Something many colleges fail to emphasize when preparing their students for their first interview is the importance of interviewing your interviewer. Because this isn’t a skill that’s developed at the beginning of a professional career, it’s often never developed and undervalued. After you land your first job or two, you quickly realize what questions you should have asked, and that it is equally important for you to get to know your interviewer. Of course the interviewer will be focused on asking you the questions, but they will also be assessing if you’ve reflected on how you would fit into the role. This is often times determined by how thoughtful your questions are about the prospective department and organization. Take this chance to ask questions about culture, why the position is open, management style and their overall feeling about working at this organization.
Is it a culture where managers lead and others follow? Is it an open environment, or does everyone have their own office? Is everyone silent, or is there a lot of chatter? Reflect on which type of surroundings you are comfortable working in, and address any related concerns. If everyone is locked away in their offices all day, is there an opportunity for collaborative work? Or is independent work preferred? If you think two heads are better than one and prefer a team-oriented environment, the aforementioned setting may not be the place for you. However, if you address this observation with your interviewer and they reassure you with a statement like, “Oh, this closed door formality is not the norm, it’s month end and because of XYZ everyone is behind. We usually have our doors open and there are meetings galore.” After a response like that, you should feel confident about the type of setting and culture and determine if you will thrive there.
Another important question to determine your future success is asking about why the position is open. If the interviewer says, “It’s a new position,” that could signal some possible ambiguity between the job description and what you might actually do. It could also be a great opportunity for you to direct the role based on your strengths and weaknesses, and develop the role to meet the department’s needs, and also bring your experience to the forefront. If the interviewer says, “We’re trying to replace Christine. She’s leaving to pursue her dream of opening her own coffee shop, and we’re fairly devastated,” this might suggest that there will be some big shoes to fill and you’ll want to ask directed questions to assess your interviewer’s expectations. Lastly, if the interviewer says, “The person is no longer with us,” and does not offer any other detail, it could signal that the person was fired. In this case, consider redirecting a question to the interviewer such as “What are the key qualities you are looking for a person to have in order to excel in this role?” This will help you gauge what aspects of your skill set the interviewer will be most sensitive to seeing in your performance and help you to determine if you will be setting yourself up for success in this role.
Most interviewers will expect a question from a candidate like “What is the management style in this department?” Depending on their answer, you can assess if your role will be encouraged to give feedback and have a proactive functionality, or if there is a top-down structure that directs operations. Based on the interviewer’s answer, reflect on what type of structure is most attractive to you.
A valuable question that interviewers are not asked often enough is, “What makes you want to come to work each day, and what would you change if you could?” The interviewer’s answer to this question should give you insight as to how happy they are in their role and what you can expect to like and dislike in the organization. Reflect on whether you think you could be happy based on their feedback.
What should you do if you decide you don’t like your interviewer, but the job is at a company you’ve spent your entire professional career wanting to work at? It might be worth your energy to talk to other people within the company. Maybe your interviewer was just having a bad day and didn’t do a great job of selling themselves? Maybe this department doesn’t fit your style, but another person in the company could introduce you to a department that will be a better match? Explore all your options before you give up on this opportunity, but if all your efforts still leave you doubting that this is the right fit, you owe it to yourself to keep looking. We spend too much time out of our day at work to risk being unhappy.
No matter how your interview experience ends, making the effort to “interview your interviewer” should help you build confidence that you’re going to take a position that you will enjoy.