User Guide: Interview Question Bank

This guide will go through with you how to use the search functions on our Interview Question Bank, and how to interpret the results of the search.

Using the Basic Search function

Assuming you already know the competencies that you are looking for in your job candidates, you can use basic search to look for questions related to these competencies.

Type the competency or skill in the “Search Term” field, then click “Search”. The interview questions that are found will appear below the search bar area.

While typing, the search bar may auto-suggest search terms or full interview questions based on what it thinks you are searching for. You could use the suggested search terms or question instead of your original term if it fits your needs better.

Also, optionally, you can choose a Question Type to help to narrow down the search. For example, imagine the competency you are interested in is “Communication Skills”. Type “Communication Skills” into the “Search Term” field, and click “Search”. The interview questions related to “Communication Skills” will then appear below.

See Figure 1 below for a visual demonstration of this.

Figure 1   

Using the Advance Search function

Understanding advance search

Although the basic search function will give you a satisfactory result, we recommend you use the advance search functions.

It will take a while to learn the specific competencies and how they are broken down in the list, but it will give you a more accurate result. This means fewer irrelevant questions to trudge through to find the ones that will really help you. Case in point, a regular advance search can turn up 10 to 30 questions, whereas a basic search can turn over a hundred questions.

In the advance search area, the Question Type and Competencies are broken down into the following sections:

• Question Type
• Knowledge
• Skills
• Abilities
• Other Factors
• Work Activity (Work Tasks Types):
• Work Context (Person to Job/Team/Org Fit):
• Work Style (Person to Job Fit):

Question Types are the generally agreed-upon types of questions that interviewers ask in an interview.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other Factors (also known as KSAs or KSAOs) are a widely used system of classifying attributes of job candidates. These are collectively known as competencies, and will cover the base attributes that you are looking for in a job candidate. These competencies can be tied to job performance if high levels of a competency can be linked to high job performance.

Work Activity, Work Context, and Work Style are a more specific way of classifying situational factors in a job or in a candidate to look for team fit. These factors try to look at the more nuanced parts of the vacant job, hiring team, hiring company, and the individual job candidate themselves, to see if a good personal fit can be achieved between candidate and job.

Each of these sections is comprised of multiple sub-sections and contains multiple competencies that you are looking for in a job candidate. A detailed breakdown of each competency by section and sub-section can be found below under “Question Type and Competency List” below.

Using advance search

Assuming you already know the competencies that you are looking for in your job candidates, in the advance search area, you can select one or more of these competencies from under the appropriate section.

You can do this by clicking on the section’s search field, typing a close approximation of the competency, and click on the competency that is suggested to you. Alternatively, you can do this by again clicking on the section’s search field, scrolling through the list of competencies that appear, and then clicking on the competency you want to select. You can repeat this process for each competency you are interested in.

Once you have all the competencies you are interested in selected, click “Search”, and your search results will appear below.

You can leave the “Search Term” field (from the basic search area) totally blank. In fact, it is recommended that you leave the “Search Term” field blank, so as to not bias your search result and to help you better explore the interview question bank.

For example, you again are interested in communication skills. You have also further narrowed this down to oral input and oral output skills with a focus on public speaking. This would map to speaking skills, listening skills, and public speaking skills. Under the “Skills” section, select “Basic – Speaking” and “Basic – Active Listening”, then under “Work Context” section, select “Interpersonal Relations – Public Speaking/Presentation”. Then click “Search”. The interview questions related to all three competencies will appear below.

See Figure 2 below for a visual demonstration of this.

Figure 2

Question Type and Competency List

The following is a list of the competencies (a.k.a. KSAOs) and their descriptions as they are listed in the Interview Question Bank search page. All interview questions are categorized into one or more of these competencies.