5 Great Questions You Should Ask The Interviewer
As I’ve said before, the questions you ask the interviewer are just as important as the answers you give to the questions they ask you. Asking great questions is just another way that you can set yourself apart from other candidates who may exactly equal on skills and education required for the job.
Here are 5 examples of good questions to ask on your next job interview.
- How has the troubled economy effected your business?
- What kind of challenges is the organization facing right now (particularly important if you are interviewing for a management position)?
- What do you think it takes for a person to be very successful in this role?
- Who is the longest tenured employee in the organization and how long have they been here?
- How would you describe the culture of the organization?
Got any great question we can add to the list?
Here’s the questions that I always ask:
What do you believe is the toughest challenge that the person in the job will face?
Tell me the best and worst thing about working here?
This reminds me of a pots I wrote recently entitled “How to smell a bad boss in one interview”
The questions to ask your possible future boss:
What their management style is?
When they last took forward an employee suggestion or idea?
When they last praised an employee or team and why?
What’s their opinion on individual development and training?
Ask them when they asked for feedback on their management style and what were the results?
What are their views on delegation. How do they delegate? Do they delegate? Do they micro-manage?
Andrew
You also want to see how long it takes the person to answer the question and whether he or she adequately answers it.
If the person has to think about the answer for a few seconds, that may indicate that he or she isn’t sure of how to respond. Depending on the question, an “I don’t know” may be better than no answer at all.
If the person dodges the question or tries to evade it with a joke, that’s a red flag for me.
Hi Rick, Thank you for visiting Interview Chatter! I can not think of a time in an interview that the answer “I don’t know” is ever appropriate. Please share more information on this. I am curious when you feel or believe that “I don’t know is an appropriate response from either the interviewer or the job seeker. I look forward to hearing from you!
Darlene
Hi Darlene!
Thanks for responding. Is “I don’t know” ever appropriate? That depends on the question. Yes, for most questions, it’s a lousy and flag-raising response. But if I’m a hiring manager, I don’t want to hear a B.S. answer if someone can’t answer the question directly. I’d be more skeptical of someone who opens his mouth and *doesn’t* answer the question than someone who can be honest and answers “I don’t know.”
Let’s say you’re being interviewed for a non-managerial staff position, and you’re a professional with only a few years of experience in your profession. The hiring manager asks something like, “Where do you see the industry in 5 to 10 years?” If that person answers “I don’t know,” I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in that answer if that person has otherwise demonstrated the skills and savvy I need in that position. But if I were interviewing someone for an executive position that requires someone with foresight, “I don’t know” would leave me looking forward to interviewing the next candidate.
Hope this clarifies!
The two that I have asked that created the most quality dialogue:
1. What keeps you up at night?
2. What do you like to do? What do you hate to do?
If you have the tools to fix these, the conversation can go really well.