Politics aside, would you hire Sarah Palin?

What do you consider essential interview questions for any position? What shouldn't an employer ask?

Dao: I believe the most important question you want to ask a candidate is, "Why here?" Ideally, you want people who are looking for more than a job, who have reasons other than a paycheck for wanting to work at your company.  I’m not a big fan of, "Why should I hire you?" It's really just an invitation to brag or put down the other candidates.

Michael Alter, CEO of SurePayroll, a Chicago-based small-business payroll firm: I focus on employment transition questions and find that those questions tell me the most about a prospective hire. Why did they move from one position to another position? Why are they leaving their current position? There are questions you cannot ask from a legal perspective. Don't ask them. However, if a candidate volunteers some personal information that might impact their ability to do the job, I think it's fair game to take that information into consideration in your hiring process.

Cooper: Essential interview questions should focus around the skills required to do the job.  This may include working under high stress environments, like dealing with intense media scrutiny, and other qualifications. If the candidate has a specific qualification that enhances their desirability for the job, that should be explored.

Greenleaf: I'm a big fan of very thorough interviews. As long as the employer avoids the legal pitfalls of questions that he or she cannot ask, I think everything is fair game. Important questions include all details of previous employment and how those experiences will help in the new position.

Baldoni: You want to know what excites an individual. What gets the person up in the morning? Is it work or play? What about the work excites the individual. I would also want to know about personal goals as well as long-term and short term objectives. That is, where do you see yourself in six months or a year. How about five years? Then ask how they will achieve their goals.

How important is it to dig up a job candidate's past? How crucial are background checks? How far back should an employer delve?

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Greenleaf: General background checks are important for everyone. High-level checks for people with financial positions are critical. The Certified Fraud Examiners have a great website and I recommend doing a thorough check with them for anyone with financial access.

Dao: This depends on the job. Any job with a fair amount of responsibility should come with a reference and background check. The bigger the job, the further back the checks should go. At the corporate officer level, go back all the way to education. We've all seen the stories of CEOs with false education credentials. Don't let that happen to you.

Cooper: The importance of background checks varies depending on the type of job. You don't want someone with recent theft convictions in positions where they are responsible for large amounts of money, or there is easy access to bank accounts. Similarly, if you are hiring someone into a position that works with children you want to be sure you aren't placing the kids at risk.  Background checks can be an important step to show you are trying to be responsible in who you hire.

Baldoni: I want to know what a person has achieved as well as where he or she has failed. You want to know what about the achievement he or she did. How responsible for outcomes was this individual. Also, what did he or she learn about a failure? You don't ask about failure as a "gotcha" question. You ask to learn more about resilience and inner resolve.

Alter: Unlike the stock market, where past performance is not a predictor of future performance, past performance is very relevant when hiring employees. The more you can dig up about the candidate's past as it relates to potential work performance, the better. As for background checks, they are critically important. The importance of doing background checks, however, depends in part on the nature of the position.

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