Questions To Ask Interviewers
When you're job hunting and looking at similar opportunities, it can be challenging to differentiate one opportunity from another.
These questions are to help you find out more about the strategy, culture and direction of the business, rather than merely understanding the job, duties and remuneration package.
What's The Plan?
It sounds simple but asking an employer what the masterplan is can reveal extraordinary revelations.
What is their plan for the business? Where do they want to be in the next 2-5 years? How are they positioning themselves in the market? What steps are they taking to get there? How far in their journey are they?
What is their plan for you? You're obviously there to talk about a job, but where is that going to lead? Where will you fit in? You're presumably looking for a career and not just a job so being part of the plan is extremely important. Is your hire one by design with a long term vision in mind or is the business merely taking advantage that your skill set, relevant to their business has become available (not that there's anything wrong with this)?
What Will Success Look Like?
This question gives you insights into the management culture of the business. Generally, most organisations fall into one of two categories.
1) KPI orientated businesses
These companies tend to define success in terms of number. They will be extremely concerned that every hour of your time is accounted for and billed at a specific rate. They'll have a strong focus on KPI's such as churn, number of client meetings, etc. If that's how success is defined for you, you should pretty much know how you're going to be managed in these types of businesses.
2) People & Feedback Driven Organisations
These businesses tend to define success in a broader content, almost always with people at the centre of their success. The conversations you will have are usually something along the lines of "if you are happy, engaged and contributing and the clients/stakeholders are happy
Specific KPI's may not be explicitly discussed as they're not front and centre of these businesses version of success. Obviously, there will be KPI's involved, and certain results will be expected. The people driven businesses tend to have a clearer development program in place beyond "on the job" training. More often than not, their employee reward and benefits schemes tend to go beyond purely financial packages.
What Was The Last Significant Change or Shakeup In The Business?
Like it or not, change happens and will continue to occur in the future. Like people, not all businesses adapt to changes well.
Talking about changes in technology, the management or even ownership can open up interesting conversations about how the business responds to change, whether planned or unplanned. Is the organisation you're talking to proactively looking to adopt change or reacting to change in fear? Worse, are they burying their head in the sand that change doesn't affect them?
What Are The Business Values?
You will usually find these listed somewhere on the company website. The objective of this question is to find out if they practice what they preach. How do they use their company values to drive the business forward? Can they give you an example of one of their values being used today, this week, this month?
Corporate values can often seem to be the creation of a talented marketer with little to no value to the internal employee. Find a business that embodies their values to differentiate themselves in the market.
What, If Any Doubt Do You Have About Me?
This question allows you an opportunity to address & objection handle any concerns they have about you, but it does more than that. It will enable you to see if you're both on the same page. If you are, you will probably forsee and potentially agree with the queries they may have. These queries usually come down to a small gap in skill set or cultural fit. This question is an important one as it allows both parties to find a compromise if one exists.