Job Interview Questions

First, when you are in conversation with someone, it is polite to pay attention to that person. Taking notes, to these coaches, is impolite.

Second, some job coaches trot out the argument that taking notes makes interviewers defensive, as if you are collecting evidence for a potential lawsuit. The last thing a job candidate wants to do is make the interviewer nervous.

Third, these critics suggest that if a candidate whips out a set of notes during an interview, the recruiter might conclude that the candidate has a problem with short-term memory or with thinking on his or her feet.

“I coach my candidates not to take notes during the interview because if you are taking notes you can’t listen with complete attention,” says Robin Upton, a career coach with Bernard Haldane Associates in Dallas, Texas. One downside, she adds, is that note taking exacerbates the natural human condition of self-deception. “We often hear a question the way we want to hear it instead of the way the interviewer actually asked it,” Upton says. Candidates risk appearing evasive if they don’t respond to the question that’s on the table.

When he is considering applicants for senior management positions, Tom Thrower, general manager of Management Recruiters, a recruiting firm in Oakland, California, prefers candidates who display total professional selfassurance. To Thrower, note taking detracts from an expression of overwhelming organizational confidence. “I’m interested in people with good memories,” he says. “I find it distracting watching applicants take notes.”

The situation, Thrower concedes, is different for people applying for technical positions, such as systems analysts, or financial types such as controllers or budget officers. He expects people applying for these positions to be very detail-oriented-thus it is appropriate and encouraging to see technicians taking notes during the job interview.

This controversial question is far from settled, but the majority of career coaches and recruiters I talked to give you a green light to take notes during job interviews. Yes, some interviewers get nervous when a job candidate whips out a notebook and starts taking notes. But others are impressed by the professionalism and interest demonstrated by a candidate taking notes. So what should you do?

Let’s look at both sides of this important question and then consider the arguments of a cross section of human resources professionals. Let’s start with the naysayers.

A company’s Web site also gives you good clues about whether the organization is growing or struggling.

The Web site addresses of most companies are obvious. At the place in the browser where it says “address,” just type in “www” (for World Wide Web), the name of the company, and the extension “.com.” Most Web addresses are obvious. For example, Cisco Systems is www.cisco.com. General Motors is www.gm.com. General Electric is www.ge.com.

Another way to find a Web site is to use a search engine. I prefer Google, although there are dozens of general and specialized search engines that will do the job. Simply type in www.google.com and the lean page of the Google Web site will appear. In the blank box, type in the name of the company you want to research and click on “I’m feeling lucky.” Google will almost always take you straight to the Web site you want. It’s unlikely that Google will fail you, but if it does, click “Back” and then click on the “Search Google” button. Now you will get a list of possible destinations. The company you want to research will usually be near the top of the list. Click on that item and you will go straight to the Web site you want.

And if a company does not have a Web site, that tells you that the company prefers to be invisible. Why would you want to work for an invisible company? If you still want to be interviewed, a question like this probably needs to be at the top of your list:

In my research on the company, I tried to find a Web site. I did not see any reference to a Web site on the company materials, nor could I find one using any of the search engines I tried. Is this intentional, and what is the logic behind not having exposure on the Web?

Every company’s Web site is different, but they are all organized in standard ways. The first thing is to look for a tab or button that says “About.” Most companies put basic background information about themselves in this area. Another area to look for is the “pressroom” or “newsroom.” Many companies collect news releases and articles about themselves under this designation.

Some corporate Web sites are pretty complicated affairs, with literally tens of thousands of places to hide information. So if you are lost, most Web sites have a feature called “Site Map.” This feature gives Web site visitors a high-level look at where information may be found on the site. It’s like the store directory you find in a shopping mall. Finally, most Web sites have a search function. Click on the search function and type in a term such as “about” or “news releases” and let the search engine take you where you need to go.

For public companies, the annual report is almost always available at the Web site. This document is an invaluable source of information about the company and its challenges. Pay careful attention to the letter from the management. In that letter, the organization’s CEO lays out the company’s accomplishments and challenges. It will give you important clues for questions you can ask. In some cases, there is a Q&A format, so many of the questions you might want to ask in your interview are already there.

