30-Minute Employer Interview Guide: Best Questions to Ask Candidates
Time is precious in recruitment; schedules are increasingly tight, scanning CVs is time-consuming and dragging out the hiring process can be costly. Thus, the 30-minute interview has become more common in modern hiring practices. It’s essential to make the most of this limited time by asking the right questions when evaluating candidates and making informed hiring decisions.
This guide will help you maximise your brief 30-minute interview window with purposeful, revealing questions to effectively assess your candidates and find your next great hire.
Warm up questions (5 minutes)
Before you begin, set the scene. Manage expectations by explaining that the interview is 30 minutes with a hard stop, and so to get the most out of it, you would like the answers to be concise to help you both get maximum value from the time.
Starting with simple questions allows candidates to feel at ease, build confidence and creates a more authentic conversation before you tackling more complex topics. Keep this section brief and use the information to personalise questions later.
Begin the interview with open ended questions that provide context and important background information about the candidate. You could choose 1-2 of the following suggestions:
- “Can you tell me your current role and responsibilities?”
This opening question breaks the ice, reveals their relevant skills, accomplishments and demonstrates their communication skills.
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“What motivated you to apply for this position at [company name]?”
The purpose of this question is to show well candidates understand the role they're applying for. Listen for company knowledge and an alignment between their interests and the job requirements.
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“What's something you're currently learning or working to improve?”
This question gauges the candidate's self-awareness and whether they have a growth mindset. Strong candidates will have specific examples that show initiative and a continuous learning attitude.
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“What's something interesting about yourself that isn't on your resume?"
This question sets a comfortable tone for the interview, establishes a rapport with the candidate and offers insight beyond their CV.
Core competency questions (10 minutes)
Core competency questions are crucial in a 30-minute interview because they assess a candidate's key skills and job performance. This section is particularly valuable in short interviews as they provide structured insights into the practical application of a candidate’s skills and how they have handled relevant situations.
Focus on 3-4 key technical and role-specific questions to allow sufficient time for detailed responses and any follow up questions:
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"What tools or methods do you use to stay organised and productive?"
This question reveals the candidate's style of working, familiarity with relevant systems and indicates how the candidate might fit into existing team workflows. Look for candidates that use clear methodologies for both short and long-term tasks and show evidence of prioritisation systems and flexibility.
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"Can you provide an example of when you used [role-specific technique] successfully in a project?"
This question is an efficient evaluation of the candidate’s technical skills and focuses on their most relevant abilities for the role, such as coding proficiency, system design, and debugging skills.
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"How would you optimise the performance of a [role-specific process]"
This question directly tests the candidate’s application of technical knowledge analytical skills, familiarity with system processes and optimisation techniques. Listen for how well the candidate understands of process and whether they use a systematic approach to evaluating the performance, for example, impact or outcome evaluation.
Behavioural and situational questions (5 minutes)
The behavioural question segment of a 30-minute interview is perhaps your most valuable window into a candidate's real-world capabilities. While a CV tells you what someone has done, behavioural questions reveal how candidates think, act, and solve problems. Look for them covering off key parts of the STAW technique in their answer (situation, task, action and result).
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"Describe a situation where you had to quickly master a new skill or concept."
This question reveals the candidate's learning strategies, time management skills and resourcefulness. Listen for answers that have a structured approach to learning, proactive skill development and show evidence of the candidate successfully applying their learnings.
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"Describe a challenging project you managed and how you overcame obstacles.”
This question addresses the candidate’s approach to problem-solving, successful knowledge application and provides insight into their decision-marking skills. Listen for answers with specific examples of delivered, measurable results.
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"Can you give me an example of when you had to lead a project with limited resources."
This question tests their leadership, resourcefulness and project management skills. Look for answers that share a candidate’s creative solutions, prioritisation skills and ability to achieve objectives despite constraints.
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"Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult stakeholder."
This tests their communication skills, conflict resolution, relationship management. Look out for red flags including blame-shifting and unresolved situations in candidate’s answers.
Cultural fit and soft skills questions (5 minutes)
Use this portion of the interview to assess how well the candidate might integrate with your team and the organisation beyond their technical capabilities.
“Culture-fit” is the number one hiring criterion employers report using, according to Harvard Business Review. The cultural fit, or ‘culture-add’ as companies look for more diversity (Factorial HR), assessment is a better predictor of long-term success and retention than technical skills alone as strong soft skills indicate how effectively someone will collaborate, communicate, and handle workplace challenges.
