We have all heard of BYOD or Bring Your Own Database, what about BYOQ or Bring Your Own Questions?
After working your tails off to get in front of the hiring manager, you have finally gotten to the end of the interview and the interviewer says it is now your turn.
They want to know if you have any questions for them. And most likely you do:
“How did I do” and “Are you going to hire me”
– unfortunately you can’t ask either one.
But there are questions that you can ask to scoop some information on how you performed during the interview while determining if the company is a right fit for you.
One way around this is to ask about the next steps and the timeline for them
for example, try
What is the next step in your process?
And 9 times out of 10, their response would tell how they really feel about you.
If they take the time to breakdown the timeline, share with you the numbers of participants left to be interviewed so on, then there is hope,they are probably interested and want you to understand that there is still steps left in the process.
Conversely,if they only tell you that you will hear from them within a certain period of time via letter, well it isn’t as promising.
Remember, this is not fool proof, I would recommend that you also look for non verbal clues as they may give hints as to how they are truly feeling about you. These cues are subtle but present and they can tell if they are interested in going forward with you.
Another way of looking at BYOQ is to see it as an opportunity to interview the company. Of course you have done your research prior to attending and have made up a list that you wrote down before attending.
About a list of questions:
Several school of thought recommends that you should have a “list” of questions to show preparedness. Asking questions from company direction and expansion to vacation time and benefits. From their perspective, this show an interest in the business. However, I see this slightly different, I usually recommend that you ask two or three questions but come into the interview with only one question.
The One Question
My recommendation is to prepare one good question that shows that you have an interest in the business while listening to the response intently so as to prepare the other one or two on the fly listening intently during the interview for things you are genuinely curious about. I believe that using this approach would show that you have an active intrest in the company why making the recruiter feel heard.
How have you handled this in your career ?