I pay them to do a KW research project (hard skills) and then present it to me as if I were the client (soft skills)

As an add on, @Arnout Hellemans taught me to ask a casual question “Do you like to do puzzles?” ” What type?” because inquisitive problem-solvers like to be challenged by problems, aka puzzles, and that is a characteristic he looks for in his team hires. I found this insight invaluable in evaluating characteristics of new hires ever since I heard this.

i loved the above responses, howvere we take a more traditional approach. We have around 3-4 questions that may require logical thinking/reasoning + also showcase some the level of expertise one holds.

A few examples:

• You're a leading brand for your target niche. How do you keep an eye on competitors' organic performance? Your goal is to make sure you're on top of everything that's giving them the boost, so that you can learn at their cost and adjust your strategy, if needed.

• With AI playing a role and impacting your SEO performance, what changes will you make in your SEO strategy and how will you prepare yourself for the SEO success in the next 12 months?

• While working on a SaaS brand, while you're celebrating SEO traffic numbers, the client cares more for the leads/conversions. How will you track their progress and how would your typical report look for them?

Thanks @Renee Roberts. Glad it helped. The answers can lead to pretty cool insights. Same btw goes for gaming....love this article by @Jono Alderson on this;

This is awesome feedback, thank everyone!

I ask all new hires to do 16 personalities and the angela duckworth grit test.

In the interview I ask open-ended questions like “you see an elephant on the subway platform. what do you do first?” Doesn’t have to be that but any question that gets them to think harder than the typical interview question. Some answer “get help”, some say “i dont know” and some say “take a picture.”

Echoing what Jordan said, I don’t ask anyone to do any exercise or trial that produces something unless it’s the final stage and we pay them.

Totally agreed on paying them. I have gotten burnt from "free tests" previously and would never want someone to feel that way.

Funny you bring up the random questions. We have been brainstorming what some questions like that could be.

I usually do the elephant and sometimes “do you love to win or hate to lose”.

“No right answer” questions that show how they think. (except for me theres always a wrong answer LOL)

@Adrienne Kmetz I love that question! I will use that too!

@Jono Alderson On a side note, how is that article performing organically? are you surprised what Keywords it is being found with and the traffic it generates? It is all over the place with name dropping and brands bringing in clicks? Just curious if it has had enough time to become interesting?

No idea, I don't run any analytics on the site ????

Let me check GSC...

Haha, it gets ~0 organic visits.

@Jono Alderson……. nothin’ to see here … keep the line movin’ ………

at least 1, bc I found it, but I guess that click is filtered out bc of "privacy" ;-)

Since we deal with primarily Local SEO clients, I typically will give examples of local websites and have them go over some high-level stuff they see. We make sure to specify that they shouldn't spend no more than 30-60 mins on it. We ONLY do this later on with our interview proves where we are trying to pick our final choice of a candidate. Pre-covid, we used to do something more involved.

As an interviewer, I’ve had success using the STAR framework to ask questions about how they have worked on both hard skills and d soft skills.

>> Situation: Set the scene and give the necessary details of your example.

>>

> Task: Describe what your responsibility was in that situation.

> Action: Explain exactly what steps you took to address it.

> Result: Share what outcomes your actions achieved.