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When you’re job hunting, it’s only natural to want to appear eager to win over potential employers and land a new gig. But if you don’t invest the time to ensure that a company is the right fit for you, that new job can quickly become a nightmare.
You can learn a lot about an organization by researching online, asking the opinions of people who have worked there and through the interview process itself. However, a surefire way to get the information you need to decide whether a company is right for you, is to come to the interview prepared with purposeful questions. We canvassed five talent and recruitment professionals to share some of the best questions former candidates have asked.
Share a time when you supported someone on your team who was struggling back to success.
Leaders often ask this question to candidates to test competency on empathy, teamwork, and the ability to tie it back to positive performance outcomes. I think it is a great question to reciprocate as potential employees as you are of course looking for the same things from your leaders themselves. It also adds an opportunity for humanizing storytelling and style approaches which are great alignment insights for you to walk away with.
– Submitted by Ambrosia Vertesi, Global VP Human Resources Leader at Hootsuite.
How does your team 1) celebrate successes and 2) take corrective action when the team is not firing on all cylinders? Can you give me an example of both?
If you are more on the investigative side of the role and culture, you’ll get a strong sense of how the leader (of the team you are considering) deals with stressful situations and recognizes achievement. The answer should give you a strong glimpse of culture without asking “can you please describe the culture here?”
– Submitted by Peter Reek, Owner and President at Smart, Savvy + Associates
What are your immediate and future expectations for this role?
If I could only ask one question during an interview, it would be this one. It not only indicates that I am interested in the goals of the organization, it also provides me an idea of where I fit within the department, how much thought went into the role, if the opportunity aligns with my career goals, and it may give me an understanding of growth opportunities and why the position is vacant.
If I could only ask one question during an interview, it would be this one. It not only indicates that I am interested in the goals of the organization, it may give me an understanding of growth opportunities and why the position is vacant.
As an aside, one of my least recommended questions is “is there opportunity for growth?” More often than not employers see it as an indication that a candidate is already thinking about what’s next, rather than the position at hand.
– Submitted by Laura Milne, Founder of CandHR
“What do you need to be successful at your job?”
I ask that question because it gets people talking about multiple things such as the work environment, organization structure, practices, culture, team, management style, etc. By the way they answer the question, you can tell what’s important to them and how they operate on a day-to-day.
– Submitted by Jasmin Kesmez, HR Generalist at PlentyOfFish Media Inc.
What is it about my values and skills that you see as being beneficial to the growth of your team to bring me here for an interview? Why me, and not someone else?
If a hiring team is really interested in you, this engages in meaningful conversation, telling you as the candidate that they’ve put thought into exactly what they’re looking for, what type of values they uphold, and that they’re thinking about each candidate uniquely — not just trying to fill a position. If the answer is generic (ie. You have 5+ years in customer success, and we need someone with experience), or if they have to get back to me, it shows that they’re not looking for someone as passionate as I am about deeply rooted values between an employee and employer.
– Submitted by Kendra Moroz, Director of Customer Engagement at 7Geese.
Calling all recruiters and HR pros: what are some of the best questions you’ve ever had a candidate ask? Job-hunters, what are some of the really good questions in your arsenal? Tell us in the comments section below!