Insure Success With These Questions to Ask at a Job Interview
You can walk away satisfied and grateful from your meeting with a hiring manager after you include these questions to ask at a job interview. In fact, there are no 'bad' questions except those that revolve around money. They will make you appear to be interested in only one thing - your pay. Of course that is an important element of accepting a job offer but you don’t want to make that the focus.
Therefore, consider the following types:
- Questions that show you know what the job is about (duties and skills required)
- Questions that indicate your familiarity with the leadership aspects of the position
- Questions that display your interest in the company, its mission and policies
- Questions about employee relationships to management
- Questions about management’s expectation of employees
- Questions about opportunities for growth and advancement to higher levels
- Questions about the characteristics and experiences related to the job
Nail Your Answers
As soon as you receive an answer to a question, use that opportunity to show how and why you'd be the one to fit the bill. For example, suppose you ask the hiring manager what character traits he wants to see in the person he hires. He may answer "Leadership and integrity." You then make a point of providing an example of how you demonstrated both traits in your previous employment when the company was threatened with a lawsuit and your testimony, based on something you witnessed, provided the information that threw out the suit. What a great reference to something specific that clearly displayed your leadership.
Engage the Hiring Manager in Conversation
Your questions to ask at a job interview should always be open-ended. Never ask a question that can be answered with a 'yes' or 'no' or other one-word response. Instead, phrase your questions in such a way that the hiring manager must respond in a sentence or two so you can gather more information. Suppose you ask, "What opportunities are available for advancement? I’m interested in moving into management someday." The hiring manager may then state what you'd need to do in order to receive a promotion. That will tell you something more about the company and help you decide whether or not you want to work there, if offered the job.
Questions are essential to any job interview. Therefore, the best questions to ask at a job interview are those that help you assess the opportunity and make a clear decision about it.