Some job coaches believe that in American society, it is not considered appropriate to take notes during an employment interview. There are three facets to this argument.
In the age of the Internet, there is absolutely no excuse for you not to have excellent information about a company. All public companies and most private companies have Web sites. The Web sites are free and available 24 hours a day. You can access the Web sites from any computer connected to the Internet. If you don’t have a computer, go to the library or an Internet café. Log onto the company’s Web site. It has all the information you could want to frame thoughtful and impressive questions. “If a candidate can’t spend 15 minutes on my company’s Web site,” Conlin notes, “it immediately tells me that they are, at best, not serious and, at worst, just plain lazy.”
When Sonja Parker interviews a candidate, she expects that the job seeker will have done a reasonable amount of research into the company. Before you interview with Parker, VP of Integrated Design in Ann Arbor, Michigan, you will receive a folder with general information on the company, a detailed job overview, and an application. During the preliminary telephone interview, Parker always asks: What do you know about us? Have you reviewed the packet I sent, or have you poked around on our Web site?
A job interview can be over before you think it’s even started. In other words, a job interview can be a conversation that starts long before the first word comes out of your mouth.
If you really want to assert yourself and take complete control of the interview, there is a compelling question that will transform the interview. This question is best used if your interviewer is the actual hiring manager, or the person with hiring authority. It is less useful with screeners. The question is: By what criteria will you select the person for this job?
While the common pattern is to have the interviewer invite the job seeker to ask questions, you are sometimes better off taking the initiative. Here are three scenarios in which asking questions (after you ask permission to ask them) gives you better control of the job interview.
Candidates who ask these questions remain candidates. These questions basically terminated the job interview, according to recruiters, job coaches, and staffing professionals who generously shared the worst questions candidates asked in job interviews. This list doesn’t include “Do you drug-test?” (four instances) and requests for dates (six instances).
Because individuals relate to individuals, it’s natural that applicants want to know about the interviewer. The interviewer also happens to be the most immediate representative of the company they hope to join. Is it appropriate to ask questions about the interviewer’s history, opinions, and experience?
The only thing you can make fun of is yourself. Everything else, without exception, is off limits. You may think you and the recruiter share a perspective on politics, gender relations, and certain ethnic groups. Don’t go there. No laugh is worth insulting someone. There’s always a risk of humor backfiring. If you think there’s the slightest chance of offending someone, keep the humor to yourself.
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