In this article
Before you start
If you also need the opposite question, how to sell yourself, read why should we hire you.
Why interviewers ask this
The question flips the table: you are asked to think like the person on the other side. A candidate who answers well shows judgment about what makes people succeed on a team. It is reported by candidates in manager and senior-engineer interviews.
A weak answer lists pleasant words: hardworking, a team player, passionate. Nothing in it can be checked. A strong answer picks a few qualities that fit the role, says what each looks like in practice, and says how it would be seen in an interview. A Staff-level answer adds the process: the same questions for everyone, a written rubric, and independent scoring before any group discussion.
That last part matters because of predictive validity, the correlation between interview scores and later job performance, on a scale from 0 (no link) to 1 (a perfect link). Structured interviews, in which every candidate answers the same job-related questions and is scored against one rubric, have a validity of .42 against .19 for unstructured ones (Sackett et al., 2022), roughly twice the validity, as Pin reports.
Qualities to look for when hiring, from first principles
- Scoring rubric
- A scoring rubric is a written scale that says what a weak, an adequate and a strong answer look like for each competency, so that different interviewers give the same answer the same score.
In plain words
Think of buying a used car. "Reliable" is a hope. A service history is evidence. Hiring works the same way. A quality such as "reliable" is only a hope until you say what evidence would show it. The analogy breaks in one place: a car's history is a record, while a person's history reaches you as a story they tell, so you must ask for specific examples and listen for detail.
In one precise sentence, a good answer to this question names a few competencies, ties each to the role, and states the evidence and the scoring that would reveal it.
Step 1: Name a few qualities tied to the role
Pick three or four qualities and tie each to the job. A short list is easier to test and easier to remember. A long list becomes noise, because no interview has time to check twelve things.
Input: the job's real work. Output: a short list. For a software team the list might be ownership, sound judgment, clear communication and speed of learning (illustrative). For a sales role it would differ. Say the role first ("for an engineering team I would look for…"), because the right list depends on the work. An employer may also publish its own list; the Amazon Leadership Principles page on this site shows how such a list can be written as behaviors. You now have the first part of the answer: what you look for.
Step 2: Say how you would check for it
For each quality, state the behavior that shows it and the question that surfaces it. Ownership shows up as a story where the person acted without being told. You would ask a behavioral question such as "tell me about a time you fixed a problem nobody gave you". Good answers use the situation, task, action, result (STAR) shape, in which the person describes the context, their part, what they did and the outcome. The guide to answering interview questions covers that shape in full.
Input: a quality. Output: a behavior and a question. This is the step that answers the trap follow-up. Without it, "communication" is only a word. With it, you can say "I would ask for a time they explained a hard idea to someone outside their field, and listen for who the listener was and what changed."
Step 3: Score it the same way for every candidate
A structured interview is a hiring interview in which every candidate for the same role gets the same job-related questions and is scored against the same predetermined rubric. Write the rubric before interviews start, score each quality on its own, and have each interviewer record scores before the group talks. The same questions and a rubric fixed in advance are what make scores comparable between candidates.
Input: answers. Output: scores and notes. Add a minimum bar for any quality that is essential, for example judgment, so that a strong score elsewhere cannot hide a gap. You now have the whole answer: name, evidence, score.
Step-by-step description
- Pick three or four qualities tied to the role.
- Say the behavior and the question that shows it.
- Use one rubric and a minimum bar for all.
- Name three or four qualities tied to the role.
- Define each quality as behavior and say how you would check for it.
- Score every candidate with the same rubric and a minimum bar.
Knowing it is half the job. Saying it is the other half.
Interview Clozo is an AI interview copilot for real interview rounds: it hears the question and puts a strong answer on your screen, and you say it in your own words. See the features or how it works.
Start Free Trial →The Staff-level answer
What qualities do you look for when hiring?
I hire for a short list tied to the role, and for an engineering team I would pick four: ownership, judgment, clear communication and learning speed. I define each as behavior; for example, ownership means finishing the problem nobody assigned. Then I test each with the same question for every candidate and score against a written rubric before the group compares notes. I also set a minimum bar on judgment, because a high average can hide a gap that matters. The trade-off is that a fixed list can miss an unusual strength, so I leave room for evidence the list did not anticipate.
What makes it Staff-level: it names the failure of the fixed list, it separates the quality from the test, and it protects against an average that hides a gap. The worked numbers below show that last point.
Worked example: why weights and a minimum bar matter
Two candidates are scored on four qualities with a 1 to 5 rubric. All numbers here are illustrative, and the arithmetic comes from a script.1 Ownership and judgment carry weight 3, communication and learning speed weight 2, so the weights sum to 10. Candidate A scores 4, 3, 5 and 3 on ownership, communication, judgment and learning speed. Candidate B scores 5, 5, 2 and 3.
