What Hospitality Industry Leaders Need to Ask Entry-Level Candidates in an Interview

Entry-level candidates aren’t just college-aged people; you might meet them from any number of walks of life interested in the hotel business. People in the United States and abroad have plenty of ways to spend their time, and if they choose to spend it working with you, it’s essential to honor their endeavors by trying to figure out just how well they might make an immediate fit for your company.

Whether people leave college or not, when you consider them entry-level, there are certain pieces of information that you want to find from them pretty early. Once you have a better picture of what they can do and how your business might benefit from their labor and vigor, you can better triangulate how to serve them best as they seek to serve your company.

Here are the top questions to ask a candidate in front of you.

What would you be doing if money wasn’t an issue?

Money is an issue for you and the vast number of people worldwide, of course, but their answer could shed some light on what they care about. If you can remember what they care about, half the battle to keep them engaged is much easier. Most people get so bogged down with life issues that they don’t think about what to do in an ideal world. Since we don’t live in a utopia, what you want to do with that information is keep it in mind. If someone mentions wanting to start a nonprofit focused on water quality or fishing with their grandkids, that means you know that much more about what’s important to them.

You can’t make it so someone can spend the final part of their life on a boat with their grandchildren. But you can ask how they’re doing now and then, or get a grandchild some gift since kids often love and appreciate toys. That goes a long way toward making your fellow employees feel valued. They might even spend more time working with you than they do with their families, and you are obligated to listen closely and act if it helps them perceive your place of business as one worth staying at. That’s especially important for people leaving another industry who do not understand how the new one works. If you can make them feel more integral to your operation than they would have felt in past opportunities, you may have someone willing to stick around for quite a while under the right circumstances.

How does the hospitality industry align with your long-term goals?

Younger people commonly see a particular industry one way, and their vantage point and inexperience keep those rose-colored glasses on. There isn’t much you can do about that in an interview, but if they provide an honest answer, it could give you a small window into what kind of employee they might be. Perhaps they are just looking for a job that intrigues them, or they might have bigger dreams of running their hotel one day. Either way, you want to know their motivations since you can try to shape their career opportunities around what might keep them with the company. The better you can help them shift their goals to what they might be tasked with in the short term, the more viable they might see your company as an option in the long term.

Entry-level people may have a litany of opportunities in front of them, and the people questions you ask in that first meeting, or two could help set the tone for how they view you and their company. Don’t be afraid to prod a little without being rude so you can see where their mind is at and act accordingly. You serve people, but to keep an employee around, you must figure out what best serves them.