This is the first of a two-part article on how to ask questions during interviews that “get the job done,” meaning they help you stand out from the competition, and they get you the valuable information you need to do excellent due diligence in the job search process.
Formulating great questions throughout a suite of interviews – HR to final round – is the process of synthesizing the information you gain from one round of interviews and then deploying it in the next round to gain more useful information and to demonstrate your increasing knowledge – and interest – in the role and the company. Thus, the layer cake analogy.
The state of the market and its impact on the interview process
Continuing to scan LinkedIn job posts and company career sites, whoa, there are a lot of jobs out there in all ISACA disciplines. Looking at the notifications from LinkedIn, there are also a lot of people landing in new jobs.
So, it is fair to conclude that many of you might be out there interviewing – a little, a lot, dipping a toe, ready to jump – in any case, immersed in the interview process, a process that is constantly evolving and will evolve even more rapidly as managers realize they need to interview better to both capture and retain talent.
And that means that job candidates need to embrace the change in the way interviews are conducted and adapt and improve their interviewing skills.
Every company has its own interview methodology. The thing that job-seekers can count on is that multiple rounds of interviews are an accepted best practice now, and we are likely to see even more intensive vetting moving forward. (Word to the wise, if a company you are interviewing with is running a “quick and dirty” interview and hiring process, with only a couple rounds of interviews, it’s a potential red flag to pay attention to.)
The focus on “fit” – for you and for them
Hiring managers and teams want to ensure they are hiring people with the right skills who are also a good fit for the team and the larger organization. Hiring is costly, and having to let someone go is even more costly in terms of time lost, impingement on project schedules, impact on team dynamics and the time it takes to restart a search and find another suitable candidate.
Having an effective process that maximizes the chances of hiring right the first time is important – especially now when the war for talent is the fiercest it’s been in nearly two decades!
For both sides of the hiring equation, fit is now paramount. Candidates want jobs that align with their lives, their values and their career goals. Hiring managers want to hire folks who are a strong fit for their team now – both in skills and overall chemistry – and for the organization longer term.
What this means is that interviews are going to more heavily focus on situational questions that probe thought processes, work style, problem solving, emotional intelligence and conflict resolution – in short, all the stuff that goes into “fit” (as defined by any given team or company).
The upside for you of more rounds of interviews is that you have the opportunity to go beyond just kicking the tires. You’re getting a chance to really inspect the engine to see if it is solid and purring or a broken, cranky beast.
Having that chance to meet with HR, the hiring manager, team members, senior leaders and critical stakeholders who will impact your work day-to-day is critically important because these interviews are your major source of data about what the job, the company, your prospective future boss and your team members will be like.
So many people I have spoken with over the years have told me that they made a regrettable job choice because of an overly speedy hiring process or one where they did not have the chance to meet key people – or they didn’t do enough due diligence by asking the right questions.
Job choices are nearly always made without complete information. You need to glean as much intel as you can at each stage of the interview through careful listening and critically asking questions that elicit valuable information.
Here’s what it takes to develop highly effective questions that earn you those precious of nuggets of intel:
- Researching and planning your question content
- Having the right number of questions for each interview
- Prioritizing your questions
- Asking appropriate questions at each stage of the interview process
- Determining the right question for each interviewer
- Framing your questions carefully
In this next section, we are going to cover steps 1 through 3. But before we do that, I want to introduce you to the power dynamic that underpins all interviews. Knowing who has the power and when it shifts ensures that you will stay focused on asking strategic questions and avoid a common interview mistake.
First principle: The “power pendulum”
During your interviews, your questions need to focus on the company, the team and the job—not on “me-centric” questions (e.g., training, benefits, support for certifications, special requests around flexible hours and so forth).
During the interviews, the balance of power resides with the company that has the job to offer. The power pendulum only shifts to you once you have an offer in hand. That’s when you must ask the me-centric questions and negotiate items that need to be negotiated. (We’ll save offer negotiation for another day.)