“The best questions to ask interviewers are those that demonstrate a knowledge of the company and its market,” says Incentive Systems’ Bob Conlin. “I’m always impressed by good questions about specific competitors, where the market is going in terms of trends, and how the company is adapting to those trends.”

If the candidate hedges, Parker questions whether she should invite the candidate in for a job interview. If the candidate answers yes, Parker asks:

What is your impression of what we do?

“I want to see if the candidate can articulate the information about our company and the job,” she says. Her reasons for asking are twofold. First, she wants some feedback on how effectively the company’s recruiting materials are working. But even more importantly, she believes that a candidate who has taken the time to thoroughly study the recruiting materials demonstrates real interest in the job, while one who has not is a poor risk.

“If you want to work at Integrated Design, I insist that you demonstrate at least a basic understanding of what the company does,” she says. The best way to demonstrate that is to ask Parker informed ques tions, such as:

I’ve scanned your Web site and the materials you sent me. I understand that Integrated Design specializes in employee data integration.As a service business, has the recent economic downturn changed the weight of the build-versus-buy calculation that every customer must evaluate?

Such a question tells Parker that the candidate not only researched the company’s mission but has a mature understanding of the challenges of a service company. On the other hand, Parker experiences a visceral turn-off for applicants who show no evidence they looked at the recruitment information packet she sent about the company. She also has no use for applicants who expect her to repeat all the information contained in the information packet. Such applicants-they hardly rise to the status of candidates-are too unmotivated to get Parker’s attention.

“If candidates ask no questions at all, especially after I sent them an information packet of recruitment materials, I know they are cruising,” agrees Bob Conlin, VP of marketing at Incentive Systems in Bedford, Massachusetts. “If a candidate tells me she is considering committing the next phase of her career to Incentive Systems, I want to know she is thinking hard about the opportunity. I expect to hear some very probing questions.”

One of the strongest candidates in Conlin’s experience was prepared not only with great questions, but with a portfolio of materials the candidate could point to during the interview. The candidate for a senior marketing position had copies of Incentive Systems’ company’s data sheets and full-page ads and those of its competitors. Using these materials, the candidate asked informed questions about the merits of specific marketing campaigns on behalf of specific products. “As soon as he pulled out the portfolio, I said to myself, ‘This is my guy!’” Conlin recalls.

This scenario demonstrates what a mistake it is to assume that you can time the start of a job interview.

Susan arrived early at her job interview. At the appointed hour, Susan’s interviewer greeted her and asked her to follow him to his office. Susan immediately noticed that the interviewer seemed a bit befuddled, as if he forgot where the office was. As they started walking through a maze of cubicles, he seemed to hesitate, looking first left and then right. Ignoring Susan, he paused at every intersection, like he was a pioneer exploring a territory for the first time. With Susan in tow, he even retraced his steps a couple of times. Susan felt very uncomfortable, but she didn’t know what to do. Should she say anything? Would a comment offend him? Maybe the interviewer had a disability of some sort. So she hung back and waited for the interviewer to act. Eventually, they found their way to the interview room where the interviewer asked Susan a few perfunctory questions before thanking her for coming. Susan did not get an offer.

What went on here? If you were Susan, how would you have handled the situation? Before reading further, take a minute to consider the challenge, because that’s exactly what it was.

Susan didn’t realize it, but the maze-running was part of the job interview. By the time the interviewer got to the talking part, the interview was over and the candidate had been eliminated. Yes, it might seem sleazy, but the interviewer played incompetent to test Susan’s leadership qualities. Would she offer to help? Would she take an active role in some way, offering whatever skills she could muster for the occasion? Or would she remain passive? The interviewer was hoping that Susan would ask a question. The most important part of the interview took place before the candidate thought anything important happened.

What could Susan have done? The first thing is, she should have recognized that she was being tested. In fact, all candidates do well to assume that as soon as they leave their house, they are being evaluated. What are some things Susan could have done or said? A job coach in Dallas whose clients have encountered this technique suggests one approach.

