What are your favorite interview questions?

Sarah, interviews feel "off" to a people person because standard interviews are performative and rehearsed. To break through the act, shift from a generic interrogation to an operational reality check.

​Here are three targeted questions to reveal the actual worker, plus a practical test:

​1. The Core Questions

• ​For Empathy & Boundaries: "A client is visibly overwhelmed and crying about the state of their space. How do you handle the first 15 minutes?"
  • ​What to look for: A balance of genuine empathy and professional control. They must comfort the client without stalling the job.
• ​For Spatial Logic: "Walk me through your step-by-step process for organizing a cluttered closet from scratch."
  • ​What to look for: A systematic approach. They should mention sorting, purging, and categorizing before they mention buying pretty bins.
• ​For Stamina & Reality: "Organizing is highly physical and can get dirty. Tell me about a time you had to push through a long, repetitive, unglamorous task. How did you maintain focus?"
  • ​What to look for: Honesty. You want to weed out anyone who romanticizes the job based on social media.

​💡 The Icebreaker Fix: The 5-Minute Test

​If you hate sit-down interviews, stop doing just interviews. Place a small, cluttered bin of random household items on the table.

​Say: "Show me how your brain works. Spend five minutes sorting this."

​Watching them handle physical items in real-time reveals their spatial logic, decisiveness, and speed far better than an hour of talking—and it completely breaks the awkward interview tension. You end up with employees who are ready to go (self starters) and don't need a baby sitter to get it right.  Hope this helps you out!!!

I really didn't like interviews when I didn't vet the people ahead of time. My process is:

• Get pictures of previous work and a resume
• if they pass that sniff test, then I ask them to fill out a form that has pictures of all our services and I ask them to rate themselves. I feel like for your business you could do a couple before pictures and ask them how they would start. Mainly get to see how they think. I'm sure you have a bunch of training and stuff but would be good just to see how they process info. 
• Do a 10- 15 minute phone call

At this point if they've made it past all these barriers I know it's worth my time. 

I use a framework from breakthrough academy for interviews. I stick to this because If I'm left up to my own questions I won't get the information I need. Yes it sounds corporate but whatever, they coach it because it works. 

Questions:

What do you already know about the business? Just to see if they put in any effort. A lot of guys say they didn't look in to at all. I feel like they should tbh. 

What interests you about the role and our business?

What would your ideal role look like? I had an ops manager guy once tell me his ideal role is working from home. Sorry pal, not with me. lol

Why do you need this role or employment in general?

What activities do you enjoy outside your work life?

What are your professional goals for the next 1-2 years?

What are your personal goals for the next 1-2 years? it's interesting to see if they even have goals. It's ok if they aren't there yet but I want people that want more in life. 

Review the role expectations and features, matching authentic features and benefits of the role and the company to the candidate’s needs.

These are about half of them but definitely help steer the convo. 

I like to do a back-sit down and talk. Then, if they have potential, we will see if they can work with us for a day or two just to see how they mesh with the team. We are an exterior washing business, so we have to make sure they have the attention to detail and work ethic that is required to keep big jobs on track. We hire and fire as a team; if possible, one bad employee can make good employees leave if it’s not handled. I try to communicate with my lead guys and make sure everyone is happy. We have found having similar interests outside of work helps because we can all get along an even have days we just get together and hang out as a team we are all into hunting and fishing so in the winter if we have a day or we may make a day were we don’t work and we just have a day of fun everyone enjoys it.