Don’t worry about waiting until the end of the discussion to ask your questions. Throughout the ... [+]
It will be harder to get a new job. Record-high inflation, interest rates and costs, a likely recession and other economic and geopolitical matters led many companies to lay off workers, enact hiring freezes and rescind job offers. In this environment, pace yourself, as you might be in for a drawn-out interview process. Hiring, for many businesses, will seem like a luxury.
This mindset will make human resources and hiring managers closely scrutinize each candidate and hold them up to the highest standards. You will need to prepare for tough questions designed to weed out people. Here are a few questions HR loves to ask and how to effectively answer them to help get you through the hiring process with flying colors.
Show Your Genuine And Authentic Self
A hiring manager wants someone who they like. This runs contrary to what everyone has told you in the past. It’s essential to have all the right skills and background required in the job description; however, it’s all for naught if the interviewer doesn’t warm up to you and can’t envision working with you every day. Establishing a great first impression is the key to winning over an interviewer. You want to exude confidence, enthusiasm, motivation and humility.
This sounds trite, but be yourself. Most job applicants put on a serious demeanor and answer questions robotically, trying to sound professional. They are stiff, conservative and lack any display of humanity. It's a big mistake. Don’t change your personality because that’s what you think the manager wants.
Let the hiring manager see the real you. The secret to interviewing is that the supervisor wants a person who can do the job, be easy to work with, can form a mutually beneficial relationship and enjoy each other’s company.
The ‘Could You Please Tell Me About Yourself?’ Question
Immediately, the interviewee starts talking about delivering newspapers as a kid, referencing some after-school jobs and meanders around talking about personal matters. That is the worst thing to do. The interviewer simply wants to find out about your relevant work experience. The cliché question is not well-structured.
The interviewer wants to be sold on how you can help them. They want an answer that makes them feel you have the right skills, talent, background, credentials and interpersonal and social skills to succeed in the position.
Consider the question: "Please tell me about your post-college work experiences, how it relates to the role and why you will succeed.” With this in mind, start with sharing your current job, responsibilities, daily tasks and share some examples of how you made an impact and added value. This is what they really want to know.
‘What Made You Want To Apply For This Specific Role?’ Question
Let’s be honest. Most job seekers have a “spray and pray” approach to their job search. They fire off résumés to hundreds of job listings, hoping that a few will stick. Human resources and experienced hiring managers are aware of this. Their antenna is raised to detect those who truly want to work for their company and have an affinity for the job at hand. They are not too happy about applicants who just want a job or are solely desirous of having a marquee brand-name company on their résumé.
The question is designed to flesh out the interviewee’s real reasons for applying to the job. We all know that sometimes people desperately need a job and are at the point that they’d accept anything to either get back into the job market, if they’re unemployed, or find a new role, if they hate where they are now and are feeling burned out.
When the job market tightens, getting approval to hire someone is not easy. Usually, there will be a need to get sign-offs from a number of higher-level executives who carefully scrutinize each headcount addition. In light of this scenario, you need to sell yourself as someone who loves the job and holds all the right criteria to do well at the new organization.
Revert to your elevator pitch. If you are unfamiliar with this concept, it’s derived from having the ability to pitch an idea or project to a person in the short time frame of riding together in an elevator for only a couple of minutes. If you haven’t practiced an elevator pitch, here’s what you need to do to address the question.
Provide a 30-second to roughly one-minute pitch of why you are perfect for the position. Presumably, you’ve already read the job listing and are aware of all the requirements. Offer your on-target skills, work history, responsibilities and other factors that address the job description’s demands. Hopefully, you’ve done due diligence on the firm, so you can add targeted reasons, in addition to your on-point background, why you are also attracted to the company and how your skills and interests are perfectly aligned with its corporate mission.
‘Do You Have Any Questions?’
This easy-sounding question gives job hunters a hard time. The question is typically standard in the hiring process. The interviewer is asking it to be polite and wants to ensure that you fully understand the role, its requirements and what to expect if the company decides to move forward with you.
Since most job seekers know this question will inevitably come up at the end of the conversation, they obsess about it throughout the entire interview. The candidate becomes more preoccupied with what to ask at the end of the meeting than being present in the moment and actively listening to the interviewer.
Here is an easy solution. Think of how you hold a conversation with family and friends. You don’t wait until the end to say something. You interject when you feel it's appropriate. Don’t worry about waiting until the end of the discussion to ask your questions. Throughout the meeting, pose questions when you genuinely want to probe and learn more about what the just interviewer said.
The interviewer will appreciate that you are making inquiries. They’ll feel you are interested and desirous of learning more. By interjecting with questions, the hiring manager will gain a better sense of you as a person. What’s likely to happen is that the interview process will change from a robotic, question-and-answer format to a lively back-and-forth discussion, in which both parties will learn more about each other and start bonding.
At the end of the meeting, you no longer need to stress out. Feeling comfortable having engaged in a pleasant discussion, you could say, “Thank you! I appreciate all of your insights. You’ve done a great job addressing all my questions and concerns.” If unresolved issues are left, you can add, “I appreciated our conversation. I’m very excited about the opportunity. You’ve been so great in detailing what to expect if selected for the position. I just have one other question. Could you please elaborate on X? I’d really like to gain a better understanding of it.”
Uncomfortable Questions You Should Ask
In an environment characterized by layoffs and hiring freezes, it's reasonable to feel concerned about switching jobs. You don’t want to be the person who is the last one hired and first one fired when things go awry. To protect yourself, while it will be awkward, you must ask tough questions of the interviewer and everyone else who is involved with the hiring process.
It's only fair for you to dig into the organization's financial situation. Does the company have plans for layoffs that were not yet publicly announced? Could the firm offer a contract that guarantees that you won't be terminated, except if there is a transgression or violation of company rules?
You want to gain the temperature of the company. Is everyone feeling overworked and overwhelmed? It’s only fair to inquire about the safety of your base salary, bonus and stock options. The same holds true for the work style. You don’t want to accept a role only later to find out that the company is canceling the remote work option you signed up for, or enacting salary cuts and slashing bonuses and other benefits.
