Page 25 - 301 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview, Second Edition

THE RULES OF THE GAME

• You’re easily intimidated.
• You’re resistant to learning.
• You’re bored or boring.

Not one of these impressions works in your favor. Of course, not any
old question will do. If you don’t think about this in advance, you
run the risk of missing a critical opportunity by not asking intel-
ligent questions or by planting your foot in your mouth by asking
stupid ones. Good questions show the interviewer that you are inter-
ested in the job. Great questions tell the interviewer that you are a
force to be reckoned with.

Great questions make you look better. As you ask questions,
remember that for the interviewer, the interview has three purposes.
He or she wants to know that:

• You are qualified to meet the challenges of the job.
• You are willing to meet the challenges of the job.
• You will fit into the organization.

Make sure all your questions advance the goals of the interviewer.
At the same time, you have your own goals. In order of importance,
you want to:

• Sell yourself as qualified to meet the challenges of the job.
• Evaluate the position and offer to make sure it’s right for you.
• Get the interviewer’s commitment or expression of interest for the

next step in the process.

VESTED IN THE INTERVIEW

“I want to know that the candidate in front of me is vested in the
job interview,” says Janice Bryant Howroyd, founder, CEO, and
chairman of Torrance, California–based ACT-1, the largest female,
minority-owned employment service in the country. “If the candi-
date doesn’t have any questions for me, that really clouds my estima-
tion of his or her interest and ability to engage.”

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