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"Describe your ideal work environment and management style."
This question looks at how the candidate would align with your company's style of working, workplace culture and organisational structure. Look out for conflicts with your current environment or style of management. For example, if a candidate that preferred working collaboratively or “code-pairing” was interviewing for a mid-level Software Developer role that required working independently, they may not be the best fit.
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"Tell me about a mistake you made and what you learned from it."
The purpose of this questions is to evaluate the candidate’s accountability, self-reflection and honesty. Look for candidates who take responsibility, explain their learning process, and clearly implemented improvements.
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"How do you handle competing deadlines and prioritise your work?"
This question focuses on the candidate’s organisational skills, stress management and time management abilities. Strong answers will have a systematic approach to how they prioritise tasks and will demonstrate clear communication with stakeholders.
Candidate questions (5 minutes)
This portion of the interview reveals the candidate’s preparation, aspirations and strategic thinking. Pay attention to the relevance of their questions and if they show research and interest in the role and company beyond what’s in the job description. Candidates that only ask about company benefits and time off many not be a good cultural fit for the company.
If the candidate struggles to think of their own questions, you could prompt them with one of the options below:
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Ask if they'd like clarification on anything discussed about the role or company.
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Offer a prompt: "Many candidates ask about our development process/team structure..."
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Ask if they have any other achievements or qualities that they haven’t had the chance to discuss.
Assessment tips
When you only have 30 minutes to evaluate a candidate, picking up on subtle signals becomes crucial. Observe the candidate’s non-verbal, cues throughout the interview. A suitable candidate will be engaged when listening, have a positive energy, professional in posture and the way they present themselves.
Green flags: Signs of a promising candidate
Look for candidates who own their mistakes while highlighting their learning. An honest interview response like "The project deadline slipped because I underestimated the scope. I’ve since learned the importance of incorporating buffer time and I now use three-point estimation for better planning,." shows responsibility and a growth mindset.
When candidates demonstrate clear understanding of their career trajectory, it’s a positive sign that they are motivated by growth, learning and progression. All of these qualities make a great hire, according to Indeed. Listen for specific examples of growth from past experiences, that show both initiative and impact awareness.
Candidates that show enthusiasm and evidence of research into the company
Red flags: potential warning signs
Be wary of candidates that show accountability avoidance. Phrases such as “I didn't have the resources” or “the team wasn’t supportive enough” without any self-reflection could indicate a lack of responsibility for negative outcomes. While it is normal to have challenging experiences, candidates that consistently frame their past experiences negatively may not good hires. If every former colleague or manager is “toxic” or “unreasonable”, this could indicate difficulty with professional relationships.
Failing to prepare for the interview, not being able to provide specific examples of past accomplishments or not researching the company are all signs that the candidate does not value the job opportunity, or care about the interview.
Listen carefully when candidates discuss their motivations for applying for the role. If they only focus on what they can gain and the benefits, rather than what they can contribute, they may not be a good fit for the company.
Practical time management tips
To manage your time, create a structured timeline for the interview and stick to it. Feel free to use a silent timer if needed to stay on track.
During an interview, it can be difficult to move between topics naturally or redirect an irrelevant answer to your question. Plan simple but effective question transitions at specific intervals to move the interview along, for example:
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“Now that I understand your background, I'd love to dive deeper into your experience with [specific skill/project]..."
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"That's a great example of initiative. Switching gears, I would like to understand your approach to..."
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“I'm mindful of our time, so let's move to a key area I would like to explore...
Ask the candidate multi-purpose questions that evaluate 2 or more competencies at once. Questions such as “Walk me through a time when you identified a process improvement that impacted multiple teams." Can evaluate initiative, change management, cross-team collaboration and knowledge application while maintaining the efficiency of your 30-minute time frame.
Take strategic notes by noting specific examples and key phrases rather than just general impressions. Assess the role specific skills and expertise using a simple rating system (1-5) for quick evaluation. Leave detailed note-writing for immediately after the interview.
It’s important to understand that in 30 minutes you will not be able to cover everything. Focus on the skills and experiences that are critical for the role and watch for clear indicators rather than trying to assess everything at once. Where appropriate, adapt the question examples based on the specific role and skill level, time constraints, the candidate’s background, and any previous interactions.
Remember you can always invite the candidate for a second interview to dig into the detail more.
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About the author
Harry Preen is a Senior Recruitment Consultant in the Housing System and Data Contract Teams at Gravitas having successfully built his specialism over the last 3 years. Connect with the author Harry Preen here.