- Hi there, it's JT and welcome back to Work It Daily. In today's video, I'm going to give you eight smart questions
to ask hiring managers in job interviews. But before I do that, I just wanna remind you
to click the link below to subscribe and hit the bell to get instant notifications every time we create new career content
to help you get ahead. Alright, so what do you do
when you're in an interview and we get to that end
where the hiring manager looks at you and says, "Do you
have any questions for me?" Well, of course you do! In fact, it is very important
that you ask questions. I wanna tell you that recently an employer I know reached
out to me frustrated and said, "I hate when I ask that question "and the person says, 'No,
everybody's been really nice, "'I think I'm okay.'" That person, he told
me, does not get hired and the reason for that is
that they have real concerns if you aren't asking questions, if you aren't doing your due diligence and if you aren't having
enough value in yourself to ask some clarifying questions to make sure that this place
is the right place for you. Remember, we always tell
you here at Work It Daily that you are a business of one, selling your services to an employer and you wanna make sure that
it's a good partnership. So to do that, you've gotta ask questions to make sure that this is
the right place for you. It's like kicking the tires
or looking under the hood to make sure that you're
making a good investment. So with that in mind, let's take a look at the eight questions you should be asking
in your next interview. So before I break down
the eight questions, I'm gonna tell you that they
fall into four categories and we call them the four C's. Now, by covering off on these four C's, you're gonna make sure that you're asking all the questions necessary
to make a good decision about this employer. And those four C's are connect, culture, challenges, and close. What do I mean by that? Well, connect simply is you connecting to that hiring manager, to that person that you'll be working with. You wanna ask some
questions to help you bond in the interview. As far as culture goes, you wanna make sure this is the right corporate culture for you. Does this company believe and have values and go about business in
a way that you respect and that you trust so that you can put your best foot forward? With respect to challenges, you wanna know what's
keeping them up at night so that you can make sure these are the kinds of challenges that you actually wanna work on and leverage your skills
to be successful at. And then lastly, close. You wanna end this
interview, this conversation, on a high note. You wanna leave very clear
on what the next steps are. So once we know the four C's, it gets really easy to create questions that we can ask in the interview to make sure that we're
getting the information we need And that's what I'm gonna show you next. So we're starting with connect and the first question
you should always ask in an interview is, "How did you come to work here?" This is an opportunity for you to bond with this individual by
learning how they got hired by the company. What drew them into the company? What made them decide
this was a great place for them to work. This is gonna give you a lot of insight into their own decisions and what they're like as a worker. The second question is, "What do you love most
about working here?" It's really important that you ask a positive question that
let's them talk about all of the things that they
love about the employer. This is gonna be a great
chance for you to bond and share a love for the
things that are great about working at this company. Plus, you're gonna be able to evaluate whether or not these sound like things that you really care about. Remember, these questions are designed for you to get insight into whether or not this company is a good fit for you. So while they're very positive questions, it's also giving you a chance to evaluate whether or not it's a fit. The second C is culture, specifically corporate culture. And the two questions
you're gonna ask here are around individuals that
have been hired at the company. The first question is, "Tell me about the most successful hire "you've made recently. "Why has that person been very
successful in their role?" This is gonna help you
understand who's being recognized in the organization as a high performer. And you wanna listen carefully. Let me give you an example. If they tell you about
a person who came in and worked 80 hours a week and took everything that they had to do and worked with no budget and really was able to
knock it out of the park, does that sound like a
place you wanna work? Does that sound like a
place with work life balance that has their ducks in a row? No! So if they're recognizing
that as a good hire, then you know this probably
isn't the right place for you. Now the second question you wanna ask is the polar opposite, "Tell me about a hire
recently that didn't work out. Why did they fail in their role?" And once again, you wanna listen closely to the answer because we
wanna see if the traits or characteristics of
that person who failed sound like yourself. If you don't think you
can be successful there, if this person sounds like they really couldn't have ever won in their job, then you're gonna know that this isn't the right place for you. Now the third C is challenges and specifically the
