Candidates’ Questions¶
Be sure to leave some time to answer the candidate’s questions during the interview. Everyone should allow 5–10 minutes for this, and hiring managers substantially more. (However, later interviewers will tend to find the candidates’ questions have been answered in earlier sessions.)
You can sometimes learn as much about a candidate from the questions they ask as from the answers they provide you. Candidates’ questions often reflect their own top concerns from their current jobs. (People who are good at interviewing will also ask questions that point out their own strengths, so don’t necessarily read too much into what they ask.)
Candidates’ questions are a good opportunity for you to sell the company and the position. Be prepared to answer questions such as:
- “What’s it like to work here?”
- “What do you see as most important for this job?” (Seasoned interviewees will ask this of everyone they talk to, and then compare the answers.)
- “Why did you want to work here?”
- “What’s it like to work for (the hiring manager)?”
Even as you’re selling the company, you should represent things accurately. We can determine whether candidates are a good match for us, but we largely rely on their judgment to figure out whether our company is a good match for them. Candidates need an accurate picture of the company to be able to make this decision for themselves.