Some interview questions are always good to ask every candidate, no matter what job they are applying for. This way, you can learn more about each person.
Asking prospects about their job search, salary expectations, and career paths at large is certainly ideal. But getting them to answer the questions below is just as important for making sure the hiring process goes smoothly and for making sure you hire the right person.
Interviewing candidates is one of the most important parts of the hiring process. The interview allows you to assess a candidate’s skills, experience, and cultural fit to determine if they are the right person for the role
When interviewing candidates for positions at Lever, it’s helpful to have a bank of Lever interview questions ready so you can thoroughly evaluate each applicant. In this guide, we’ll provide an overview of Lever discuss different types of interview questions you may ask, and share some specific example questions to ask candidates interviewing for roles at Lever.
What is Lever?
Lever is a leading applicant tracking system and talent relationship management platform designed to streamline and optimize recruiting. Lever combines job postings, applicant tracking, interview scheduling, employee referrals, and analytics into one unified system to help recruiters source, engage, and hire top talent more efficiently.
Some key features of Lever include:
- Intelligent sourcing and proactive recruiting tools to attract passive candidates
- Streamlined applicant tracking with customizable workflows
- Structured interview templates to standardize and simplify interviewing
- Real-time collaboration and feedback collection from hiring stakeholders
- Reporting and analytics to optimize recruitment strategies over time
Lever is used by top companies like Netflix, Reddit, Lyft, and Atlassian to modernize and scale their recruiting and make more informed hiring decisions.
Types of Interview Questions to Ask
When interviewing candidates for roles at Lever, there are a few main types of interview questions you’ll want to ask:
Screening Questions
Screening questions help you determine if a candidate meets the basic qualifications for the role. These are usually focused on skills, experience, and other job requirements.
Example screening questions for Lever roles:
- What experience do you have with applicant tracking systems or HR information systems?
- Tell me about your experience working in recruiting or talent acquisition.
- What is your experience level with sales or business development?
Behavioral Questions
Behavioral questions ask candidates about specific scenarios from past jobs to gauge technical abilities, soft skills, and cultural fit.
Examples for Lever:
- Tell me about a time when you successfully onboarded a new client onto a software platform. How did you ensure they adopted the technology?
- Describe a situation where you had to explain a complex technical concept or process to a non-technical audience. How did you simplify the information to make it understandable?
- Give me an example of when you went above and beyond to delight a customer or client. What did you do and what was the outcome?
Situational Questions
Situational questions present candidates with a hypothetical scenario and ask what they would do in that situation. This reveals problem-solving abilities, judgment, and priorities.
Lever examples:
- If a customer was thinking about leaving Lever for a competitor, how would you convince them to stay?
- Imagine you notice multiple clients are contacting support with the same question about a certain product feature. What would you do to improve the user experience?
- If you had five candidates to screen for one open role, how would you prioritize who to interview first?
Culture Fit Questions
Culture fit questions provide insight into whether a candidate’s work style, values, and personality fit your company culture.
Lever examples:
- Lever values transparency. Tell me about a time when you had to communicate difficult news transparently.
- Here at Lever, we empower employees to take ownership over their work. Give me an example of a time you took initiative to solve a problem, even if it wasn’t explicitly your responsibility.
- What kind of work environment do you thrive in? How would this align with Lever’s culture?
Example Lever Interview Questions
Here are some more specific example questions to ask in interviews for various roles at Lever:
Sales Interview Questions
- Walk me through your typical sales process from lead generation to closed deal. How have you adapted your process to drive greater conversion rates?
- Tell me about the most difficult sale you’ve made. What objections did you encounter and how did you overcome them?
- Imagine you are pitching Lever to a prospect who has never used an ATS before. What are the key benefits you would highlight and how would you position Lever as the ideal solution?
Engineering Interview Questions
- What experience do you have working in an agile software development environment?
- Describe a time when you had to quickly diagnose and debug an issue in production. What was the root cause and how did you identify it?
- If you were building a new feature for the Lever platform, how would you prioritize speed to market while maintaining high quality?
