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[pigeon]

yeah, but, i want to do a good job. I'm under a ton of pressure right now and if i ever want to move up I gotta impress.

That makes sense, but unfortunately, if your input really is limited to a rating, then you don't really have an opportunity to do a good job either. If you say no there will never be any input on your choice. If you give a positive rating then they might compare their eventual rating to yours, but from your description I'm guessing they hardly look at it. The only possible bad outcome is that you rate somebody high enough for a second interview and they determine they're incredibly terrible.

So all you really have to do is filter out incredibly terrible people. This is easily done by asking yourself if you would actually want this person as a coworker at all.

You will do fine.

Spoiler

If you are really that concerned, the safest thing to do is just to say no hire, since it is almost impossible for that to come back on you in any way. But that would be immoral and I do not recommend it.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Interviews have little to no correlation with job performance, just don't give a fuck and be casual. This part of the process is super unimportant, try to remind yourself of that and hopefully it will be less nerve-wracking.

 

[MikeDip]

Ask them where they see themself in 5 years. That will determine if they're worth hiring.

What's an actual good answer to this?

 

[pigeon]

What's an actual good answer to this?

The purpose of this question is to determine a) if you're ambitious and b) if your ambitions are at all reasonable. So you should say something that demonstrates that you want, and expect, to be promoted three to five times in the next five years (because most companies don't expect to promote somebody more than once a year, and you might want to demonstrate humility).

Ideally, you're interviewing at a place you want to work at, in which case you should probably honestly say the job you want there, because if you can't get that job in five years you'll probably part ways one way or another, and if saying that job means you don't get hired then you probably don't want to work at that company anyway.

 

[Lord_Byron28]

Some things that I would do is ask questions on prior events. For example ask them of a time that they went above and beyond in a prior job or something similar. Asking them questions that require them to think about their responses and come up with prior events helps establish their behavior and is a slightly better alternative than answering questions most people will say something obvious about.

 

[YoungFa]

These are the questions you should ask.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

What? No, don't do that. OP don't do that

SILENCE YOU! this topic has to deliver and you're not getting in my way of that.

I don't think I'm a God...nor do I think I'm good for being manager. I get nervous still when ordering food. My anxiety isn't crippling, but, it's still bad and gives me such a feeling of dread.



yeah, but, i want to do a good job. I'm under a ton of pressure right now and if i ever want to move up I gotta impress.

but you are. you have the power to influence whether they get hired. you control their lives, like a god. rem ind yourself that you have power and they do not. they should fear you. then when you help hire a lackey that will do your bidding you can start moving up the corporate ladder.
serioulsy, just talk to them like you would any of your underlings but challenge them. throw in your own questions. ask them how they would have handled that irate lady that you had to deal with yesterday.

 

[Vhalyar]

Seems to me like there's nothing we can really do to help you.
You have a pretty clear framework: Ask the questions, grade, move on.

There's no room in there for much of a conversation, leading to questions, or basically anything you'd expect out of a proper interview. That's up to your superiors.

So relax and instead make it your goal to be a warm and professional person. Assuming the candidate is good, he might mention these two things to your superiors, which is nice.

 

[APF]

I'm also pretty introverted, but do a lot of interviews so I have a fair amount of experience. A good thing about being the interviewer is you're not the one doing most of the talking. Your questions should be openers to let the applicant talk about themselves and their experience, and you should basically just listen and ask for more information / clarification whenever you hear something you're curious about. If you have a list of questions that makes it a little easier, since you know that's basically all you have to ask and you can just wrap it up once you get through the list and you know you've still done your job. It's harder making stuff up on the fly, but once you've done a ton of the same sort of interview it starts to make a lot more sense in terms of tailoring the discussion to whatever the applicant is talking about. One thing I've always hated when I've been an applicant is not knowing who the person I'm talking to is (in terms of their position in the company, etc), so I always start out with a (very) brief introduction, then I ask them to talk a little about themselves and their most recent work experience so I can get a refresher on who they are (sometimes you get a bunch of resumes at once and it's hard for me at least to keep track of people). From there I typically pull out some of the things they talked about that I think is pertinent to the position I'm hiring for, and ask them to elaborate on it. If there's nothing there, I fall back on some predetermined "test-like" questions (eg "how would you handle this sort of work situation"). Most of the time I'm looking for two things, first I'm trying to see if the applicant has a solid understanding of certain concepts (I'm in tech so these are technical skills / etc), and second I'm trying to see if I think I'd enjoy working with this person / if they'd fit well into the corporate culture. Once I'm done asking them questions, I turn it over to them and see if they have any questions for me. Most of the time I tell them I can answer questions about my position and the day-to-day about the position they're applying for, but not a lot about HR related stuff or company history / etc because I'm just not interested in talking about that stuff . After that seems to start winding down, I thank them for their time and inform them about what next steps will be (typically I give feedback to a group and our recruiter will get back to them with next steps).

 

[Herbspiceguy]

I've always wondered is your avatar a cartoon version of Nemesis from RE?

 

[cynostic]

ask them about the resolution of watchdogs

This got me good.

Just be calm, OP. You already have questions to ask (if they're too generic, change them up a bit if you can?) so no real worries there. Just make sure you listen, and appear strong even if you don't feel it.

 

[AlimNassor]

Well today is the day. Most my co--workers are laughing that I got unlucky and had to do an interview. It's a pain in the ass and just wastes our time. I hope it goes well. We're hiring 20 new people, and maybe 1 out 20 will be here more then a month. We fired almost everyone from the last batch.

Maybe I'll get lucky and I get someone in my department. That would be super.

I've always wondered is your avatar a cartoon version of Nemesis from RE?

No it's a grappler class BETA from Muv Luv.

 

[Dingotech]

Have a drink or something?

Do they have random drug testing in retail? XD

 

[marrec]

I would have no idea how to interview someone who's going for a retail job so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Ask them a few personal questions to start; i.e. where're you from, how long is the commute, any family... keep it friendly as if you're just being personable but you can learn A LOT about someone in this phase of the interview. I've ruled out many a potential hire at this phase.

Next ask them about their resume. If there are any specific discrepancies or questions you have about it ask it now. If you want to catch them in a lie this is the best place to do it. People will embellish the hell out of resumes and if you ask the right questions it will come out.

Then move on to actual job related questions. I guess for retail it would involve customer service questions but tailor it to the job being offered. Maybe sneak in a few general knowledge questions here as well.

Lastly you should ask them about their motivations and future goals. People will try to lie here too but don't judge them too harshly in this phase.

 

[andycapps]

Some sample questions:

Why do you want to work at Walmart?

Can you explain some past experiences working with difficult customers and how you were able to resolve the situation?

Have you been in a situation where you didn't have enough work to do? How did you handle it?

Can you give me an example of a goal that you reached and how you reached it?

How do you feel about being asked to do work that isn't necessarily in your job description?

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

how'd the interview go?

 

[MikeDip]

The purpose of this question is to determine a) if you're ambitious and b) if your ambitions are at all reasonable. So you should say something that demonstrates that you want, and expect, to be promoted three to five times in the next five years (because most companies don't expect to promote somebody more than once a year, and you might want to demonstrate humility).

Ideally, you're interviewing at a place you want to work at, in which case you should probably honestly say the job you want there, because if you can't get that job in five years you'll probably part ways one way or another, and if saying that job means you don't get hired then you probably don't want to work at that company anyway.

Sweet! Thanks, good to know!