‘can You Tell Me Where The Company Is Going’
“If you’re talking to the leader of a company, that’s a great question to ask them, because they’re in the best position to tell you that,” Robert Hohman, the cofounder of Glassdoor, previously told Business Insider. “They should be able to articulate that really clearly. And it should be inspiring.”
Why Did You Decide To Leave Your Previous/current Job
When asking this question, the interviewer wants to learn:
- Did you have a good reason for leaving your last job? The HR manager doesnt want someone that just jumps ship the moment things go bad.
Incorrect Example:
Oh, well, the company started bleeding cash and was on its way to bankruptcy.
Correct Example:
I felt like it was time – I got to a point where everything I was doing felt monotonous. I learned as much as I could at this position while delivering amazing results. It was, however, time to switch to something new.
- Did you leave on good terms? Meaning, did you go through the offboarding process, instructing your coworkers on how to take up your responsibilities? Or did you just say Adios and stopped showing up at work?
Incorrect Example:
Things started to get really boring, and the boss man was kind of mean. I totally deserve better, so I just ghosted them and now Im looking for a new company. Hi!
Correct Example:
I didnt feel like the companys values coincide with mine. The management was too controlling and micromanaging. I prefer to have some control over my work, and being able to contribute by going above and beyond my requirements.
Of course, I went through the off-boarding properly. Meaning, gave a timely resignation notice, and transferred all the essential company knowledge to my replacement.
- Did you leave voluntarily, or were you fired?
Incorrect Example:
I got fired for missing work for a week without an excuse.
Correct Example:
At Times You Will Be Asked To Do Many Things At Once How Do You Prioritise Your Tasks
Why employers ask this: This question aims to reveal your time management and decision-making skills, Shepard says. Employers want to understand how you prioritise things and the way you engage with people during that process.
How to respond well: Be prepared to give an example of how you prioritised things in a previous role, Shepard says. Can you talk about how you schedule your day to ensure the most important things get done? Or a time where you were able to handle an urgent priority by reorganising other tasks? Its also worth considering how you communicate with others about deadlines or how you keep track of your workload via to-do lists or other organisational tools.
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The Bottom Line On How To Answer Do You Have Any Questions During An Interview
Gather as much information as you can in the job interview. Decide if you really want this job in this organization working with these people. Then, be prepared for the whole process to take too much time. NEVER stop your job search and wait for a job offer to come. You are probably one of at least three other candidates for any job, and they may well choose someone else or not fill this job.
How To Structure Your Interviews
Structured interviews are effective methods of predicting job performance. Their three main characteristics are:
- You ask all candidates the same questions.
- You ask questions in the same order.
- You evaluate answers based on standardized rating scales.
The first two characteristics are easy, yet critical for success. If you ask different questions of each candidate, its impossible to objectively compare their answers. This will result in you trying to make a hiring decision on your gut feeling which potentially leads to harmful biases and discrimination.
So, when you decide which interview questions to ask, spend some time putting them in order. To do this, use the format of an interview scorecard its possible your applicant tracking system has a function to help you build scorecards and share them with your team.
The third characteristic of a structured interview the rating scales is immensely helpful in ensuring youll hire objectively. You create a scale and then you evaluate candidates answers with that scale. To do this right, define what exactly each item on the scale means.
Alternatively, you could use a simpler scale, such as Yes, No and Definitely
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Why Do You Want To Leave Your Current Job
Let’s start with what you shouldn’t say .
Don’t talk about how your boss is difficult. Don’t talk about how you can’t get along with other employees. Don’t bad-mouth your company.
Instead, focus on the positives a move will bring. Talk about what you want to achieve. Talk about what you want to learn. Talk about ways you want to grow, about things you want to accomplish explain how a move will be great for you and for your new company.
Complaining about your current employer is a little like people who gossip: If you’re willing to speak badly of someone else, you’ll probably do the same to me.
Why Did You Decide To Apply For This Position
Through this question, the interviewers want to assess how passionate you are for the position. And no, the answer isnt:
Well, Im very passionate about not starving to death.
Well, I needed the money, and you guys tend to pay a lot.
What the interviewer is looking for here is to see how passionate you are about the job or the company. After all, job performance is directly linked to job satisfaction. The happier you are about your position at the company, the more productive youll be.
