NLP Interview Questions to Discover how the Interviewee Really Thinks
There are many approaches to interviewing candidates but form my experience and research I prefer to use a NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) questions to uncover how their mind works. With NLP, it’s not about the content but the syntax. You can uncover the thinking pattern and their personalty by HOW they respond.
In addition I also added other general helpful questions to start and end the interview. To keep the interview at about 30 mins only select the questions you really want to ask.
Intro Warm up Questions:
- What are your short – term career goals?
- What are your long- term objectives?
- How would you describe personal success?
- What makes you want to work here?
- What do you know about us?
NLP Questions:
Black is the question
Blue is the different categories the applicant can fall in and then followed by the % of the population that falls in that category. e.g. A/B/C (10,20,70) means 10% of people is type A, 20% of people is type B, and 70% of people is type C.
Orange is my commentary on what is the purpose of the question and how to determine which type they fall into.
- Tell me about some of your hobbies or interest? And how involved are you in each one?
- Tell me about yourself.
Proactive / Equal / Reactive (15-20/60-65/15-20) - What was the most difficult project that you did that you enjoy? Non work and non school related?
[This determines how passionate they are. The longer and more time they spent on it and the more passionately they speak about it then the better they are.] - Tell me about something you taught yourself? How involved did you get? How long did it take? How long have you been doing this?
[Self teaching and desire to learn is very important to progress.] - Is there any skill or anything that you do that’s not on your resume?
[Hidden experience is important. The most talented people will have hidden experience and desire to learn many things] - What do you want in your work?
- Repeat criteria and ask why is that important?
- Repeat criteria and ask why is that important? (This technique answers the proactive/Reactive question)
- Why did you leave your last job?
Toward / Equal / Away From (40/20/40)
Either the candidate was looking to improve their current condition or move away from some pain or a combination of both. By understanding what motivates them to take action you can frame situation that will motivate them to take action.
- What do you like and dislike about your previous jobs?
- Get 3~4 Criteria and rank them, use left and right hand.
- How would you know you have done a good job?
Internal/Equal/External (40/20/40)
People will either want praise or they know themselves if they did a good job. For the ones that need External reinforcement, it is important to constantly give them praise.
- Why did you choose your current/past job?
Options/Equal/Procedures (40/20/40)
When you ask this question and the candidate start telling you the steps they took in a chronological order then they are procedure type. For procedure type of people it is important when giving instructions to tell them step by step in chronological order what to do. If the candidate starts telling you the different options they contemplated in choosing the job then they are the “options” type which means they will usually figure things out themselves and need little direction.
- What is the relationship of your job this year and last year?
Sameness / Sameness with exception / difference / sameness with exception & difference (5/65/20/10)
Exact same thing can happen to 2 different person and they will perceive it differently. It’s not about what happen but how they interpret it. For this question instead of job, you can ask about life. If they perceived that there was a lot of difference that means they need a job that keeps on changing. If they describe it as being very similar then they are the stable type that do not mine doing same thing from day to day. - Tell me about a work situation/sale that gave you trouble
Feeling / choice / thinking (15/70/15)
Specific/Equal/General (15/25/60) - Tell me about a group project where it made you feel really good?
Independent/Proximity/Co-operative (20/60/20)
What did you like about it? - If a co worker comes to you with a problem and you are working on a deadline, what do you do?
Person/Equal/Thing (15/30/55) - What is a good way for you to increase your success for getting clients?
- What is a good way for other salespeople to increase their success for getting clients?
My-My / My-. / No-My / My-Your (75/3/7/15) - How would you know if another member of the sales force is good?
(See/Hear/Read/Do) (55/30/3/12) - How many times do you have to (See/Hear/Read/Do) that to be convinced they are good?
(no. of examples/automatic/consistent/period of time) (52/8/15/25)
General Concluding Questions:
- What would you like achieve or gain from this job?
- What skills would you like to improve?
- What new skills or experiences would you like to gain?
- What is your background in marketing? Educational or practical?
- What were your biggest achievements at each of your position? It can be business or personal
- Tell me about a time you took initiative.
- Tell me about your best boss and worst boss.
- Who do you admire the most and why?
- What has been your greatest setback and how did you deal with it?
- If you can remove one province from Canada, which one would you remove and why?
- Why should we choose you for the internship program?
- What would you consider to be your three strongest qualities that would contribute to the team?
- How would your best friend introduce you?
- What role do you usually play in a team environment?
- What is your greatest strength? Weakness?
- Give me and example of your creativity.
- Give me and example of your analytical ability.
