Questions to Ask on a Job Application
For a small-business owner, HR generalist or hiring manager deciding what questions to ask on a job application, before any interview. The list follows the order of the form: contact and eligibility basics, hours and pay, the knockout questions that decide whether you read on, work history and education, then a few short written answers and the sign-off. The last group is a check to run on your own form for what to leave off (age, health, family, and criminal or pay history where the rules restrict them), and each entry has a note on how to word it and what to do with the answer.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Basics
What is your full legal name, and is there another name you go by?
Why ask it
The legal name is for the paperwork if you hire, and the other is the one to use when you call. Give the second its own optional field. Leave former or maiden names off the form; if a reference check needs one later, ask then.
What phone number and email address should we use, and which do you prefer?
Why ask it
A mistyped email address ends an application without anyone noticing, so ask for both and require at least one. The preference tells you whether to call or write. Someone who has a job now may not be able to pick up during the day, so a slow callback is no mark against them.
Which position are you applying for?
Why ask it
Offer a list of your open jobs to choose from if the form allows it, so nobody types a title you do not have. On a general form for a store or restaurant, let people pick more than one. When you phone, ask which they would take if both were offered.
Are you at least [minimum age for this job] years old?
Why ask it
A yes or no is all the form needs, and it stands in for a date of birth. Minimum ages for work, for serving alcohol or for running certain equipment are set locally. Look up the figure for your job before you fill in the bracket.
Are you legally authorized to work in [country]?
Why ask it
Keep it to yes or no. The form has no need to know how, so leave out citizenship, birthplace and visa type. Proof of eligibility is usually gathered at the hiring stage under rules that differ by country, so check what applies where you are.
Will you now or in the future need sponsorship to work here?
Why ask it
Include it only if the answer would change what you do. If you cannot sponsor, say so in the posting too, so the question comes as no surprise. How this may be asked varies by place, so take the wording from your labor agency or an employment lawyer.
What city or postal code do you live in?
Why ask it
That is enough to judge the commute, and a street address can wait until you are sending an offer. A long trip on the map is something to raise in the first call, where they can say how they would manage it. It is not a reason to set the application aside.
How did you hear about this job?
Why ask it
List the choices as check boxes: your website, each job board by name, a sign in the window, a current employee. After a few rounds of hiring, the tally shows which listing is worth paying for. If they name someone who works for you, ask that person about them before the interview.
Have you been employed by us before, or applied for another job here? If so, when?
Why ask it
A yes sends you to your own records before you pick up the phone. A former employee you would have back is about the quickest hire there is, and one who left badly is better found now than in the interview. A past applicant may have been a near miss for a different job.
Hours and pay
Are you looking for full-time, part-time, temporary or seasonal work?
Why ask it
Use check boxes and allow more than one. Someone who checks only full-time for a part-time job is likely to keep looking, so raise it in the first call instead of hoping. If the hours could grow, that call is the place to say so.
Which days and times are you available to work?
Why ask it
A grid of days against morning, afternoon and evening is quicker to fill in and to compare than a text box. Ask what they can work and never why they cannot: the reasons behind a blank Sunday or school-hours availability are theirs. Then lay the grid over the shifts you need to fill.
How many hours a week are you hoping to work?
Why ask it
Print what the job offers beside the field. A gap of a few hours can be talked through. A person who needs forty when you have fifteen will leave for a job that has them, however well the interview goes.
If we offered you the job, when could you start?
Why ask it
Someone employed who names a date a few weeks out is showing you the notice they would one day give you. 'Tomorrow' from a person who has a job deserves a question about how they plan to leave it. If your start date is fixed, such as the opening of a season, print it on the form.
This job includes [weekends, evenings, holidays or on-call]. Can you work that schedule?
Why ask it
Put the real pattern in the brackets, including the unpopular parts. Offer 'yes', 'no' and 'some of it', and ask the last group which part. A no at this point saves both sides an interview.
Can you reliably get to [work location] for the shifts you would be working?
Why ask it
Ask about getting there and not about owning a car, unless driving is part of the job. If the first bus arrives after the opening shift starts, say so on the form. The applicant can then tell you how they would manage, or decide it is not for them.
What hourly rate or salary are you looking for in this job?
Why ask it
This asks what they want, which is a different question from what they earn now. Make it optional, because a forced number is a guess. An answer far above your budget calls for a short honest message before anyone prepares for an interview.
This job pays [rate or range]. Is that pay acceptable to you?
Why ask it
Printing your figure often does more than asking for theirs, because people who need more can step back without a call. Some places require the range to be shown with the job, so ask how it works where you hire. If several strong applicants answer no, look at the range.
