The following sample job interview questions about interpersonal skills enable you to assess your candidate’s skills in interpersonal relationships. Feel free to use these job interview questions in your own candidate interviews.
 

• Tell me about a time when you had to work closely with a coworker whom you disliked or with whom you had trouble working. What did you do to make the relationship work so you could succeed for your company?
   

• Tell me about a time when you disagreed with the actions or decisions of your manager or supervisor. How did you approach the situation? Was the situation resolved to your satisfaction or did nothing change?
   

• Tell me about a time when you worked with a friend or a coworker who became a friend. What did you do to ensure that the friendship bore positive results for your company?
   

• Describe a conflict you were involved in at work. How did you resolve the conflict? What happened next with that coworker or team?
   

• What are three examples of the kinds of behaviors, actions, or attitudes you are most likely to conflict with at work? Can you give mean example of a situation you addressed in the past? How was it resolved?
   

• What are the three most important factors that make you an effective, valued coworker in your current job? What would your supervisor say are the three most important factors?
   

• If you have reporting staff, how would these staff members describe your relationship with them?
   

• During your work experiences while attending college, tell me about a time when you demonstrated that you have the ability and desire to work effectively with your coworkers.
   

• When you have entered a new workplace in the past, describe how you have gone about meeting and developing relationships with your new coworkers, supervisors, and reporting staff.

Interpersonal Skills Job Interview Question Answers
You are questioning to determine the interpersonal skills of your candidate. The effective coworker solves problems and conflicts with his or her peers. The candidate can demonstrate that they have built effective relationships with supervisors and reporting staff.

The candidate is giving you an idea about the interpersonal behaviors he will have trouble dealing with in the workplace. The candidate is giving you an idea about how well he works with people. He is telling you about how he builds relationships with and solves interpersonal problems with coworkers, supervisors, and reporting staff.

Top Job Interview Questions to Help You Select the Best

Legal Job Interview Questions
These legal sample interview questions will help you ask legal questions during your candidate interviews. Additionally, for each sample question, I provide guidance about what you are listening for in your candidate's response.

If you know the:

• behavioral characteristics employees who are effective in the job display (or you have developed a behavior profile from experience),

• the specific requirements of the position,

• and the qualifications of the candidate,

working from a prepared list of interview questions, you will ensure that you are selecting the most qualified candidate for the job.

Following are sample job interview questions.

While a specific trait or skill is listed as the primary behavior, you will find overlap between the questions and candidate responses in the different categories.

In addition to these questions, you will want to prepare questions that explore the actual job skills and experience you have identified as essential for the position. Prioritize these skills and experiences and explore five to ten of them with the candidate. Your reference checking will also reveal the knowledge and skills of your candidates.

Feel free to use these sample job interview questions in your candidate job interviews.

 

Sample Job Interview Questions for the Employer

• Motivation Job Interview Questions
• Teams and Team Work Job Interview Questions
• Leadership Job Interview Questions
• Interpersonal Skills Job Interview Questions
• Management and Supervisory Skill Job Interview Questions
• Communication Job Interview Questions
• Planning Job Interview Questions
• Decision Making Job Interview Questions
• Empowerment Job Interview Questions

Illegal Interview Questions

The job interview is a powerful factor in the employee selection process. You can use behavioral-based job interview questions to help you select superior candidates. Ask interview questions that help you identify whether the candidate has the behaviors, skills, and experience needed for the job you are filling.

Ask legal interview questions that illuminate the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses to determine job fit. Avoid illegal interview questions and interview practices that could make your company the target of a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawsuit.

Illegal interview questions include any interview questions that are related to a candidate’s:

• Age

• Race, ethnicity, or color

• Gender or sex

• Country of national origin or birth place

• Religion

• Disability

• Marital or family status or pregnancy

Especially in the course of a comfortable interview during which participants are relaxed, don’t let the interview turn into a chat session.

Seemingly innocuous interview questions such as the following are illegal.

Sample Illegal Job Interview Questions

• What arrangements are you able to make for child care while you work?

• How old are your children?

• When did you graduate from high school?

• Are you a U.S. citizen?

• What does your wife do for a living?

• Where did you live while you were growing up?

• Will you need personal time for particular religious holidays?

• Are you comfortable working for a female boss?

• There is a large disparity between your age and that of the position’s coworkers. Is this a problem for you?

• How long do you plan to work until you retire?

• Have you experienced any serious illnesses in the past year

During an interview, you must take care to keep your interview questions focused on the behaviors, skills, and experience needed to perform the job. If you find your discussion straying off course or eliciting information you don’t want about potential job discrimination topics, bring the discussion quickly back on topic by asking another job-related interview question.

If a candidate offers information, such as, “I will need a flexible schedule because I have four children in elementary school,” you can answer the question. Do not, however, pursue that topic further. Another candidate informed me recently that his favorite spare time activity is reading the Bible. I asked him to tell me about why he left his most recent job.

Another candidate leaned closer across the table and said, “The reason I am leaving my current job is that I just had a baby two weeks ago and I need a regular schedule for my child care provider.” Another candidate told me he was a native Polish speaker and that he spent his childhood in an area of the city called Pole Town.

Running late at the interview, a female candidate informed the plant manager she had to run because she was late for football practice. His response, "Oh, you play football?" makes me chuckle every time I think about it. (It was her son's practice.) Again, do not pursue the discussion and you may not use such information to make your hiring decision. (As an aside, each of these individuals was hired for the position which is why I am comfortable sharing the examples.)