I had an email today that brought back the information from a post I did years ago called, How to Interview Potential Employers. If you are seeking a job or if you interview people for jobs, check it out.
Also, I have a free e-book download called, Interviewer's Secrets Revealed here.
I do a lot of interviewing for jobs at all levels of the organization and I am still amazed at the LACK of good questions I get from candidates. Making a bad job decision is a major thing, so it seems to me that candidates would want to check out the company and hiring manager very thoroughly.
But I guess it depends on your situation, right? If you are gainfully employed, perhaps you can be pickier than if you are unemployed and worried about paying the mortgage. That said, I get few good questions from employed people.
How do you make the decision that a job is right for you? How important is the fit with the company and hiring manager? If important, do you ask lots of questions or do you go with your gut - with chemistry.
I value chemistry a lot, but still ask lots of questions.
Oh, and here is a list of interview questions I like for middle managers and above on the org chart (This is my latest list):
1. Each member of a leadership team brings unique strengths and weaknesses. For the last/current leadership team you belonged to:
A. Describe the team – size, members
B. What unique skills and talents did you bring to the team BEYOND your functional knowledge?
C. In what ways did you rely on other team members for coaching and advice?
2. What are the key reasons for your success?
3. Describe a time that you asserted yourself at a regular leadership team meeting. What was the situation? What did you say? What were the results?
4. Describe the two contributions you made in the last year that you are most proud of. How have these contributions helped the organization?
5. Beyond your functional projects and tasks, in what ways have you helped the company improve it’s ability to manage, execute and react to change?
6. Tell me about a peer that you have the most difficulty working with? What made it difficult? What did you do about it? What were the results?
7. If we were to ask your current/last peers and manager to describe the greatest strengths you brought to the company, what do you think they would say? Why?
8. Over the next two years, how would you like to grow as a leader?
9. Over the last year, what was the largest problem you were faced with solving? How did you approach it? What did you do? What were the results?
10. Describe your leadership and management style. How do you approach ensuring everyone on your team is working on the right stuff? How do you communicate? What is your belief about what makes people perform their best? Describe your direct reports in terms of each person’s, strengths, weaknesses, and how you managed each to perform their best.
11. As a member of the senior team, you need to communicate fully but appropriately with your teams, peers, and managers. How would you approach this responsibility? What, if anything, should be off limits? What do team members need to know and what do peers and managers need to know?
12. Tell me about the staff meetings you called? What was the focus? Who ran the meetings?
13. Selecting and developing a strong team is important. What do you look for when selecting a talented professional (other than the needed functional skills)? Tell me about a hiring success and a hiring failure and what you learned from each.
14. How do you approach ensuring everyone on your team is working on the right stuff? How do you communicate what’s most important? What is your belief about what makes people perform their best work?
15. Tell me about your hot buttons. What stresses you out or frustrates you?
16. Which areas of your work have been criticized most over the years? By whom? Why?
17. Based on what you know so far, what’s the good, the bad, and the ugly of this position?
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