Page 30 - 201 Best Questions To Ask On Your Interview

WHY YOU HAVE TO QUESTION

Now, are you really ready for an interview with Janice Bryant
Howroyd?
Robin Upton is a career coach at Bernard Haldane Associates, the
largest career management firm in the United States. Based in the firm’s
office in Dallas, Texas, Upton coaches her candidates to ask two ques-
tions of the hiring manager. The first question is:

Now that we have talked about my qualifications, do you have any con-
cerns about me fulfilling the responsibilities of this position?
Does it seem counterintuitive to ask the interviewer to articulate his or
her concerns? Many candidates think so. But they are being short-
sighted, Upton argues. Once objections are stated, the candidate can usu-
ally address them in a way that is satisfactory. Unstated objections will
doom the candidate every time.
Upton’s second question is:

As my direct report in this position, what are the three top priorities you
would first like to see accomplished?

This question, she says, effectively determines the hot buttons of the hir-
ing manager, demonstrates the candidate’s understanding that every hir-
ing manager has priorities, and underscores the candidate’s commitment
to action by the final word in the question. Remember, “accomplish” is
a term dear to the heart of every hiring manager.
If you don’t ask questions in the interview, many recruiters will won-
der if you will avoid asking questions on the job. “If I set up a scenario
for a technical candidate, and they don’t ask qualifying questions, I re-
ally wonder if that is how they would approach an application develop-
ment project,” says Kathi Jones, director of Employee Central at
Aventail, a Seattle-based provider of extranet services. “Are they let-
ting ego get in the way of asking the hard questions? Do they play on a
team or play against the team? I think you can learn as much from some-
one’s questions and their thought process as you can from the answers,”
she adds.
Here’s another wrinkle. Recruiters expect candidates to ask enough
questions to form an opinion about whether they want the job or not. If
you don’t ask enough questions, recruiters who may otherwise be will-

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