Page 10 - 201 Best Questions To Ask On Your Interview

FOREWORD

job, but the path taken—the relationship to work throughout life. And
as John demonstrates so compellingly in this book, empowerment
begins with the questions applicants ask.
So much creativity and insight has gone into the concept of the “in-
formational interview,” thanks largely to Richard Bolles and his mar-
velous classic, What Color Is Your Parachute? For job seekers, the
informational interview at once reduces stress, manages expectations,
and elicits—what else?—information. For the employer, the informa-
tional interview is just as useful.
But John has gone the process one better. In showing job seekers
how to interview interviewers, he has taken the informational inter-
view to the next level. As this practice takes hold, the benefits to em-
ployees and employers alike will be palpable.
How do I know this? Because empowerment doesn’t happen as
some sort of grand revelation; it’s in the details, the small etchings on
the clean slate, the right questions asked in the right way, at the right
time. And because, for me, this process really worked—though I
couldn’t have described it as such at the time.
I was born and went to school in the small community of Tarboro,
North Carolina. I recognized in John’s book a road map of my own
early experiences. As a young girl, I saw how people’s lives were
shaped by their career opportunities, and I sensed that my own ad-
vancement was keyed to the kind of inquisitor I was. As a student in
Project Upward Bound, a program for academically achieving, col-
lege-bound, disadvantaged students, I left North Carolina to expand
my education, eventually working at the National Academy of Sci-
ences in Washington, D.C.
Throughout my journey, one common thread emerged: The quality
of the answers I received was related directly to the pointed nature of
the questions I asked. The more engaged I was, the more those around
me responded. This process was nonverbal as well as verbal. Without
articulating it even to myself, I was advancing my credentials by being
proactive and perhaps, now and again, a bit provocative.
Today, having founded a company in the business of helping people
transform jobs into meaningful careers (and, yes, become empow-

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