The phone call you have been waiting for finally arrives for a job interview. Are you ready? Have you researched the company? Are your Situation/Action/Result – SAR- stories articulate and snappy?
The interview is not a one way conversation. An experienced interviewee should be prepared to ask the interviewer questions as they go through their time together. Prepare the questions you are going to ask the hiring manager in your next interview, as questions are expected; but, stay away from these:
- Salary: Never, as in never, ask what the position pays. Until a hiring manager determines your fit and expertise they may be flexible with salary, don’t give away your asking price or ask how much the job pays – they just might be willing to pay more than you are expecting.
- Vacation time/Benefits/sick days: Don’t expect an offer if you are already suggesting you need time off. Wait until the contract is signed before mentioning pre planned trips or personal leave.
- Time in lieu/overtime: If you are on salary, expect you will be working 40 – 44 hours without extra compensation; the higher the salary, the more overtime is expected and not compensated for If you want to negotiate time in lieu once the offer has been made, do it then.
- Expense accounts/car expenses: Don’t think of an expense account as additional income, it is taxable. Expense remuneration is pretty standard across the board within a company and it is not usually discussed until an offer has been accepted.
- Health issues: You are under no obligation to disclose past illnesses or disabilities that do not pertain to the job responsibilities as outlined in the job description – don’t bring them up.
- Past conflicts: Don’t speak negatively of past positions or bosses. Keep the reason you left explanation as general as possible. It is perfectly fine to say your values were not congruent with that of the new manager or management or that there were personal differences. You also don’t want the interviewer to think you will ever speak ill of them.
- A higher up position: Don’t interview for any other position than the one you applied for. If you have ambitions of moving up, great, but stay focused on what you can contribute NOW. Don’t ever tell the interviewer you would eventually like their job.
- Personal stuff: The interviewer is NOT your friend; do not share any personal information no matter how well you think you are “bonding.” The answer to “tell me about yourself” is not how many children you have or your favorite holiday.
I would have to disagree with a couple of your points. I recently interviewed for a position and one of the things I discussed straight out was vacation time as well as time in lieu. In the past I have taken positions where there was no clear cut policy on time in lieu. I found that I was working late, in early, and traveling on weekends. It was not unusual for me to be leaving on a Sunday afternoon to be on site for Monday morning and catching the last flight home on Friday night, or even a red eye getting home Saturday morning. If there is no clear policy, some companies will soon expect this.
I also stated up front that vacation time is important to me, see comments above. Often when switching positions, there may be prior arrangements for a vacation or required time off. I find that it is better to be upfront about those issues.
By the way, I was unemployed at the time. I accepted the offer which was equal to the salary of my previous position (with a lot less travel time to work) and an extra weeks vacation beyond company policy.
I had an interviewer fall asleep while interviewing me! She started out kind of sleepy with her questions and me with my energy, I wanted to be interviewed by someone that could keep up or either take the interviewing process serious or give me to anotehr interviewer.
No kidding, this was a high end company, and the woman fell asleep at the switch. I let her sleep for about 15 minutes then I cleared my throat and departed.
She had the nerve to ask me what i was doing. So I informed her I was bored with her sleepy interview tactics. Perhaps she should get more sleep at night. If I ever did that to any employer that I have worked for, I would have been fired.
For three months and eight interviews I have found that the interviewer, or panel of them, always hold you to a higher standard than they themselves. A large national company interviewed me in North York.
The panel of interviewers consisted of seven people drawn from a wide variety of functions; a random generator sends emails to employees and they have to sit on the panel. There was one person from HR and six people from a variety of other departments. I was subjected to a Behavioural Interview. This was my experience: The interviewer on the far right fell asleep; the interviewer next to him was texting madly and eventually started copying notes from the person on his right because he had not been filling in comments regarding my answers to the questions; the HR representative asked me what colours I used on my PowerPoint presentations, font sizes and a host of other interesting questions; there were no subject matter experts on the panel and this interview would determine which candidate was hired; one interviewer’s cell phone belted out a rap song and he said he had to go; another cell phone went off and it sounded like an ambulance siren and he whispered to the HR rep that he had to go because it was the ringtone for his wife and she’d be angry if he didn’t answer; and I could go on and on. Other interviews have been even more insane. One female HR Manager asked me, “Would you have a problem putting out for a female manager?” Hmm, how do you answer that one? Hmm, “I guess it would depend on whether-or-not she was good looking.” Give me a break.
Very good post. I will be linking to this in my own blog for sure.
I have to agree with all the points. You shouldn’t ask about salaray/vacation unless you are hired. People may see you as being a bit “high” on yourself if you walk in and assume that these people will hire you. You should only discuss these topics if hired because there could be some room for negotiating things like salaray/vacation time.
