101 Smart Questions to Ask on Your Interview (4 page)

It must have worked. His last title there was President of Sales.

Learn from my bro. When appropriate, assume you already have the job and ask questions accordingly:
“Mr. Baines, what’s the first challenge
we’
re going to face together?” “Ms. Lyndon, what projections do
we
need to hit next year?” “Mr. Johnson, what are the three most important targets you have for
my
department?”

Don’t Ask Questions That Show Your Ignorance . . .

. . . or your lack of good research, poor sense of taste, or strange sense of humor. And don’t ask questions that are just plain wacko:

“Does it matter that I majored in religion?”

“Who named the company?”

“Do you think Puerto Rico should become the 51st state?”

“Should I tweeze my eyebrows?”

Don’t Ask Questions That Reveal Your Biases

“Hmm, Rutigliano, that’s Italian, isn’t it?”

“Will I be working with a lot of people babbling in another language?”

“Will my boss have any trouble following my directions? After all, I did graduate first in my class at MIT, and I understand he barely made it through Jimmy Dean’s School of Air Conditioning and Sausage-making.”

Don’t Make an Interviewer Obviously Uncomfortable . . .

. . . by asking questions like the biased, ignorant, or just plain weird ones above, or those that are too personal (
“Tell me about your children.” “Are you married?”
); too desperate (
“I really need to pay the rent by next Friday. If you offer me this job, could I get a loan before I start?”
); or too incredibly arrogant (
“I have a few problems with the offer. Since you can’t seem to do anything about it, may I talk to someone with the authority to give me what I want?”
).

And avoid any question that has little or nothing to do with the job, department, or company. These may include, but are not limited to, asking for a date, inquiring about the smoking-break policy, or asking any question that would lead even the most understanding interviewer to immediately call security and have you forcibly ejected, preferably from the state.

Don’t Introduce Negativity Into an Interviewer’s Mind

There is nothing inherently wrong with asking about normal work hours, as long as you don’t say,
“My last boss expected me to work most Saturdays. You don’t, do you?”
Oh, yeah, you are
so
committed.

As I’ve noted, some questions are inappropriate only when asked at the wrong time. When you have been offered a job, it is expected that you will want to know everything about your proposed compensation, vacation schedules, holidays, and all that other practical stuff.
But asking about vacation days in the first five minutes of an interview is not recommended.

Don’t Tell a Joke . . .

. . . even if you think you’re the next Chris Rock.

Most of us think we’re a lot funnier than we actually are, and humor is, to murder a metaphor, in the ear of the beholder. Why take a chance that some lame joke may cost you a job? Be at ease, feel free to smile and even offer a humorous (or at least less than serious) comment if it seems in keeping with the rest of the conversation. But please remember that you are there to convince them to hire you and assess whether you want to be hired, not to audition for a gig at the Laff Factory.

Never Let Them See You Sweat

Don’t ask questions that make you appear desperate . . . even if you’ve been terminated from your previous job!

I noticed something truly bizarre during my dating days. When I was young and single and HUNGRY, I seemed to give off vibes that screamed,
“Warning! Warning! Women beware. Desperate bachelor on the prowl.”
Not long after I got married, I was out with friends and suddenly seemed to be a rock star. Virtually every single woman in the bar was smiling at me, sending over a drink, making it obvious that she was interested.

What the heck was happening? I was never a lady-killer, and my (okay, not great) looks hadn’t suddenly changed. George Clooney didn’t need to worry about me scarfing up all the available women. Well, my totally unscientific, amateur, unsupported premise is that the same vibes that had cried desperation were now sending out soothing, happy, contented signals . . . and people were responding the way you would expect them to.

Interviewers, whether men or women, will react the same way. Be desperate, think desperate, and you might as well walk in carrying a sign saying, “Will work for anyone, do anything, require nothing.”
That is not the message employers want to hear and, I suspect, not the one you want to be sending them.

This is also a factor when you are trying to find a job,
any
job, and are clearly overqualified for the ones you’re pursuing. It’s hard to feign interest in a job you don’t really care about. Did you pick a “safety” college when you were a high school senior, one you figured you’d have no problem getting into if the places you
really
wanted to go turned you down? Did any of you get
rejected
by your safety schools? Maybe when you interviewed there, you subconsciously sent them the message that they
were
your safety schools! No employer wants someone who “just wants a job, any job.”

Remember It’s a Two-Way Street

It’s impossible to lead you by the hand through a whole series of potential questions—smart or not—for the simple reason that the specific questions you choose to ask should be an attempt to redefine the job so it more closely fits your qualifications. Let me explain.

In very large companies, job titles and descriptions seem to be etched in stone. But the smaller the company, the more likely there are a plethora of possible duties, not all of which any single person can do. Or not all of which any single person is qualified to do. So, especially at the smaller company (but even at many of the larger ones), you’ll want to attempt to customize the job the employer
thinks
he is offering you so it more closely matches the qualifications you have.

Let me give you an example of how this can work. My publishing company, Career Press, has seven editors. One is exclusively acquisitions, meaning he finds the books that the company is going to publish each season (or, at least, develops a solid list from which to choose). The other six are involved in production, everything from working with authors on their manuscripts in a general way (suggesting they move a chapter, kill an example, add a checklist, and so on) to detailed line editing, proofreading, designing the interior “look,” to then executing that format and getting the book off to the printer.