- What do you like to do for fun?
- What would you say is the best thing about Toronto[or the city they are living in]?
Tips on finding the right odesk worker
Odesk provides great tools to find the right outsourcing staff. I personally find it much easier to use and filter on odesk than the other sites I frequent, vworker and scriptlance. However I still go to those sites for programmers. I have discovered some tips that would help you filter for the ideal candidate. Love to get your feedback on them to see if they worked for you or not.
- Look at the hours they work on their projects – If a contractor is good they are usually hired for a long period of time per project. If you are looking for someone long term you would be sure to want that person to have a long term mindset. Make sure that the projects they’ve worked on are also long term.
- Look for “real” feedbacks – Look at how their employers rate them. Usually if they are outstanding they will get consistent enthusiastic comments. If you see lack luster comments such as “They did as required.” It’s an indication that the employer did not like their work and only wrote that to be polite.
- Review the type of work they’ve done -make sure it’s similar to yours
- Make sure they have a lot of hours worked (around at least 50 or 60). – This will ensure that they follow the system. You do not want to waste your time trying to manage a newbie.
- Plan to select more than one worker. – If the task can be divided select 2 or more workers at the same time doing different part of the tasks. Depending on your task and your style, one worker will be better than another.
- Invite contractors to get more applicants. - Whenever I outsource the odds of the perfect candidate applying is very slim. So I am always proactive and look for them. In the case of odesk this extra effort saves me a lot of time and make the process quicker. After setting my filters I invite those contractors to the job. Since I invited them I just review those I invited instead of everyone that applied which many do not match my filter. As well since I invited them they respond within 24 hours so I do not need to wait for applicants.
- For article writing, hire from culturally relevant countries – It is important to hire writers that have same cultural perspective as your country. I’m from Canada and I find that the Copywriters I was looking at, only people from the US, Canada, and Philippines seem to write in a style that is ‘normal’ and relatable here.
This is the process to find good candidates. You might be able to find contractors for a lower rate if they don’t have as much feedback or hours worked but I find that it is high risk and not worth your time.
[*Added March 23rd 2012]
The post was first written over 2 years ago and it has been highly comprehensive and relevant. After 2 years I still agree with every point. The only thing I would add it to do a test with the applicants. Many candidates look good on paper and is great at interviews but when they are hired they do not live up to your expectations.
Good Free WordPress Premium themes
If you are looking for free wordpress themes you will fun in a big issue, you will either come upon many pages where they try to get you to buy the theme, affiliate link sites, poor quality themes, or even worse themes with bad links in them. Or the worse scenario, themes with virus or malware.
Even if you find the right theme unless it’s well supported you will come across issues sooner or later. The best option is to get free themes from premium sellers who offer the free themes as marketing and provide good updates and support. Here are some that I found:
Makes one of the best engines for wordpress themes. You can expect good integration and quality. The style is professional as well as it has some that are more playful.
The themes look really great and has a nice design concept to it. There is a large selection but the configuration options are limited.
Themes are professionally design and good layout but it adds playful graphics to it. Good for web 2.0 websites that are casual but serious business sites. They provide great hosting service. They offer these themes to promote their company so you can expect good support and updates.
Minimalist themes. Great for arts and fashion businesses that need simple elegant themes. They also recently started have premium paid themes. With their minimalist design there is not many options in the back to customize the themes.
Lots of themes here. It is well organized and easy to scroll.
Email Management Process for Maximum Productivity
Managing your email is one of the most important elements in maximizing your productivity. If you actually track the time you spend managing emails you will realize that it’s a big chuck and it can be better utilize doing real work.
The goal is to see your inbox as an inbox and emails are not suppose to be there permanently and it should be cleared at the end of the day. Clear as in 0 emails in the inbox. The first few times you see this, it’s actually very liberating. Here is the strategy to get it clear:
- Review from top down every message and make a decision on it before processing the next
- Delete. If you don’t need it.
- File it. If no action is to be taken file it. (I like to keep as few folders as possible)
- Delegate. If you can assign it to someone else then do it.
- Do it immediately.If it takes 2 minutes or less
- Add to-do list. If it takes more than 2 minutes
Email Management Tips
- If you have hundreds of emails or emails from the past then drop it all in a folder and sort it later. For now sort all the incoming emails.
- Have as few emails as possible. This way you do not spend all of your time checking different emails.
- Schedule times to review your email and follow the process each time you check it. If you do not feel like processing your emails then don’t check it.
- Have separate email for junk. Check those when you feel like it.
