Okay, you've gathered all the information that you want about a potential employee's skills and experiences. Is that enough? No, of course that's not enough. Now's the time to build on what you've carefully culled so far and put the finishing brush strokes on the big picture. The next line of open-ended questioning to add to your interview repertoire centers on the open position itself, and specifically what the company's appeal is to the job seeker.

Focusing on the Position You're Seeking to Fill

This is the prime opportunity for you to get down into the trenches and shift the focus from the interviewee talking about the interviewee, to the interviewee talking about the open position and the company that pays your salary. The job you're seeking to fill, depending on its skill requirements, will attract a diverse group of applicants.

Information elicited from this hungry group about why they want to work for you will be very enlightening indeed. If you're truly concerned about workplace problems down the pike — and you've got to be as a forward-thinking coach — opportunity knocks. The interview process is the time to ask those who want to join your team, and work with you, just why they want to do that.

Asking Questions about the Job and Your Company

Here are some appropriate interview questions that focus their rhetorical slings and arrows on the open job itself:

• What brought you to this company, seeking this position?

• What special attributes do you offer that make you suitable for the open job?

• What specifically do you look for in an employer?

• Describe your short-term goals? Long-term goals?

• What challenges do you seek in a job?

• What makes you the best-qualified person for the job?

• Is money ultimately more important to you than responsibilities and challenges?

• How do you think the company would benefit if you were hired to fill this position?

As you can glean from the substance of these various queries, the thrust of the questioning shifts to the job at hand and what the would-be employee could do for you and the company. There is, of course, some overlap in questions about skills, experience, and position, but it's in this last line of questioning where you can get very specific in your follow-ups, and hone in on what you know the job demands in both the short- and long-term.

Your insider information on the various job-related skills needed to perform the everyday tasks and fulfill the roles, and in what time frame, permits you to probe and poke around and determine whether or not an applicant has what it takes — beyond skills and experience — to do the job and do it well. A scrupulous interview process can provide you with a very clear picture as to whether or not the person seeking a job fits into your vision and whether or not he or she can work well with your present team.