Serious candidates should have done some research about the company before the interview. Here are some simple questions you shouldn’t skip, in order to make sure they’ve done their homework.

It’s important for a few reasons. First of all, a failure to research might show a lack of initiative on the part of the candidate. Also, you want someone who wants to work for your company. If they don’t know anything about you, there might be a lack of interest there.

Not experts

That doesn’t mean you need to quiz people to make sure they know all your stats and company history. A few simple questions will do the trick.

The easiest one is “How did you learn about the company?” That’ll likely get them talking about what kind of research they’ve done.

Then you can simply ask, “What do you know about us?” or “What’s your impression of what we do?” Even if the answers are simple and taken straight from your Web site, you’ll know the person has done at least some reading.

And finally, of course, you’ll want to give candidates plenty of opportunity to ask the interviewers anything about the company they don’t already know. A lot of curiosity is a good thing.

Tags: interview preperation, job applicants, know the company