A QUESTIONING ATTITUDE

Asking just the right questions is your chance to demonstrate that you
are the best candidate for the job by communicating five different impressions:

• Interest. You have taken the trouble to investigate the job.
• Intelligence. You really understand the requirements of the job.
• Confidence. You have everything it takes to do to the job.
• Personal appeal. You are the type of person who will fit in well.
• Assertiveness. You ask for the job.

Of course, there is a sixth objective for your asking critical questions:
to help you assess whether or not you really want the job. The job interview
is a two-way street. You get to estimate the quality of the organization
as much as the organizations gets to estimate your credentials.

The other important point is to avoid “What about me?” questions
until after you get a job offer or a very strong expression of interest.
“What about me?” questions are anything that goes to what the candidate
receives as opposed to what the candidate offers. Remember, you
have two roles in the interview: buyer and seller. For the first part of
the interview, you are a seller. The only time you are buying is when
they make you an offer.

Listen to Susan Trainer, senior information systems recruiter with
RJS Associates in Hartford, Connecticut. She interviews hundreds of
candidates to determine if they represent a good fit for her client companies. “It makes me crazy when I ask a candidate if they have any questions
and they respond with either ‘No, you have answered them already’
or ‘How many vacation days does your client give?’

“There are so many things you can screw up in a job interview, and
not asking thoughtful questions when you have the opportunity is probably
the biggest one. Interviewers want to know how candidates collect
information, and the easiest way to know that is by listening to candidates
ask questions,” Trainer says.

“This is a real chance for a candidate to shine and set themselves
apart from all the other job seekers. When I am prepping a candidate to
go on an interview, I usually give them two or three very pointed questions
to ask in the interview, and then we talk about another three for
them to formulate,” she adds. Her two favorites:

In what area could your team use a little polishing?
Why did you come to XZY Company?

“The questions you ask, and how you ask them, do as much to differentiate
you from the competition as the questions asked by the interviewer,”
Trainer insists. As you prepare for the job interview, your
questions have to be as carefully coordinated as your suit and shoes. If
you miss the opportunity to leave your interviewer with any one of these
impressions, you risk losing the main prize.

Thoughtful questions emphasize that you are taking an active role in
the job selection process, not leaving the interviewer to do all the work.
Active is good. Great questions demonstrate that, far from being a passive
participant, you are action-oriented and engaged, reinforcing your
interest in the job.

Asking questions is an excellent way to demonstrate your sophistication
and qualifications. The questions you choose indicate your depth
of knowledge of your field as well as your general level of intelligence.
Asking questions also enables you to break down the formal interviewer-
candidate relationship, establish an easy flow of conversation,
and build trust and rapport. The matter of rapport is critical. Remember,
most finalists for a job are more or less evenly matched in terms of
qualifications. What gives the winning candidate the nod is rapport.

Your questions steer the interview the way you want it to go. Questions
are a form of control. You can also use questions to divert an interviewer’s
line of questioning. If you sense the interviewer is leading up
to a subject that you’d rather avoid—your job hopping, for example—
ask a question about another topic. After a lengthy exchange, the interviewer
might not return to her original line of questioning.

The more senior the position you are seeking, the more important it is
to ask sophisticated and tough questions. Such questions demonstrate your
understanding of the subtext and context of the position, as well as your
confidence in challenging the interviewer. Hiring managers will judge you
as much on the inquiries you make as on the responses you provide. If
you don’t ask sufficiently detailed questions, it will demonstrate lack of
initiative and leadership qualities that a senior-level position demands.

CAN’T I JUST WING IT?

Imagine that tomorrow you are giving the senior decision makers in your
organization the most important presentation of your career. Your future at
the company literally depends on the outcome. Would you wing it?
Well, the situation I’ve just described is your next job interview. It’s
a presentation. The agenda: your future at the company. In the audience:
the senior decision makers required to authorize offering you a position.
Everyone is looking at you to shine. Now, given the stakes, are you willing
to wing it? If you’re comfortable with working like that, there’s little
need to read further.

Some applicants believe that spontaneity can make up for lack of
strategic planning. But spontaneity, in cases such as this, can be indistinguishable
from laziness and lack of preparation. Interviewers, professionals
themselves, really want you to prepare for the interview as
they did. Preparation is professionalism in action. It’s common sense.
It’s courtesy. It works.

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