Say It Right: Important Interview Questions You're NOT Asking

Practice your interview skills beforehand? Check. Make sure you have the right interview outfit? Check. Have a list of questions to ask the interviewer? Hmm...

Just as there are a lot of different questions an employer may ask of job seekers, there are a lot of questions job seekers may ask in return. The important thing is to know which questions are the best to ask.

Now, keep in mind that asking questions during a job interview isn't all about sounding pseudo-intelligent or trying to stump the interviewer. It's about getting the information you need to make an informed decision about the company and the job opportunity while helping the interviewer to see you as an inquisitive, interested and contemplative candidate.

Identifying the Important Information

You've been considering several companies and job opportunities. They each have their merits and offer varying degrees of challenge. You're not quite sure which one will suit your career direction or be the best fit for your immediate needs. What do you do? Well, you ask questions, naturally.

To determine which questions to ask, consider the basics. Things like specific job responsibilities, your role in the firm, whether travel is involved, if you will supervise others, the hours, the benefits, your supervisor's management style, etc. will assist you in determining what each position and company has to offer.

Questions to Avoid

It's equally important to know what questions you should avoid asking. Questions that indicate you're not looking at the here and now, but are dreaming of some far off time and place, need to be tempered with caution. Asking about when you'll be eligible for a vacation or promotional opportunity can signal a lack of interest in the company or position. Also, too many questions about salary, bonuses, raises, and other compensation may sound as if you're more focused on money than the opportunity.

When you ask questions during a job interview, they need to have a purpose. You can't just fling them out in an effort to impress when you really don't care about the response. That's why it's important to identify the information you want in advance, so you can determine the best questions to obtain it.

Selecting the Right Questions

While you can easily form your own questions based on what you want to know, you may also want to consider speaking with friends and family, career counselors, or other trusted advisors. Or, you can conduct searches on the Internet to find lots of interview questions.

If you select prewritten questions, make sure to choose ones that really get to the heart of the matter. Asking about the anticipated growth of the company over the next five years is only beneficial if the person you're asking has intimate knowledge of the subject or you're concerned that, due to the economy, the company may not survive.

In order to get a predictor of what might happen in the future, ask for a financial statement or conduct research on your own. Instead, focus on questions that relate directly to the position and the company culture. Questions about why the interviewer enjoys working there, attributes that are important to success in the position, and why the position is vacant can all shed light on the job and company.

To help you formulate the right questions, here are four great tips from Best-Job-Interview.com:

• Ask open-ended questions. Closed questions that require just a "yes"-or-"no" response contribute little to the flow of the interview and provide minimal information.
• Avoid interrupting the interviewer; make sure you're at an appropriate point for your question.
• Only ask questions that are relevant to the job, department, management and organization.
• Interview questions that appear to be challenging the interviewer or require knowledge or information that the interviewer is unlikely to have create an uncomfortable atmosphere and impact negatively on attempts at establishing rapport.

The whole idea is that it's important to ask questions in any job interview to ensure that you understand more about the job and the company.