Interview Technique

[emmelinemay]

Ok, so once I get a job interview, I seem to do pretty well. I read all about the company on their website beforehand where possible, and I'm smiley and bubbly and professional. I think carefully about their questions and answer them with a mixture of honesty and I'M REALLYGOODness.

I generally get pretty good feedback from interviews, but I'm not actually getting any jobs. I think one of the places I fall down on is asking questions.

They always ask you if you have any questions about the company or the role, and my mind just goes BLANK. I can never think of any good questions to ask.

So. What are good questions to ask? What should I avoid asking?

Comments

[purplegril.livejournal.com]

Seconding all the suggestions that you ask about progression. You can phrase it about looking for a long term career in (whatever they do) and that you're interested to know what develpment and training opportunities they have. That gives them loads to talk about if they're a decent place too, and if they don't have much to say, probably not a very good job. I went on and on about career progression in my interview here cos I was in such a sucky dead-end job the one before this :D

Socialising question gets very varies responses and I've sometimes regretted asking.

I like to ask really boring things - dress code and that kind of thing. Gives you a bit of an idea of the company and how it works without being any kind of dodgy question (I wouldn't specifically ask if a piercing was OK or anything, just what their general policy is). I tend to ask what hours people work (as opposed to what the contracted hours are) because I find that really helpful. Whether this helps you get the job or not and whether they'll answer truthfully are completely different matters!

I love the idea of asking the interviewer what they like about working there, that's definitely a goodun.

I might ask about how easy it is to get involved in projects outside of the scope of the job (using info off the site for what they actually do) and so on.