The questions below represent the best and worst of remote interview questions. Although you can use any combination of queries in order to achieve the outcome that you want, these are the ones to use—and the ones to avoid.
The Best Remote Interview Questions
“Are you able to self-manage?”
Finding out ahead of time if someone is good at meeting their deadlines, without ever having met their manager. It is a good indicator that they’ll be able to work well from a home office.
“Why do you want to work remotely?”
Some people get their best work done at 2:00 AM and someone else might need the flexibility that can come with working at home. While you don’t have to know the ins and outs of why they specifically want a remote job, it can give you some insight into what the person is looking to gain by not having a traditional office job.
“What would you say is your communication style?”
From concerns to clarifications, remote workers have to speak up often if they’re going to be successful. The last thing you want to do is hire someone who remains silent when there’s a problem—or goes radio silent when you need to find out some information.
The Worst Remote Interview Questions
“Where do you see yourself in five to 10 years from now?”
Most likely, the life you planned might look quite different from the one you’re living at this exact moment. So you can’t really expect a job seeker, who’s currently applying to various positions all over the world, to know where they’ll be either.
“What does your home office look like?”
In the age of digital nomads, you might find that your next best hire is going to traverse the globe in search of adventure, all the while working for you, too! So unless your job has a location requirement, or if you need your worker to always be available during set hours and be in a quiet place, you shouldn’t worry too much about where they work—as long as the work gets done.
“What’s your greatest weakness?”
Instead, ask the applicant instead to cite a time when something went wrong and how they fixed it. This answer gives you what you’re looking for in terms of weakness, but also highlights the person’s strength to show how they turned a wrong into a right.
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