Page 40 - 201 Best Questions To Ask On Your Interview

WHY YOU HAVE TO QUESTION

be expected to know. If the interviewer is asking you questions that you
don’t know the answer to, it may be tempting to try to stump the inter-
viewer. Bad move. You may win the battle, but you will assuredly lose the
war. Questions like this can’t be expected to endear you to the interviewer:

CANDIDATE: Congress is considering an increase in the minimum wage.
If it passes, do you believe that the microeconomic impacts of the
minimum wage will be offset by the macroeconomic effects driven
by the last round of cuts to the Federal Reserve discount rate?
INTERVIEWER: Huh?

Far from making you look smart, a question like this sets you up as an
oddball. Even if you got a well-reasoned response to this question, of
what possible use could it be to you as you evaluate the position? Let
go of any competitiveness or urgency to show off.
At all times, know to whom you are talking. Asking a hiring man-
ager detailed questions about medical insurance options is not useful.
Nor is asking the human resources interviewer questions about the fine
points of the company’s virtual private network. Finally, be careful to
avoid trespassing on confidential information, especially if you are cur-
rently employed by a competitor.
As long as you are at it, stay away from cage-rattling questions. These
are questions that some interviewers may throw at you, but they cannot
win you points if you throw them back at the interviewer. I provided a
list of some of these shake-’em-up questions in The Manager’s Book of
Questions: 751 Great Questions for Hiring the Best Person. In this cat-
egory fall hypothetical questions (any questions that begin with the
word “if ”) and probing questions of all sorts. Examples of questions
that you should leave at home:

If you could forge an alliance with any organization in the world, which
one would it be?

What unwritten rules at work make it difficult to get things done quickly,
efficiently, or profitably?
You’re the corporate weatherperson; what’s your forecast for the organ-
ization using meteorological terms?

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