A potential employer’s policies as far as overtime, vacation time, and rate of pay (or at least a range) ARE important. Why waste everybody’s time interviewing when interviewee and interviewer aren’t even close in their expectations? Give the basics in the ad, then the job seeker can weed out the ridiculous and get on with searching for something where s/he is more likely to be treated with respect by an employer who sees a person as an equal human being, rather than as something as disposable as an old stapler or fax machine.
I feel it is important to at least provide compensation information in respect to what I am at present being paid in my current position when contacted by interested employers/recruiters. This way, I can leave it up to the person to respond to me if the open position I am being contacted about is equivalent to or superior to my current overall compensation. I find that people overall appreciate the up front candour. In other words, if I am being paid an annual base salary for example of $100K and the position I am being contacted about would pay up to $50K, I therefore will not be interested in the position and in turn I do not waste the person’s time contacting me.
Every time I have ever told a manager that one day I hope to be in their position, I not only got the job but they kept that in consideration and made sure I was challenged in my current position as well as preparing to move to the next one. If you have ambitions share them, the point of an interview is to be as honest as possible and the interviewer should show you the same respect.
Same goes for salary expectations… don’t waste time if it’s not in your range. I am an HR manager and I respect honesty and someone who has done their research on the company. I also like for people to have intelligent questions at the end of the interview. Having no questions concerns me every time.
Don’t quote stock prices unless it’s part of your job. We know what our stock is trading for. but know what we do.
Re: “the higher the salary, the more overtime is expected and not compensated for.”
Ontario Law states that Any work done over 44 hours/week Needs to be paid as overtime (time and 1/2). Why-just because I’m on salary (about $37, 000 a year)-do I need to work Beyond 44 hours a week-and get No extra pay? I’d rather get paid hourly then-because i put in Way More than 40 hours a week. I never work Less than 40 hours a week. I do get vacation days and they offfer sick days (i rarely use sick days). I’m quite surprised and dissapointed on your comment. Although the article is based on what not to bring up in a Interview: to even comment that employees should be putting in extra hours-with No extra compensation-is very sad to me.
I agree with several other posters who suggest that salary/compensation should be a part of the interview process. Someone should bring it up. I believe the interviewer should be savy enough to ask the candidate’s expections.
The same details should be covered as far as overtime goes. The interviewer should be reasonable enough to state that overtime is expected or will never happen. Every potential employee has a personal life that can either easily accommodate overtime or not.
I may be naive, but I think there should be some kind of rpersonal aport between interviewer and interveiwee. The interviewer is essentially representing the company and if s/he is open and friendly and able to show flexiblity then it would be reasonable to assume that the company’s culture is also open, friendly, flexible.
I’ve NOT hired anyone who has asked about salary during the interview – the time to do that is before you accept the interview (“could you tell me the expected hiring salary range for this position?”) or when you’ve been shortlisted to proceed and the person to ask is the only person who should be privy to that information. Often I lead a team to interview and most of the people on the team will be the interviewee’s colleagues if they are the successful candidate – it’s not appropriate that people have salary knowledge about you!
I think interviewees mistake the concept of “personable” for “personal”. The interviewer and the interviewee should be personable as that does, as Heather mentions, represent the company’s values but leave personal information at home. Share it with your new work colleagues when you accept the position.
I completely disagree with the HR professionals who don’t think it’s right to ask about vacation time…I just spent 21/2 years working for a “Top 50 Employer” with draconian vacation policies; no time off for a year and then 2 weeks after that for each year. By the time I completed my 2nd year I was only allowed 2 weeks in 2 years. My sister in the same time had taken 3 weeks for a total of 6! She was given sick days to use as needed as well.
No sick days, not even an extra hour off before a long weekend or during XMAS and you end up with disgruntled employees who are burnt out!
An employee has every right to ask and as someone who ran my own small business for 13 years I would always tell employees in an interview what our policies were and not after they agreed to the offer!
Make sure you ask hard questions when you are in the final interview. Questions pertaining to base plus comission must be clarified. What is the commision based on if the answer is customers who have never baught a product previosly and you enitiated the sale make sure the employer does not meen, without any help from anyone else. Most companies have processes so getting an order by yourself today is remote especialy on large projects.
If the company offers 2 week’s vacation after 2 years and then follows up with (we have a plant shutdown every summer and we would prefer you take them at that time) Make sure prefer does not meen you have to no questions asked. This might not fit into your familier requirements especialy if you have a child with needs.
These may be good tips for helping you get hired, but it also seems like the first three are good tips for getting yourself stuck in a position you won’t be satisfied with.