As has been said before, it is essential not to “lead” a candidate during an interview; however the following questions may assist you in extracting more detail from a response without leading the candidate.
- “Can you give me a picture of that?”
- “If I were there, what would I see?”
- “Walk me through that (incident) (meeting) etc.”
- “Can you give me an example of a time that you…..?”
- “Can you give me an example of such a (meeting) (group)?”
- “You said ‘we’. What did you do specifically? What part did you play?”
- “Can you tell me what you actually said to him/her?”
- “Can you tell me what you mean by ….?”
- “That was a good overview. Now, let’s go back and get the details.”
- “How were you feeling then…?”
- “What went through your mind…?”
- “Tell me about a time when you…?”
- “This sounds like a good incident for us to be talking about. Can you take me back to the beginning?”
- “Take a minute to reflect. Then, give me a quick overview.”
- “What were the key events, the critical points along the way?”
- “How did it start?”
- “Tell me about….X. What led up to it?”
- “What were some of the specific things you talked about?”
- “What did s/he say?… What did you say?”
- “Let’s go back. When you… (left the meeting) (etc.,)… how did you feel?”
- “So what happened after that? What were the critical next steps?”
”Can you remember any key interaction or conversation you had in the early stages of this?” - “What stands out in your mind as most important about that time… (incident)… (event)…?
- “Let’s go back. You said there was planning involved. Tell me more about that?”
- “What were some of the thoughts you had when….?”
- “Who’s the ‘we’ here?”
- “And, then, what happened?”
- “How did that come about? How did that first come up?”
- “How did you do that?”
- “What did you say?”
- “What were your next steps?”