What To Ask At The End Of Your Interview?

Kia Ora Whanau

Alex from Costas Enterprises here, and I am here to help you get the job you want.

I’m going to tell you a little secret … the question at the end of an interview is actually really important.

Stick with me here, the reason why it is important is because, if you haven’t swayed the employer yet, this is your last chance to do so.

OK I don’t want this to come of too over-dramatic, but in a way it’s true. You could have done all the prep work, but absolutely bombed the interview. Nerves are a very real problem and I plan to cover this in a future post.

However, even if you bombed the interview, if you ask a really compelling and an interested question(s), then you give off the impression that you are interested in the role and the work the organization is doing.

Remember that your “interview” should be more like a conversation. This will give the employer more of an idea of how you will work with the team.

Believe or not but your question could be the reason you get the job, or get a call back for a future job. Now I know you don’t want to think about call-backs, you want a job now!
Don’t be so quick to dismiss that call back, if the job or the company is someone you really want to work for then it might be worth the wait.

So what type of question am I talking about?, well before we ask a question there are some rules you might want to follow:

1. Do you research on the employer, by this I mean, what is the job you are applying for? What field is it in? What do you want to know specifically about the role etc…
   
2. Ask a question you want answered – Think about the job you would be doing or what will be expected of you as an employee or something regarding the field you intend to work in.
   
3. Don’t ask about what the job pays, or when you will hear or how many applicant have applied etc. while they can provide this information, you don’t want to come across as only in it for the money.
   
4. Show an interest in the job and also what they respond. That is the goal with your questions, to get them talking
   
5. Thank them for answering your questions.

So now I’m going to give you an example of the kind of questions you could ask.

Say you are applying for a job where the employer works with bio-metric data collection. . . and you have no experience in anything to do with bio-metrics.

Do you research!!

A simple google search under bio-metric data collection and on the employer will give you a vast result of answers. For example the company may deal specifically in data collection of bio-metric passports.

Your question could be something like:

“Given that your company collects bio-metric data from passports, how does the software determine and translate this data into information we can view?”

Or something like:

“Has your company ever found any concerns regarding the security and/or privacy from customers using bio-metric sensors? How did you resolve these issues?”

What you are trying to achieve with these questions is the following:

• Showing your genuine interest for the organization
• Getting the employer to talk about what they are passionate about (especially if being interviewed by the CEO/ Owner Operator of the business)
• Creating a dialogue between you and your future employer.

Be prepared for a potential follow-up question. If the employer replies with a one word answer, try another open-ended question (this is when you ask a question where the employer can answer more than yes or no).

As an Amazon Affiliate I will get a potential commission if you click the following link and buy anything from Amazon.com. I am going to recommend a book on Open Ended questions. This book helped me develop interviewing skills. the book is called Talk to me: How to ask better questions, Get better answers, and Interview anyone like a pro.

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