Well, there’s no right or wrong here. But I’d have coached Susan to do something to acknowledge what is, after all, an uncomfortable situation. If I’m recruiting for a team leader or manager, I look for candidates who are authentic, who offer to help in some way, or at least use humor to diffuse the tension. One candidate made me laugh when she joked, “Maybe we should leave a trail of bread crumbs so we can find our way back!” Mostly I want to see evidence that the candidate is thinking. What makes me hesitate is when candidates don’t have a clue about what to do or are too timid to do it.

Thankfully, techniques like these are falling out of favor, so you probably won’t encounter too many role-playing techniques. But the point remains: The interview starts sooner than you think. Keep thinking and don’t hesitate to ask questions. Here’s another scenario you might encounter.

Charles was interviewing for a senior sales position, and everything was going perfectly. His experience was exactly right, and Charles and the hiring manager, the VP of sales, seemed to be getting along great. So imagine the candidate’s surprise when the interviewer suddenly stood up and said, “I’m sorry, Charles. I just don’t think it’s going to work out after all. Thank you for meeting with me and good luck to you.” The rejection came so unexpectedly Charles that could only mumble something as he walked out.

What’s going on here? Again, take a minute to put yourself in Charles’s shoes. How would you have handled the situation? Charles didn’t realize it, but the resistance from the recruiter signaled the start of the job interview, not the end. Remember, Charles was being sized up for a senior sales position. A critical skill for such a position is grace in handling a prospect’s objections or rejection. So the interviewer threw a big objection at the candidate to see how he would react.

What could Charles have done? One Fortune 500 recruiter suggests Charles could have responded:

Excuse me, can I just have another minute? I’m confused. I thought the interview was going pretty well and that my experience fit the position you described very closely. Apparently, I missed something important. I would very much like to understand where you saw a disconnect between my skills and the job so that I might have the opportunity to demonstrate that I really am the best candidate for the job.

“This kind of response would tell me that Charles can handle objections, accepts responsibility for not making his case, and asks for information so that he may continue selling, which is why I’m hiring him,” the recruiter adds. In short, Charles needed a bid-for-action question, as described in Bid-for-Action Questions.

AT THE END

This is the typical point at which you’ll be invited to ask any questions you may have. The interviewer will lean back and turn the interview over to you. It may seem like the interview is coming to an end. It’s not. Interviewers are unanimous on this: They really expect you to ask intelligent questions.

Don’t assume you know when the interview is over. The safest bet is to apply this rule: The interview is not over until you no longer have an interest in the job. Until then, the clock is ticking.

This marvelous question, recommended by Irv Zuckerman in his book Hire Power, lets the candidate effectively seize control of the interview in a way that many interviewers find reassuring. Here’s a typical exchange (with comments) between an interviewer and a candidate:

INTERVIEWER: Thank you for coming. Can I get you a cup of coffee?

CANDIDATE: No, thank you. Perhaps later. (Leaving the door open softens the refusal to accept the interviewer’s hospitality. Avoid anything that might spill. Also you will need your hands free for taking notes on the important information you are about to receive.)

INTERVIEWER: Well, then, make yourself comfortable. Can you tell me about yourself?

CANDIDATE: I’ll be glad to. But first, may I ask a question? (Always ask permission.)

INTERVIEWER: Of course. (You will never be refused. The interviewer is now curious about what you are going to ask.) CANDIDATE: My question is this: By what criteria will you select the person for this job?

I NTERVIEWER: That’s a good question. CANDIDATE: Is it all right if I take notes? (Always ask permission.) INTERVIEWER: Of course. Now, let me see. I think the first criterion is…

Now listen. When the interviewer is done reviewing the first criterion, ask about the second. Then the third. Pretty soon you will have a list of the interviewer’s hot buttons, a recipe for the ideal candidate for the job. Your challenge is to underscore how your credentials and experience just happen to fall in perfect alignment with those very criteria.

