Want To Hire Right? Ask The Right Interview Questions

It's a jungle out there in the job market, especially in the technology sector. The U.S. unemployment rate, which has been under 5 percent since April 2016, has offered one clear sign that the current market favors job seekers, and puts pressure on employers to make it more enticing to hire the people they want.

In fact, 61 percent of chief information officers surveyed near the end of last year told Robert Half Technology that they found it challenging to find skilled professionals.

And the job site Indeed said this week that the numbers of job postings for many of what it considers the "best" jobs of 2017 – with most of them in IT – saw strong double-digit percentage increases in the number of openings from 2013 to 2016. In fact, openings for data scientists, full-stack developers and Salesforce.com administrators more than doubled during that span.

Yet, no matter the condition of the job market, it's incumbent upon you to do all you can to ensure that all your hires are good hires.

That's why the job interview could be the most important phase in the weeks- or even months-long process to fill a critical role.

Can you use some advice on how to conduct a job interview? Here are four links where you can find help:

ROBERT HALF TECHNOLOGY: Interviewing tips for managers

A list of 14 links covering everything from interview basics to the value of "oddball" questions.

JOB INTERVIEW TOOLS: 'How would your co-workers describe you?'

That's just one of several questions in a list that's geared toward interviews of would-be managers and leaders, but they're also good ones you can ask – even if the candidate is not being interviewed for a managerial or leadership role.

THE BALANCE: The best interview questions for employers to ask applicants

Not just the 12 questions listed, but what you want to hear for answers.

INC.COM: 14 ways to identify a toxic employee during the interview

An applicant may have the skill set, but will he or she be a good fit with the rest of the team? Here’s how you can answer that question.