On a plain average both candidates score 3.75. With the weights, A scores 3.9 and B scores 3.7.1 The role values judgment, and B's low judgment score of 2 is hidden by strong scores elsewhere. A minimum bar of 3 on judgment would flag B directly.1
| Measure (illustrative) | Candidate A | Candidate B |
|---|---|---|
| Plain average of four scores | 3.75 | 3.75 |
| Weighted average (weights 3, 2, 3, 2) | 3.9 | 3.7 |
| Judgment score against a bar of 3 | 5, passes | 2, fails |
Text description of the diagram
- Both candidates average 3.75 on a plain average.
- With the role's weights, candidate A scores 3.9 and candidate B scores 3.7.
The rubric
| Dimension | Weak answer | Strong answer | Staff answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Correctness | Lists generic virtues | Names qualities that fit the role | Ties each quality to the real work of the team |
| Depth | A word with no meaning | Defines each as behavior | Defines behavior and the question that shows it |
| Trade-offs | None | Admits a quality can be faked | Names a bar, a weight and the risk of a fixed list |
| Communication | Rambling list | Three or four clear points | Name, evidence, score, in under a minute |
| Follow-up readiness | Stuck on "how would you know?" | Gives one example question | Describes a rubric and independent scoring |
Three variants of this question
What qualities do you look for in a good hire?
The answer keeps the same structure. Name three or four, define each as behavior, and say how you would test it. Add the role in the first sentence. "Good hire" also invites you to name what predicts success after six months, such as how the person handles a first unclear problem.
What do you look for in a team member?
"What do you look for in a team member?" is the peer's version, put to candidates who do not manage. Answer from the peer's side: reliability, clear communication, willingness to give and take feedback, and ownership. Give a short example of working with someone who showed each one.
Which one quality would you never compromise on?
Pick one that the role cannot work without, such as judgment for a role with high-stakes decisions, and say why. Then say what you would trade, such as polish in a first-round answer, so the choice shows a real priority.
Common mistakes
- "I look for hardworking, passionate team players." (wrong) These are hopes, not evidence. (right) "I look for ownership, which I test by asking for a time someone fixed a problem they were not assigned."
- "I go with my gut after a good conversation." (wrong) A pleasant chat is the least reliable test; unstructured interviews are reported at .19 validity against .42 for structured ones. (right) "I use the same questions and a written rubric."
- "I want people exactly like me." (wrong) It confuses comfort with fit, and a "culture fit" test can screen out good people. (right) "I look for the behaviors the role needs and for culture add, strengths the team lacks, and I never ask about protected characteristics such as age, religion or family plans."
- "I look for everything: skills, drive, culture, attitude." (wrong) A long list cannot be tested. (right) "Three or four, chosen for this role."
- Dodging "how would you know?" (wrong) The question is the real test. (right) "I would ask for a specific past example and listen for detail."
Follow-up questions
How would you know a candidate has that quality?
Ask a behavioral question tied to it, then probe for specifics: what they did, what they decided and what changed. A real example has names, constraints and a result; a rehearsed one stays general.
What if two qualities conflict?
Say which one the role weights higher and why. Speed and care conflict in many jobs; a role with costly errors weights care, and you set a minimum bar on it.
Do you hire for skills or for potential?
Say it depends on the cost of ramp-up. For a role that must deliver at once, weight current skill; for a role with time to grow, weight learning speed. Name the trade-off.
What would you ask a candidate who asks you the same question?
Turn it into a conversation about the team: say which qualities your team values and ask what they look for. The list in questions to ask the interviewer helps.
How does this differ from the greatest weakness question?
The greatest weakness question asks you to assess yourself; the hiring-qualities question asks you to assess others. Both reward honest, specific, bounded answers; see the greatest weakness question and other common interview questions.
- Name three or four qualities tied to the role, not a long list of virtues.
- Define each quality as behavior someone can observe.
- Say how you would test it: the same question and a written rubric for every candidate.
- Set a minimum bar on essential qualities so averages cannot hide a gap.
- Mention the trade-off: a fixed list can miss an unusual strength.
Sources
- Structured Interviews: How to Run Them and Why They Work — Pin (reports Sackett et al., 2022; page age six days when read on 2026-10-26), 20 Oct 2026
- Revisiting meta-analytic estimates of validity in personnel selection — Journal of Applied Psychology 107(11) (Sackett, Zhang, Berry and Lievens), 1 Nov 2022
