3 questions job applicants say they want to be asked

Job candidates want to be asked about their skills — not hypotheticals or nonnegotiables, according to May 30 survey results from Yoh, a talent and outsourcing company.

The survey, conducted by Harris Poll, asked its more than 2,000 respondents to look at a series of questions they could be asked during an interview and choose which ones they would want to be asked.

The top three favored questions were:

What do you think makes you a good candidate for this job?
What soft skills (adaptability, conflict resolution, problem-solving, etc.) do you possess that would make you a good candidate for this job?
What did you like most about your last job?

In general, candidates seemed to favor questions that had positive framing, preferring to share what they liked about their last job rather than what they disliked, for example. Respondents, especially those of a minority background, also wanted to share how they dealt with difficult situations, Yoh said; more than half of Hispanic respondents wanted to be asked “How do you handle high-stress situations at work?” compared to 41% of White, non-Hispanic respondents.