And heres the kicker – your passion will be very evident during the interview.
When youre talking to a person thats passionate about something, you can pretty much feel them glow as they talk. And if youre an HR manager whos interviewed hundreds of people, this is a very good sign to hire the candidate.
So, use this knowledge to your advantage.
When asked this question, your answer should include 2 things:
Sample Answer 1:
Im very passionate about sustainability and renewable energy. In fact, I minored in Environmental Science at .
Ive always wanted to put my engineering degree to a good cause – and the position as a Sustainability Coordinator at is just the right thing.
Ive been following your company for the past few years, and I love how youre changing the renewable energy landscape in America.
Possible answer 2:
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Smart Questions To Ask Your Interviewer
At some point during your job interview, the interviewer is going to ask Do you have any questions for me? And you better have some.
Not asking anything is an immediate sign that youre not particularly interested in the role or company, and will usually destroy any chance you had of landing the position. But you have to ask the right questions. Dont make it about you and what you can get out of the role. Make it about learning more about the position and organization, and about learning how you can fit and contribute. Nervous and unsure what to do? Not to worry. Here are 11 smart questions to ask your interviewer.
First, do not ask:
- How much vacation time do I get?
- How much does it pay?
- What is it that this company does anyway?
- Can I nap on the job?
- How much notice do you need if I want to quit?
You get the idea.
So, what should you ask instead? Start with:
What market/audience are you trying to reach?
This is the best question you can ask because every company has one or more target nuts they cant quite crack. If you can offer help here, youre probably as good as in.
What can you tell me about the company culture?
This shows that you are interested in the work environment and want to know how you would fit in. It will also give you a good sense of whether or not youll actually enjoy working at the company.
How is success evaluated in this role?
Who would I be working with?
What are some of the challenges someone in this position might face?
What are the next steps?
Hiring Process Questions To Ask In An Interview
One of the hardest parts of job searching is the constant unknowns. Hiring process questions are good questions to ask in an interview to give you a sense of whats going to happen next, how quickly they are looking to fill the position, and give you an opportunity to finish the interview as strongly as you started.
17. What are the next steps in the interview process?
This question shows that you are eager to move forward in the process. It will also help you gain important information about the timeline for hiring so that you can follow up appropriately.
18. Do you have an ideal start date in mind?
This is another way to get an understanding of their timeline and when you can expect to hear from them.
19. Are there any further details I can provide that will be helpful?
This question allows your interviewer to circle back to anything that concerns them about your experience or resume without phrasing the question negatively such as asking, is there anything that concerns you about my fit for this role? You dont want them to be thinking of reasons not to hire you, but you do want to have the opportunity to explain yourself if the interviewer has doubts about your qualifications.
20. Do you have any further questions to ask me?
This can be a less-detailed alternative question to the above. It leaves the door open for the interviewer to ask for clarification on one last thing before concluding the interview.
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What Are Communication Interview Questions
Hiring managers ask communication interview questions during a job interview to gauge whether an interviewee is an effective communicator. These types of questions focus on a candidate’s ability to communicate in various settings and may include behavioural questions, which refer to candidates’ experience in the workplace. Here are some things an interviewer may evaluate to assess your communication skills during an interview:
- Active listening: Being able to listen attentively to others, asking questions when you need clarification and considering others’ points of view before responding are important attributes that help you become an effective communicator.
- Body language: Non-verbal cues, such as posture, facial expressions and hand gestures, can reveal more about an individual than just the words they say. For example, you can evaluate a person’s attitude, mood and personality from their body language.
- Tone of voice: Your tone of voice influences how others perceive you. For example, if you have a monotone or disinterested way of speaking, you may lose the attention of your audience.
- Focus: In the workplace, clear and concise communication is essential. Being able to relay long or complex information in a focused manner is essential, particularly when collaborating with other teams or departments that are not as familiar with your area of expertise.
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What Kind Of Work Environment Do You Like Best
Maybe you love working alone, but if the job you’re interviewing for is in a call center, that answer will do you no good.
So take a step back and think about the job you’re applying for and the company’s culture . If a flexible schedule is important to you, but the company doesn’t offer one, focus on something else. If you like constant direction and support and the company expects employees to self-manage, focus on something else.
