Finding competent staff is hard. You need to quickly get to know new people, learn who they are and how they think. The best way to learn is asking questions.
Many questions are valid questions. Yet, few will lead to valid insights into the minds you are trying to glimpse into.
A great question I have found so far is this:
What is the last book you have read, and what have you learned from it?
It gives two type of insights:
- What might be the general area of interest – outside of the immediate job interest – of the interviewee given by the title, topic and style of the book.
- A perspective on the abilities of the interviewee to understand and interpret the world around them.