Bottom-line: Focus your questions on the job: how the hiring manager wants the job done, key objectives, the company and the team.
High-impact questions
Good question content demonstrates your knowledge of the company you are speaking with; your understanding of your discipline and business generally; your intellectual curiosity and desire to learn.
The foundation for your questions comes from reading as much as you can about the company. Dive deep into their website, look at their value statements, identify their pride points, and read their latest press releases. Read the CEO and CFO statements in their annual report from the past couple years to get a read on the tone at the top, the vision and important enterprise initiatives. Looking at several years of statements from the C-suite may alert you to major shifts or confirm an ongoing trajectory.
Interviews (in magazines or recorded on YouTube or other platforms) with C-suite leaders – including the CIO and CTO – are very informative. Hunt around online for those. You might also find conference decks.
Read up on the company’s competitors. How does your target company differentiate itself? Why is it stronger or weaker than the competition? What is it doing to innovate and move past the competition?
Look at job openings and see where their hiring focus is. Job openings will also tell you a lot about the technologies and tools they use, frameworks they employ, and the image they aim to portray to job-seekers.
You are doing a mini-business case study on your target. The more you know, the better your questions will be – and the more impressive you will be to interviewers.
Putting this into context a bit, episode 107 of the podcast “Darknet Diaries” follows the career journey of Alethe, from her first exposure to the social engineering at DEF CON to her victory at the DEF CON social engineering Capture the Flag contest and beyond to what she is doing today.
It is totally eye-opening to hear about the incredible amount of research Alethe did – and others do – to prepare for the Capture the Flag contest. In fact, the only way to have a shot is to do amazing amounts of research. Check out this episode of Darknet Diaries and you’ll have an even better understanding of the kind of research you want to do for your interviews and how it factors into the questions you ask.
Yes, I know this process takes time. And, when you are working and searching for a job, it can seem like a lot of extra work to do this kind of research. But I can tell you without reservation, the pay-off is there. Hugely there.
This assertion comes from having seen the results – over a large sample size – of job-seekers who do this research versus those who don’t. Those that do receive more job offers AND, more importantly, they have much higher satisfaction with the job they ultimately took. Case closed!
When should you start this research? Ideally before you even apply for the job.
Researching the company before you submit an application will 1) confirm that this is a reasonable and desirable company for you to spend time pursuing, and 2) improve the quality of your application because you can use your research to tweak and customize your résumé, and to help you write effective answers to any pre-screening questions that might be part of the application process.
This upfront research will be useful throughout the entire interview process – from an initial call with HR, an internal recruiter, or the hiring manager – all the way to final stage.
And you’ll be adding to this foundational information at each stage of the interview through the questions you ask and the information you receive.
How many questions?
My rule of thumb is three to five questions for EACH interviewer you are meeting with.
DIFFERENT questions for EACH interviewer. It is important NOT to ask the same question of each interviewer.
Some candidates think that asking each interviewer about corporate culture or what they like about working at the company will give them multiple perspectives to compare. Could be, but the downsides to this strategy are so significant as to not make it worth it. First, you lose the chance to ask about multiple topics and gain more information about more areas. Secondly, you risk coming across – in the eyes of the interviewer – as not particularly sharp, not intellectually curious, or not very confident and professionally polished. Remember, interviewers often compare notes: “Oh? She asked you that same question?!”
Always prioritize your questions. Time is limited during interviews. Thirty minutes, even an hour, will simply fly by. The interviewer may have lots of questions. The interviewer might be late or have to leave early. You may only have the chance to ask ONE question. With that in mind, the MOST important question is the first question you ask.
Rank order the rest of your questions by degree of importance to you in obtaining information AND in demonstrating how you think and your level of knowledge about the business. It is always a balancing act between those objectives.
Unfinished business
In part two of this article next time, we’ll walk through steps 4 through 6, which are the appropriate kind and level of questions at each stage of the interview process, determining the right question for each interviewer, and framing your questions carefully.
If you have follow-up questions or comments, as always, I’d love to hear from you!