Page 154 - John Kador - 201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview-McGraw-Hill (2002)

BID-FOR-ACTION QUESTIONS

I’m glad we agree. I feel that way, too. So I am certainly interested in
receiving your strongest offer.

But I must issue a fair warning. You are on dangerous ground here. Your
decision to ask for the job must be pitch-perfect. Before asking for the job,
you must have created a good rapport with your interviewer, established
that you are a good fit for the job, and extracted at least some expression
of interest from the interviewer. Your timing must be so perfect the inter-
viewer could set her watch by it. In other words, unless you have a high
degree of confidence about each of these points, I wouldn’t take a chance.
It’s a risky move for two reasons:

First, while asking a prospect to say yes to an order for a gross of
pens with the business’s logo emblazoned on them might occasion-
ally get the prospect to sign on the bottom line, it’s highly unlikely
that you will actually get a hiring manager to say, “Sure, you want
the job? You got it! When can you start?” Even the hiring manager
has a process to go through and must consult with others. Still, ask-
ing for the job might move you up in the crowd.
And second, it might blow you out of the water. That’s because in
contemporary American business culture, asking for something as
important as a job is loaded with a lot of emotional baggage. It’s

? Memorably Good Question

#15

What do you see in me? What are my strongest assets and
possible weaknesses? Do you have any concerns that I need
to clear up in order to be the top candidate?
A totally confident question that asks the hiring manager to
encapsulate your qualifications. It concludes with a strong bid
for action.
John Sullivan
Professor, Human Resources Management
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA

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