I'm a technical recruiter, so I get asked all the time what questions I ask when interviewing experienced IT recruiter candidates. It's always an interesting exercise because it forces me to think about exactly what skills are important for someone to be good at their job.
There are two types of interview questions that matter most for experienced candidates:
Technical knowledge questions
Behavioral questions
In this article, I'll explain why both types of question matter, and how to structure your interviews in order to maximize the information you can glean from them.
For experienced IT recruiter candidates, technical knowledge questions tend to focus on the candidate’s understanding of different technologies and tools. In other words, they’re about the candidate’s “tech stack” — the combination of software tools, languages, and other technologies that they use as part of their work.
This is a bit more nuanced than it sounds. For example, if you're hiring for an IT recruiter role focused on front-end developers, you need to know whether the candidate understands HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and related frameworks. But if you're hiring for an IT recruiter role focused on back-end developers, you need to know whether the candidate understands databases, APIs, server-side programming languages, etc.
It’s also important to understand whether the candidate understands the broader picture. If you’re looking for someone who will be recruiting across multiple technical teams, then it’s important to know whether they understand the differences between frontend and backend development. Understanding these differences is crucial for identifying which skills a candidate needs in order to recruit well for the job.
But technical knowledge isn’t just about knowing what you’re doing. Technical recruiters have to assess a candidate’s technical skills based on their past work, projects, certifications, and so on. That’s why it’s important to ask questions like “What are your favorite technologies?” or “How did you use X in your previous role?”.
You also need to make sure that your questions aren’t too broad. Asking something like “Tell me about your experience with Java” won’t give you enough detail to determine whether the candidate is a good fit for the role. Instead, you should ask specific questions that allow the candidate to demonstrate their knowledge of the technology.
Finally, you need to stay updated with the latest technology trends. You don’t want to hire someone who doesn’t know anything about new technologies that could impact their ability to recruit effectively for technical roles.
The best way to stay up-to-date is by reading blogs, watching videos, listening to podcasts, and following industry news sites. This will help you keep track of what’s going on in the tech world and ensure that you’re asking relevant questions during your interviews.
Behavioral questions are the most reliable screening tool available to employers. They measure a candidate’s potential for success by asking them to describe past experiences that show how they’ve handled similar situations before. The results are usually pretty accurate, since they’re based on real life rather than hypothetical scenarios.
A strong answer to a behavioral question is one that provides clear details about the situation, action, and result. A weak answer might be vague or not very detailed. One of the easiest ways to tell the difference is by looking at how often the candidate references a specific project, employer, or measurable result. If they never reference any of those things, then there’s a chance they’re making things up.
One of the biggest challenges faced by managers today is figuring out whether their most recent hires are actually prepared for the jobs they were hired to do. According to Deloitte, only 34% of managers say that their most recent hires were fully prepared for the roles they were hired into. And only 20% of organizations track quality of hire in a data-driven way.
That means many companies are missing out on valuable opportunities to improve their hiring process. Behavioral interviews can help reduce bias and improve the overall quality of answers given by candidates.
If you want to learn more about how to conduct effective behavioral interviews, check out our article on the topic here.
How to structure the pre-screening call
When it comes to conducting pre-screening calls for IT recruiter positions, there are a few key considerations that will help you get the most out of each call. First, you want to make sure that your call lasts no longer than 15–30 minutes. While some companies may take longer than this, most will find that this amount of time is sufficient to get a sense of who the candidate is and what they bring to the table.
Next, you’ll want to select 6–8 questions per call. These questions should cover a variety of topics, including background, motivation, behavioral, and situational questions. Avoid asking all of the questions that you have available; instead, choose ones that are most relevant to the position you’re trying to fill.
Focusing your attention on fewer questions per call will help you produce better, more comparable answers from your candidates. On average, it takes 20 interviews to land a single hire in 2024, up from 14 interviews in 2021.
While technical knowledge questions are important, behavioral questions are the most reliable indicator of a candidate’s potential for success. When it comes to behavioral interviews, there are a number of standard questions that remain useful even for experienced candidates. These include:
Tell me about yourself
Why is there a gap in your resume?
What motivates you?
Why are you applying for this job?
What has been the most significant professional challenge you have encountered, and how did you address it?
These questions reveal a lot about a candidate’s professional self-awareness and genuine interest in the specific role they’re applying for.
Balancing technical assessment with cultural fit
As an IT recruiter, you’ll also need to ask questions that probe whether an experienced candidate balances their assessment of technical skills with cultural fit. Technical skills are essential for performing tasks associated with the job, but it’s equally important that the candidate aligns with the values of the organization and fits well within the team dynamics.
In fact, a study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that balancing both technical and cultural factors was identified as a core competency question for technical recruiters. The strongest cultural fit questions were open-ended, behaviorally anchored, and tied to actual success criteria.
Rather than simply asking whether a candidate matches the existing culture, surface what they will contribute to the company. This will help you identify whether they’re a good fit for the role.
Interview practices that reduce bias and improve answer quality beyond standard Q&A include using communication and collaboration skills to supplement the interview. Candidates may be nervous or hold back during an interview, so it’s important to use role plays, work samples, or feedback from past colleagues to get a better idea of who they really are.
Keep interviews friendly, but purposeful. Don’t let tangents waste your time; without guardrails, discussions drift into irrelevant topics. Structured, thoughtful interviews focused on qualities that matter most will help you avoid wasting time on irrelevant topics.