Page 129 - 301 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview, Second Edition

I N TERV IEW THE I N TERV IEW ER

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I was pleased to hear you describe the company’s branding strategy.
How does branding fit into the overall marketing mix?
Branding is, like quality or customer service, a value that everyone
in the company should be building. Be sure you have something to
say about branding before you bring up a question like this.

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According to (name source), your principal competitor, Brand X, is
the bestselling product in the space. What does Brand X do better than
your product?
A provocative question, it is true, but it’s no news to the interviewer.
The question shows that you have done your research and suggests
that you understand the company can’t improve unless it under-
stands what the competition does better. The hope is that you have
some salient experience you can offer in this regard.

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BusinessWeek magazine ranks the company second (or whatever) in
its industry. Does this position represent a change from where it was a
few years ago?
You probably should know the answer to this question, but the point
is to start a conversation about the momentum of the company. Is its
rank going up or down, and how does the interviewer deal with it?

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How accessible is the CEO (name him or her) to people at my level of
the organization?
At some firms, CEOs meet with new employees as well as estab-
lished employees. Some CEOs have an open-door policy and some
are remote figures. This question will help you find out the CEO’s
interaction with employees.

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I understand that the CEO is really approachable. Are there ground rules
for approaching him or her? How does he or she like to be addressed?
The answers to these questions provide clues about the formality or
informality of the organization.

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