- Hi there, it's JT
and welcome back to Work It Daily.
In today's video, I'm going to give you
eight smart questions to ask hiring managers
in job interviews.
But before I do that,
I just wanna remind you to click the link below
to subscribe and hit the bell
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we create new career content to help you get ahead.
Alright, so what do you do when you're in an interview
and we get to that end where the hiring manager
looks at you and says, "Do you have any questions for me?"
Well, of course you do!
In fact, it is very important that you ask questions.
I wanna tell you that recently
an employer I know reached out to me frustrated
and said, "I hate when I ask that question
"and the person says, 'No, everybody's been really nice,
"'I think I'm okay.'"
That person, he told me, does not get hired
and the reason for that is that they have real concerns
if you aren't asking questions,
if you aren't doing your due diligence
and if you aren't having enough value in yourself
to ask some clarifying questions
to make sure that this place is the right place for you.
Remember, we always tell you here at Work It Daily
that you are a business of one,
selling your services to an employer
and you wanna make sure that it's a good partnership.
So to do that, you've gotta ask questions
to make sure that this is the right place for you.
It's like kicking the tires or looking under the hood
to make sure that you're making a good investment.
So with that in mind,
let's take a look at the eight questions
you should be asking in your next interview.
So before I break down the eight questions,
I'm gonna tell you that they fall into four categories
and we call them the four C's.
Now, by covering off on these four C's,
you're gonna make sure that you're asking
all the questions necessary to make a good decision
about this employer.
And those four C's are
connect, culture, challenges, and close.
What do I mean by that?
Well, connect simply is you connecting
to that hiring manager, to that person
that you'll be working with.
You wanna ask some questions to help you bond
in the interview.
As far as culture goes,
you wanna make sure this is the right
corporate culture for you.
Does this company believe and have values
and go about business in a way that you respect
and that you trust so that you can put
your best foot forward?
With respect to challenges,
you wanna know what's keeping them up at night
so that you can make sure
these are the kinds of challenges
that you actually wanna work on
and leverage your skills to be successful at.
And then lastly, close.
You wanna end this interview, this conversation,
on a high note.
You wanna leave very clear on what the next steps are.
So once we know the four C's,
it gets really easy to create questions
that we can ask in the interview
to make sure that we're getting the information we need
And that's what I'm gonna show you next.
So we're starting with connect
and the first question you should always ask
in an interview is,
"How did you come to work here?"
This is an opportunity for you to bond
with this individual by learning how they got hired
by the company.
What drew them into the company?
What made them decide this was a great place
for them to work.
This is gonna give you a lot of insight
into their own decisions
and what they're like as a worker.
The second question is,
"What do you love most about working here?"
It's really important that you ask
a positive question that let's them talk about
all of the things that they love about the employer.
This is gonna be a great chance for you to bond
and share a love for the things that are great
about working at this company.
Plus, you're gonna be able to evaluate
whether or not these sound like things
that you really care about.
Remember, these questions are designed
for you to get insight into whether or not
this company is a good fit for you.
So while they're very positive questions,
it's also giving you a chance to evaluate
whether or not it's a fit.
The second C is culture,
specifically corporate culture.
And the two questions you're gonna ask here
are around individuals that have been hired at the company.
The first question is,
"Tell me about the most successful hire
"you've made recently.
"Why has that person been very successful in their role?"
This is gonna help you understand who's being recognized
in the organization as a high performer.
And you wanna listen carefully.
Let me give you an example.
If they tell you about a person who came in
and worked 80 hours a week
and took everything that they had to do
and worked with no budget
and really was able to knock it out of the park,
does that sound like a place you wanna work?
Does that sound like a place with work life balance
that has their ducks in a row?
No!
So if they're recognizing that as a good hire,
then you know this probably isn't the right place for you.
Now the second question you wanna ask
is the polar opposite,
"Tell me about a hire recently that didn't work out.
Why did they fail in their role?"
And once again, you wanna listen closely
to the answer because we wanna see if the traits
or characteristics of that person who failed
sound like yourself.
