Career Resource Center

Asking the Questions

Asking questions
As part of the interview, you should ask relevant questions to enhance your knowledge and understanding of the company, the role of the position and the overall opportunity. The more you learn, the better prepared you will be to excel in the next meeting. Interviewers can be as impressed with your choice of questions as your experience and skill set. Develop your list of questions and be prepared when the interviewer asks for your questions. If you are extended an offer, you will be in a stronger position to negotiate compensation and make the final decision to accept or decline.

Tips for asking impressive questions

• Develop a list of insightful, well thought out questions to demonstrate your interest and enhance your understanding of the company and the role this position will play in driving success. Ask, listen and learn.
• Introduce points that you would like to discuss in order to highlight your leadership value and successfully solve a current or future challenge.
• When developing your own list of questions it might be helpful to structure your questions around topics such as the company, the department, the positions history, the responsibilities of the position, the expectations (how & when you will be evaluated), the next step in the hiring process.
• Remember it is important to ask relevant questions during the course of the entire interview. When an employer is about to complete the interview and asks if there are any questions, he or she is generally expecting to close the interview within a few minutes. So, a few quality questions would be most appropriate.
• Limit your use of why or what questions that may put the interviewer in a position of defending situations or decisions.
• Don’t ask about salary, vacation, benefits, or anything that makes you seem more interested in the compensation than the company.

List of typical questions
The questions you ask indicate your level of knowledge and experience. Twenty prepared questions should be a good start. You will most likely not have an opportunity to ask all of them, at the first meeting, but, by preparing a diverse list of questions, you will be able to follow whatever direction the conversation takes. You will want to ask company and position-specific questions, as well as some general ones. Sometimes repeat what you believe to be the gist of the answer in an intelligent way after the interviewer is done. This will help them to see that you understand and are processing it rather than just mechanically asking a list of questions. This will also help you to remember what is important and get any clarifications if necessary.

Impressive questions to ask

• What are the short and long term goals for this position/department?
• Describe the most successful person and the least successful person in this position.
• What are the key challenges of the position?
• What are the first three challenges this person should be ready to tackle?
• Describe your corporate culture.
• What impact do you see this role having over the next three to five years?
• What are your criteria for success in this role?
• What has been the greatest success of the company/department over the past year?
• With whom will I be interacting most frequently and what are their responsibilities and the nature of our interaction?
• What is the company structure and how does this department fit in?
• What outside influences affect the company’s growth?
• What do you consider to be this company’s most important assets?
• What would you add or subtract from the incumbent’s performance?
• Describe the interaction between departments.
• What advancement opportunities exist within the company?
• What has been the company’s growth over the last three to five years?
• What challenges have you experienced over the past year?
• How many people have been in this position in the last five years?
• How much flexibility do I have in the decision making process?
• Does the company provide training, or any other educational opportunities?
• After six months, or twelve months, how will you know if you’ve made the right hiring decision?
• What is your management style and how do you approach problem solving?
• Where do you see me contributing most effectively to your success?
• What do you enjoy most about working for this company?
• Is there any travel involved with this position, and if so what percentage and where would I travel to/from?
• Tell me about the intensity level of your working environment, and the frequency of deadline pressures?
• What software will be used most frequently in this position?
• What are the first changes/contributions you envision this person making?
• What can this person do to increase your success?
• May I have your business card?
• Do you have any reservations about my ability to be successful in this position?

Specific managerial-style questions
Employees who are genuinely happy on the job more frequently have positive working relationships with their respective managers. If mutual respect and open communication exists between an employee and their manager, the employee will most often thrive in their career. While interviewing, you can determine that you and your potential manager will be a good match by asking questions related to their managerial style and company practices. You can learn a lot by the way the potential manager answers the questions you present to them. If they welcome your questions and take the time to answer them completely, they may be the kind of manager who strives to improve their working relationships and encourage the growth and development of their employees.

• “How do you evaluate achievements in the workplace?” Every employee wants to be successful on the job, so you need to understand what your manager views as success. For example, will they measure your success by the amount that you reduce costs or by the percentage of satisfied clients? What happens once you meet their expectations? What is the standard career plan for an employee who achieves their objectives? Is promotion likely or is there another type of recognition or reward?
• “Can you explain what your ideal employee is like?” The purpose of this question is to determine what will be expected from you and to see if it is in line with the expectations you have. For example, is your potential manager’s ideal employee someone who will help develop new, more effective procedures? If so, be ready to take charge and use your creativity. Does their ideal employee work extra hours regularly and volunteer for special projects often? If so, be ready to do the same. Having similar working styles with your manager will foster increased job satisfaction.
• “How do you go about solving problems?” Are they the type of manager who prefers to tackle issues on their own or do they support group input into resolving situations that arise?” Maybe they prefer to have the staff handle problems on their own. Knowing a potential manager’s problem solving approach helps reveal his management style.
• “Can you tell me about the people I’d be interfacing with? How long have you worked with them?” Most employees want to work with a manager that really knows and understands their staff. Is the potential manager aware of and proud of their staff’s accomplishments? Do they sound energetic and pleased when they speak about their staff or is there a tone of aggravation and dissatisfaction? Note how long they have worked with the employees. Excessive turnover can signal a turbulent work environment.

“How did you come to work at the company, and do you enjoy working here?” Asking this type of question can provide insight into a manager’s background, early career and may reveal what their professional goals and aspirations are. A manager who seems genuinely happy and committed to the company and its mission will likely have employees who generally feel the same way.

Matthews & Stephens Associates, Inc.
1344 Silas Deane Highway
Rocky Hill, CT 06067
Phone: 860.258.1995
Fax: 860.258.1998