- Set up automatic rules to process email. Send up subject text to automatically process the recurring transaction and receipt emails.
- Make sure to have a to-do list and always go through that list of things you have to do. Do not count on going through your email.
Send Faxes for Free
free faxing service
I still can’t believe it but it’s true. People and companies still use faxes. Let’s say you use it once in a few months to send a fax to someone that let’s say is living in the 90′s then you should use Faxzero,com. It’s free to send but has an ad on the cover. Which shouldn’t be a big deal, make sure to call them and check to see if they thrown it out along with the ad. I use this all the time without any issues but I sent it to a bank once but they didn’t process my request, I guess they threw it out with the cover ad.
Free Fax:
-
Free!
-
Ad on the cover page
-
Maximum 3 pages + cover
-
Max 5 free faxes per day
Paid:
-
$1.99 per fax (Paypal)
-
Max 15 pages + optional cover
-
Priority delivery vs. free faxes
-
No ad on the cover page
I never use the Paid fax before but if you need it to look professional then pay the extra. To receive fax I use my Grasshopper number but before that I use a fax line from fax.com, it’s $9.99 which is the best deal around and it’s easy to use but I just don’t fax enough to justify it.
I’ve tried several other options before but it was cumbersome.
Easiest way to Screen Share and Trouble Shoot Virtually
We have all probably been there, trying to walk someone through how to install or use a software. It’s one of the most difficult and annoying things to do especially if the other person is not too savvy with the computer and internet. The easiest way would be to share screen over Skype but since they are not too savvy they probably aren’t already using Skype. There’s a great very easy to use tool, Crossloop.
You and the other person downloads the application and they give you the access code. You enter it and that’s it. Very easy to use. They both a PC and Mac version.
5 Sure Fire Tactics to get a Ridiculous Amount of Social Engagement
admin 
Marketing, Social Media 
Blogging, facebook, Guest Blogging, marketing, promoting, social media, twitter
You start a blog, write a blog post and might get lucky and get indexed on Google. That may drive you 1-2 visitors a day. How do you drive a large amount of visitors and get social engagement and increase the search engine ranking on Google? Here are 5 sure fire tactics to achieve that.
- Talk about celebrities – Some how relate your post or topic back to a famous celebrity in a fun and catchy way. e.g. The 5 gagets Scarlett Johansson would love.
- Relate it back to hot news stories or seasonal events – Anything happened lately and people are searching or or is on top of their mind. e.g. Guide to iphone 4s marketing strategy, How to market your to get the most out of Christmas
- Make a Top 10 List – Make a top 10 list and review the top blogs in a related space. Tweet out to them and they might retweet or make a blog post. That will get you visitors and a link or links to your blog. e.g. Top 10 social media blogs you have to have to follow
- Hold a contest – This may be a tricky one because you would need to have a critical amount of followers already but doing it can increase the discussion on the links as well as they will promote to their friends. e.g. Retweet and like us on Facebook to win an ipad
- Guest Blogging – Writing guest blogs on blogs that have your target market. Some say that when you start off you should write half of your blog posts should be guest blogging.
Depending on your industry you might not be able to use all the tactics and some will have more effect than others. The goal is to experiment and see what works best for you. When one tactic works great scale it up. Also be creative you can combine multiple tips, like writing a guest blog post titled “Win the top 5 apps you need to make your own Christian Bale The Dark Knight Rises.
Tasks that a Virtural Assistant can Eliminate for you
admin Online Tools, Outsourcing, Productivity Outsourcing, productivity, Screenr, VA, video capture, Virtual Assistant
You can dramatically increase the amount of free time you have by hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA). They can do many redundant things for you business or personal. When you hire a VA you might not have enough tasks for them for the 40 hour week so go through this list to help you get ideas:
Here is a list of standard things they can do.:
- Scheduling interviews and meetings
- Web-research
- Following up on appointments, errands, and tasks
- Online Purchases
- Creation of legal documents
- Basic Website Maintenance (web design, publishing, uploading files) that doesn’t require a professional
- Monitoring, editing, and publishing comments for online discussions
- Posting job vacancies online
- Document creation
- Proofreading and editing documents for spelling and formatting
- Online research for updating blogs
- Updating the database for CRMs (Customer Relationship Management)
- Voicemail Transcription
- Market Research
- Financial Research
- Business Plan
- Industry Analysis
- Market Assessment
- Reports
- Legal research
- Analytics
- Creating presentations
- Reports and Newsletters
- Search Engine Optimization
- Maintaining and updating databases
- Managing Procurement processes
It is best if you start with simple tasks then move to more complicated tasks. The best is to make a video outlining step by step how to do it. I recommend using Screenr which is a video capture webapp that is dead simple to use and super convenient.