If you don't think you can be successful there,
if this person sounds like they really
couldn't have ever won in their job,
then you're gonna know that this isn't
the right place for you.
Now the third C is challenges
and specifically the challenges the company
is going to be facing in the coming year.
So that first question you wanna ask is,
"Tell me about the biggest challenge
"you think the company will experience this year
"and how will this job help to overcome it?"
What you're doing there is showing them
that you understand, you're a business of one,
you're a service provider and that what you're going to do
is help them solve a problem and alleviate a pain.
So by asking them what that pain or that problem is
and how you can help solve that,
you're really sending a message to them
that you understand your role if you get hired.
The second question you wanna ask regarding the challenges
is around performance.
"How will I measure my own performance
"to ensure that I'm having a positive impact
"on this challenge?"
Once again, you're taking full ownership
of your work, of your effort,
and by telling them that I understand
that I'm supposed to do that,
you're sending a clear message to them
that you really will be accountable for your actions
and that's a great selling point there.
At the same time though,
if they come back to you and say,
"Well, there's no real way to measure
"and we won't have any idea of whether or not
"you're making an impact,"
that would be a huge red flag to you
because you're gonna wanna be able to do that
in order to get a promotion or get a raise.
What kind of company can't measure your impact?
That's the sign of a company
that you probably don't wanna work for.
So you can see again
why these questions are really important,
not only do they set you up well with the employer
by showing that you know what you're talking about,
but it also is giving you some key insight
into whether or not you wanna work there.
Now the fourth and final C is about close
and that's how to properly close out this conversation.
So the question that you wanna ask,
and this is gonna sound a little crazy
but I tell you, it really works, is,
"If there were some skills or experience
"you wish I had that would make me a better fit
"for this job, what would they be?
This is your polite way of asking
if they feel you have any shortcomings
or if there is something deficient
about what you've presented to them today
during the interview.
This is a chance for them to call out
and explain any certain skills or experience
or things that might make them hesitate in hiring you.
And so asking this question shows that you understand
you're not a perfect candidate
but that you do wanna know what you could've done better.
By the same token, if they do share something with you,
you now have an opportunity to say,
"Oh, but I didn't share this experience."
Or, "Maybe I didn't tell you about
"this skill set that I have."
It's a chance for you to overcome that objection,
maybe realizing that you didn't give them everything
they needed to hear today.
So that's a really important question to ask.
Now that last question is,
"What are the next steps in the process?"
And that's because you wanna understand where you stand
and what has to happen next for you to get hired.
You don't ever wanna leave a job wondering
when you'll get a phone call,
when they'll follow up,
when they'll make their decision.
So asking this question is gonna help you
get that information
and they're likely gonna tell you some things like,
"Well, we have a few more people to interview,
"you'll hear by this date,
"you'd need to come back in for another interview,"
but at least you'll have that information.
You won't be staring at the phone
or staring at your email
and wondering whether or not you got the job.
The other great thing about that is that
if they give you a date or a deadline
and it comes and goes,
you now have a valid reason to follow up with them
and say, "You know, when we spoke in the interview
"you mentioned this would be the next step,
"that date's come and gone, is there anything else I can do
"to further my candidacy?"
So this is a really important question
for you to ask for your own peace of mind.
At the same time, it's gonna give you
a sense of how structured this company is
and really how well thought out their own hiring process is
so that you can get a clear sense of whether or not
they're the kind of company you wanna work for.
There you have it,
the four C's.
Connect, culture, challenges, and close.
And with two questions a piece,
that creates eight super smart questions
you should be asking hiring managers
in your next job interview.
Okay so now that you've got the eight questions
I've given you, I wanna hear from you.
Is there one particular question
you've asked in an interview that got a great result?
Or maybe there was a question you asked
that didn't get a good result.
Make sure you share it with me below,
we wanna hear from you.
Okay, so questions, comments, feedback
regarding this video,
please make sure you post it below.
We answer each and every one.
And I also hope that you will share and like this content
because you know there's a lot of people out there
that need help with interview questions
and you'll be doing them a favor
and it'll make you look good as well.
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So with that in mind, remember this,
if you wanna win, you've gotta work it daily.