Questions to ask at interview

dickydonkin

To be asked near the conclusion of the interview.

"Do you now have any reservations about offering me the position? I would rather address your concerns while I am here and reassure you that I am the right person for the job."

Elvisia

I had a job interview about a month ago and I had to bite my tongue when they said any other questions, I wanted to say "YES! Will we be able to watch the Olympics in the office?".

Wyndham

dickydonkin wrote: »

To be asked near the conclusion of the interview.

"Do you now have any reservations about offering me the position? I would rather address your concerns while I am here and reassure you that I am the right person for the job."

From an interviewers viewpoint that's really hard, especially for a panel interview where one person may have concerns not shared by others. I'm also in the public sector, and you have to be very careful to ask everyone the same (initial) questions. And I will already have given you chance to answer, will have probed and prodded, and if you still haven't got there, then you're unlikely to.

I was once interviewing where this was asked, and it just led to an awkward silence and the panel all looking at each other a bit...

dickydonkin

Wyndham wrote: »

From an interviewers viewpoint that's really hard, especially for a panel interview where one person may have concerns not shared by others. I'm also in the public sector, and you have to be very careful to ask everyone the same (initial) questions. And I will already have given you chance to answer, will have probed and prodded, and if you still haven't got there, then you're unlikely to.

I was once interviewing where this was asked, and it just led to an awkward silence and the panel all looking at each other a bit...

But surely after you have 'probed and prodded' you may then have the answer to interviewee's question - and if the interviewer had concluded there may be concerns and mentioned them after being asked, wouldn't it be only fair for the person being interviewed to be given an opportunity to address them?

I asked the question at an interview a couple of years ago and the two interviewers looked bamboozled - they just looked at each other and said no.

I got a second interview (between two of us from 800 candidates) and I never heard a thing after that - par for the course nowadays I'm afraid.

Apparently nobody got the job!:(

ohreally

dickydonkin wrote: »

But surely after you have 'probed and prodded' you may then have the answer to interviewee's question - and if the interviewer had concluded there may be concerns and mentioned them after being asked, wouldn't it be only fair for the person being interviewed to be given an opportunity to address them?(

Probing and prodding is fine providing its coming from the panel as they tend to work to a rehearsed script, reverse the situation and you risk taking them out of their comfort zone and leave them looking like donkeys.

Wyndham

dickydonkin wrote: »

But surely after you have 'probed and prodded' you may then have the answer to interviewee's question - and if the interviewer had concluded there may be concerns and mentioned them after being asked, wouldn't it be only fair for the person being interviewed to be given an opportunity to address them?

Hey! I happen to be good at this! :rotfl:

If it hasn't come out with the poking and prodding, it's not there to come out. So, say I was looking for project management skills (which would be in the person specification) and the interviewee couldn't hold up their end of the conversation in terms of describing how they had project managed something, then my conclusion is that they haven't actually done it and even if I said 'I'm not convinced you have the level of project management skills I'm looking for' they still wouldn't, at that point, be able to make those skills magically appear.

Wyndham

Oh yes, and I've sometimes had the situation where they are so bad at interview that even if they asked this question there would just be too many things to address