Job Seekers: 5 Questions You Should Ask in Your Next Interview
Interviews are critical in our career paths. Yes, they are primary tools for companies to select the right candidate, but have you ever thought about turning the tables and using them as tools for you to find the right company? Interviewers prepare questions to ask you so they can understand if you’ll be a good “fit” in their company and candidates should do the same. Asking the right questions can give you great insight to find the best place to pursue your career goals.
Take some time to reflect on past companies, managers, work, and environment to understand what works and doesn’t work for you. What is your ideal working environment? What have you liked/disliked about past managers? What type of work gets you pumped up in the morning? These should structure your questions so you can watch for any red flags.
To get you started, here are my top 5 questions to ask in an interview:
- How do you measure success/impact of this role/team/dept?
If a manager doesn’t know what success looks like, how will you ever know? Look for leadership-style responses such as “Right now our biggest goal is to implement Project X. We will continually monitor progress but being it’s a new process for our leaders, we need to focus on implementation and change management. I define success as perseverance in push back from leaders, clear communication on benefits of the program and open door policy for leaders to ask questions and provide feedback”. Alternatively, you could ask ‘what is the ideal candidate for this role’? - How do you see leaders implement the company’s culture/values?
If you haven’t discussed the company’s values or culture by this point in the interview, definitely get an understanding of what they are first but more importantly, dive deeper into how leaders are implementing their culture. People can talk and talk about what they want the culture to be, but what’s more impactful is if they can show you how they are making it work or at a minimum, attempting to make it work. After all, actions speak louder than words. - How do you support learning & development?
We all need room to learn & grow – even better if we can do it within the same company! Again, people can easily say “yes, we support learning & development” but ask them how. You can also ask them about their own career goals and how they develop themselves. How they respond will be a good indicator of how much support they will likely provide in your development. - Why did you choose to work at XX (or, why have you stayed here)?
This is one of my favorites. If the hiring manager is relatively new in role, it’s a very relevant question to understand why this company was worthy of them accepting an offer. I’d expect someone new in role to be relatively excited about something at the company – the work itself, the culture, leadership, etc so it should be a pretty easy question. This is their opportunity to really sell the company as well so if they are scrambling for words or seem half-hearted in their response, it could be an indicator of their commitment or the company. Alternatively, if they are long tenured, ask why they haven’t pursued roles at other companies. - What is your management style?
You have every right to know as much about a potential manager as they want to know about you. Are they micro-managers or give you freedom to run with your ideas, take risks, and learn from your mistakes? Do they value the same things you value such as collaboration, respect, open communication, etc? What does success look like in their opinion? Do they want someone that will do their work for them or expect you to take initiative? Are they effective at giving feedback and open to receiving feedback from you?
Remember, both parties need to be flexible in these areas but at the end of the day, you should feel excited about the next step in your career!
What other great questions have you asked in an interview? How have asking these kinds of questions influenced your decisions in finding the right role?