Stop Biting Your Tongue on Job Interviews!

With new graduates flooding the job market this month, I thought it would be appropriate to recycle an article I wrote 6 years ago (when I had more time on my hands). For those of you who read this 6 years ago and remember it, all I can say is I'm impressed.

This is not your typical "What to do (or not to do) on an interview". There are thousands of articles like that. Finding them is not the hard part. The hard part is deciding which ones to invest your time in reading. But this is not one of those.

This is a rebuttal to one of those.

I recently read an article on the blog page of a placement firm?titled “The Worst Questions to Ask Your Interviewer”. The article provides a number of questions that you should avoid when the interviewer asks “Do you have any questions?”, along with the rationale behind the advice. As one might expect, there was some interesting perspective and nothing really controversial, for the most part. However, there were two examples of questions to avoid with which I take issue.

Why is this position open?

The explanation provided in the article for avoiding the question “Why is this position open?” was as follows:

Don’t ask why the position is vacant (at least not yet).?This may cause the person leading the interview to reflect on a less than positive experience with the person who left the job, which could create a link between your interview and that negative memory.

To me, the chances of the interviewer conjuring up negative thoughts and associating them with you are pretty slim, and the potential benefits of asking the question outweigh the potential risks. And even if the interviewer does reflect on some poor experiences with the predecessor, that might be a good thing for you. YOU are the?solution, the knight in shining armor, sitting right across the table within arm’s reach!

We don’t even know whether there was a predecessor, and if so, whether the predecessor left on bad terms. By asking the question, you show that you are interested enough to be thinking ahead, picturing yourself in the role. You want your interviewer to also picture you in the role. You want to know the predicament you are stepping into, wondering if you are replacing someone who left, replacing someone who is still there, or taking on a newly created position.

If you're replacing someone who left, you would want to know if they left voluntarily or involuntarily. If it was involuntarily, what did?that person lack which you can be sure to remedy so that the hiring manager can now sleep at night?

If you’re replacing someone who is still there, you would want to know whether you are replacing them because they are moving up, down, sideways or out. If they are moving up, what is it that the company liked so much about that person to promote them, which you hope to replicate? You might even inquire about your opportunity to interface with the incumbent during a brief transition period.

If it is a newly created position, you want to understand what gave rise to the need for the position. Is it growth? If yes, organic or acquired? Is it a new product line? Is it a new geographic region or market? There are so many insightful questions that could spin off of knowing this.

All that said, you really shouldn't have to ask that question on the interview. The good recruiter will tell you why the position is open long before the interview. In fact, some of the best recruiting firms actually include this information in the actual job description. It is up to you to then formulate the right follow on questions as indicated above.

What would my salary and benefits package be?

The other question not to ask that I took issue with was about salary. The rationale provided in the article said:

You should avoid bringing up money and benefits in the first interview.?The more the employer knows about your skills and experiences and how those match up with the open opportunity the better the potential package will be at the offer stage. Sometimes this conversation can’t be avoided.?If the interviewer asks, you can respond with something along the lines of, “Based on what I know so far, this is a great opportunity for me and I am excited to look at your best offer.”

I agree that there is no need to get into the nitty-gritty about benefits prior to an offer, and I also agree that asking about salary is inappropriate at the interview. Why? Because you should ask about salary BEFORE the interview. Knowing a reasonable range of the basic components of compensation (base salary, bonus potential, equity) serves as a simple litmus test for both the company and the candidate to determine whether either party should spend any time moving forward. Don’t waste time dancing around the subject, only to find out later that you are both miles apart. There are countless articles regarding the pros and cons about discussing compensation during the job search process, and I don’t intend to reprise them all here, suffice it to say that I am definitely on the “pro” side, and the sooner it is addressed the better.

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