Knockouts
Do you currently hold [the license or certificate this job cannot be done without]?
Why ask it
A true knockout is something the work cannot legally or safely go ahead without, such as a commercial license for a truck route. If you would train the right person, it is a preference, and a no should not end the application. Ask to see the original at the interview.
Do you hold a valid driver's license for [the kind of vehicle this job drives]?
Why ask it
Use it only where driving is the job or a regular part of it. Anywhere else it screens out people who would have arrived by bus without trouble. Your insurer may set conditions on who can drive under your policy, so ask what it needs you to collect and when.
Can you perform these duties, with or without reasonable accommodation: [lifting a stated weight, standing for a full shift, climbing a ladder]?
Why ask it
List the real physical demands and ask one yes or no about the list as a whole. The question is whether the work can be done, not what the applicant's body is like, and the accommodation wording that fits is set by local rules, so look up the one for where you hire. Weigh the box before you write the number, because an overstated figure turns away people who could do the job.
How many years of experience do you have doing [core task]?
Why ask it
Give ranges to choose from: none, under one, one to three, more than three. Decide which range is your floor before the form goes out, and be honest about whether it really is one. Years show time served, so pair this with a written question about what was done in them.
Are you comfortable working with [the part of the job some people will not do: raw meat, heights, animals, cleaning chemicals]?
Why ask it
Name the thing new hires quit over in the first week, flatly and without selling it. An honest no costs you one applicant. A surprised new hire costs you the weeks spent finding and training them.
Can you work on site at [address] on [days]?
Why ask it
Remote, hybrid and on-site mean different things to different people, so give the address and the days. A no from a strong applicant deserves one message to check they read it right. If the job could be done from elsewhere, do not make this a knockout out of habit.
Are you willing to travel for work [how often, and whether overnight]?
Why ask it
Fill in the real figure, such as two nights away a month, because 'some travel' gets a yes from people picturing a day trip. Add 'yes, with notice' as a choice, since many people can go if they know the dates a few weeks ahead. If the job means moving to another city, ask that as a separate yes or no and say whether you help with the cost.
If we make you an offer, are you willing to complete [the background check, drug test or other check this job requires]?
Why ask it
Ask about willingness only, and name only checks you really run for this job. What you may check, when, and what consent you need vary by place and by type of work. Get the wording from your screening provider or a lawyer, and never ask for results on the form.
Experience
Where have you worked most recently, and what did you do there?
Why ask it
Employer, job title, rough dates and two lines on duties for the last two or three jobs is enough. Read the duties for verbs you need: opened the store, balanced the register, trained new hires. Let people attach a resume in place of typing it all again, since a form that demands both asks for the same work twice.
Why did you leave that job, or why are you looking to leave?
Why ask it
A short neutral reason is the good answer: moved, hours cut, wanted more responsibility, the season ended. Do not screen anyone out on this box alone. A bare 'personal reasons' may be nothing at all, and the interview is the place to hear more.
May we contact your current employer?
Why ask it
Give three choices: yes, no, and only after an offer. Many people have not told their boss they are looking, so a no is ordinary and says nothing against them. Even with a yes, tell the applicant before you call.
What is your highest completed level of education, and what did you study?
Why ask it
Ask for the level, the school and the subject, and leave the years out, since dates of study give away age. If the job needs no qualification, make the whole section optional. A capable person without a diploma should not meet a required field they cannot fill.
Which licenses or certifications do you hold, and when does each expire?
Why ask it
The expiry date is the useful half. A food handler card or first aid certificate that lapsed last year means a course to book before the first shift, and it is worth deciding now who pays for it. This is the place for qualifications that are welcome but not required.
Which of these tools, machines or programs have you used at work, and for how long?
Why ask it
List the ones the job runs on and let people check them off. A checklist gets plainer answers than 'list your skills', which rewards whoever writes the most. Pick two of the ones they checked and ask at the interview about the last time they used each.
Which languages can you use at work, and how well do you speak, read and write each?
Why ask it
Include it only when the job uses another language, such as serving customers in Spanish or reading supplier paperwork, and name that use beside the field. What matters is how well the work can be done in that language. First language and where it was learned are not the form's business. 'Fluent' is a self-rating, so have a colleague who speaks it run a few minutes of the interview in it.
Who can we contact as a reference, and how do you know each other?
Why ask it
Two or three names, each with a phone number and the working relationship. A former supervisor tells you more than a friend can, and for a first job a teacher or coach is a fair substitute. State on the form at what stage you would call, so no one's reference hears from you unannounced.
Is there a gap or a change of direction in your work history that you would like to explain?
