10 of the Toughest Interview Questions (& What to Ask Instead)

When you have a relatively short amount of time to assess a range of different candidates, conducting interviews can be a tricky task. You essentially have to retract as much useful information from the potential employees as you can, learn more about their personality and skills in depth, all while taking into consideration that they're likely to be a bit nervous throughout conversations.

Every interviewer will have a different technique, or approach to interviewing, and some really like to put the pressure on with tough interview questions.

While the answers to these tough questions can demonstrate how a candidate works and deals with pressure, there are definitely alternative ways to approach them, especially if you're looking for an honest and authentic response from your interviewee.

In this blog we explore 10 of the toughest interview questions, and what to ask instead to get the most out of your interviews and your candidates.

1) “Can you tell me about yourself?”

In terms of interview questions, this one is guaranteed to come up time and time again. However, with this question being extremely vague, you're likely to receive an answer that includes a lot of umming and ahhing, as the candidate tries to piece together an answer in their head.

On the other hand, you may encounter candidates that take this question as an invitation to tell you their life story – including a fair amount of context that you don't need to know. This often leads to some rambling and wasted time for both parties.

Instead of asking the most basic of questions, we recommend that you focus on the candidates CV, as they've likely spent a good amount of time over recent years shaping what it looks like.

The first question in an interview is vital, it sets the tone, and helps the candidate understand what you're looking to get out of the next hour. Picking a part of the candidates own CV, like their most recent job or qualifications is likely to help them feel a bit more relaxed, while encouraging them to open up and share relevant, helpful information. 

2) “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

Another question that's likely to send your candidate off on a spiral, you’ll usually get a short answer about hopefully working with your company and a lifestyle aspiration - which is generic and not very enlightening! 

Instead, take the initiative and ask them more about the qualities or skills they want to develop further, avoiding a timescale. This clearly shows the candidates aspirations, and provides an insight into the potential areas they would benefit from a bit of extra support. 

For some, this may be the likes of public speaking, leadership or further knowledge of the industry. A desire to learn and grow is a fantastic quality to find in your prospective candidate.

3) “Are you a team player?”

No candidate in their right mind is going to say “no” as the answer to this question! Almost every job requires you to work as part of a team or with others, so potential employees know the value of this question. Saying this, however, it is a closed ‘yes/’no’ question that doesn’t give your candidate a lot to work with, other than the answer yes followed by a positive spiel. 

Take the lead and have them tell you about teams that they’ve worked within. This gives you much more context on their background and previous workplace too. Ask them to highlight the challenges that they’ve faces as part of a team and how they worked to rectify them. 

Working within a team brings plenty of experiences and opportunities to work closely with various personalities, so there’s always plenty to talk about if you take this question in the right direction.

4) “How do you respond to pressure?”

This question can be tricky, as pressure in the workplace is inevitable. While it's important to be completely transparent at this stage about how much pressure within this role exists, you don't want to put the candidate off, or imply that they're immediately going to be stressed from the get go, if they land this job.

Instead, ask them about their biggest achievements in their current position, or even in their personal life. This then provides the opportunity for them to communicate something positive that they're proud of, which will have no doubt contained a significant element of pressure!

5) “Why do you want this job?”

Another classic question for interviews, this can be a hard one for candidates to handle. For many, they want the job for better financial standing or to get out of another work environment. These are fairly standard reasons, but they tend to be frowned upon during interviews.

This will usually set off a load of mental gymnastics, as the candidate tries to think of other reasons that show them in a better light.

If you want to cut to the chase and get a genuine answer, then you’ll need to elaborate further. Home in on what about the job description or advert encouraged them to apply for the role.

This isn’t a memory test; if the job advert really resonated with them, they’ll be able to tell you all about it.

6) “What are your weaknesses?”

This is a question that most candidates dread, as there’s really no right answer for them to choose!

You’re pretty unlikely to get a real answer here: it will either be scripted or an unhelpful fact about their personal life. So, resign this question to the recycling bin and come up with something more inventive.

You could ask if there’s an area of their discipline that they want to gain more experience in, for example. They may have been pigeonholed in their current or previous position with the same tasks. They might not be experts at these tasks right away, but it takes weakness to a strength in a flash.

7) “What did you dislike about your last job?”

This is another question that can be difficult to answer authentically, as the candidate tries to steer away from being too negative. The truth may really be that they had a terrible manager or an issue with the work that they were given. In the interview, however, they’ll quite rightly, try to gloss over this with a more positive reflection of the company.

A good way to turn this question on it's head would be to ask what their perfect working environment would be. Understanding how a candidate works before they start a role, and what type of management they respond best to, gives the interviewee an invaluable upper hand.

Not only does this provide more context as to what a candidate would be like as a potential employee, it also shows where they would benefit from additional support.

This can also be useful to cross-check some of the information that they’ve already given you in the interview. If they say they’re a self-starter but their ideal working environment contains a lot of hand-holding, then something doesn’t add up.

8) “Have you applied for any other jobs?”

This question is a little too probing and doesn’t bring much to the interview. It’s tough for the candidate, as they don’t know whether applying for other jobs seems proactive or as though they don’t really care about the opportunity, so you're unlikely to get a 100% truthful answer.

If they do answer positively, they will tend to be reticent with details about the other opportunities that they have applied for, which is completely fair.

You can use the time that you would have wasted with this question to find out about the specific opportunities that a candidate is looking for in their next role, this provides more information as to whether this particular role aligns with a candidates continuous professional development aspirations. 

9) “What makes you the best candidate for this job?”

The candidate doesn’t really have any context for this question, as they don’t know what the other candidates have to offer. This tends to be more of an exercise in self-confidence, than anything concrete.

They can touch upon their skills that are relevant to the job, but if that's the information you're interested in, there's more direct ways to find it. Open it up and ask which elements of the job description they feel particularly confident about.

This way, the candidate can talk about their background and proven experience in context and you'll truly get an idea of how they'd utilise their skills within your company. 

10) “If you were an animal, which one would you be?”

Many interviewers feel like they’re being quirky or interesting with this question, but the truth is that it has become almost expected by a lot of interviewees. It’s not relevant and there’s nothing much to be gleaned from their answer.

You can replace this question with almost any other that’s more relevant and targeted to the role. For example, asking them what they know about the company is a great way to gauge their level of interest of the business as a whole, while finding out if they've spent time researching and reading prior to the interview.

Master your interview: swap 10 challenging questions for insightful alternatives

Remember, the toughest interview questions aren’t always the best! The goal of an interview isn’t to make your candidate squirm, it’s to get to know them, professionally and personally in an authentic way.

To identify the right candidate for the job, adapting your interview questions will ensure you get the information about the candidates that really matter, making your job search straightforward and successful.

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