Job Interview Questions

These four closes put a little heat on the interviewer:

1. I have other offers pending that afford me tremendous potential. But I like what I see here, and I know I’m the right person for you. If you agree, can we talk turkey?
2. Is there anything I have said that indicates I am not the perfect candidate for this job?
3. I am in final-stage interviews with other companies, but I like what I see here. I’d like to have an offer from you so I can make a decision.
4. Based on my family’s needs and other interviews, I am committed to making a decision by next Friday. What do we have to do to speed up the decision-making process so that I might consider an offer from you by that time?

1. If I were a spectacular success in this position after six months, what would I have accomplished? This is a very bold way to understand the “dream list” of accomplishments you will, on some level, be expected to fulfill.
2. Do you foresee this job involving significant amounts of overtime or work on weekends? It’s a fair question, so ask it straight.
3. I understand the company has experienced layoffs within the last two years. Can you review the reasons why they were necessary? It will make the interviewer uncomfortable, but the interviewer expects questions about layoffs.
4. How were the layoffs handled in terms of notification, severance, outplacement services, etc.? You want to know how your termination, should you be downsized, will likely be handled.
5. Are there formal metrics in place for measuring and rewarding performance over time? The impression you want to leave is that you are good and you want the metrics to recognize it.
6. How effectively has the company communicated its top three business goals? If the interviewer cannot articulate them, you have your answer.
7. I am a hard worker. I expect to be around other hard-working people.Am I going to be comfortable with the level of effort I find here? You are asking the interviewer if you will find the kind of hard-working environment in which you thrive at this position. If the interviewer hedges at all, you have your answer.
8. Is the company’s training strategy linked to the company’s core business objectives? The most sophisticated companies do link their training and education investments to core business objectives.
9. How does your firm handle recognition for a job well done? The way an organization rewards achievement tells you a lot about its culture.
10. When was the last time you rewarded a subordinate for his or her efforts? What token of appreciation did you offer? This question goes from the general to the specific. You are now asking about the manager’s practices in rewarding subordinates.
11. How does the firm recognize and learn from a brave attempt that didn’t turn out quite as expected? Many companies say they have a nonpunitive attitude toward managers who make mistakes, but few live up to the attitude. Ask about a time when the lessons from a mistake were widely disseminated across the organization.
12. How much freedom would I have in determining my objectives and deadlines? This question goes to how much authority you will have to do your job in the manner you see fit versus working to someone else’s preferences.
13. How long has this position existed in the organization? Has its scope changed recently? Information about the history of the position and its recent evolution can influence your decision.
14. What are the greatest challenges I will face in this position in furthering the agenda of the organization? The question asks the interviewer to identify the obstacles, impediments, and other land mines that people occupying every position in an organization must confront. If the interviewer suggests there are no such obstacles, you know it’s a lie.
15. Are my tasks limited to my job description, or will l be performing duties outside the described job scope? If there is a job description, it is frequently ignored. If you’re going to be doing your job as well as someone else’s, you should know now, before you accept the job.

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.