The answer to this question, if your research of the company has not already uncovered it, will tell you if the company is actively planning for its future and that of its employees, or is simply totally occupied with reacting to the pressures and problems of the present.
2. "Why would you advise anyone to take this job?" When answering this question, the interviewer will tell you what he or she believes to be the primary attractions of the given job and company. Make sure that you believe those stated attractions to be accurate and important to you. This question, in conjunction with appropriate follow-up queries, is an excellent opportunity for you to begin evaluating the company according to your Critical Criteria.
3. How many people are you interviewing, and when will you make your decision? This is an attempt to determine the extent of your competition and the timetable for the remainder of the hiring process. You know a problem exists if the interviewer responds with a fuzzy answer, such as "We have just started looking, and we want to interview a lot of people, and we should know something by the middle of next month." Either the interviewer does not think you are a top candidate for the job, or the interviewer is not sure what land of person to hire and is still clarifying the job specifications in his or her mind, which is a typical problem. If you can confirm that? The interviewer has a fairly precise schedule for hiring someone; you know that you have a 'live" job prospect. You should also now know the approximate time frame for you to implement your follow-up techniques. Knowing the total amount of candidates being interviewed also gives you an approximation of your odds of getting a job offer. Obviously your chances are automatically better if you know that only three others are being interviewed rather than 10 others.
4. "What is the next step, who is responsible for taking it, and by when will it be taken?"
5. "I think I can do the job. Do you?"
These two questions represent the all-important closing of the interview. When you sense that the interviewer is through, these two questions are asked to ensure a clear understanding of what happens next, to end things on a confident, upbeat note, and to determine precisely where you stand in the interviewer’s estimation. Communication is always a problem in any verbal exchange between two adults, even in a face-to-face job interview. Whenever I arrange an interview between a company and an individual, I always talk with both parties after they have met. Sometimes one or both parties are unclear as to whether the other is interested and, if so, what happens next. I have talked to interviewers who were expecting the individual to fill out and mail an application before they would schedule a second interview, while the individual was sitting home, expecting to bring the application to the second interview and confused that the company had not called to schedule the second meeting. I have talked to interviewers who thought highly of the person just interviewed but who did not think that the individual was interested in the job, only to discover when I talked to the individual that he or she was interested in the job but felt that the interviewer was not interested in him or her.
Therefore, to keep communication problems to a minimum, always close the interview with the above two questions. If the interviewer gives vague responses to the questions, you know there are problems. If the responses are positive, upbeat, and clear, you are in good shape.
Your pre-interview research of the company and the interviewer should add additional questions to your list. Although your list of questions will vary only slightly from interview to interview, it is very important for you to review and update your list for each interview because constant review and preparation is the foundation of the easy confidence you want to project in the face-to-face encounter. In essence, your preparation and confidence will allow you to control the interview and effectively result in your inter viewing the company rather than the standard vice versa.
Questions to Expect and Prepare For The same questions, or variations of them, tend to be asked in every interview. That is because the objectives and motivations of all interviewers are pretty much the same. Consciously, they want to know what you have done, what you want to do, how much money you want, and if there are any glaring reasons why they should not hire you. Subconsciously, they are deciding whether or not you can do the job and whether or not they like you. Therefore, your objectives in answering the interviewer’s questions are to continue to develop the rapport between the two of you and to not give any reasons to disqualify you.