Customer Success Interview Questions
- Tell me about a time when you improved customer satisfaction or Net Promoter Score (NPS). What specifically did you do?
- Describe a situation where you had to manage an angry or dissatisfied customer. What steps did you take to resolve the issue?
- Imagine a customer is having difficulty implementing a certain Lever feature. Walk me through how you would assess the issue and provide solutions tailored to that customer.
Recruiting Interview Questions
- What methods and sources do you typically leverage to generate great candidates for an open position?
- Tell me about a time when you filled a particularly challenging role or hired for a new department. How did you identify talent despite the difficulty?
- Imagine you need to hire 5 software developers in a tight labor market. What strategies would you use to source qualified passive candidates?
Marketing Interview Questions
- What experience do you have managing marketing campaigns and measuring ROI? Walk me through your process.
- Describe a creative marketing campaign you spearheaded from concept to execution. What results did it drive?
- If you were creating a targeted campaign to promote a new Lever product, what mediums would you use and who would you target it to?
Tips for Lever Interview Questions
Here are some additional tips when using Lever interview questions:
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Tailor questions to the role – Sales, engineering, marketing, etc. will require different types of questions.
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Ask follow-up questions to probe deeper on answers. Don’t just move on after a brief response.
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Look for specific examples not just hypotheticals with behavioral and situational questions.
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Evaluate skills and experience with technical questions where applicable.
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Assess culture fit with questions on work style, values, and environment preferences.
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Use a mix of different question types – behavioral, situational, technical skills, culture fit, etc.
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Take detailed notes so you can compare candidates consistently.
Using well-planned Lever interview questions tailored to each role will help you assess candidates’ qualifications, skills, experience, and company fit to decide if they are the right hire. Screen candidates with qualification questions first, then dive into behavioral, situational, and culture fit questions to get a deep understanding of how candidates would perform in the role. Listen closely, ask thoughtful follow-up questions, and take detailed notes to allow for side-by-side comparisons. With this approach, you’ll be able to effectively evaluate candidates and make the best hiring decisions for your team.
Typical interview questions to assess motivation techniques and commitment level
- Are you applying for other jobs besides ours right now? If so, what made you want to apply for those positions?
- What motivates you to come to work everyday?
- What about our position interests you the most?
- What do you think is the most important thing when choosing a new job?
- What about our product/company excites you the most?
- In what ways does this job help you reach a long-term goal?
- What do you hope to learn/gain by taking this position?
- What do you want to find here that you’re not getting at your current job?
- What could your current company do to keep you? Could they change your job, your team, or the way they do things in general?
- How would you define a ‘healthy’ work-life balance?
- Why do you want to work for our company for another 5 years?
- How do you keep yourself going when you’re stuck doing the same thing over and over?
- Have you ever worked in a place that was bad for you? If so, how did you stay motivated to do your job?
Typical interview questions to ask all candidates
Below are different subsets of typical interview questions to ask each job candidate.
Lever ATS Demo/Review – Exploring the User Interface – A Recruiter’s Perspective
FAQ
How do I answer why should I hire you?
What questions are asked in a competency based interview?
How do you add an interview stage in lever?
How do I refer a candidate to lever?
In Lever, you can refer candidates directly, as well as generate social media share links for open roles. To learn how to submit and manage referrals, refer to the following help article: Your organization may choose to list certain job postings on an internal job board.
How does the lever platform work?
The Lever platform treats applications from internal candidates differently, to ensure your job hunt is confidential. Only the appropriate members of your recruitment team will be able to see that you have applied to an internal role, and any scheduled interviews will be marked as private by default.
What questions should you ask during an interview?
When hiring senior leaders or executives (CEO, CMO, CFO, COO, VPs and more) your interview should focus on strategic, leadership, and management-level interview questions.
How do you prepare for a job interview?
Always try to have some fun with candidates (levity can relieve interview nerves, helping candidates perform better and reveal more fit factors in interviews). Always have a purpose for the questions you are asking (breaking the ice, testing a candidate’s ability to think on their feet, revealing personal/professional interests, etc.).