Let’s back up a minute. Notice what else you have accomplished by asking this marvelous question. You have seized control of the interview. Suddenly the interviewer is working according to your agenda. The question-by what criteria will you select the person for this job-is designed to put you in the driver’s seat. Play with the wording at your own risk. Look at how the question parses:

By what criteria. This part of the question focuses the discussion where it belongs—on the job and its requirements, rather than your education, experience, age, gender, etc. What the hiring manager really wants is someone who can do the job and will fit in. Are you that someone? Can you prove it? That’s your goal in the next phases of the interview.

will you select. This acknowledges the authority of the decision maker. It is critical for you to know if, by chance, you are talking to someone who is not the decision maker, but merely a gatekeeper. In either case, you need to focus on the action verb in the clause and what you must provide in order to be selected.

the person. Only one person will be selected for this particular job. You want that person to be you. One of your jobs in the interview is to remind the hiring manager that you are a wellrounded, likable person who will fit in with the other people in the organization.

for this job. This phrase underscores the idea that the subject of this conversation is a job that the interviewer needs to fill because a vital organizational function is not being done. Furthermore, the ideal remedy for the problem is available and ready to start.

IN THE BEGINNING

Janice Brookshier, a Seattle-based recruiting contractor and president of Seattlejobs.org, has an informal interviewing style. In her dialogue with the candidate, she makes it quite clear that the candidate is free to ask questions at any point in the conversation. Brookshier notes, “Candidates are always free to ask a question, whether solicited or not.”

If Brookshier doesn’t get intelligent questions during the first part of the interview, she starts to wonder. But her worst suspicions are confirmed if the candidate doesn’t have any questions even after she invites some. “I see it as a test,” she says. “If you have no questions for me, it tells me that you are either way too passive or just not very serious. Either way, I lose interest real quickly.”

What impresses Brookshier the most are questions that transform a question that she had asked the candidate earlier in the interview. For example, if she had asked the candidate:

What accomplishments in your career are you most proud of?

or Can you tell me about your greatest weakness?

Brookshier would be impressed by a candidate who countered with: What accomplishments in its history is the company most proud of?

or Can you tell me about the company’s greatest weakness?

There seem to be no conditions that justify asking the following questions in any circumstances:

• Is it possible for me to get a small loan?
• What is it that your company does?
• Can I see the break room?
• Are you (the interviewer) married?
• What are your psychiatric benefits?
• How many warnings do you get before you are fired?
• Do you provide employees with gun lockers?
• Can you guarantee me that I will still have a job here a year from now?
• Do I get to keep the frequent-flier miles from company trips?
• Would anyone notice if I came in late and left early?
• How many (insert name of ethnic group) do you have working here?
• What does this company consider a good absenteeism record?
• Can you tell me about your retirement plan?
• The job description mentions weekend work. Are you serious?
• What is the zodiac sign of the company president?
• You’re not going to check my references, are you?
• Is it easy to get away with stuff around here?
• Do I have to work more than 40 hours a week?
• Why do I have to fill out this job application? It’s all on my résumé.
• How do you define sexual harassment?
• Can the company buy 5,000 copies of my wife’s book?
• Am I allowed smoking breaks?
• Will my office be near an ice machine?
• I missed my lunch. Do you mind if I eat my sandwich while we talk?
• I hope this doesn’t take too long. My mother is waiting for me in the car.
• When will I be eligible for my first vacation?

Absolutely. People like to talk to people. Most applicants want to know about the interviewer. One big question is how personal can you get without crossing the line? “Asking questions about the interviewer is fine if you keep the questions relevant and focused on the job,” says Bob Conlin, VP of marketing at Incentive Systems in Bedford, Massachusetts. Conlin says he is often asked questions such as:

What convinced you to come to Incentive Systems? What are some of the best attributes of Incentive Systems? Behavioral questions very similar to the type candidates are asked are also fair game to ask the interviewer, says Melanie Mays, president of Empyrean Consulting, a recruiting consulting firm in Dallas, Texas. These questions are best asked after a mutual interest has been established. They should go only to the individual with whom you might be working:

Can you tell me about a project that was successful and how you accomplished it as a team?

Can you tell me about a time when you encountered constraints and how you resolved them?

How do you think your employees would describe your management style?

Some hiring managers are perfectly comfortable with such questions, but others might get defensive, Mays warns. If that’s the case, back off, although the defensiveness itself will give you a clue about the situation. Other personal questions to consider asking the interviewer:

Tell me about your career choice. How did you get into recruiting?