challenges the company is going to be facing in the coming year. So that first question you wanna ask is, "Tell me about the biggest challenge "you think the company
will experience this year "and how will this job
help to overcome it?" What you're doing there is showing them that you understand,
you're a business of one, you're a service provider and
that what you're going to do is help them solve a problem
and alleviate a pain. So by asking them what that
pain or that problem is and how you can help solve that, you're really sending a message to them that you understand your
role if you get hired. The second question you wanna
ask regarding the challenges is around performance. "How will I measure my own performance "to ensure that I'm
having a positive impact "on this challenge?" Once again, you're taking full ownership of your work, of your effort, and by telling them that I understand that I'm supposed to do that, you're sending a clear message to them that you really will be
accountable for your actions and that's a great selling point there. At the same time though, if they come back to you and say, "Well, there's no real way to measure "and we won't have any
idea of whether or not "you're making an impact," that would be a huge red flag to you because you're gonna
wanna be able to do that in order to get a
promotion or get a raise. What kind of company
can't measure your impact? That's the sign of a company that you probably don't wanna work for. So you can see again why these questions are really important, not only do they set you
up well with the employer by showing that you know
what you're talking about, but it also is giving you some key insight into whether or not you wanna work there. Now the fourth and final C is about close and that's how to properly
close out this conversation. So the question that you wanna ask, and this is gonna sound a little crazy but I tell you, it really works, is, "If there were some skills or experience "you wish I had that
would make me a better fit "for this job, what would they be? This is your polite way of asking if they feel you have any shortcomings or if there is something deficient about what you've presented to them today during the interview. This is a chance for them to call out and explain any certain
skills or experience or things that might make
them hesitate in hiring you. And so asking this question
shows that you understand you're not a perfect candidate but that you do wanna know
what you could've done better. By the same token, if they
do share something with you, you now have an opportunity to say, "Oh, but I didn't share this experience." Or, "Maybe I didn't tell you about "this skill set that I have." It's a chance for you to
overcome that objection, maybe realizing that you
didn't give them everything they needed to hear today. So that's a really
important question to ask. Now that last question is, "What are the next steps in the process?" And that's because you wanna
understand where you stand and what has to happen
next for you to get hired. You don't ever wanna leave a job wondering when you'll get a phone call, when they'll follow up, when they'll make their decision. So asking this question is gonna help you get that information and they're likely gonna
tell you some things like, "Well, we have a few
more people to interview, "you'll hear by this date, "you'd need to come back
in for another interview," but at least you'll have that information. You won't be staring at the phone or staring at your email and wondering whether
or not you got the job. The other great thing about that is that if they give you a date or a deadline and it comes and goes, you now have a valid reason
to follow up with them and say, "You know, when
we spoke in the interview "you mentioned this
would be the next step, "that date's come and gone, is
there anything else I can do "to further my candidacy?" So this is a really important question for you to ask for your own peace of mind. At the same time, it's gonna give you a sense of how structured this company is and really how well thought
out their own hiring process is so that you can get a clear
sense of whether or not they're the kind of
company you wanna work for. There you have it, the four C's. Connect, culture, challenges, and close. And with two questions a piece, that creates eight super smart questions you should be asking hiring managers in your next job interview. Okay so now that you've
got the eight questions I've given you, I wanna hear from you. Is there one particular question you've asked in an interview
that got a great result? Or maybe there was a question you asked that didn't get a good result. Make sure you share it with me below, we wanna hear from you. Okay, so questions, comments, feedback regarding this video, please make sure you post it below. We answer each and every one. And I also hope that you will
share and like this content because you know there's
a lot of people out there that need help with interview questions and you'll be doing them a favor and it'll make you look good as well. Lastly, don't forget to subscribe. Each and every week
we're bringing you fresh, new career content to help you get ahead. And most importantly, I can't wait to see you in the next video. So with that in mind, remember this, if you wanna win, you've
gotta work it daily.
