Brief Summary
This video provides ten key questions to ask during a job interview to gain insights into the role, company culture, and expectations. It emphasizes the importance of making the interview a two-way conversation to assess if the company aligns with your career goals. The questions cover topics such as the reason for the position being open, the vision for the role, company weaknesses, competition, and the interviewer's experience.
- Asking questions throughout the interview, not just at the end, to maintain a conversational flow.
- Inquiring about the company's vision for the role and expectations for the first 90 days.
- Identifying potential red flags by asking about past employees and career progression opportunities.
The video emphasizes the importance of asking questions during a job interview, highlighting that candidates who ask questions are more engaged and make the interview a two-way conversation. Asking questions allows candidates to assess whether the company aligns with their preferences and career goals, just as the company evaluates the candidate's suitability. The video aims to provide ten questions that can be used in a job interview to gain insights into the role and the company.
To gain insight into the role and the company, it's important to ask specific questions. One key question is "Why is the position open?" This reveals whether it's a new role or a replacement, and if it's a replacement, it's crucial to understand why previous employees didn't work out. High turnover could indicate red flags about the company or hiring manager. If the role is new due to departmental growth, it's generally a positive sign.
To understand the company's expectations and vision, ask "What is your vision for this role?" and "What are the top three things you would like to see from me in the first 90 days?". These questions clarify expectations and allow you to assess if they are realistic. Additionally, asking "How can I exceed in this role?" helps understand what it takes to excel and highlights your desire to succeed. It's also important to inquire about career progression by asking "What growth opportunities do you see longer term for this role?" to ensure alignment with your career ambitions and identify potential toxic workplaces.
Instead of only answering the common question about your weaknesses, flip the script by asking the interviewer, "What's a weakness your department currently has?" and "How do you see this role contributing to solve or improve these weaknesses?". The answers provide insights into the department's challenges and allow you to tailor your closing remarks to address these weaknesses, demonstrating how you can contribute to their improvement.
Prior to the interview, research the company's competition and financial status. Ask questions like "What is your strategy to address your biggest competition?" or "How do you plan to secure your next round of funding?". These questions are particularly important for startups or companies reliant on funding, ensuring you're aware of potential financial risks that could lead to layoffs.
To gain a personal perspective and build rapport, ask the interviewer, "How long have they been with the company and what it is they like about working there?". This encourages them to share their experiences and provides valuable insights into the company culture. If multiple people are interviewing you, ask each of them for diverse perspectives.
To avoid uncertainty, always ask about the next steps in the hiring process. Specifically, inquire "What the next steps are and when you are likely to hear back". This provides a timeline and allows you to follow up confidently if you don't hear back by the given deadline.
The video concludes by wishing viewers good luck with their upcoming interviews and promoting a career growth accelerator program. The program covers resume optimization, LinkedIn profile enhancement, job search strategies, and interview training. A link to the program is provided in the description.
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Transcript
Full transcript of “10 Essential Job Interview Questions You MUST Ask for Success”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 so you've landed that all important interview but what question should you ask I've previously worked as a recruiter and a hiring manager so I've had my fair share of questions fired at me in the past when interviewing candidates and potential employees those that stood out were the ones that had plenty of questions and I felt like they were interviewing me as much as I was interviewing them so in today's video I'm going to share 10 questions to ask in your next job interview now a key thing to know is don't wait until the end of the interview to ask your questions you want the interview to flow and feel more like a conversation so where you can ask these questions along the way to avoid waiting for the end where the interviewer may have covered most of the questions you had or worse you completely forget what you plan to ask so the first couple of questions are
0:46 going to give you more insight into the role and not only that some insight into the company remember an interview should be a two-way process it's an opportunity to assess whether the company aligns with your preferences just as much as it is for them to evaluate if you are a suitable fit for their tea so the first question you want to ask is why is the position open this will shed some light on whether this is a new position or whether someone has been in the role before now note if there's been three people in the role previously and none of them have worked out it might be a red flag and a reflection on the company or the hiring manager so feel free to push back and ask why they didn't work out now if they all quit why did they quit or if they were all fired why were they fired do they have unachievable
1:33 expectations and are you going to be able to meet these expectations if it's a completely new role because they're adding to headcount and the department is growing this is usually a good sign which brings us to the next question what is your vision for this role now you want to see why this position has been created and what their long-term vision is for the role try to get this answering early so that you can tailor your answers to future questions to the points they give you when answering this question question now you can take this question one step further and ask what are the top three things you would like to see from me in the first 90 days now this will give you a clear understanding of their expectations in the role and whether they are feasible if the hiring manager doesn't understand the realities of the position it's a chance for you to
2:18 push back and get those questions answered you don't want to take a job with unrealistic expectations as you will only be setting yourself up to fail or Worse starting with a red flag employer or potential toxic work environment another good question to ask would be how can I exceed in this role now this invites the hiring manager to tell you exactly what you need to do to excel in this role and will again allow you to fully understand their expectations and give you the heads up if there's any areas that you could improve your knowledge prior to taking the job it also emphasizes your desire to succeed now something else you want to clarify is is there any room for career progression with this company so ask what growth opportunities do you see longer term for this role as a company
3:05 do they have a clear career path for their employees do they promote internally you really want to establish this before taking the job if there's no room for progression and growth how is that going to align with your Ambitions for your career and if they don't tend to promote internally this could also be a red flag for a potential toxic workplace I've done a whole video highlighting the red flags you should look out for winning in inter VI so check that out after this video now a common question hiring managers love to ask is what would you say your weaknesses are but here's our opportunity to flip the script and throw the same question back to them with what's a weakness your department currently has and then a follow-up question to this can be how do you see this role contributing to solve or
3:50 improve these weaknesses now answers to these questions will give you a good indication of what to say in your Roundup of why they should hire you you can touch upon all of their weaknesses and how you can contribute to improving and supporting them now when you're researching the company prior to your interview you want to check out who their competition is as well as understand where the company sits financially if a competitor has bought out a new product or service what impact could this be having on them and if they a startup or rely on funding had they got the finances they need you don't want to take the new job only to hear that you're being laid off a few months later so ask what is your strategy to address your biggest competition or how do you plan to secure your next round of
4:36 funding now next up you want to find out more about the person interviewing you so ask them how long have they've been with the company and what it is they like about working there okay so that's an additional question but most people love to talk about themselves so by asking this they will feel heard as well as giving you a good insight into the company now if there is more than one person interviewing you ask all of them so that way you get various different perspectives now finally to avoid being left wondering when you will hear back or Worse getting ghosted ask what the next steps are and when you are likely to hear back the answer to this will not only give you an indication on how the interview went but it will also give you a clear deadline which if you don't hear back by you can confidently follow up good luck with your upcoming interview
5:22 and if you do feel like you could do with some onetoone support with your job search check out my career growth accelerator program where I cover everything think from optimizing your resume and Linkedin to giving you a clear job search strategy as well as interview training and so much more I'll leave a link in the description below if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and make sure you subscribe to hear more valuable insights
