Job Interview Questions

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?

When to Question greatest questions, When to Question