Questions To ask on a job interview

One of my goals this year is to be a better employer. I have had a lot of conversations with people who recruit or hire more employees than I do about this issue. I can boil their advice down to the following: find employees who are good fits first and foremost rather than looking for a particular skill set, set expectations early- as early as the job interview and follow through on those expectations especially in the first 60-90 days. If you do not, you have lost the employee and neither side is very happy for what is typically a short stay.

How does this relate to you if you are not an employer and actually looking for a job?  What I have noticed more often than not is that employees tend NOT to ask questions about fit, corporate culture, support and expectations at the job interview. If you are looking for a job only for the monetary consideration and not necessarily for career development then I would stop reading now.

If you are looking for a career then it is important to discuss these issues during the job interview. Otherwise, although you will be gainfully employed, I suspect the employment will be unfulfilling and merely another employer on your resume.

After getting some sage advice from others about this issue, I looked back on people I interviewed for non-entry level positions who had multiple employers on their resume in a short-period of time and recalled their interviews. Most of their questions were about compensation and not expectations or fit. It is perfectly acceptable to negotiate the best deal possible but, if a potential employee does this at the expense of attempting to determine whether they will be happy and gain more skills, that job will become another short stay.

As the Financial Blogger points out, the “do you have any questions?” portion of the job interview is supposed to be an opportunity to show your prospective employer that you know something about the employer (and the linked post is a perfect example of asking questions about fit and expectations correctly). It is also in my experience the part of the interview where most potential employees need to improve. Either they ask no questions or they are not attempting to see if there is a future with the employer/overly focused on compensation.

Based on my experience, if you truly want a place to work where you will be fulfilled professionally and personally, these are some questions to ask (this works better if your interviewer is not from the HR department).

1. “What skills will I learn in this position? Will these skills be learned early on or are they part of a life-long learning experience? If it is part of a life-long learning experience, can you tell me specifically how I will learn this- do you have in-house training or an external training budget?” In other words, after the first 6 months of the job, am I just doing the same thing over and over again?
2. “Walk me through the first 60-90 days of the position. Tell me how you typically incorporate a new employee into your organizations?” In other words, do you have a plan in place to make me part of the team or am I a disposable asset in your mind who you will not devote any time or attention to unless I am doing something wrong?
3. “Without naming names, can you tell me about employees who have succeeded at your organization and why they have succeed? Can you tell me about employees who have not and why they did not fit?” Essentially, you are asking your future employer to tell you about their corporate culture and who thrives and who fails. Remember that employers hire for skill but fire for fit.

These are certain probing questions. Some of you may be reading this and saying “Are you crazy? You want me to ask these questions in this job market?” The practicality of the situation is that some job seekers need the money right now worst than career development. It is entirely understandable to ask questions to get you the position and avoid the hard questions.

However, if you are interviewing from a position of strength or want more than just a mere job, then ask the above diplomatically. It is also worth noting that in positions which require a high degree of skill there continues to be a demand-supply imbalance in favor of the employee (my colleagues continue to grumble they cannot find good lawyers, accountants or mid-level trading management). In my last round of interviewing, the leading candidate asked question #1. It set her apart from all the other candidates since it showed me she was wanted to contribute.

Interviewing is a two-way street, if your potential employer cannot answer these questions then at least you know what you are getting yourself into rather than going in with false expectations. To continue the two-way street analogy, interviewing is dating on a professional basis. You would not want to enter into a long term relationship with someone unless you understanmd the expectations and your meaning to your potential significant other’s life beforehand.