Surely, when you try to hire a new cashier or assembly line worker or perhaps a butcher, the level of analytical skills of job candidates won’t play a major role in your decision making process. But for any role in management, financial and business analysis, and IT, great analytical skills may find their place on your ideal candidate profile’s checklist.
In this article I will look at some questions that allow you to test these skills in an interview. I will also give you some hints how to assess these skills without even asking any questions. Whether you are going to lead the interviews, or are just trying to overcome your nerves and prepare for your meeting with a prospective employer (you are in the shoes of job seeker this time), it should help you to succeed in your efforts. Enjoy!
- Describe a time when you had to solve a problem, but didn’t have all necessary information about it in hand. …
- How do you weigh pros and cons before making a decision?
- If you had to choose between two or three options, how would you decide? (
Analytical Interview Questions (& Puzzles) – Tips from a Hiring Manager
2. Imagine a situation in which a teammate wants to solve a problem in a certain way, but your boss has a very different approach in mind. Your colleague comes to you asking for help in deciding on the right approach. What do you do?
This question examines multi-layered analytical thinking. The candidate must weigh a number of possible factors and outcomes and do a bit of scenario analysis at a technical, professional and business impact level.
7. Why are you interested in analytics?
The answer to this question will likely reveal the building blocks of a candidate’s approach to problem-solving and critical thinking and how far they are willing to go to solve problems.
Describe the biggest problem you faced in your last job, and explain how you solved it.
Behavioral questions will help you learn a lot about each job candidate. First of all, notice what problem they pick. Is it really something big, or rather something trivial, something you wouldn’t call a problem at all?
Then you should just listen to their narrative. Did they manage to solve the problem alone, or did they need help? Did they proceed systematically when solving the problem? What information did they gather, and what conclusions did they arrive to?
Certainly you can ask them additional questions if they struggle while narrating their story. Do not forget to observe their emotions, and whether they actually enjoy solving problems. They should, if they will do it often in their new job…
10 Analytical Interview Questions for Data Science Roles
Analytics skills are part and parcel of the data science process. Anyone working on a data science or advanced analytics team must demonstrate intellectual curiosity, comfort with uncertainty and an ability to apply rational critical thinking to solve problems.
So what types of questions might you ask to assess these traits?
We’ve put together a list of 10 example questions:
