Ask the right questions and land the job of your dreams!
To really shine in your job interview and to get that dream job, the questions you ask must be at least as memorable as the answers you give. Today it's the questions you ask that set you apart from the dozenseven hundredsof qualified candidates competing for your job. Make your questions demonstrate that you are a superstar, a world-class candidate who will add significant value to the job from Day One. 201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview arms you with the questions and techniques you need to nail this most crucial part of the interview process.
Packed with 201 proven questions, including examples of some of the smartest and dumbest interview questions from hundreds of recruiters, job coaches, hiring managers, and Fortune 500 human resources professionals, this hands-on guide gives you the edge you need.
Improve your odds. March into your next interview fortified with questions such as:
What exactly does this company value the most and how do you think my work for you will further these values?
What kinds of processes are in place to help me work collaboratively?
What's the most important thing I can do to help within the first 90 days of my employment?
In what areas could your team use a little polishing?
When top performers leave the company, why do they leave and where do they usually go?
What do you see in me? What are my strongest assets and possible weaknesses?
I am very interested in this job, and I know your endorsement is key to my receiving an offer. May I have your endorsement?
Ask and you shall receive. In today's hyper-competitive job market, asking smart questions sets you apart from the competition. Turn to 201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview for get-noticed, get-hired tips and techniques that will help you ace your next interview.
FOREWORD
A blank sheet. A clean slate. A fresh start.
There are various ways to describe the challenge any author
faces when first sitting down to write a book. So much promise and
potential on one hand, so much raw material that cries out for order on
the other.
The same opportunity confronts every job applicant I've met in more than
20 years of counseling and nurturing prospective employees. The seed
exists in every book, in every job interview, in every human encounter,
to shape and control: to write the story you choose, to obtain the
outcome you seek, to speak the truth into existence. Against this
backdrop, John Kador has created an empowering book for all those
committed to advancing their careers.
If we in the human resources field can offer job seekers one thing, it
is that sense of empowerment. Empowerment is the engine that gets it
done. Empowerment is different from confidence, because it is more than
an attitude or a state of mind -- it's a state of being.
Empowerment isn't giving the villager a fish to eat; it's teaching him
or her how to fish. Empowerment is a corollary to education. Just as
education provides the framework for advancement -- not simply in
mastering a body of knowledge, but in knowing how to acquire more -- so
a sense of empowerment enables job hunters to take control and craft a
career. In doing so, what matters isn't just the current job, but the
path taken -- the relationship to work throughout life. And as
John demonstrates so compellingly in this book, empowerment begins with
the questions applicants ask.
So much creativity and insight has gone into the concept of the
"informational interview," thanks largely to Richard Bolles and his
marvelous classic, What Color Is Your Parachute? For job seekers,
the informational interview at once reduces stress, manages
expectations, and elicits -- what else? -- information. For the
employer, the informational interview is just as useful.
But John has gone the process one better. In showing job seekers how to
interview interviewers, he has taken the informational interview to the
next level. As this practice takes hold, the benefits to employees and
employers alike will be palpable.
How do I know this? Because empowerment doesn't happen as some sort of
grand revelation; it's in the details, the small etchings on the clean
slate, the right questions asked in the right way, at the right time.
And because, for me, this process really worked -- though I couldn't
have described it as such at the time.
I was born and went to school in the small community of Tarboro, North
Carolina. I recognized in John's book a road map of my own early
experiences. As a young girl, I saw how people's lives were shaped by
their career opportunities, and I sensed that my own advancement was
keyed to the kind of inquisitor I was. As a student in Project Upward
Bound, a program for academically achieving, college-bound,
disadvantaged students, I left North Carolina to expand my education,
eventually working at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington,
D.C.
Throughout my journey, one common thread emerged: The quality of the
answers I received was related directly to the pointed nature of the
questions I asked. The more engaged I was, the more those around me
responded. This process was nonverbal as well as verbal.
John Kador is the author of numerous career books, including The Manager's Book of Questions: 751 Great Interview Questions for Hiring the Best Person.
