Page 65 - 301 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview, Second Edition

THE RULES OF THE GAME

arrives for me to ask my questions. It might be most
efficient to wait, and at the end of the process, if Google
decides that I am someone they wish to hire, then I can
ask my questions. . . .” By saying I had a lot of ques-
tions, it positions me as astute and “smart” (smart peo-
ple ask lots of questions), which is better than being a
pushover and saying that you don’t have any questions.

This accomplishes many things:

1. It shows deference to the company process, which
positions you in a humble position during the evaluation
process (beginning of the process), before the negotia-
tion starts. This is a good thing.

2. It doesn’t allow the company to evaluate you based
on what they perceive the quality of your questions are.
In reality, a company should do a good job of explaining
job scope and job details, and all those components as
part of a sophisticated sales cycle with candidates (most
companies don’t do this). That said, most interviewers
will subjectively rate the quality of a candidate’s ques-
tions as part of their evaluation, which isn’t a valid selec-
tion criteria most of the time (if you have any question,
you should be able to ask it).

3. It sets the stage for a stronger negotiation position
at the end. If the company says, “Yes, we want to hire
you . . . ,” then you can say, “Would it be okay for me to
ask my questions?” and everyone will remember that you
deferred your questions to the end. This is important, as
now it puts you (the candidate) in a stronger position of
power during the negotiation because now you are ask-
ing the questions, but they’ve already committed that
they want to hire you. There is a subtle “turning of the
tables” as the candidate begins to interview the com-
pany. This can be used to an advantage in negotiation.

As a recruiting guy on the company side, I want to
query candidates for questions throughout the process
as part of the pre-closing and objection handling pro-
cess, so my ultimate offer-hire ratio stays super high,
and I remain in the driver’s seat during negotiation.
Many recruiters miss this.

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