The fine art of inquiry
So you’ve made it through thus far.
Your resume sparkled amongst the huge pile of several dozen applications, and you became one of the selected few who were shortlisted to attend an interview. After much research and preparation and anxiety, here you are, seated before a terribly intimidating lady from Human Resources who has spent the last twenty minutes or so firing all sorts of peculiar questions at you.
But it’s your turn now. She is looks you in the eyeball with a rather menacing stare and says, “So, is there anything you’d like to ask?”
What will your response be?
Here’s your big chance to bring out all those burning questions you have at the back of your mind about the company or the position you have applied for. But be careful – although you now have the liberty to say whatever you wish, there are certain things you should bear in mind.
Prepare beforehand. Instead of randomly voicing out whatever questions come to mind at the time of the interview, it is much better if you had prepared earlier and had come to the interview with some basic outline of what you’d want to ask. This will help prevent you from asking ridiculous or redundant questions regarding matters that were already addressed on the company’s website or in the job advertisement.
Leave a good impression. Remember, the interview is not over yet. So whatever you say at this point still may be used to evaluate your suitability for the job. Your potential employer could be taking note of your questions and using them to make a judgment about what your priorities are or whether you have a realistic view about the job and the organisation in general.
Prioritise your questions. Perhaps you’ve got 20 things you’d like to ask your potential employer. However, time may not permit you to ask them all. Hence, you should rank them in order of importance prior to the interview according to what is crucial to your understanding about the job, and therefore, should be asked first. In case time runs out, at least you would have gained useful knowledge that will help you decide on whether the job is right for you, should an offer be extended to you.
Phrase questions well. Questions that are well worded are those that are open ended and cannot be simply answered by a mere “yes” or “no”. You may want to look into the behavioural aspects of the firm, such as what they had done or something that happened in the past. Hypothetical questions (i.e. those “What if..?” speculations) are the least useful and should be avoided.
Here are some areas you may want to ask (assuming they had not been brought up earlier):
Nature of the job. Some of this information may have already been covered in the earlier sections of your interview. If so, then your questions should only be focussed on any parts that may have been omitted. Ask about the typical working hours, on whether overtime or relocation is necessary for this job, how your performance would be measured and any other related matters that come to mind. Examples of questions you could ask are “How will my responsibilities and performance be measured and by whom?” or “What are the day-to-day responsibilities that this job entails?” or “Who will I be reporting to?”
Future plans of the company. Assuming you are given the job, the nature of your work would be geared towards fulfilling the enterprise’s aspirations for the future. Therefore, you should make sure you understand what the company’s long term goals are. An example of a good way to ask this would be “What is the organization’s plan for the next five years?”
Function of the department. Your job scope will be significantly affected by what function is carried out by the department you report to. Hence, you need to have a good grasp on what they do, and how this fits in with the company’s operations as a whole. Sample questions you could voice out are “How does upper management view this role and the importance of this department?” or “How many people work in this department?” or “Which other departments does this department have to liaise with on a daily basis?”
Career development opportunities. You should be able to clearly see a future for yourself in the corporation that you choose to work for. Thus, you should inquire about how the firm helps its employees in planning and achieving their career development. For instance, you could say, “What are the prospects for growth and advancement in this company?” or “What is the company’s policy on providing training to continuously upgrade employees’ skills?” or “How much guidance or assistance is provided in helping employees achieve their career goals?”.
Each job will have its own unique characteristics, so make sure you ask enough questions to gain a good understanding on what would be required of you. Make the most out of this opening to pose questions to the company – the information you obtain may prove to be invaluable.
What are your experiences in asking questions during the interviews you have previously attended? Did you manage to find out the things you wanted to know? What was the response given to you from your potential employer? Did they openly share about the matters you raised or were they guarded when providing their answers? Feel free to share about it here.
Your resume sparkled amongst the huge pile of several dozen applications, and you became one of the selected few who were shortlisted to attend an interview. After much research and preparation and anxiety, here you are, seated before a terribly intimidating lady from Human Resources who has spent the last twenty minutes or so firing all sorts of peculiar questions at you.
But it’s your turn now. She is looks you in the eyeball with a rather menacing stare and says, “So, is there anything you’d like to ask?”
What will your response be?
