The TWO Toughest Interview Questions

March 22, 2010 - PRLog -- You arrived on time for the interview. You were dressed appropriately. You felt you were able to immediately establish excellent rapport with the interviewer and maintain it throughout the interview. It was obvious, at least to you, that you and the interviewer seemed to have really “hit it off,” to have had quite a bit in common. All the evidence pointed to you literally being a “shoo-in” for the position!

You are positive that you will be invited back for a follow-up interview. At this stage of the game, however, you believe that next step has merely become a formality. Then something strange and unexpected happens! You never hear one single word back from the hiring manager or the company!

What happened?! How did you so thoroughly misread the signs!?

There are many and varied reasons why a candidate never hears back from a hiring manager or a company after a job interview. And, if you expect to learn the exact reason(s) why your candidacy apparently “fizzled” from a hiring manager or company, that simply is not going to happen. If you are working with a recruiter, the hiring manager will certainly tell the recruiter why, if for no other reason than he or she wants to move the hiring process along and doesn’t want to waste additional time interviewing candidates similar to the ones he or she has just rejected. But certainly the hiring manager will never, never tell you the reason(s).

In my experience, the main reason why a candidate is summarily dropped from further consideration by a hiring manager boils down to this: How well—or how poorly—the candidate answers TWO questions that seem to be asked in one form or another during virtually every Job interview.

THE FIRST ‘TOUGHEST’ QUESTION

As most job interviews wind down, the interviewer almost always will ask the candidate a question that goes something like this:

“What questions do you have?”

If you are like many candidates this question may seem to be nothing more than a “soft ball” or “wrap up” question, the answer to which will really have little if any meaning or impact on the overall interview. Nothing could be further from the truth!

The “typical” candidate, either attempting to curry favor with the interviewer or avoid saying anything that might offend him or her, will give an answer like this:

“You’ve done such an excellent job of explaining the position that I really don’t have any further questions.”

This type of answer, ladies and gentlemen, is the “kiss of death” for you and your candidacy! “Curiosity” may indeed prove fatal to a cat, but the lack of it on your part during a job interview can definitely prove “fatal” to your candidacy.

This is your moment to “shine”! Don’t waste it!

A far, far better answer to this question would be something like this:

"Mr./Ms. Hiring Manager, let's assume for a moment that I am your candidate of choice and that I become your next (position for which you are applying). It is one year from now. You look back over the past year and say, 'I made a good hire.' What is it that I would have had to have done over the year for you to be able to say that?”

This answer, by the way, has gotten a number of our “coached” candidates the positions they sought this year!

Just how vital the answer to this question is  to a successful candidacy was recently brought home to me by a vice president of a Fortune 500 chemical company that I recruit for:

“The quality of a candidate is in direct proportion to the quality of the questions they ask during the interview,” he told me.

Just for the record, and before moving to the second toughest question, let me hasten to point out the types of questions not to ask at this stage of the interview:

•  Questions about the company (you should have done your “homework” in this area before the interview!)

•  Questions about benefits (you haven’t even been offered the position yet!)

•  Questions about low-level tasks/duties/responsibilities of the position

In other words, keep your questions tightly and narrowly focused on solid, in-depth questions about the position itself. Ask questions that enable both you and the interviewer to define success!

THE SECOND ‘TOUGHEST’ QUESTION

Rare indeed is it that a job candidate won’t be asked a question that goes something like this during the job interview:

“What is your salary expectation?”

Most job candidates instinctively realize that this question certainly isn’t a “soft ball” or “wrap up” type of question! Indeed, many candidates actually dread having to answer this question. Why? Because they know, instinctively again, that, if they answer too low and they are the successful candidate, they will be “leaving money on the table.” If they answer too high, again, if they are the successful candidate, they sense (often correctly) that they will quickly be eliminated from further consideration.

So, what is a good answer to this “killer” question? Actually—and this will come as somewhat of a surprise to many job candidates!—the best way to answer this question is not to answer it directly! Here is an example of how to do that, and it's an answer our coached candidates use consistently:

“I am very interested in this opportunity, Mr./Ms. Hiring Manager. And, If I am your candidate of choice and, in turn, you are my company of choice, then I know the salary will be more than fair.”

Think about the inherent “beauty” of this answer! You’re not “avoiding” answering the question, or “dancing around it,” you’re merely making a definitive statement about the relative importance of salary vis-à-vis the position, the overall career opportunity. Will an answer such as this dissuade every hiring manager from further pursuing the question? Of course not, but it will dissuade the majority of them to the extent that they move on, satisfied that salary, while apparently an important consideration for you, certainly is not the most important consideration for you.

In “Headhunter” Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever!, I go into comprehensive detail about what to say—as well as what not to say—as the job interview winds down. I have touched on only a couple of the important considerations in this article, of course. So, do yourself a favor and learn how to correctly answer not only these two “toughest” interview questions, but also a wide variety of other “gotcha!” questions that you can anticipate encountering during a job interview.

Knowing the correct way to answer job interview questions can—and quite often does!—spell the difference between being further pursued by a hiring manager or company and never hearing one single word from them again!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
   
Skip Freeman is author of "Headhunter" Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever!, (http://www.headhunterhiringsecrets.com) He has successfully completed more than 300 executive search assignments in just seven years. Specializing in the placement of sales, engineering, manufacturing and R&D professionals in industry, he has developed powerful techniques that help companies hire the best and help the best get hired.
           
A distinguished graduate of the United States Military Academy, West Point, he is a lifelong student of leadership, people and the principles of success. While serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Chemical Corps, he also earned a Master of Science degree in Organic Chemistry from The Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration degree in Marketing from Long Island University.

‘Headhunter’ Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever! is available for order from Amazon.com. Click on this link to place your order: http://www.amazon.com/Headhunter-Hiring-Secrets-Changed-F...

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