Page 8 - 301 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview, Second Edition

FOREWORD

How far you get, in almost anything, is limited mainly by your abil-
ity to ask good questions. This is most definitely true if you want to
go the distance in the job interview. There your ability to ask good
questions often spells the difference between “congratulations” and
“maybe next time.”

However, the problem is that we are not taught to ask good ques-
tions. We’re trained to answer questions. But only answering ques-
tions does little to make an interesting life. Nor does it impress the
interviewer. After all, if you have all the answers, and you’re spewing
them all the time, then you are not learning anything new.

I am obsessed with asking good questions. No, not just good
questions. Great questions. Questions that allow me to get smarter.
Questions that signal how much I respect the other person by dem-
onstrating that what he or she has to say has value for me.

Nowhere does the power of asking great questions have more
immediate and life-changing value than in the job interview. Here
the ability of an applicant to synthesize the give-and-take energy of
the job interview into a set of coordinated questions separates the
superstars from the also-rans.

I’m glad that John Kador captures 301 of these great questions
in this book. I’m sure they will be useful to you. But any list, even
one as comprehensive as this book offers, is no substitute for using
your instincts. The questions in this book are best used as jumping-
off points for the questions that you’ll make great by speaking so
intimately to your unique personality, ambition, and set of circum-
stances. The trick is to honor your identity at all times.

vii