I have (finally) gotten a job interview for a rep position with a publisher of medical textbooks. I’m stoked, mainly because I have a good chance at this one. I’ve got a long background with textbooks, having been a university instructor in situations where books were chosen by committee and where I chose them myself. I was also a textbook manager/buyer for a college bookstore for a while.
But here’s my problem: I know I need some questions for the interviewers, but I can never think of any. I do my research and often don’t have anything but, “How much will you pay me?” Can you HR and employed dopers help me come up with some questions I can ask when it’s my turn?
Oh, yeah, the territory will be SC, coastal NC, and part of FL–can it get any better?
The best questions I’ve ever asked at a job interview came from learning what the organization’s short-term and long-term goals were and asking questions about how the job I was interviewing fit into them.
For instance, I was interviewing for a technical-support position with an organization which had recently outsourced a large portion of what many industry professionals consider to be a core element of it’s function. I felt completely justified in asking: “At what point do you think the organization will begin considering outsourcing it’s technical support functions?”
Be nice to the receptionist, and any other “little people”* you might meet.
You’d be surprised at the weight they can pull in your favor if they like you, and how easily they can black ball you if they don’t.
*[disclaimer]I do not mean degrade people in these positions at all. I currently am, and have been for several years, in an administrative position.[/disclaimer]
Well, I’m meeting the HR guy and the Regional Manager at a hotel, but I agree with your point. I’ve been on both sides of that receptionist desk and they do hold a lot of power. In academia, I got more done being friendly with the department secretary than being a drinking buddy of the department chair.
And thanks to everyone else too…keep them questions comin’
My main advice is to relax and let yourself be the perfect, wonderful, charming person you are. Have a few questions ready, and bear in mind that you are interviewing this company just as much as they are interviewing you. (This attitude helps you feel like an applicant rather than a supplicant.)
I always find the questions thing tough because by the time they’re done introducing me around and telling me about the job, they’ve already answered my questions. So I just tell them that, and maybe come up with something else if I feel it’s necessary. Philster’s suggestion of “What goes on in a typical day” is a good one.
Oh yeah: The advice my dad gave me years ago was, “When you’re going to a job interview, dress as though you’ve already got the job.” Of course, that was before today’s relaxed dress codes. I probably wouldn’t have gotten my current job if I’d interviewed wearing Chuck Taylors, although I can wear them to work now.
Good luck; sounds like you’re qualified and articulate, and as a native North Floridian, I say the territory can’t be beat.
Watch-out for curve balls
I don’t have any specific questions you could ask, perhaps a query about future promotions would imply that “fire-in-your-belly” atitude some HR wonks look for.
Here’s a curve ball thrown at me, a question I had not been prepared for…
“Well, Mr. Buck, If we were to give you this position, what would happen if six months down the road if you were to win the lottery?”
My first thought was to say, “impossible, I never waste my money on 1 in 23 million odds” but then thought what if the interviewer doesn’t accept that answer and changes the lottery premise to
inheritance?
My 2nd thought was to say, “I’d stay with the firm because I enjoy I’d enjoy working here so much” but then realized that sounded patronizing.
The silence was beginning to become deafening so I went with;
My 3rd thought; which was to be blunt and totally honest. I told him "I’d resign after adequate notice, invest the money & start my own company in the same field, because I do enjoy it and could never be away from it for any length of time.
One of my favorite sites for this sort of information is Ask The Headhunter , put together by professional recruiter Nick Corcodilos. You’d do well to read all of “The Basics” section, but at the very least read The New Interview. I’ve had nothing but successful interviews since first reading and applying these strategies and techniques. I don’t mean that I’ve been offered a job as a result of every interview, but I’ve left every interview feeling that I’d done everything in my power to sell myself as the best candidate for the job.
Corcodilos’ advice boils down to learning everything you possibly can about the company, its people, its products, its successes and weaknesses, then directing everything you say or do in the interview process to demonstrating how you can successfully do the work for them – focus on why they should have you do the work, not on why they should give you a job.