Job interviews can be stressful enough without having them go sour because you didn’t ask the right questions–resulting either in no job offer or in being offered and accepting a job that turns out to be a serious miss-fit. You owe it to yourself to go in prepared to ask questions and make them the “right” questions. Sometimes that’s easier said than done, so I’d like to share a few thoughts about how you can do it.
Questions to Ask in a Job Interview
Questions can touch on a variety of areas, including things you need or want to know that you didn’t uncover in your pre-interview research online or elsewhere. Sometimes, for instance, a company’s future plans aren’t yet widely known outside the company, but they could well have a direct bearing on what your job would be and on the potential for reasonably long-term employment with the company. Asking questions to elicit information on such a topic is a valid approach in a job interview. How else can you make an informed decision if they offer you the position?
Another good question involves why the position is open in the first place. Is it new? If not, why is it open now? How long ago did the previous incumbent leave? You might also want to know why the person left (was it involuntarily, for instance?), although that information can be hard to pry out of the interviewer.
Ask questions that will give you insight into the most critical job requirements or expectations–what your performance would need to be in order for the company to consider you a valuable addition to their team. This could give you an edge in completing a successful interview (that is, one that leads to a satisfying job offer and subsequent period of employment).
Be sure you don’t shy away from asking questions that will help you find out about present or upcoming challenges the company (and/or your potential new department) is facing. If the interviewer doesn’t volunteer this kind of information, ask respectfully, but ask. You have a right to know before you make a decision about working there.
What Questions Should You Not Ask?
It’s okay to be a realist and know that you can’t expect the company to look out for your best interests ahead of its own goals. At the same time, you need to temper your eagerness to get that kind of information with a sense of balance between your interests and theirs. Any question that focuses (or seems to focus) mainly on what the company can do for you–if you haven’t already made a compelling case for what you can do for them–is fraught with potential for disaster.
Really, it comes down to the concept of timing as well as appropriate ways to ask a question. When you inquire about salary and benefits is at least as important as the words you use when asking.
Questions to Use to Assess an Employer
An article titled, “6 questions for assessing a prospective employer,” by Michael Lee Stallard and Katie Russell, poses the following questions:
- Do employees feel respected?
- Is recognition a key component of the culture?
- Can I belong here?
- Are employees given autonomy?
- Can I grow here?
- Is this work important to me?
You might want to ask the prospective employer some of those directly. Others might be questions you’ll want to ask yourself and use as a guide for the questions to ask the interviewer. Above all, you don’t want to end up saying to yourself, “I should have asked that before I took the job!”
