ToolHut Trade School · Toolkit
The interview guide
The method is not the questions. It is asking the same questions, in the same order, and writing the answers down — because comparison is the only way to see a difference between two people who both seemed fine in a truck.
Ask about what happened, never what they would do. "What would you do if a customer was unhappy" has one right answer and everybody knows it. A question about last time cannot be answered without a real memory.
One sheet per candidate. Score each answer out of three while they are still in front of you.
Before they arrive
Name: ________________________ Date: ____________ Job: ________________________
The seven
Turning up
Walk me through your last week of work — which days, which jobs, what time did you start?
Specifics, or vagueness. A man who worked last week can tell you about it without effort.
Score 1 – 2 – 3
Ownership
Tell me about the last time you damaged something on a job. What happened next?
Who they told, how fast, and whether the sentence contains the word I. 'Never happened' from an experienced hand is its own answer.
Score 1 – 2 – 3
Pressure
Tell me about a day a job went sideways. What did you actually do?
A day, a place, a decision. Weak answers stay general and blame the supplier.
Score 1 – 2 – 3
The customer
A homeowner comes out while you are working and is annoyed about something. Tell me about the last time that happened.
Whether they engaged or avoided, and whether the customer is a person or an obstacle in the telling.
Score 1 – 2 – 3
The last ten percent
When the work is done and the truck is loaded, what else do you do before you leave?
The broom, the gate, the offcuts, the magnet sweep. This is the question that separates two good hands.
Score 1 – 2 – 3
Why they left
Why did you leave the last one? And the one before?
Not to trip them up. A pattern across two or three answers is worth more than any single reason.
Score 1 – 2 – 3
What they want
What would make you still be here in two years?
Whether they have thought about it at all, and whether what they want is something you can actually give them.
Score 1 – 2 – 3
Your own two
Replace two of the above with questions from your own scar tissue — the last three times a job went wrong because of a person rather than a price. Those questions beat any list, including this one, because they came from your jobs.
Yours
Score 1 – 2 – 3
Yours
Score 1 – 2 – 3
References — ask one question
"Would you hire them again?" Then stop talking. The pause is the answer. Follow with "what would they need a hand with, starting out?" and "how did they leave?"
After the trial day
Early, on time, or late with a reason? Did they ask or guess when they did not know? What did they do in the ten minutes after the work was finished? Where did their trash go? Who were they at lunch?
Character Over Skill
Four lessons on hiring the person rather than the résumé — the interview, the paid trial day, and the reference call that gets a real answer. Free with any ToolHut account.
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