Why ask it
Keep it optional and worded as an invitation. People who took time out for study, family, illness or a layoff often worry it will be read badly, and a line of their own choosing settles that. Take what they offer and do not dig for more.
Short answers
What interests you about this job?
Why ask it
Give it a small box. You are looking for one detail that could only be about your business: the product, the hours, the walk from home, something a friend who works for you said. An answer pasted from another application sometimes still has the other company's name in it.
Tell us about the experience you have that is closest to this work.
Why ask it
The example a person picks tells you how they have read the job. Unpaid experience counts: running a school club, a household budget or a stand at a weekend market can be nearer to the work than a paid job with a grander title. Say so beside the box, or people will leave it out.
Describe a time a customer was unhappy with you or your workplace. What did you do?
Why ask it
For any job that faces the public. A usable answer has a real moment in it and ends with what the applicant did, not with what customers are like. Three sentences are plenty, since you are choosing who to phone and not grading an essay.
What would you do if you realized you were going to be late for a shift?
Why ask it
There is a right answer, which is to call ahead with an arrival time, and nearly everyone gives it. That makes the few who write about excuses, or skip the box, easy to notice. It also puts your expectation on record before day one.
Which part of this job would you be best at, and which would take you longest to learn?
Why ask it
It only works if the duties are listed on the form or the posting. Someone who names a real gap is easier to train than someone who claims none. Keep the answer, because it is a ready plan for their first weeks.
How would you reply to this message from a customer: [a short real example]?
Why ask it
A work sample in miniature, for jobs that write to customers. Paste in a real message with the names removed and you will see tone, spelling and whether they answer what was asked. Keep it to one task of about five minutes, since a form that sets homework before any conversation loses people who have other options.
Is there anything you would like to add that the form did not ask about?
Why ask it
Always optional, and last among the written questions. Most people leave it blank, and a blank tells you nothing. The few who use it tend to supply the fact that makes the rest add up: a move to your town next month, a change of career, a course nearly finished.
Do you confirm that the information on this application is true and complete?
Why ask it
The closing check box or signature line, with the date. It gives you something to point to if a claimed license or job turns out not to exist. What else the closing statement should say, such as consent to contact references, depends on local rules, so have it checked once.
Leave off
Does the form ask for a date of birth, an age or a graduation year?
Why ask it
Take all three out. Rules against age discrimination in hiring are common, so check yours, and a graduation year gives age away as surely as a birthday. Where a job has a legal minimum age, one yes-or-no question about that minimum is all you need.
Does it ask about health, disability, medication or past sick leave?
Why ask it
None of it belongs on an application. Ask whether the listed duties can be done, and leave anything medical to the stage, if any, at which your local rules allow it. An open line such as 'tell us if you need any adjustments to apply or interview' offers help without asking for a diagnosis.
Does it ask about marriage, pregnancy, children or childcare?
Why ask it
Marital status, maiden name, number of children and 'who looks after them' are fields that old paper forms carried for a long time. What you need to know is whether the person can work the schedule, and an availability grid asks that of everyone alike. Emergency contacts and dependents for benefits are collected after hiring.
Does it ask about race, ethnicity, religion, birthplace or citizenship?
Why ask it
Work eligibility is one yes-or-no question, and days a person cannot work show on the availability grid without anyone saying why. If you are required to gather equal-opportunity data, ask the agency that requires it how to keep the answers voluntary and away from whoever decides.
Does it ask for a photo, or for height, weight or gender?
Why ask it
A photo shows age, race and sex before a word has been read. Customs differ between countries, so follow yours, but nothing in screening needs a face. Where a physical standard is real, state the task and ask whether it can be done.
Does it ask about arrests or criminal convictions?
Why ask it
Whether you may ask, how far back and at what stage differ sharply from one place to the next, and some places keep the question off the first form altogether. Find out the rule where you hire before the field goes on. For regulated work, such as jobs with children or with money, ask the licensing body what it requires.
Does it ask what the applicant earns now or earned before?
Why ask it
Some places restrict or ban questions about pay history, so check before you include one. Even where it is allowed, it ties your offer to another employer's budget. Asking what pay they are looking for gives you the number you can act on.
Does it ask for a Social Security or national ID number, or for bank details?
Why ask it
Nothing in screening needs them, and a pile of applications holding them is a risk you carry for every person you did not hire. Collect them from the person you do hire, on the payroll paperwork. If a background check needs an identifier, ask the provider how and when it gathers one.
Does it ask for personal social media accounts?
