The new millennium workplace is drastically different from the old-millennium one. There are scams and sketchy situations everywhere, and job-seekers have to be wary.
You cannot assume that because somebody posts a job ad, therefore the company is healthy, solid or above-board (or even real).
You cannot enter an organization's recruiting process believing that if you can only get the job offer, everything will work out fine.
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Too many job-seekers have experienced the crushing feeling of taking a job only to find out that you've made a terrible mistake.
It is much harder to get out of a bad job than to get into the job, because to get out you have to do three challenging things:
1. Conduct a stealth job search outside your working hours
2. Do this while working in an unpleasant and taxing work environment every day
3. Keep your mojo and your energy up until you get a new job -- without settling for a job that's worse than the one you have!
You have to vet an employer as carefully as they vet you. Don't put so much focus on getting the job that you forget to make your own evaluation of the people you are meeting!
Don't get stuck in the wrong job because you were afraid to ask questions that would help you evaluate the culture of a company you are thinking about joining.
Asking the five questions listed below will tell you a lot about your interviewer and the organization that employs them.
Five Questions You Absolutely, Positively Must Ask At A Job Interview
• Can you please tell me a story about the culture here?
• How will the person in this position help the department and the company reach their goals?
• What's the best thing about working here?
• What was it about my resume that interested you?
• What is the set of things your new hire will accomplish in the first ninety or 180 days that will make you very happy you hired them?
Let's walk through these questions one by one.
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The first reason you will ask to hear a story about the culture rather than ask the question "What is the culture like?" is that it's hard to talk about culture.
"What is the culture like?" is not a good question because most people will give you a generic answer like "It's a great culture," and that will not help you.
The second reason to ask for a culture story is that it makes the interviewer stop and think.
If you meet three or four different interviewers during your hiring process and they all tell you the same culture story, that's a bad sign! Healthy organizations create new culture stories every day.
Some interviewers might even be put out when you ask them to tell you a culture story. That's a bad sign, too!
The second question is designed to understand how your job fits into the larger picture. Save this question for your own department manager, rather than an HR interviewer or anyone else.
The question "How will your new hire help you hit your goals?" once again requires your hiring manager to stop and think. Some people cannot do that. If your hiring manager is miffed at the question, run away!
"What's the best thing about working here?" is a penetrating question that will give you huge insights into the organization if you ask it of every interviewer you meet.
Sadly, sometimes the best thing about working for an organization is their dental plan or their location rather than the elements that will end up mattering most: the work, the mission, the people, the opportunity to learn and grow, and of course the trust level in the workplace.
"What made you decide to interview me?" is a great question because it forces your interviewer to relate your resume to the job they are trying to fill.
If they aren't sure or they say "It wasn't my decision whom to interview," you know you are dealing with boxed-in and fearful people.
Who cares whether it was their decision, or not? If someone is involved in a hiring process, they should be able to look at a resume and explain why that resume is a good fit for a job in the company.
It takes a confident person to compliment another person, and although "Why did you decide to interview me?" is a businesslike and appropriate question, it also somewhat forces the interview to compliment you.
If someone is really mired in fear, they will not be happy at all to compliment you! The reluctance you hear in their voice and see on their face to stoop to acknowledge you, a lowly job-seeker, is a bad sign.
The final question in our list forces your hiring manager to stop and think a third time.
By forcing your manager to identify their wish list, you will instantly become more memorable to your hiring manager -- who may meet six to fifteen other job applicants besides you.
When your hiring manager answers the wish-list question, it will probably be the first time they've considered that highly relevant topic.
By pairing yourself with the answer to the question -- the list of hot items and big problems you are being hired to address -- you will insert a picture in your manager's mind. It will be a picture of yourself doing the job.
You will inspire your manager to start watching a movie in their brain -- a movie about you crushing it in your new job. When that happens, your interview has been a major success. That movie, in fact, is what the interview is all about!
