Page 44 - John Kador - 201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview-McGraw-Hill (2002)

WHY YOU HAVE TO QUESTION

will wish you luck with the other company and never look back. For
example:

I’m considering a number of other offers, including a very attractive one
from your main competitor, and need to make a decision by Friday. Can
I have your best offer by then?

This question smacks of bullying and desperation. It’s hard to come up
with alternative wording, but this is more effective:
Everything I know about your company and the opportunity you de-
scribed leads me to believe that I can immediately start adding value.
I would very much welcome receiving an offer.Another company has
made me an attractive offer to join them, and I said I would give them
my decision by Friday. If my application is receiving serious consid-
eration here, I would very much like to consider it before then. Is that
possible?

12. Avoid Questions That Hint of Desperation

There is a line from the movie Broadcast News that applies to job
seekers: “Wouldn’t this be a great world if terror and desperation
were attractive qualities?” Unfortunately, job interviewers, like part-
ners in romance, recoil at displays of desperation. Employers don’t
want to know about your financial plight, any more than they want
to hear about your failing romances. You must avoid any hint of dis-
couragement when a job offer is not immediately forthcoming. By
all means avoid:
I simply must have this job. My rent is late, and my wife and I are going
to be out on the street if you don’t make me an offer.

Even a hiring manager sympathetic to your plight cannot afford to con-
tinue the interview. This next question is also too desperate:
I had hoped that my interview would be so good that you’d offer me a job.
What did I do wrong?

The only attitude of a candidate that really makes sense is relaxed con-
fidence.

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