Not long ago, we needed to hire a new editor. My editor-in-chief wanted another “word” person who could do initial editing on every manuscript that came in, then pass each off to an editor who would work with the author on the more detailed, line-by-line edits.

But then Jinny walked in and declared,
“Look, I can’t really edit in a general way. In fact, I’m not really that kind of editor at all. But I am the best darn formatter you ever saw. Instead of hiring a general editor, why don’t you let the rest of the editors spend more time editing and I’ll spend all my time designing their books, laying them out, and getting them off to the printer?”

If this happened anywhere else, especially a large publishing house like Random House or Simon & Schuster, the editor-in-chief probably would have said,
“Thanks, but no thanks.”
But some smaller houses (like Career Press) probably would have taken the time to consider such a change in plans.

Jinny, who was not
remotely
qualified for the opening as it was described and advertised, gave herself a chance to actually get a job by encouraging the editor to
redefine the job so that it fit her qualifications.

In actual fact, it worked. She is a great employee!

It’s Okay to Be a Copycat

Feel free to take some of the typical interview questions
you
should expect to be asked and ask them of the interviewer instead:

What are the company’s (department’s) strengths and weaknesses?

What was the last great challenge faced by the department? How did you and your team handle it?

Can you tell me about a successful project and how you managed it?

Can you tell me about some recent problems you’ve faced and how you (as a team) overcame them?

What’s your definition of success? What’s your definition of failure?

If you could change one thing about the way this department works (or is structured or is managed or is compensated), what would it be?

How often do you and your team socialize outside of work? Is such extracurricular activity actively promoted? Tolerated? Discouraged?

Ask for the Job If You Want It

The more sales-oriented the job—the more Type A the interviewer or the observed company culture—the more aggressively you need to close the sale. In fact, lack of real aggression in these situations will probably be reason enough to not offer you the job at all.

I think you should always try to make a selling point while asking a question, but in this case, it’s virtually an imperative:
“I tried to make my cover letter and resume memorable. I’m glad you appreciated their creativity. Will that same ‘out of the box’ thinking be valued in this position?”

Interview Killers

I’m going to assume that you have already been on enough interviews (or, if you’re a recent graduate, read enough interviewing books) to know that there are rules to follow during interviews. So I’m not going to discuss most of them here.

But there is a list of “no-nos” that are so important, failing to avoid them can virtually doom
any
chance you have of securing the job—before the interview even starts. Given their seriousness, I think it prudent to remind you of them.

For many interviewers, your
showing up late
is immediate cause for canceling the interview. It doesn’t matter that traffic backed up, your cat threw up a hairball, or you just got lost in the elevator.

Being on time is not racing down the final corridor with moments to spare. Some interviewers agree with New York Giants football coach Tom Coughlin—being late is not being fifteen minutes
early.

Poor grooming
is a basic turn-off. Wearing so much perfume or cologne that a gasping interviewer has to lunge for the window makes a poor first impression. So does wearing more makeup than a runway model, clanking along with a pocketful of change or an armload of bangles and bells, or trying out a blonde-streaked Mohawk haircut.

Appropriate dress
is important. Men should wear a white or light blue shirt, conservative suit, silk tie, and shined dress shoes. Women should wear a dark suit and dress shoes.

No one should think of wearing ties that glow in the dark, T-shirts advertising anything (but especially not X-rated!), or any clothes deemed “relaxed and comfortable” (unless you are relaxed and comfortable in a double-breasted suit).

In case you haven’t gotten the message (where have you been?),
smoking is no longer acceptable behavior
. . . anywhere, at any time. And don’t kid yourselves—just because you don’t light up during an interview doesn’t mean that everyone in the room doesn’t know you smoke.

Of course, if you decide to smoke during the interview itself (and some people have in my office), you can go down to that front door right away to finish up. Just don’t plan on coming back upstairs.

Do not smoke even if the interviewer lights up and encourages you to do likewise.

There should be a new reality series featuring the
bizarre behavior
of some interviewees as they chew, burp, scratch, swear, cry, laugh, and scream their way into our hearts. Interviewees have shown up drunk or stoned, brought their mothers with them, fallen asleep, and even gone to the bathroom and never returned.

Keeping your cell phone on during the interview qualifies as inappropriate behavior. Actually receiving or making a call qualifies as bizarre.

Remember what the interviewer is undoubtedly thinking: If this is your
best
behavior, what (
gasp
!) do I have to look forward to?

If you
lie about anything,
especially where and when you worked, what you did, or where and when (or even if) you attended college, you will be caught. No matter how lowly the job, there are significant expenses involved with hiring someone to perform it. So companies will take the time to check out references. And the higher up the food chain, the more intensive their scrutiny.

Even if the lie is inconsequential, the very fact that you lied will, in virtually all instances, be immediate grounds for dismissal. Lacking a particular skill or experience may not automatically exclude you from getting the job. Lying about it will.

While honesty may be the best (and only) policy, it is
not necessary to share anything and everything
with your interviewer. He is not your priest, and you are not in a confessional. Anything you do in the privacy of your own home is not something you need to share.