A pre-interview hearing survey has exactly one job: stop the limited interview time from being wasted re-confirming what's already on the résumé. Collect motivation, conditions, and the candidate's own questions up front, and the interview can focus on what you only learn face to face.
This article lays out the pre-interview hearing questions and the post info-session questionnaire as copy-paste sets. This is not the post-interview evaluation survey — if that's what you need, see interview feedback survey design; for departing employees, see exit interview question design. This article stays focused on the pre-interview and info-session stages.
The big picture: three different moments, three different goals
| Moment | Who you ask | Main goal | Core questions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-interview hearing | Candidate | Prepare a better interview | Motivation, experience, conditions, candidate questions |
| Post info-session | Attendee | Track interest shift and next action | Satisfaction, interest change, next step |
| Post-interview eval → separate article | Candidate / interviewer | Hiring decision, candidate experience | Scorecard, CX |
Mixing them bloats the form and tanks completion rates. Run a separate form for each moment.
Pre-interview hearing survey template
The point of collecting this before the interview is to save interview time and tailor preparation per candidate. Aim for 5–8 questions, under 3 minutes. Anything longer invites drop-off and blank fields.
Copy-paste: base set
Q1. Why did you apply for this role / our company? (open text)
Q2. Which of your past experiences do you think apply most to this role? (open text)
Q3. Where are you in your job search?
○ Researching (haven't applied broadly yet)
○ In process with several companies
○ In final stages somewhere
Q4. Your earliest possible start date
○ Now–1 month ○ 1–3 months ○ 3+ months ○ Undecided
Q5. What matters most in your conditions? (select all)
□ Salary □ Work style (remote/flex) □ Job content
□ Growth opportunity □ Team/culture □ Location
Q6. Anything you especially want to ask or confirm in the interview? (optional)
Q7. Any accommodations you'd like us to be aware of? (optional)
Why this order
- Motivation first: reveals the candidate's temperature and shapes how you open the interview.
- Collect their questions up front (Q6): avoids the "any questions?" time-out at the end and lets the interviewer prepare real answers. This alone lifts interview satisfaction.
- Conditions (Q5): detects offer mismatches early, reducing the worst case — a deal that collapses after the final round because terms don't fit.
Role-specific add-ons
| Role | Extra questions to collect |
|---|---|
| Engineer | Main tech stack / GitHub or portfolio URL / strength area (front/back/SRE) |
| Sales | Main product & deal size / new vs. existing ratio / preferred selling style |
| Designer | Portfolio URL / which stages they own (research → implementation) |
| Back office | Scope of work / tools used (accounting software etc.) / management experience |
Engineer and sales base questions are ready to reuse in the recruitment (engineer) and recruitment (sales) templates.
Post info-session questionnaire template
For surveys after a company info session, casual meetup, or recruiting event, satisfaction alone tells you little. Make "how did interest shift before vs. after the session" and "what do they want to do next" the headline metrics.
Copy-paste: post info-session survey
Q1. How satisfied were you with today's session? (5-point)
Q2. How did your interest in us change before vs. after the session?
○ Increased a lot ○ Increased ○ Unchanged
○ Decreased ○ Decreased a lot
Q3. What stood out most in today's session? (open text)
Q4. Conversely, what was unclear or what did you want to hear more about? (open text)
Q5. Your preference for next steps
○ I'd like to enter the process ○ I'd like a separate casual chat
○ Just researching for now ○ Still deciding
Q6. How did you hear about us? (select all)
□ Job board □ Employee referral □ Social □ Web search □ Event
Q7. If you'd like to take a next step, share your contact / preferred dates (optional)
Watch interest change (Q2), not satisfaction
Satisfaction is easily inflated by post-event excitement and correlates poorly with business outcomes (we cover this mechanism in detail in post-seminar survey questions). For info sessions, make interest change (Q2) the headline instead. If you can route the people who answered "increased" straight into a next action (Q5, Q7) on the spot, the session turns from pure information delivery into the front door of your hiring funnel.
How "before" differs from "after" the interview
Confuse these two and you'll design the wrong questions.
| Aspect | Pre-interview hearing | Post-interview evaluation |
|---|---|---|
| Who you ask | The candidate | Candidate (CX) + interviewer (evaluation) |
| Goal | Interview prep, save time | Hiring decision, experience improvement |
| Core questions | Motivation, conditions, candidate questions | Scorecard, recommendation, satisfaction |
| Timing | Days before to just before interview | Right after interview, after the result |
| Anonymity | Named (identity is the point) | Candidate-facing can be anonymous |
If you want to design the post-interview scorecard or candidate-experience (CX) survey, that's covered in interview feedback survey design, not here. Keep the roles clearly separated.
Where onboarding tools fit (for people searching for Asana templates)
Some people searching for a "pre-interview survey" are actually after a post-hire onboarding template (like Asana's new-hire onboarding template). Here's the honest division of labor.
| What you want to do | Best-fit tool |
|---|---|
| Task management after hire (laptop setup, training schedule, document checklist) | Task tools like Asana / Notion |
| Collect the "voice" of candidates / new hires (pre-interview hearing, first-week concerns, placement preferences) | Survey tools (Repoan etc.) |
Tracking task progress is not what a survey tool is for — use project management like Asana. But for collecting hearing data (concerns, expectations, self-reported skills, placement preferences) before and after joining, the survey side is the right fit. The two are meant to be used together.
For deeper digging into a candidate's profile, the design in persona hearing questions also transfers well.
FAQ
Q1. What questions should a pre-interview survey template include?
Six basics: motivation, applicable experience, job-search status, earliest start date, key conditions, and the candidate's own questions. Keep it to 5–8 questions under 3 minutes and avoid duplicating what's already on the résumé, so interview time goes to what you only learn face to face. The copy-paste base set in this article works as-is.
Q2. What should a company info-session survey ask?
Beyond satisfaction, ask how interest shifted before vs. after the session, what stood out / what was unclear, the preferred next step, and contact / preferred dates. Because satisfaction inflates right after the event, the practical headline metrics are interest change and next-action intent.
Q3. Can this replace Asana's new-hire onboarding template?
It depends on the goal. Post-hire task management (laptop setup, training schedule, document checklist) is best done in a task tool like Asana, where survey tools are a poor fit. But collecting the new hire's "voice" (pre-join concerns, placement preferences, self-reported skills) is exactly what a survey tool is for. Treat them as complementary.
Q4. How is a pre-interview survey different from a post-interview evaluation?
A pre-interview survey is collected from the candidate to prepare the interview (motivation, conditions, candidate questions). A post-interview evaluation is collected for the hiring decision and candidate experience (scorecard, recommendation, satisfaction). Different audience, goal, and questions — run them as separate forms. See interview feedback survey design for the post-interview side.
Related articles
- Interview feedback survey design
- Persona hearing questions
- Post-seminar survey questions
- Exit interview question design
With Repoan you can paste the question sets above and turn them into a form in minutes. Role-specific base questions can be reused from the recruitment (engineer) and recruitment (sales) templates, and file attachments (résumés, portfolios) are supported. Once responses come in, AI summarizes the open-text answers — motivation, candidate questions — so interviewers can skim them beforehand. One honest caveat: onboarding task tracking (checklists and the like) is outside Repoan's scope, so pair it with a task tool like Asana.