If you have big goals and high standards for exceptional work, you need talented employees who know when to sweat the small stuff.
Whether you’re looking for an accountant to mind the decimals or a copywriter to dot the i’s and add the million-dollar commas, strong attention to detail is the key to error-free work. Use these seven interview questions to find your next eagle-eyed employee.
Attention to detail interview questions
- How do you balance a project’s big picture goal with the details of its execution?
- What are your favorite tools and processes to ensure quality work on a deadline?
- What steps do you take to ensure quality work when juggling multiple projects?
- How do you go about collecting all the important details about a task or project?
- How do you stay focused amid distractions?
- How do you detect errors, mistakes, or discrepancies in your work?
- What do you do if you notice a manager’s mistake?
7 detail-oriented interview questions to find your best candidate
Whether you’re launching a rocket or a new software product, accuracy is paramount.
The following interview questions will help you assess a candidate’s attention to detail during an interview, while revealing the strength of key soft skills, like communication skills and a passion for high-quality work.
1. How do you balance a project’s big picture goal with the details of its execution?
How well does the candidate balance the vision with the details? Use this question to understand their approach to process. Encourage them to share an example of a time this did and didn’t work out to help shed light on their decision-making process.
2. What are your favorite tools and processes to ensure quality work on a deadline?
Whether they’re checklist junkies or Grammarly fanatics, this question assesses a candidate’s approach to engaging with key tools of the trade. Note that for most roles, the candidate’s process is more important than their tool of choice. Look for candidates who have a clear and practical approach to consistently delivering high quality, even when up against tight deadlines.
3. What steps do you take to ensure quality work when juggling multiple projects?
This question goes a step further into the candidate's organizational skills. How will they perform when things get hairy? Whether they use time blocking to prioritize deep work or schedule regular project check-ins ahead of time, this question will help you understand how they prioritize under pressure.
4. How do you go about collecting all the important details about a task or project?
Understand how a candidate maintains a high level of attention when interacting with other employees and stakeholders. Attention to detail can be a virtue, but it can also curtail effective collaboration if an individual doesn’t know how or where to find and collect the information they need.
5. How do you stay focused amid distractions?
Whether at home or in the office, workplace distractions are a given. From disruptive dogs to chatty coworkers, how does the candidate maintain their attention to detail and limit distractions in a chaotic environment? This question is especially important for work-from-home (WFH) roles or roles that require sustained attention to detail, such as editing or software engineering.
6. How do you detect errors, mistakes, or discrepancies in your work?
How does a candidate drill down and find mistakes when they’ve been looking at the same screen for hours? This question assesses a candidate’s capacity to identify and fix mistakes that would otherwise fly under the radar, from comma splices to discrepant data points.
7. What do you do if you notice a manager’s mistake? How would you approach them?
This question goes beyond a candidate’s high attention to detail, to assess their ability to navigate sensitive situations. Are they able to contribute constructively to a team and tactfully catch other team members’ errors?
Which roles require strong attention to detail?
From pilots to pharmacists, attention to detail is a must-have requirement for countless roles. And according to research, the demand for detail-oriented talent is only going to grow.
Here is just a small handful of detail-oriented positions:
- Accountants
- Software engineers
- Editors
- Journalists
- Quality assurance specialists
- Project management specialists
- Auditors
- Virtual assistants
- Data analysts
- Translators
As new technologies emerge, the complexity of work increases. In a recent survey, 71% of employees around the world report rising job complexity, making it more challenging to manage information overload, navigate internal processes, and keep up with a rapidly changing world.
With as many as 85% of all jobs in 2030 not even invented yet, employers aren’t sure exactly what the future looks like. But you can bet that a keen eye for detail will be a big part of it.
Why hire detail-oriented candidates?
While it’s true that some roles have a greater margin for error than others, it’s always better to do it right than do it twice. Even small errors can have a big impact on your employer brand and possibly your balance sheet, too.
For example, if a senior employee flies through a client contract without proofing the policies and procedures, they could expose the company to expensive legal issues. Or, if a product developer writes code filled with errors, you may be forced to go over budget to rectify the mistakes.
In both scenarios, you’re wasting precious time and resources on mistakes that shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Here are a few ways detail-oriented employees can benefit your business:
- Catching and correcting errors
- Reducing the risk of costly mistakes
- Ensuring high-quality work
- Minimizing time spent on reworks
- Increasing customer satisfaction
- Enhancing planning and organization
- Navigating and adapting to current and future complexities
Whether it’s a $65 million dollar mistake or a typo-induced bounce rate, catching errors before they spiral saves you time, money, and heartache.
The perfect new hire will be capable of identifying issues before they escalate into full-blown problems. This individual not only has an eagle’s eye for discrepancies, they’re also proactively tuned into the bigger picture. They’ll gladly take advantage of opportunities to increase efficiency as they arise.
Other ways to test a candidate’s attention to detail
As part of a broader structured interview process, focused interview questions are a great way to gauge a candidate’s attention to detail. But they’re not the only method.Â
Here are some additional tactics to help you find the right candidate.
Check their resume and cover letter
Detail-oriented candidates will have error-free resumes and cover letters that have been proofread over and over again. Test attention to detail by looking out for misspelled words, structural errors, and inconsistent formatting. And if you want to really get a read on a candidate’s thoroughness, look to see whether they mention specific examples from your job description.
Look for real work experience
Go beyond the hypotheticals and ask candidates about their track record. Have they worked in past jobs that require analytical and detailed thinking? If possible, ask for a work sample to back it up. While not every role lends itself to samples, creative positions like writers, developers, or designers often have finished work they can share.
Note their behavior
How does the candidate conduct themselves during the job interview? A detail-oriented person will actively listen and may even jot down notes while meeting with you. Preparation often belies a candidate’s work ethic, so pay attention to the non-verbal cues.
Check their research
When it’s time to ask the candidate for their questions, pay extra close attention. Have they researched the company ahead of time? Or are their questions vague and generic? If they’ve noted specific elements related to the role or company culture and values, you know they’ve done their homework.
Ask a problem-solving question
In addition to the interview questions listed here, a problem-solving interview question can help you understand a candidate’s ability to navigate real workplace scenarios. From managing complex data to pointing out errors to the rest of the team, tailor your questions to the specific challenges of the role. Remember, just because a person is detail-oriented, doesn’t always mean they’re the best fit. You also need to evaluate how they navigate a potentially sticky situation.
Conduct a talent assessment
Another way to test a candidate’s attention to detail is with a talent assessment. Often used at the selection stage, a talent assessment is a pre-employment test that helps companies determine which candidate will perform the best in a given role. Depending on your requirements, this could take the form of a skills test, personality test, or even a game-based assessment.
Use an interview scorecard
Interview scorecards help interviewers stay objective and skill-focused, providing a structured framework to evaluate your candidates’ responses. A clearly defined scoring rubric not only promotes consistency and fairness, it also helps your team find the best fit for the role in a lot less time. Simply score your candidate, jot down any notes, and instantly compare scores with the rest of the hiring team to streamline the decision-making process.
Make your next hire nothing short of perfection
Attention to detail skills are becoming a universally important asset. And not just for candidates. As a hiring manager, it’s also important to take a close look at your hiring process and find new ways to identify the best candidates.
Whether you’re interviewing your next dev superstar or desperately seeking an Excel-obsessed financial controller, you need a hiring platform that brings all the details together.
With Breezy, you can access more than 400 free interview guides, schedule interviews with a single click, and standardize the hiring experience to snag your best candidates in less time. Try it totally free for 14 days.