What attracted you to this organization? What are some of the things you especially admire about the company? If you could change some things about the company, what would they be? How many layers of management are there between you and the CEO? When was the last time you had contact with the CEO? Avoid questions that are over the line. Personal questions that are clearly inappropriate would be ones such as: Are you single? How much money do you take home? What would it take for you to leave your job? Would you want to work for the guy I might be working for? What’s the worst thing you got away with at this company? Aren’t you a little young (or old) to be in your position? “I welcome questions about my personal experience that give me an opportunity to share my enthusiasm about the company,” says Beau Harris, a recruiter at Handspring, Inc., the Mountain View, California–based manufacturer of the Visor personal digital assistant. What questions would Harris resent? “There are a whole range of questions about marital status, religion, political views that I as an interviewer am not allowed to ask,” he says. “I believe the candidate should be held to the same standard. Questions like that should not be part of the decisionmaking mix.”

YES, THERE REALLY ARE DUMB QUESTIONS

A platitude popular in educational circles is that there is no such thing as a dumb question. After talking to hundreds of recruiters and job coaches around the world, I can tell you that, unfortunately, there really are dumb questions, and their articulation has cost thousands of people jobs for which they might otherwise have been qualified. Job candidates ask dumb questions every day. These questions prove they haven’t done their homework, haven’t listened, or have a tin ear for context.

So what kinds of self-deprecating joking can pass the humor test? Dialect is too risky. Leave it at home. Sarcasm may be misinterpreted. Deep-six it. Personal anecdotes can sometimes work. But make them personal, short, and to the point. One candidate reports that the following line, delivered tongue in cheek with a broad smile, sometimes led to a laugh and real feedback: How do you like me so far?

A line like this can work, concedes Nancy Levine, VP of client services at San Francisco–based Pacific Firm, but the risks are too high because it is so obviously a line. “If I happen to feel that the candidate and I have created a close rapport, that our senses of humor are on the same wavelength, then it’s great. But there is nothing more irritating to me than someone trying to be funny whom I don’t find funny. Proceed with caution if you want to use humor. And then, use it sparingly, just to add spice, like pepper on the finest filet mignon.”

Another candidate got some mileage out of a similar expression, by finding just the right time in the interview to say, in a dead-on New York City accent:

As Ed Koch used to say,“How’m I doing?” (Ed Koch is a former mayor of New York who managed by walking around the city and offering that phrase in order to get feedback from citizens.) How about jokes? Is it ever useful to tell a joke in a job interview? Jokes are probably too risky, but it may pay to memorize a couple just in case. I know one HR director who is known to ask candidates to tell him a joke as a test of how nimble the candidate’s mind is. Every once in a while—perhaps if the interview is at a more informal setting such as a restaurant—it may make sense to offer a joke. The quasi-social nature of the event might allow for more flexibility. But even here I urge caution.

Some interviewers will tell you a joke, either to break the ice or to illustrate a point. Occasionally, unprepared or unprofessional interviewers tell jokes because they are uncomfortable or don’t know what else to do. In either case, resist the temptation to create a false rapport by exchanging jokes. It doesn’t advance the interview, and little good can come of it. Do listen to the subtext of the joke and come back with a question that indicates the joke gave you a serious insight into the situation:

I appreciate the way you said that. It’s true, isn’t it, that communication breakdowns come in the most unexpected ways.And while it can sometimes be funny, communication breakdowns impose real costs on the organization. Companywide intranets offer real benefits to crossdepartmental communications.At my last job, I led the team that developed . . . If you must tell a joke, make sure it is short and pokes fun at yourself or some general issue of work. If it’s about the job interviewing process, so much the better. Never tell more than one joke, no matter how much you are coaxed. This joke, for example, has made the rounds of the HR chat boards.

Reaching the end of a job interview, the human resources person asked a young engineer fresh out of MIT what kind of a salary he was looking for.

“In the neighborhood of $140,000 a year, depending on the benefits package.”

“Well, what would you say to a package of five weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company-matching retirement fund to 50 percent of salary, and a company car leased every 2 years . . . say, a red Corvette?” “Wow! You’re kidding!” the young engineer said. “Yeah, but you started it.”

Five Rules for Using Humor

1. Poke fun at yourself only, nothing else.
2. Follow the interviewer’s lead.
3. Don’t force it.
4. No sarcasm at any time.
5. If in doubt, don’t.