Find ways to highlight how the company’s environment will work well for you — and if you can’t find ways, don’t take the job, because you’ll be miserable.
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What Made You Excited To Get Up And Come To Work At Your Last Job
It’s true that many people dislike their jobs. For the companies that want to have the best culture and employer brand though, it’s important that employees are emotionally invested in coming to work. No doubt you have many employees for whom this is the case, your goal should be to swell their ranks!
Explore why candidates found their last role exciting and what motivated them to keep dig deep when the going got tough. If they didn’t find their last role stimulating, find out why.
Are they likely to find work at your company interesting? This is more important than you think. It can be a great motivator for those late nights and lengthy projects.
What Does My Job Role Entail
No matter how detailed the job descriptions are, this interview question is pertinent to ask during an interview.
You would have a certain perception about the job after going through the job description but this is one of the best interview questions to get clarity on the most important aspect of your job during an interview.
From day-to-day work to special case scenarios, get as much information as possible about your job role.
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Whats A Time You Disagreed With A Decision That Was Made At Work
The ideal anecdote here is one where you handled a disagreement professionally and learned something from the experience. Zhang recommends paying particular attention to how you start and end your response. To open, make a short statement to frame the rest of your answer, one that nods at the ultimate takeaway or the reason youre telling this story. For example: I learned early on in my professional career that its fine to disagree if you can back up your hunches with data. And to close strong, you can either give a one-sentence summary of your answer or talk briefly about how what you learned or gained from this experience would help you in the role youre interviewing for.
Questions About Next Steps
10. Whats your timeline for next steps?
This is a basic logistics question, but its useful to ask because it gives you a benchmark for when you can expect to hear something back. Otherwise, in a few days youre likely to start agonizing about whether you should have heard back about the job by now and what it means that you havent, and obsessively checking your phone to see if the employer has tried to make contact. Its much better for your quality of life if you know that youre not likely to hear anything for two weeks or four weeks or that the hiring manager is leaving the country for a month and nothing will happen until shes back, or whatever the case might be.
Plus, asking this question makes it easy for you to check in with the employer if the timeline they give you comes and goes with no word. If they tell you that they plan to make a decision in two weeks and its been three weeks, you can reasonably email them and say something like, I know you were hoping to make a decision around this time, so I wanted to check in and see if you have an updated timeline you can share. Im really interested in the position and would love to talk more with you.
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Order Alison Greens book Ask a Manager: Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work here. Got a question for her? Email . Her advice column appears here every Tuesday.
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What Do You Think We Could Do Better Or Differently
This question can really do a number on you. How do you give a meaty answer without insulting the company or, worse, the person youre speaking with? Well first, take a deep breath. Then start your response with something positive about the company or specific product youve been asked to discuss. When youre ready to give your constructive feedback, give some background on the perspective youre bringing to the table and explain why youd make the change youre suggesting . And if you end with a question, you can show them youre curious about the company or product and open to other points of view. Try: Did you consider that approach here? Id love to know more about your process.
Assess Your Career Achievements
Before you can sell your strengths, you need to pinpoint what they are. Its your job, as a job seeker, to figure out what your top skills are, says job search strategist Jenny Foss. Its not the job of the hiring manager or recruiter to make those deductions for you.
Kathy Caprino, a Connecticut-based career coach and author of the book The Most Powerful You: 7 Bravery-Boosting Paths to Career Bliss, recommends job seekers do some self-reflection before they sit down for an audition. Think back on the last 10 wins youve had at work, Caprino says. What helped you create those successes, specifically, and how did you do it in ways others may not have achieved in the same manner?
In addition, ask 10 of your favorite colleagues who think highly of youfrom your past and current rolesto share what they think makes you stand out in your work and your abilities, Caprino suggests.
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‘is This A New Position If Not Why Did The Person Before Me Leave This Role’
This might be uncomfortable to ask, but Harrison said it’s not uncommon to ask and that it shows you are being smart and analytical by wanting to know why someone may have been unhappy in this role previously.
If you found out they left the role because they were promoted, that’s also useful information.
“It’s helpful to know if the last person quit, if the business is growing, or if there’s some other driver at play,” Angela Copeland, career coach at Copeland Coaching, told Business Insider.
