Top questions to use in your next interview!
So you are looking for a new Crew member.
Here are some of our top questions when interviewing crew. Safe manning aside … One thing we have learned at Yotspot is that you should always interview for attitude over skills. You can always change someone’s skills… but you can’t change their attitude! The following questions are designed to gauge a persons attitude and a few of these used in your next interview can provide you with an excellent way to see if their attitude fits your programme.
1) “Please introduce yourself…”
This is a great way to start the interview and help you the interviewer judge the confidence level of the candidate. This is also a good way to refresh your knowledge on the candidate and maybe even hear something about the crew member that isn’t on their CV.
2) “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”
If a candidate is aware of their own strengths and weaknesses they show that they understand they are not perfect. This means that this will a be a crew member you can give constructive critisism too and work with to improve their weaknesses and focus on their strengths. A candidate that states that they do not have any weaknesses and solely focuses their answer on strengths may be a little too confident and might cause waves in your team.
3) “What has been your greatest failure”
This question is designed to see how a crew member handles negative times/periods in their lives. We are looking to see how they reflect on this negative time/period and to see what they learned from it. Some Crew will be tempted to blame the failure on another individual or event but this can be seen as someone who runs away from responsibility and blames others for their failures. A well rounded answer will be one that can candidly talk about a failure, identifies the reason for the failure and takes ownership and responsibility for that failure.
4) “What are you passionate about”?
A simple question designed to not understand what the candidate is passionate about but what motivates them. This is a great way to understand how (if you employ the crew member) to keep them engaged. If for example the crew member states “seeing my family regularly” as something they are passionate about they may not be suited to a world travelling double season charter yacht!
5) “How do you adapt to change?”
A flexible crew member is an asset to any Yacht. Someone who can adapt to change easily are the “team players” we want on board and in yachting plans change at a moment’s notice. Having a crew member that can “roll with the punches” and deals well with the owner(s) changing their mind make for solid crew members. Overall we would hope to hear an answer where the candidate refers to a previous experience and how they adapted to the situation.
6) “Tell me about a work achievement you are proud of?”
This is a Yotspot favourite. The achievement the crew member tells you about is not the most important part of their answer… Tackling the question is all the crew member needs to do. We want someone who can think on their feet and this question can be a maker or breaker when we interview. If the candidate cannot think of anything at all then this doesn’t show an ability to think quickly on ones feet. What will they do when the boss turns to them and asks an unexpected question?! We would want a crew member to have a brief pause and then tell us at least one achievement.
7) “Why did you leave your last yacht?? Please also tell me what do you think about your former crew?”
This question is designed to see the crew members tolerance level of other people and also gauge their level of professionalism. We are wanting to see a neutral or positive response to this question. We are not wanting to see any crew that vents anger or frustration at their old crew or bad mouths previous colleagues. If this is the answer you get then my first thought would be “will they do this after employment with us?” They do not necessarily need to praise their former colleagues but a positive or neutral answer shows that this crew member is professional and stands a better chance at leaving your employment on good terms.
8) “Do you have any questions about the position?”
We are always wanting to see a candidate asking at least one question about the role they are being interviewed for. We believe that by asking a question it shows confidence and that the crew member is genuinely interested in your role. We always believe interviewing is a two way process. The interviewee should also be interviewing the yacht to see if this is one that fits their wants, needs and life goals. A crew member that doesn’t ask any questions at all would be a concern.
We hope these questions will allow you to hire for attitude and find your next crew member that is the right fit for your team. We would love to hear any of your favourite questions you like to answer when interviewing. Please email us at enquiries@yotspot.com or comment below.