Job Interview Questions

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.

You can guess what happened next. The CEO looked up with a tight smile and slowly informed Handler that graphology was his hobby and that he thought the practice had substantial merit.

The good news is at the end of the day, the wisecrack didn’t hurt Handler. He still received a job offer. But it did teach him a lesson. “Think twice about making a joke or a wisecrack,” he says. “Any subject you choose, no matter how seemingly innocuous, has the potential for alienating the interviewer.”

On the other hand, humor elegantly framed and sharply focused can be effective and advantageous. But it must come naturally to you. Nothing is as risky as forced humor. Amateurs shouldn’t try this at the office. A half-baked attempt at humor can seriously backfire on you, and if you offend the interviewer—a possibility less and less discountable in these politically correct times—you will never recover. For that reason many job coaches advise against any attempt at humor, sarcasm, or teasing. Just play it straight, they say, and you can’t go wrong.

Some hiring managers welcome humor because it demonstrates you can keep work in a proper perspective. “The ability to laugh at yourself is a great attribute,” says Susan Trainer. “It means you don’t take yourself too seriously, which is a very attractive trait.”

Other recruiters are skeptical. “I want my questions taken seriously,” warns Bryan Debenport, corporate recruiter at Alcon Laboratories, a 3000-employee manufacturer of ophthalmic products in Fort Worth, Texas. “Humor may be appropriate at the start and finish of interviews, but use it sparingly.”

The goal of using humor is to bond with the interviewer, to use your shared senses of humor as a way to underscore the prospect that you will fit into the organization. Of course, if your perspective and that of the hiring manager seriously differ, then your attempt at humor will only underscore the disconnect.

At the same time, when people laugh, certain physiological changes take place that make people more flexible, relaxed, and—this is what you most want—agreeable. Humor is also synonymous with wit—and wit is born of intelligence. No wonder recruiters look for candidates with this quality. Let the interviewer set the tone. If the interviewer starts with a joke and seems to be in good humor, you can try for a little self-deprecating humor.

In other words, be sure that the question you ask doesn’t raise barriers or objections. For example:

Is relocation a necessary part of the job?

The very question raises doubts about your willingness to relocate. Even if the person selected for the position is not tracked for relocation, the negativity of the question makes the hiring manager wonder whether you are resistant in other areas as well.

If the issue of relocation is important to you, by all means ask, but go with a phrasing that reinforces your flexibility, not challenges it:

I’m aware that relocation is often required in a career and I am prepared to relocate for the good of the company as necessary. Could you tell me how often I might be asked to relocate in a five- or ten-year period?

Here are a few more examples of self-limiting questions and the com ments of recruiters who fielded them:

Is job-sharing a possibility? Possibly, but does this mean you can’t give us a commitment for fulltime work?

Can you tell me whether you have considered the incredible benefits of telecommuting for this position? Why do you want to get out of the office before you have even seen it?

I understand that employee paychecks are electronically deposited. Can I get my paycheck in the old-fashioned way? You are already asking for exceptions. What’s next? And are you afraid of technology?

I won’t have to work for someone with less education than I have, will I?

You clearly have a chip on your shoulder. Why should we take a chance that you don’t have other interpersonal issues?

The job description mentions weekend work. Are you serious? We’re serious about the job description. We’re suddenly less serious about you.

You get the picture. Don’t raise red flags. Once the interviewer has decided that you are the right person for the job, you will find the employer to be much more accommodating about issues like these. Wait until after you have the offer in hand before you raise these questions.

Yes, money and benefits are important. I guarantee you will have this conversation after the company expresses an interest in you. Your bargaining position will be much stronger then, so just resist asking about money and concentrate on showing that you understand the company’s challenges and can help solve them.

On the other hand, let’s be real. Money is critical, so why should it be so awkward to acknowledge that fact? True, most career counselors and job-hunting experts suggest it is taboo for you to ask about pay before the interviewer does, but I think it’s possible to be too rigid on this point. Occasionally it may make sense for the candidate to initiate a relaxed conversation about pay issues at an early point in the interview. Any reasonable person would expect rate of pay, health benefits, and what constitutes the workweek to be important topics. To pointedly ignore them diminishes the honesty of the relationship between the candidate and the interviewer, surely not an auspicious way to start a relationship with someone who may become your immediate supervisor and mentor.

There is one exception when issues of pay should come first, not last. That exception refers to salespeople who are paid by commission, not salary. With salespeople, the acknowledged desire to earn a high income is considered an unalloyed virtue. Companies actually like to see a reasonable level of greediness in their salespeople. The system is set up so that salespeople make money only if they earn the company a lot more money. Thus if you are interviewing for a sales job, it can be appropriate for you to raise the issue of commissions, royalties, quotas, and other compensation issues early on in the interview.

But there is set of questions that you should generally avoid initiating until two things are true. First, the interviewer initiates them (and sometimes not even then). Second, you have either the job offer in hand or a serious commitment of interest from your prospective employer.

Remember, your goal is to get a job offer. These are questions that cannot help you advance this agenda, but could seriously derail your efforts. Some of these questions are important, and you should definitely ask them, but not now.