Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change pdfdrive com

CHAPTER 10
THE EDISON TEST
Interview Questions
T
HE QUESTIONS MOST OF US
know best but fear most are the questions that take place in
the job interview. Whether you’re on the receiving end—trying to get the job—or on
the giving end—trying to fill the job—the questions that get asked and answered here
have real and immediate consequence. As a candidate, if you botch the answer to an
important question, you don’t get hired. If you’re the boss and you fail to ask the right
questions, you can miss a critical piece of information and hire the wrong person.
?
Successful job interviews revolve around a coherent set of questions that
assess talent and accomplishment, examine judgment and values, consider
success and failure, sample personality, and explore compatibility. Some of the
questions are straightforward. Those are the fastballs. They come right across the
plate and ask directly about previous experience or skills. Others are more
unpredictable. They are the curveballs. They can come out of nowhere and test
your reflexes and imagination. They may ask about something seemingly
unrelated or frivolous. Either way, when you hit one out of the park, everyone
cheers.
The first rule of the job interview: Don’t wing it. Preparation pays. Know
what you’re talking about and to whom. Know as much as possible about the
job. Have a list of questions on a pad and in your head. Think about where
you’re going in the conversation, what you want to find out, and how you want
to get there. Just as you wouldn’t sail across the Atlantic without GPS, you don’t
approach a job interview without strategy and structure. You are not sitting
down for a random chat. You are trying to learn as much about the other person
as you can to establish whether this position is fit for both of you.
If you’re the applicant, you can anticipate that most every interview will ask
you touchstone questions about your background, your professional experience,

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your interests, and what you bring to the table.
Why are you interested in this position?
What do you think you can do for us?
What makes you qualified and unique?
Why should we hire you?
Prepare a series of responses for each question. Organize your thoughts in
bullet points, two or three distinct characteristics for each response, so you can
talk about several traits without getting lost or long-winded. Practice your
answers. You want to be clear and concise, prepared to address the question—or
a variation of it—directly and confidently. Think of some examples or short
stories that highlight relevant experience or set you apart. If you led a group of
people to China to study architectural design and energy efficiency, you can talk
about the new materials and technologies you saw and the discussion you had
about China’s changing culture of innovation. If you ran a summer camp and
had to deal with screaming kids and demanding parents, you can talk about the
lessons of human nature that you so ably put to use to keep everyone happy.
Keep in mind that to the astute interviewer, your tone will convey as much
about you as the words you use, so strike a balance in how you present yourself.
Talk about your successes without bragging, express confidence without
sounding cocky, acknowledge your shortcomings without sounding insecure. Be
prepared to speak about your character and personality by citing a tough decision
or a dilemma you faced and how you worked your way through it. Know what
questions you want to ask. The questions that you, the candidate, will ask are
nearly as important as your answers to the interviewer’s questions. You need to
project informed curiosity about the position, the enterprise, the competitive
landscape, and the measures of success.