Here’s your big chance to bring out all those burning questions you have at the back of your mind about the company or the position you have applied for. But be careful – although you now have the liberty to say whatever you wish, there are certain things you should bear in mind.
Prepare beforehand. Instead of randomly voicing out whatever questions come to mind at the time of the interview, it is much better if you had prepared earlier and had come to the interview with some basic outline of what you’d want to ask. This will help prevent you from asking ridiculous or redundant questions regarding matters that were already addressed on the company’s website or in the job advertisement.
Leave a good impression. Remember, the interview is not over yet. So whatever you say at this point still may be used to evaluate your suitability for the job. Your potential employer could be taking note of your questions and using them to make a judgment about what your priorities are or whether you have a realistic view about the job and the organisation in general.
Prioritise your questions. Perhaps you’ve got 20 things you’d like to ask your potential employer. However, time may not permit you to ask them all. Hence, you should rank them in order of importance prior to the interview according to what is crucial to your understanding about the job, and therefore, should be asked first. In case time runs out, at least you would have gained useful knowledge that will help you decide on whether the job is right for you, should an offer be extended to you.
Phrase questions well. Questions that are well worded are those that are open ended and cannot be simply answered by a mere “yes” or “no”. You may want to look into the behavioural aspects of the firm, such as what they had done or something that happened in the past. Hypothetical questions (i.e. those “What if..?” speculations) are the least useful and should be avoided.
Here are some areas you may want to ask (assuming they had not been brought up earlier):
Nature of the job. Some of this information may have already been covered in the earlier sections of your interview. If so, then your questions should only be focussed on any parts that may have been omitted. Ask about the typical working hours, on whether overtime or relocation is necessary for this job, how your performance would be measured and any other related matters that come to mind. Examples of questions you could ask are “How will my responsibilities and performance be measured and by whom?” or “What are the day-to-day responsibilities that this job entails?” or “Who will I be reporting to?”
Future plans of the company. Assuming you are given the job, the nature of your work would be geared towards fulfilling the enterprise’s aspirations for the future. Therefore, you should make sure you understand what the company’s long term goals are. An example of a good way to ask this would be “What is the organization’s plan for the next five years?”
Function of the department. Your job scope will be significantly affected by what function is carried out by the department you report to. Hence, you need to have a good grasp on what they do, and how this fits in with the company’s operations as a whole. Sample questions you could voice out are “How does upper management view this role and the importance of this department?” or “How many people work in this department?” or “Which other departments does this department have to liaise with on a daily basis?”
Career development opportunities. You should be able to clearly see a future for yourself in the corporation that you choose to work for. Thus, you should inquire about how the firm helps its employees in planning and achieving their career development. For instance, you could say, “What are the prospects for growth and advancement in this company?” or “What is the company’s policy on providing training to continuously upgrade employees’ skills?” or “How much guidance or assistance is provided in helping employees achieve their career goals?”.
Each job will have its own unique characteristics, so make sure you ask enough questions to gain a good understanding on what would be required of you. Make the most out of this opening to pose questions to the company – the information you obtain may prove to be invaluable.
What are your experiences in asking questions during the interviews you have previously attended? Did you manage to find out the things you wanted to know? What was the response given to you from your potential employer? Did they openly share about the matters you raised or were they guarded when providing their answers? Feel free to share about it here.
Labels:
behaviour,
etiquette,
experience,
interviews,
preparation,
questions,
speech,
thought process
4 comments:
It hasn't occurred to me to ask this sort of questions - What is the company's plan for the next 5 years. Thanks for the good advice.
Susanna, how about asking about insurance and benefits etc? When is the appropriate time to ask these sort of questions to get a thorough view. I wouldn't want to give the wrong first impression!
Hi there,
Glad that you found this blog post useful.
About insurance and other benefits, I'd say that we as job candidates should generally avoid bringing this up during an interview. A good rule of thumb would be to wait until the interviewer brings up these issues on salary or benefits first. Once this has occurred, you can then go right ahead and make further inquiries bout it.
Ultimately, the safest time to bring this up is when you're absolutely sure the company is willing to hire you and is already extending a job offer to you. In that case, it would seem appropriate to ask for more details about benefits or salary if these matters have not yet been addressed.
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