Why ask it
An optional link to a portfolio or professional profile suits jobs where the work is public. Personal accounts show you nearly everything else in this group, from age to religion, and some places restrict employers from asking for them. Never ask for a login.
Is there any field left whose answer would not change who gets a call?
Why ask it
Go down the form one field at a time and say what you would do differently with each answer. Whatever changes nothing at this stage moves to the new-hire paperwork. A shorter form is easier to finish on a phone, and it holds less that you have to keep safe.
How to build the form and read what comes back
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you build the form
Start from the job, not from an old form
Write down the three or four things the job cannot be done without: a schedule, a license, a physical task, a skill. Each becomes one question under Knockouts or Hours and pay. A form borrowed from another business, or found in a filing cabinet, carries fields nobody reads and sometimes fields that should have come off years ago.
Decide what each answer will do
Beside every question, note what happens next: no interview, a phone call to check, or straight to interview. A question with nothing written beside it is a candidate for cutting. This is also what keeps two people reading applications from reaching different decisions on the same answers.
Pick from the list, do not use all of it
A form for an hourly job can be the Basics, the availability grid, one or two knockouts, the most recent job and one short answer. A salaried office role may want the full Experience group and two written answers. Aim for something a person can finish in ten to fifteen minutes on a phone.
Resume or form, not both in full
If you accept a resume, let it replace the work history and education fields and keep the form for what a resume never says: hours, start date, pay and the knockouts. If most of your applicants will not have a resume, as with a first job, the form does that work and the upload stays optional.
Check the local rules once, before it goes live
The Leave off group names the topics where rules are common, but what is restricted, and at which stage, depends on the country, the state or province and sometimes the city and the size of the employer. Read the finished form against your labor agency's guidance, or show it to an employment lawyer or an HR service, and ask about criminal history, pay history, showing the pay range, minimum ages and how long applications must be kept.
Wording the questions
Ask about the job, not the person
Nearly every question that causes trouble has a job-shaped version that is more useful. 'Can you work Saturdays?' in place of anything about family or faith. 'Can you lift the stated weight?' in place of anything about health. 'Are you at least the minimum age?' in place of a birthday. If you cannot say which duty a question is about, it is about the person.
Match the answer format to the question
Yes or no for knockouts, check boxes for facts such as availability and tools, and a small text box for the written answers. Small boxes matter: a large empty field suggests an essay is wanted, and people either abandon the form or paste one in.
Fill the brackets with your own facts
The questions with brackets only work once the real figure is in them: the pay, the address, the weight, the shift pattern, the nights away. Vague versions such as 'flexible hours' or 'some lifting' get a yes from everyone and screen nobody.
Mark what is optional, and tell people what happens next
Require only what you need in order to reply and to apply your knockouts. End the form with a line saying when applicants will hear from you and how. It costs one sentence and saves the follow-up calls asking whether the application arrived.
Reading the applications
Apply the knockouts first, the same way for everyone
Sort on the yes-or-no answers before you read anything else, and do not make exceptions for a name you recognize. If you find yourself wanting to waive a knockout for a strong applicant, it was a preference all along. Change it on the form for the next round.
Read the written answers before the work history
An impressive employer name colors everything read after it. Taking the short answers first, and if your system allows it with names hidden, gives the person who has done the work without the title a fair reading.
A blank is not a no
Optional fields are left empty for ordinary reasons: a small screen, a break that ended, a question that did not seem to apply. Unless the field was required, treat a blank as something to ask in the first call.
Reply to everyone and keep the files safe
A two-line message to people you are not taking forward is remembered in a small town, and so is silence. Applications hold personal details, so keep them where only the people hiring can see them, and ask how long your local rules expect you to keep them and when to delete them.
Mistakes to avoid
Too many knockouts
Each one removes people, and five stacked together can remove everyone you would have liked. Keep to the two or three the job truly cannot bend on, and move the others to Experience, where an answer informs without deciding.
Copying a form from somewhere else
A template written for another country or state may include questions that are restricted where you hire, or leave out a notice your local rules expect. Treat any template as a draft and run it against the Leave off group before anyone sees it.
Collecting new-hire details from applicants
Identity numbers, bank details, date of birth, emergency contacts and tax information belong to the paperwork for the one person you hire. Asking every applicant for them adds risk for you and gives careful people a reason not to apply.
Making the form do the interview
Six essay questions will not tell you what twenty minutes on the phone will, and the applicants with the most choices are the first to give up. Use the form to decide who to call, and save the longer questions for the conversation.
Never looking at it again
After each round of hiring, note which questions changed a decision and which were never read. Cut the second kind. If the same thing keeps surprising you in interviews, such as the weekend shifts, that is the question to add.