Sunday, March 1, 2009

Asking Questions That Focus on What the Company Can?

The hiring manager is less interested in how much you want to better
yourself than what you can do to ease his or her problem. “What about
me?” questions like this are a turnoff.

I’m very committed to developing my intellectual property by learning
new technologies. What kinds of tuition benefits and other educational
support can I expect?

It’s nice that you want to improve yourself, but the hiring manager is
not interested in your commitment to education on his time. He has a
problem to solve and wants to know if you can help solve it. If you can,
maybe then the company can invest in your skills so you can solve even
more of its problems. Compare the above question to:

I want to put all my experience and everything I know in the service of
solving the challenges you have outlined. At the same time, I hope to increase
my value to the company by learning new skills and technologies.
Does the company have any programs that help me add value by learning
new skills?

Don’t Ask Questions That Are Irrelevant to the Job or
Organization

Another awkward moment comes when the interviewer challenges your
question with something like, “Now, why on earth would you want to
know that?”

In the same way that you can respond to interviewer’s illegal questions
with, “I fail to see what that question has to do with my ability to
do the job,” don’t give the interviewer an excuse to apply a similar
phrase to your question. To be safe, make sure that every question can
pass this test: Does the answer the question elicits shed light on the job,
the company, and its desirability as a workplace? If not, the question is
irrelevant.

Also, stay away from marginal queries about competitors, other positions
that don’t relate to the position you’re interviewing for, or current
trends that have no bearing on the organization.

While asking about the interviewer’s individual experience at the
company is okay. try not to interrogate the interviewer
about his or her career history. It’s okay, for example, to ask specific
questions about what the interviewer likes best and least about working
at the organization, but don’t go beyond that. If the interviewer chooses
to share some in-depth information about his or her career path or experiences
at the organization, then feel free to ask follow-up questions.
Just keep them open-ended and don’t push it.






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