Mashable: At the end of every job interview, you’ll encounter the inevitable question, “Do you have any questions for me?”
While it’s an oh-so-predictable event, many job candidates aren’t prepared to shine when they reach this final test in the interview. Failing to ask any questions or asking the wrong questions can send the wrong signals.
Stephanie Daniel, senior vice president of career management company Keystone Associates, spoke with us about her thoughts on how job interviewees can take control of their next job interview by asking the right questions.
14 comments:
While I thought that the questions themselves were pretty common sense questions to ask, the way the author phrased them was really dynamic, and I can see how they would make the interviewee sound unique and well-prepared. Equally important, I thought, were the questions one should avoid asking. Though they also seemed like common sense, when put on the spot, those could also seem like good questions when grasping at straws. Overall I felt that the information in this article, while not groundbreaking, was well presented and always serves as a good reminder.
One big problem for me when interviewing is when they ask that question about me having questions my mind goes blank. I really liked most of the questions asked, although the last one seemed a little weird. He mentioned asking the employer what his goals are, but I can see why you would ask it.
Other then that, the questions he said not to ask seemed like common sense. I'm glad i read this article.
Any interview can be intimidating to some degree so hearing some fresh ideas on how to be prepared was very helpful. I can see why having questions ready to ask makes you a more interesting candidate. It makes sense that this is our time to shine. We could make or break our chances if we aren't prepared to hold our own in this part of the interview. I think it is important to represent yourself with poise and confidence but being sincere and honest are equally important in my opinion. I want my potential new employer to see the real me. So while I intend to be prepared with questions, I also intend to ask ones that really matter to me. After all, I want my job to be one that I love and truly care about.
I always thing that the question section is the most stressful part of an interview. This article had some really useful and well explained tips. The difference between negative and positive, dynamic questions can really make all the difference in the image that one puts forward. I hadn't thought of many of the questions they listed, and they seemed really helpful, though some struck me as being a bit prying of the interviewer. The examples were good broad conceptual questions that can be asked regardless of what more specific questions may have already been answered during an interview. This article is probably on of the more informative interview articles I've read.
Alright, I admit it, one of these interview/job articles actually helped me out. Just last week I was lamenting that I all-too-often fumble the "do you have any more question?" bit. The article gives some great tips here... It seems like you want to spin the question around a little bit. Do not make it a question about the company, make it a question about the interviewer in relationship to the company. Of course you would want to tread smartly here, but it seems like you can get a lot of great information and really stand out when you ask about how the interviewer's experience is.
Another important point is to make sure not to ask the interviewer a question you could have gotten the answer to on your own. For instance, if you ask questions like "what is the company's mission" or "how long have you been doing xyz," it is likely the company has a website or brochure where those sorts of questions have already been answered. The interviewer may actually see it as a sign of unpreparedness, instead of applauding you for bringing questions. Other than that, I think this was a very useful article to read, and I agree with Lindsay that I learned a lot about not only what questions to ask, but how to phrase them correctly.
This is great. As a matter of fact, I may just copy and paste all of these responses into a word document because I can never think of an answer to this question. The exception of course was my interview for the illustrious Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, conducted by the beautiful Anne Mundell and Tina Shackleford, in which I cleverly asked about Playground because it "seems like such a unique opportunity to expand your creative boundaries as a student." Really though, this interview closing question is so problematic most of the time. This article really helps to counteract that.
I'm so glad to finally see an article that explains what is positive to say and what isn't. The article shows a way to present yourself to an employer so that they could potentially see you as an employee.
I have a lot of trouble in interviews knowing what to say. Taking this article into consideration is definitely going to help me.
A job interview is the step after your sales pitch. I'd say that your application submission (Cover Letter, Resume, etc...) is your sales pitch. It is the hook for the employer to want to interview you. This initial interview is the "first date" you have with your potential employer. You want to get to know them, you want to keep it positive, but weed out the things that could make or break the relationship between the two parties.
Erica Swallow highlights that you want to keep all questions in this interview positive. It is not just a time for the interviewer to ask you questions, but it is also a time for you to ask your potential boss questions, to ensure the fit of this relationship. The most powerful, and important question, that you could ask in this interview is what the employer's goals are for the next year, and what of those may be top priority. It is important to learn where his focus will be, and how you can assist him in achieving that goal can be critical in the success of the interview. You want him to think of you as a person that can help him in the future of the time with the company, not just as someone that can immediately fill this position he needs to fill.
I think one of the areas in an interview I'm worst at is the questions, so I'm really grateful to have these ideas. I think these questions they suggest are really great, but not all of them apply to our industry. For example, the goals for the year ahead. Sure, there might be things like increasing revenue or putting on better plays, but I don't know that there is enough variation between theatres to get significant responses. But I do like the questions that get the interviewer thinking about you in the institution. Its like Inception.
Now that I am actively looking for jobs, articles like these are a huge help. I've always thought that the "questions for the interviewer" portion of an interview was the most daunting part, but some of the example questions in this article make a lot of sense. The trick is to ask valid questions while still selling yourself as a positive future employer at the company, meaning that any questions that you could have answered on your own through research would only make you look unprepared. I also have never thought to prepare as many questions as the article advises, but it does make a lot of sense.
We tend to forget that interviews are a two-way pitch, where the company needs to sell itself to the potential employee. There are a lot of people looking for jobs these days, but if we focus only on selling ourselves there's a greater risk of getting a job that ultimately makes us unhappy.
I'm glad the article argues against the questions that it does because they may make a negative impression about which we're not thinking when we are focusing on logistics. For that same reason, it's also important to hold off on those questions even once you've gotten the job, until there is a clearly defined time to discuss logistics.
Asking the interviewer a question is one of the most important parts of the interview. Not only does it get you the information that you want, but also shows that you have done your research and taken a real interest in the job and the company.
However, there are also questions that are not appropriate for the interview. At all costs (no pun intended) money should be avoided. This is not the stage at which this matters unless it is a second or third round of interviews. I also find the fact the keeping it positive is stressed. How you ask a question can really affect how someone will answer it.
This article reminds me of my college application interviews. Most of them ended with this question, and I almost always struggled to think of something to ask to, one, take advantage of the opportunity to ask, and two, to leave a good impression, one that showed I cared and wanted to know as much as possible about the school. Even though I had researched the school in order to think of good questions, I still struggled. I did ask the classic, “What’s your favorite thing about the school,” or “What’s your favorite thing about the city,” etc. I think this article brings awareness to the idea that the interview really is not over until you leave the building. I will definitely keep this article in mind when I am in my next interview of any sort.
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