Page 100 - John Kador - 201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview-McGraw-Hill (2002)

QUESTIONS FOR HUMAN RESOURCES

? Memorably Bad Question

#8
Are there any apartment complexes nearby that offer a fit-
ness center and free wine and cheese tasting?

This sounded an alarm, because my experience is that unusual
requests like this right from the beginning always lead to re-
quests that my clients can’t fulfill in the end.
Jason Rodd
Senior Consultant
TMP Worldwide, Inc.
Tampa, FL

Some companies have more or less formal career progressions—for ex-
ample, programmer to systems analyst to team leader to project man-
ager to project director, in that order.

7-14
Assuming I was hired and performed well for a period of time, what ad-
ditional opportunities might this job lead to?
This tells the interviewer that you are looking past this assignment, that
you are thinking of sticking around. HR people like that, because it
makes them look good when one of their hires stays for a while.
7-15
Do the most successful people in the company tend to come from one
area of the company, such as sales or engineering, or do they rise from
a cross section of functional areas?
This question immediately tells the interviewer you are sophisticated.
The culture of most companies invariably favors employees from one
department or another. Technology companies frequently favor employ-
ees from engineering. The CEOs of financial companies frequently
come out of finance. Most industrial CEOs come out of sales. Perhaps
the interviewer will go through the five most senior officers of the com-
pany with respect to their origins. Your goal is to note whether the de-
partment you plan to join is one of the favored developing grounds for
the corner offices.

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