St.Louis Business Journal
THE QUESTIONS YOU ASK IN A HIRING INTERVIEW CAN HURT OR HELP YOUR CANDIDACY

By Anna Navarro

July 2008  

Author's note: Client stories in this column are based on actual situations fictionalized to protect privacy and told with permission.



It’s not unusual at the end of a hiring interview for an employer to ask a candidate whether he or she has any questions. How you respond can impress an employer - or turn him off.

The outcome turns on the kinds of questions you ask. Questions directed to the greater good of the organization can help you make points. Self-interested questions can get you in trouble.

Betty had landed an interview for a position she thought sounded interesting. She had seen the posting on the Internet, filled out the on-line application and sent in a resume and cover letter. She didn’t know much about the company, but she wasn’t happy with her current situation. She was on the road too often, and she didn’t have the degree of authority she felt she needed to accomplish her goals. She figured she didn’t have much to lose by throwing her hat in the ring.

She was called for an interview a few weeks later. The meeting was scheduled for the following week. She stewed a lot while she was waiting: Would she like the job any better than the one she had? Would the job pay enough? Would the benefits match those she currently had? These questions were very much on her mind when she went into the interview. She didn’t want to end up leaving a job she disliked only to end up in a worse situation.

During the interview, the interviewer asked many questions about her background, her skills and her work experience. She thought she handled them well. He seemed to feel the same way, and explained they were in the early stages of a hiring process that had several steps. He volunteered she was a strong candidate and almost certain to make it to the next level of interviewing.

As the interview was coming to an end, the interviewer asked Betty if she had any questions. Betty launched into the issues that most concerned her, including salary, benefits, travel required and the degree of authority she’d have to make decisions. She thought the answers she got were rather vague, so she persisted and asked for clarification.

Afterward, as she was sifting through what she’d learned, she concluded the position would probably meet her needs. She settled down to wait for the next interview. It never came. Instead she got a polite rejection letter.

Betty was completely taken aback by what happened. The interviewer had led her to believe she would at least make the next cut in the interview process. She had a hard time understanding what went wrong.

I met with her a few months later. She asked me what I thought accounted for the shift from an employer seeming to be so interested in her, to a rejection letter.

After a blow-by-blow description of the interview, I inquired whether she had asked any questions about what the employer needed in a person they hired for this position. For example, what challenges the organization faced, how it fit into the industry it was part of, what the department’s goals were, how they would describe the ideal candidate for this position, etc. Betty said it hadn’t occurred to her to ask questions along these lines -- she’d been totally focussed on what she needed.

I asked a few more questions and determined the only thing that transpired between the interviewer expressing belief that she was a strong candidate and the close of the interview was his asking “Do you have any questions? ”, and the discussion that followed.

Many factors could have played a role in the employer losing interest in Betty, including interviewing other more qualified candidates. But my strong hunch is that her failure to ask questions about what they needed, combined with her assertive pursuit of questions about what she needed, probably played a part in her rejection. She may have been typecast as a person who would be likely to pursue her self-interests to the exclusion of the needs of others.

Every employer wants employees who care about their jobs, the organization, and how they can fit in and make a contribution. Candidates who find a way to demonstrate this have an advantage over those who don’t. One great opportunity to do this is by asking questions focussed on the needs of the employer when you get asked the standard “Do you have any questions?”

Anna Navarro is the founder of Work Transitions, a nationwide career consulting firm that trains independent career strategists and consults with individual clients.

This column was originally published by the St. Louis Business Journal. The actual title of the column and date in which it appeared in the Business Journal may be slightly different from what appears on WorkTransitions.com.