What Job Seekers Need to Ask to Secure a Job Offer

So, you have gone through at least 3 or 4 rounds of interviews with a great organization for a role you really want. You have completed an online assessment, had an initial phone screen with a recruiter, spoken to the hiring manager via a video chat and experienced a day long set of interviews with prospective colleagues and senior level leaders. The hiring manager has asked for one more face to face meeting. What do you need to do to ensure you get a job offer?

Anne Fisher, recently wrote an article in Fortune Magazine about interviewing with a focus on providing guidance to job seekers on questions to ask prospective employers to help them secure a job offer. Here is the link. https://fortune.com/2019/09/11/questions-to-ask-in-job-interview/. In the article, she quotes a career coach, Julia Rock head of Rock Career Development, who provided 10 questions that candidates can ask. I wanted to focus on a few of them and offer some further suggestions.

The first question she suggests is “ What’s the most important characteristic required for success in this role?” Having someone provide that one trait may be hard for them to answer, but hopefully the hiring manager can offer words that have been used in the job posting or link back to other conversations you have had with that person and others. This will enable you to validate the consistency of the conversations you have had up until now. The answer should link to the culture and values of the overall organization. And, hopefully you hear a specific example so you can relate it to the role for which you are interviewing.

Another question is a variation on the theme as presented in the article- “What do you see as the priorities of the role within the first 90 days and beyond into the first year of the job?” This shows them you want to understand how this role links and supports department and organizational goals and priorities as well as shows your enthusiasm and excitement to make an impact.

Lastly, I like the question- “What made you decide to join this company? What has persuaded you to stay?” This is personal and will give you good insight into your “ new hopeful boss!” But also, it should be an easy answer for them- one that is not rehearsed and again, one that you can use to compare to what you have been hearing throughout the entire interviewing process. You want to hear how they have internalized the “company mantra”, why it is important and how they have taken those words and figured out behaviors to make those words come alive which have allowed them to be successful at this organization.

And, the elephant in the room- Money…. that is for another post! Don’t go there until they do!

Have you used versions of these questions? What other types of questions have you used that have helped you secure a job offer? I’d love to hear your experiences.