Top 5 'Adaptability' Questions to Ask Your Candidates

Posted by Steve Flynn on 8/11/16 10:00 AM

One of the toughest parts of an interview is screening candidates for soft skills, because you have less than an hour to figure out if the person has the qualities you are looking for in your next hire.

The good news is that behavioral interview questions are a proven way to more easily determine what someone will be like to work with.

When asked to prioritize some of the most important soft skills they look for during interviews, here’s how hiring managers ranked the following six in order of importance:

1. Adaptability

2. Culture Fit

3. Collaboration

4. Leadership

5. Growth Potential

6. Prioritization


We will focus on adaptability in this blog, and then focus on each soft skill in the coming weeks. 

Close up of human hand drawing career ladder with chalkDid you know that 69% of hiring managers say adaptability is the most important soft skill they screen for? To stay competitive today, your company needs to be able to adapt to a changing economy and business needs, which means you also need to hire employees who are able to adapt as well.

Here are the top 5 adaptability questions to ask during your next candidate interview:


1. Tell me about a time when you were asked to do something you had never done before. How did you react? What did you learn?

2. Describe a situation in which you embraced a new system, process, technology, or idea at work that was a major departure from the old way of doing things.

3. Recall a time when you were assigned a task outside of your job description. How did you handle the situation? What was the outcome?

4. Tell me about the biggest change that you have had to deal with. How did you adapt to that change?

5. Tell me about a time when you had to adjust to a colleague’s working style in order to complete a project or achieve your objectives.


If you are interested in learning about more behavioral interview questions to ask your candidates, we invite you to sign up for our blog to stay updated on our "soft skills" series.

We invite you to download our interviewing & hiring eBook to discover the key questions you should be asking during your next candidate interview in regards to the five most important soft / human skills.

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Tags: Soft Skills