101 Smart Questions to Ask on Your Interview (8 page)

Be careful how many of your decisions in life, including, of course, where you work, are based solely on money. The older I get, the more I see how many of the decisions I’ve had to make have been based far too much on money (either wanting or not having) and not nearly enough on conscious lifestyle choices. I feel sometimes, and I suspect many of you do, too, that money makes a mockery of the term “choices”—what do you mean, choices? A man’s gotta do what a man can afford (or not).

Not to get into a Dennis Miller rant here, but if money isn’t the root of all evil, it can certainly be considered the root of one heck of a lot of dissatisfaction. There are, at the risk of sounding simplistic, a lot of people without what many of us would consider “a lot of money” (define with your own number of zeros) who are quite content in their lives, thank you very much. And, of course, there are a plethora of “poor little rich kids” who seem to have received nothing but grief with their inherited zillions. So keep money in its place. It’s important, even essential, but it ain’t all there is.

Are You Moving Too Fast?

Don’t be too ready to give up what you already have (your current job) just because you believe the grass just has to be greener “over there.” Ask yourself some smart questions first:

Can you achieve your ultimate career path in your current company?

How does your current job differ from your ideal job?

What specific skills and experience do you need to transform one into the other?

How can you transfer skills you already have to a completely different career?

How would you describe your absolute dream job? Where would you be? What would you be doing? Who would you be working with/for? What would you be earning?

What additional education or training would you need to achieve this dream job? If you obtained the education or training but
didn’t
attain the dream job, how do you think your current job or career path would be affected?

You may be putting the cart before the horse if you’re already gung ho on interviewing at other companies but haven’t asked yourself these important questions. You already have (one hopes) a good reputation at your current job. A good history. Friends. Experience. Respect. If all of that is true, you should want to move on only if your answers to the above questions are negative.

If there is
any
way to stay at your current job and/or at your current company if the answers are
positive,
think long and hard about why you would want to make a change. My advice would be to evaluate what you would need to do to create your ideal job
at your current company,
even if you hate your current job, current boss, or current situation. Analyze first what it would take to make you happy. And if you can fathom
any
way to do it without going through the job-search process, do so. It’s a jungle out there, and better the frying pan you’re already in than throwing yourself upon someone else’s pyre.

Of course, this is a moot point if, having done the analysis, you conclude there is simply no viable way to get even remotely close to your
ideal job at a compensation level that you need. Or if the very nature of the company (10 employees, a field you want out of completely, etc.) makes it moot.

But don’t be afraid to ask the questions raised at the beginning of this section and, perhaps, two more:

Are there any training programs available that may make the kind of move you want possible?

Presuming there
is
“room at the top,” what specifically do you think you would have to do to earn the job title/salary/responsibilities/etc. you want?
Can
you do it? Within a timeframe you deem reasonable?

By taking a more patient approach, you may give yourself the best of both possible worlds—working toward your goals at your
present
company while still testing the waters at others.

By the time you finish the exercises in this chapter, you should be ready to sit down and describe not just the companies you’d like to work for, but your duties and responsibilities, your new boss’s personality, the people you will be working with, and where you’d like to be 2, 5, 10 . . . yes, even 40 years down the road. If you have honestly and completely answered the questions you asked of yourself, I think you will be able to do so.

CHAPTER 3
QUESTIONS TO ASK DURING YOUR RESEARCH

Research is an essential first step in any job search. If you know nothing about the firm, department, job, or boss, you have no real clue of how to position your answers to any of the interviewer’s questions (or target your own questions). That’s why you can’t just go in with a bunch of basic questions that you could have easily answered yourself after a few hours at the library or online.

You have many skills and qualifications and talents, some or all of which may be pertinent, one of which may be key. How do you know? You won’t.

So the research is not just to give you a set of questions to ask. It’s to help you customize those questions and target your answers to the interviewer’s questions.

Here’s a complete checklist of the facts you should know about each company at which you schedule an interview:

The Basics

1. Directions to the office you’re visiting.

2. Headquarters location (if different).

3. Some idea of domestic and international branches.

4. Relative size (compared to other companies in the field).

5. Annual billings, sales, and/or income (last two years).

6. Subsidiary companies; specialized divisions.

7. Departments (overall structure).

8. Major accounts, products, or services.

9. Major competitors.

The Not-So-Basics

1. History of the firm (specialties, honors, awards, famous names).

2. Names, titles, and backgrounds of top management.

3. Existence (and type) of training program.

4. Relocation policy.

5. Relative salaries (compared to other companies in the field or by size).

6. Recent developments concerning the company and its products or services.

7. Everything you can learn about the career, likes, and dislikes of the person(s) interviewing you.

Where to Start Looking

For a very broad overview of any industry, consult the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (
http://stats.bls.gov
), which uses business and economic trends and changing demographics to chart expected growth in employment for occupations in every industry over a 10-year period. The most current edition of the
Occupational Outlook Handbook
(2008–09 edition) is available here, as are online quarterly updates, a wealth of industry and economic information, and the most current edition of the
Career Guide to Industries,
the companion to the
OOH
.

In addition, here’s a core list of research sources, many of which should be available in your local library:

The Encyclopedia of Business Information Sources
lists some 25,000 sources on more than a thousand specific subjects, including directories, associations, and more. The annual
Directories in Print
organizes companies by industry.
Business Rankings
includes details on the nation’s top 7,500 firms. (All titles from Gale, a division of Cengage Learning.)

Directory of Corporate Affiliations
(Lexis Nexis) better be available in your library—it weighs 35 lbs. and costs $1,995!

Dun and Bradstreet’s family of corporate reference resources: the
Million Dollar Directory
(160,000 companies with a net worth of more than $500,000 each);
Top 50,000 Companies
(those with a minimum net worth of just under $2 million); and
Reference Book of Corporate Managements
, which provides detailed biographical data on the principal officers and directors of some 12,000 corporations. (Who says you can’t find out about the quirks and hobbies of your interviewer?)

Standard and Poor’s Register of Corporations, Directors, and Executives
includes corporate listings for more than 45,000 firms as well as 72,000 biographical listings.

Thomas Register of American Manufacturers
is an annual profile of more than 150,000 manufacturers and features information on primary products and services plus more than 100,000 trade and brand names.