Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello all,

I am in the process of preparing to interview for candidates this week to fill assistant position to our Foster Manager (me) and this is only my second time interviewing potential employees.  Does anyone have any suggestions of interview questions you might ask?  We have a list of competencies that are important to us, so I'll be asking questions to flush those out, but I don't have an actual interview structure yet. 

Thanks in advance!

I like to ask what their favorite animal is and why.  Gives some insights into personality.

Ask what their biggest success in life is so far and their biggest failure. You will learn what they expect from themselves. 

Ask about there best boss ever and worst boss ever. Have them explain why. You will learn what they expect from you.

Be willing to sit in silence while they formulate an answer and don’t let them off the hook or they will have learned how to get around you. 

We ask them to tell us about a time when a teammate made a mistake and how it was resolved. We also ask how they handle their own mistakes. Not knowing the specific job duties of an assistant, and assuming that there will be heavy contact with volunteers, we ask then to tell us about a time that they had to address something difficult with a volunteer and what the outcome was.

With all of these, we are trying to get a glimpse of their motivation to help others, how they cope with mistakes and how they move through it. Ideal candidates will be able to tell you about how they tackled the problems and the success on the other side vs. negative outcomes and drama.

I would ask behavioral interview questions - make sure your questions don't necessarily have a yes or no answer. And use real-life examples, like "A few months ago we had a foster parent who did not want to follow our medical policies - how would you proceed with handling the situation yourself?"

What has been your biggest career failure and what did you learn from it?

Describe a time in which you had to provide customer service when the customer/client was acting unpleasantly.

Describe a time when you had a major disagreement with a coworker and had to resolve it. What was the outcome?

Be direct about what the job entails, both the good and the challenging.  Setting the expectation up front will help prepare the individual you hire for success in the program.  Ask them questions with challenging situations you currently face and how they would handle them to see how they would react in your specific work environment.  That should help in making a decision of who to hire.