Those are just some ideas. If you have more please suggest in the comment section below.
Compare free online survey tools
admin free, Online Tools free plans, Poll Daddy, survey monkey, surveygizmo, surveys, webapps, zoomerang
If you do surveys here and there but it’s not part of your main business you might consider using the free plan from the top survey providers Surverymonkey, Zoomerang, Surveygizmo, and Poll Daddy. There are details of their free plans.
SurveyGizmo:
SurveyGizmo is the top choice because it has a very easy to use interface to help create questions quickly. It is the only provider to offer unlimited questions and you can have over 100 responses per question. And the great thing is you can also export your data.
- 250 Responses per month
- Unlimited questions
- Basic reporting
- Export data
SurveyMonkey:
SurveyMonkey is easy to use with simple features it does not offer the slick and highly usable interface of SurveyGizmo. It also have many limitations like the other providers.
- 100 survey responses per surveys
- 10 questions per survey
- Basic reporting
- No data export
Zoomerang:
- 100 survey responses per surveys
- 10 questions per survey
- Basic reporting
- No data export
Poll Daddy:
- 200 survey responses per month
- 10 questions per survey
- Branded with links
- Basic reporting
- No Data Export
You can try those out. What I highly recommend is NEVER use GetResponse’s survey feature. I used that at first because I have a free account and it was a waste of time and cause of much frustration. There are not much options for questions and when viewing the data it is very limited and you cannot see each response. The worst is the export data feature, I got the data in excel and could not follow, took a lot of time. And the data was actually incorrect from the site to the export file and I discovered that the most important respondent was missing.
Step by Step Guide to Finding a Virtual Assistant
What can virtual assistants do:
Virtual assistants (VAs) provide personal and office support services, such as
- general administrative tasks
- making customer contacts;
- writing reports;
- editing documents; sending out marketing materials;
- handling thank-you notes, gifts and follow-up letters
- setting up and maintaining databases
- handling billing and bookkeeping; and updating Web sites.
You can also get a VA to manage your personal life as well. Here are some of their tasks:
- Some VAs even help clients manage their personal lives
- Doing such tasks as arranging for pet-sitting
- Calling the plumber
- Scheduling doctor’s appointments
- Planning an upcoming family reunion
- Or coordinating a move.
For a comprehensive list see: Tasks that a Virtual Assistant can Eliminate for You.
Sites to find VA’s:
Many people have recommended using VAs from the Philippine because their culture and accent is close to North America. They are also hard working and very loyal. Some sites to use is Onlinejobs.ph ($49) and Manila Craigslist (Free). However I posted 2 of the same job description on Onlinejobs.ph and Odesk and I find the candidates on Odesk to have a lot higher quality response.
Searching:
- Better to hire them full time and split with friends or clients
- Lower rate is not a good thing. When a VA is charging too low of a rate it means that either 1) they are not good or 2) they will have to juggle too many tasks to make a living and your responsibilities will slip to the side
- Have everything written and signed. This includes fees, terms and conditions, etc…
- Consider working with someone on a short term project basis before fully jumping in. This will ensure that you two are compatible but also ensures that a VA is what you are looking for.
- Find out the hours they are available and make sure it is compatible with their responsibilities.
- If there are certain specialized tasks you have make sure they have the right tools and equipment to do the tasks you require
- View sample work.
- Ask them to fill out a survey. You will get a lot of applicants, the fastest way for you to filter it out is to have them fill a survey, you can use SurveyMonkey.
- Look for training and certification. If you are using Odesk it provides this information.
- Return business. Look up the history of the VA to see how much and how long does their client stay with them. If they have many clients but only a few or no repeat clients then it a telltale sign that they are not good. In Odesk I was able to see how much each client spends with them then I know that they are good.
- Look for polish work. A sure sign of incompetency is spelling errors, typos, and gaammar mistakes.
Working Together:
- Use a software to communicate – e.g. basecamp or other
- Stay in contact
- Set realistic deadlines
- Set a communication schedule
once they are hired treat them like an employee. The saying goes “Hire slow fire fast.” If you get any clue that they are not the right fit end it as soon as you can. Make sure they are real issues and not just communication issues. One of the biggest issues would be punctuality.
Questions:
Hire one or hire many?
Hire from a firm or individual?
Signs of a good Virtual Assistant
- If they ask for a consultation
- They have a system or software they use to keep track
Recent Posts
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