Although impolite, rude, and bullying social media behavior grab the headlines, ours is still a basically polite society. That’s why most of us rely on our pre-employment paperwork to ask job applicants the tough questions about drugs and honesty. Then we compound that mistake by thinking we’ll find out about dependability and safety when we do our reference checks. (If we, in fact, take the time to do them at all.)
However, it’s by far harder to lie or deceive in person than on paper. So, if you really want to make the best possible hiring decisions, brace yourself and ask during the interview:
I’ve also found that the applicants who ask me the hardest questions turn out to be the best employees because we’ve both dug deep enough to get the most important information and come to a mutually good decision. These questions include: