You have (hopefully) answered all the interviewers’ questions perfectly and now it’s your chance to ask the questions.
This is not the time to ask about salaries, holidays or the sickness policy. It is your time to show your passion and your opportunity to build as much rapport with the interviewer as possible.
Q1- What type of person is successful in this company?
This shows that being successful is something that you are most definitely interested in and you have every intention of identifying the attributes.
The interviewer is now talking to you about these activities and characteristics and this gives you the opportunity to agree and reinforce that you are that person. You increase the chance of them putting you in the ‘successful pile’ in their mind and now associate you with these personality traits.
Q2 - What is the culture like within the business?
In my experience recruiters or hiring managers care about two things. Obviously they care about lots of things, but when it comes to choosing the one person from the shortlist they ultimately look at
1) Will they (directly/indirectly) make the company more money?
2) Will they get on with me and my existing team?
By asking the interviewer this question you are showing that getting on with the existing team and fitting in with the culture is also on your agenda, and you recognise that simply matching the job description is not the only thing that needs to be considered.
Q3 – What do you like most about working for this company?
This is a great question to ask, but only works well if you ask it at the end in a casual manner. It is slightly personal (but not too personal!) and shows you are interested in the interviewer on a personal, but professional level. On the whole, people love talking about themselves and one great way to build rapport with people is to ask them questions about themselves.
Let’s be honest, we all want to work with people we get on well with because ‘people employ people’ (cliché but true). It will also give you a much better understanding of the company that you will not get from the job description or your recruitment consultant.
There are many more great questions to ask the interviewer and I hope that my favourites will prove beneficial for you in the future.
As always GOOD LUCK in your interview!
About the author
AIMEE BATEMAN
Over the last decade, Aimee has worked for some of the world’s largest recruitment companies at senior management or board director level. She is now an award winning entrepreneur, presenter and coach. Aimee has helped thousands of people succeed in their dream career through her advisory websiteCareercake.com