Job Interview Questions

1. Is there anything personally or professionally that you believe would prevent my being a solid contributor in this role? If not, you can assume that the next step is working out the hiring details. If yes, then you are positioned to address the objection.
2. Mr. Employer, your search is over.You will not find anyone else more qualified to do this job than I. If I were you, I’d cancel all the other interviews and make me an offer. This approach can be considered either confident or cheeky. But in the right tone of voice, it can be effective.
3. Mr. Employer, I’m not going to keep it a secret. I really want this job, and I know I will be fantastic in it. Now shut up and listen. Resist the temptation to justify this bold statement. If you are in a dead heat with two other candidates, all other things being equal, you can bet that the most enthusiastic job seeker will get the nod.
4. Until I hear from you again, what particular aspects of the job and this interview should I be considering? Notice how confident the question is. It’s not “if” but “when.” The question deftly reminds the interviewer that just as the company is considering you, you are considering the company.
5. I know I can meet the demands of the position and would make an outstanding contribution. Can I have the offer? Confronted so directly, the interviewer must make a statement about your chances of being hired. If the interviewer doesn’t, he or she isn’t interested in you at all.
6. What will be your recommendation to the hiring committee? Phrased like this, you are flattering the interviewer that his or her recommendation is valuable.
7. I’m ready to make a decision based on the information I have. Is there anything else you need to make me an offer? An effective one-two punch of a question that combines an expression of interest with a subtle invitation to see an offer.
8. I am very interested in this job, and I know your endorsement is key to my receiving an offer. May I have your endorsement? Phrased this way, the question does not request that the interviewer offer a job, but merely the endorsement. It also flatters the interviewer by making it clear that his or her recommendation carries considerable weight, whether it does or not.
9. It sounds to me as if we have a great fit here.What do you think? Note that this is very aggressive phrasing, perhaps best suited for a sales position.
10. It has been an interesting and fruitful discussion. I would very much like to take it to the next step. This is a statement rather than a question, but it closes the interview very effectively by not only requesting a next step, but assuming that there will be one.

Bid-for-Action Questions committee, hiring details, interviewer, job, questions

For sales interviews, phrases like these may be appropriate:

• I really want this job. Am I going to get it?
• I think I earned this job. When am I going to receive an offer?
• Did I get the job?
• I’d like to start right away. When can we get the paperwork out of the way?

The following bid-for-action questions give you some wordings to ask for the job with varying degrees of directness. Each one of the questions can serve as a proactive close to the main part of the interview. Each of these questions has been field-tested and, in the right circumstances, has been shown to work. In other cases, the questions may backfire. The risk is that the interviewer may regard you as cheeky or insolent. Study the situation well and tread lightly.

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Thinking – can the candidate:

• Quickly and effectively solve challenging problems?
• Learn and apply new job-related information?
• Develop sophisticated long-term strategic responses?

Planning – can the candidate:

• Plan time and projects without missing any steps or deadlines?
• Follow multiple rules exactly without exception?
• Act deliberately without analysis paralysis?
• Execute ruthlessly and with precision?

Interacting – can the candidate:

• Demonstrate effective leadership ability?
• Get along with others in a very close-knit working environment?
• Effectively deal with customer demands on a regular basis?
• Demonstrate genuine support and concern for the welfare of others?
• Be outgoing and socially expressive?
• Effectively coach and develop skills of coworkers?
• Be persuasive in a low-key manner?

Motivation – can the candidate:

• Be on time without missing workdays?
• Frequently suggest new ideas or job improvements?
• Work long hours without complaint?
• Cheerfully do more than what’s required for the job?
• Be flexible and accepting of frequent changes?
• Be visibly supportive of the organization?

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In fact, Bryant Howroyd’s practice is to ask just one question, and then immediately throw the ball to the job seeker. Bryant Howroyd’s first question, after greeting the job seeker, is:

What is your understanding of our meeting today?
How’s that for turning the interview topsy-turvy?

But Bryant Howroyd understands she can tell more from candidates by the quality of their questions than by the quality of their answers. So the next instruction is:
I would now like you to ask me seven questions.

Depending on the quality of the applicant’s response to the first query, Bryant Howroyd invites the applicant to ask her from three to seven specific questions. The higher her initial estimation of the applicant, the more questions she requests. What’s more, Bryant Howroyd gives the applicant permission to ask her any questions at all. No limits. And then she listens. “I learn a lot more about people by allowing them to ask me what they want to know than by having them tell me what they think I want to know,” she says. True, the hiring company ultimately selects the applicant, but “the applicants I most admire insist on being full partners in the selection process,” she says. Now, are you really ready for an interview with Janice Bryant

Howroyd? Robin Upton is a career coach at Bernard Haldane Associates, the largest career management firm in the United States. Based in the firm’s office in Dallas, Texas, Upton coaches her candidates to ask two questions of the hiring manager. The first question is:

Now that we have talked about my qualifications, do you have any concerns about me fulfilling the responsibilities of this position?

Does it seem counterintuitive to ask the interviewer to articulate his or her concerns? Many candidates think so. But they are being shortsighted, Upton argues. Once objections are stated, the candidate can usually address them in a way that is satisfactory. Unstated objections will doom the candidate every time. Upton’s second question is:

As my direct report in this position, what are the three top priorities you would first like to see accomplished?

This question, she says, effectively determines the hot buttons of the hiring manager, demonstrates the candidate’s understanding that every hiring manager has priorities, and underscores the candidate’s commitment to action by the final word in the question. Remember, “accomplish” is a term dear to the heart of every hiring manager.

If you don’t ask questions in the interview, many recruiters will wonder if you will avoid asking questions on the job. “If I set up a scenario for a technical candidate, and they don’t ask qualifying questions, I really wonder if that is how they would approach an application development project,” says Kathi Jones, director of Employee Central at Aventail, a Seattle-based provider of extranet services. “Are they letting ego get in the way of asking the hard questions? Do they play on a team or play against the team? I think you can learn as much from someone’s questions and their thought process as you can from the answers,” she adds.

Here’s another wrinkle. Recruiters expect candidates to ask enough questions to form an opinion about whether they want the job or not. If you don’t ask enough questions, recruiters who may otherwise be willing to make you an offer may nevertheless reject you because they have no confidence you know what you would be getting into. “At the end of the day, as the interviewer, I need to feel satisfied that the candidate has enough information on which to make a decision in case I make an offer,” says Richard Kathnelson, VP of human resources at Syndesis, Inc., in Ontario, Canada. Open-ended questions that generate information-rich answers signal to Kathnelson that he is talking to a resourceful candidate who knows how to make informed decisions, a skill vital to any job.

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