Surface questions get surface hires

Most interviews do not fail because the wrong people applied. They fail because the questions were shallow. Somebody reads the job ad out as a set of questions, the candidate agrees with all of it, everyone feels good, and nobody learned anything. Then the hire starts and the gaps show up in week three.

Where this approach came from

A good chunk of my career was spent investigating. In an investigation you are not after opinions — you are after what happened, in order, with detail that can be checked. The questions that get you there always start the same way: What. Where. Why. When. How. They make a person describe an event rather than describe themselves.

Interviewing is the same job. You are trying to work out what this person actually did, not what they are comfortable claiming.

The five openers

• What

  Pulls out the action. What did you do next. What went wrong first. What did that cost.

• Where

  Anchors it to a real place and a real job. Vague answers fall apart here.

• Why

  Gets at judgement. Anyone can follow a procedure; you want to know why they chose that one.

• When

  Puts it on a timeline. Timelines expose gaps, and gaps are worth asking about.

• How

  Gets at method. How they did it, step by step, is where the people who watched it happen come unstuck.

Everything else is open to a one word answer, a rehearsed line, or a polite agreement. Closed questions have one place in an interview — licences, tickets, notice period, right to work, availability. Ask those flat out and move on.

Surface versus deep

The gold is in the follow through

Here is where most interviews come undone. The question gets asked, the candidate answers, and the interviewer ticks it off because the answer sounded like the thing the job needs. That is listening for the answer you wanted. It is not the job.

Listen for the opening instead. Every answer leaves one — a name, a date, a decision someone else made, a bit that got skipped, a number that does not sit right. That is your next question. Then the one after it. One or two questions deeper is usually where you find out whether they did the work or watched it happen. Same as sales: the gold is in the follow-up.

• Answer mentions a crew — What were you responsible for, and what was theirs?
• Answer skips the middle — What happened between the call and the fix?
• Answer is in 'we' — What did you do?
• Answer sounds rehearsed — When was the last time it went the other way?

That is why there is a box under every question in the tool asking "Did you dig for gold?" Write down where you went deeper and what came out of it. If that box is empty across the whole interview, you took first answers all the way through, and you have not confirmed suitability — you have confirmed that the candidate can talk.

On the other side of the table

The same discipline works if you are the one being interviewed. Paste the advert or the job description you were sent into the tool and switch it to candidate mode. It works out what the employer will actually test, the deep questions a sharp interviewer would ask, what your answer needs in it to land, and the follow-ups they will push on when an answer is thin. Turn up with real examples, in order, with the detail still attached.

The tool also asks you "Did my response satisfy your question?" from the candidate side. That means: after your first answer, what did the interviewer push on, and did your deeper response actually answer it? Practice the follow-up before the interview, not during it. The candidates who land the role are the ones who have already dug.

Who is this tool for?

The business going it alone to recruit. If you are not a full-time recruiter but you still need to hire well, this is the guide and tool that saves you dollars. It stops you from sitting across from a candidate with nothing but a gut feeling and a CV. You walk in with a plan, the questions are already written, and the scorecard keeps you honest.

It is also for the seasoned recruiter. There is no harm in getting a fresh perspective to polish up your approach. Even experienced interviewers fall into habits — the same three questions, the same listening pattern, the same bias toward the candidate who interviews well. The tool forces a different structure and gives you a record you can compare against later.

And it is for the candidate who wants to prepare properly. Switch the tool to candidate mode, paste the job description, and see the interview from the other side of the table before you walk in. Same discipline, same evidence standard, same advantage.

Evidence, not statements

A statement is "I'm strong on safety." Evidence is a job, a date, a decision, a consequence, and what they did differently afterwards. If the answer has no detail in it, you have not got evidence yet — you have got a claim. Probe once, probe twice, then write down what you actually heard.

That is why the free tool makes you record the evidence before a high rating counts. A 4 out of 4 with an empty evidence box is just a good feeling, and good feelings are how bad hires get through.

Rate as you go, not afterwards

Memory flattens. By the fourth candidate everyone is "pretty good". Score each competency in the room, against evidence, on a scale with no comfortable middle. Then the comparison at the end is between records, not impressions.