Your company wouldn’t hire an applicant who was stumped by the interviewers’ questions — just like applicants won’t accept a job offer from a hiring manager who can’t answer theirs. Are your managers ready to answer these common questions?
Here are some typical questions candidates have — and are encouraged to bring up in interviews — from the book 201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview by John Kador.
Good questions from interviewees cover a lot of topics, including the job, the company as a whole and the candidate’s potential boss. Hiring managers should be ready for them before going into an interview:
The position:
- What are the most important skills I’ll need to be successful in this job?
- When employees have been successful in this position, what jobs have they been promoted to?
- What are some things about this job that previous employees have disliked?
- How will my performance be measured? What criteria are most important?
- What happens when an employee fails to meet expectations?
The company:
- Could you explain the company’s organizational structure? Who reports to whom?
- What are the company’s three most important goals?
- What big initiatives does the organization have planned for the near future?
- Describe the company’s management style — what kind of person fits in here?
- How accessible are top executives to someone in this position?
- What’s the company’s policy on attending seminars and other events? Are there any paid training opportunities available?
The hiring manager:
- What brought you to this company? What has kept you here?
- If you could change some things about the organization, what would they be?
- How would you describe your own management style?
- What qualities do you most value in your direct reports?
When candidates are deciding whether to accept a job offer, they expect honest, thoughtful answers to those questions. If they don’t get that, they could end up working for someone else.
Do you have any other examples of typical candidate questions managers should be ready for? What are some of the oddest questions you’ve heard candidates ask? Share your experience in the comments section below.