight shifts?

Tips for Choosing Application Questions

• Identify which qualifications are your top priorities. These are the few qualifications you aren’t willing to budge on – unless the candidate is so perfect in every other way that you just have to overlook them.

  These are usually a combination of black-and-white checkboxes like industry experience, education levels, and location, as well as more subjective qualifications such as time management or the ability to handle pressure well.

  Once you have your top priorities identified, turn these into application questions so you don’t have to wait until the interview stage to see if a candidate has the basics of what you’re looking for.

• Pick at least one question that will reveal something about the applicants’ personalities.

  This question should also reflect your company’s culture, so if you work in a more formal environment, ask, “What do you like to do in your spare time?” If you work in a casual, creative environment, consider something like, “If you were a song, what would you be?”

  While interviews are typically the best times to get a feel for a candidate’s personality, the right application questions can often screen some of the worst cultural and personality fits right off the bat.

• Ask other team members what they’d ask candidates. The people who are going to be working closely with this new employee may have unique insight into what you should be looking for in a candidate. You don’t have to use all of the ideas they come up with, but you should invite their input whenever it’s appropriate.

• Find the application length sweet spot. If your application is too long, it’ll scare off candidates. If it’s too short, you may end up with more applicants and less information than you wanted, forcing you to hold more interviews than you would’ve if you’d asked a few more questions on the application.

• Ask open-ended questions. Just like you would in an interview, don’t ask too many questions that can be answered in one word or phrase. Instead, ask questions that require the applicant to give an example or explain themselves more fully. Asking, “Why?” as much as is reasonable is a great way to do this.

• Make sure your application software is user-friendly. If it’s easy for your applicants to type long, well-worded answers in the application answer boxes, they’re more likely to do so. If your application software has strict character limits or is difficult to use, you’re probably going to get lower-quality answers.

Application Questions FAQ

1. What questions should not be on a job application?

   Questions addressing the applicant’s age, race, disability, or gender should not be on a job application. These and similar questions are illegal to ask under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

   So, unless you need to verify that someone is legally allowed to work for you, leave personal information off the application. And when you do have to ask a question about employment eligibility, you should clear the wording of your question with your HR department.

2. What are the top five questions to ask a candidate?

   The top five questions to ask a candidate are:

   • What about this role interests you?

   • Why do you want to work for our company?

   • What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?

   • Tell me about your work experience.

   • Tell me something about yourself that isn’t on your resume.

3. What are the four things required on a job application?

   Four things required on a job application are:

   • Contact information.

   • Employment history.

   • Education or training.

   • Reason why they want to work at the company.

Final Thoughts

The extra time and effort you spend on crafting high-quality application questions is worth it – not only will it save you time down the road, but it’ll also help lower your risk of making a bad hire.

Finding the right job candidate is challenging, but with the right application questions, you’ll be well on your way to finding the perfect fit.

References

1. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – What Can’t I Ask When Hiring?

2. SHRM – Screening and Evaluating Job Candidates

Author

Caitlin Mazur

Caitlin Mazur is a freelance writer at Zippia where she has written 140+ articles that have reached over 1 mil viewers as of June 2023. Caitlin is passionate about helping Zippia’s readers land the jobs of their dreams by offering content that discusses job-seeking advice based on experience and extensive research.