2. What are the biggest obstacles I would face in meeting this challenge?<\/h3>\n
Although you have dealt with this obstacle before, the people and conditions are probably different so ask the interviewer\u2019s opinion as to what obstacles you would face.<\/p>\n
There are generally three types of obstacles: people, systems and processes.<\/p>\n
Finding out which of these is the biggest obstacle lets you open a dialog (remember people hire people they like so turning the interview into a conversation is important) about your ability to influence changes in these areas.<\/p>\n
This question can also be a good way to start a discussion, brainstorming with the interviewer about the best tactics to use in their organization.<\/p>\n
3. Who had this job before?<\/h3>\n
It is important to know whether this is a newly created position or if someone had this role before.<\/p>\n
If it is not a new role, then you want to know what happened to the previous person in this job.<\/p>\n
If the Previous Person Was Promoted<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n If they got a promotion, that\u2019s good news as it shows you could have growth here. Ask what results they produced that earned them the promotion, and how long they were in the position before they were promoted.<\/p>\n If the Previous Person Was Terminated<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n If they were let go, then you should ask what caused their termination:<\/p>\n This is an important area. It lets you gauge the kind of manager you would have. Assuming you are speaking to the manager at this point, ask what went wrong and what they would have done differently.<\/p>\n There are generally two kinds of managers: (1) those who hold you accountable but do not particularly assist you, and (2) those who partner with you to help you navigate the waters to success.<\/p>\n Remember that the number one reason someone likes or hates their job is their manager<\/strong> so you want to determine what kind of manager they are.<\/p>\n Also, and if you can, try to find the person on LinkedIn and connect with them to hear their side of the story.<\/p>\n For example,<\/em> Bill was newly hired into a branch manager role and immediately faced a serious customer issue where the work performed missed the deadline and was of a poor quality. The customer was demanding a refund.<\/p>\n Since this was before Bill\u2019s time, he called his boss who essentially told Bill that they were not giving a refund and they were not redoing the work so \u201cfigure it out Bill\u201d was what he was told. They were essentially holding him accountable for a problem he did not cause and were offering zero guidance or assistance as to a remedy. This is when Bill realized he chose the wrong job.<\/p>\n It is important to know if they have tangible, measurable goals for this position:<\/p>\n Ask about the past performance of others in the job and their success in meeting the targets.<\/p>\n Determine how the goals are set, by whom, and whether, in the manager\u2019s opinion, they are attainable.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget to find out the timeframe to achieve these goals.<\/p>\n This is where you start to determine the kind of manager you would have in this job. Try to learn if you would be working for a micro-manager<\/a> or an abusive boss.<\/p>\n Ask whether there are regular meetings or reports required and their frequency. Try to determine how much interaction you would have.<\/p>\n For example,<\/em> if they tell you that you would have a meeting every day, then this might be a micro-manager who will make you crazy.<\/p>\n Other questions include \u201cHow would your staff describe you?\u201d<\/strong><\/em> and \u201cHow would you describe your dream employee?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n For example,<\/em> Sue asked this question of her future boss and was told: \u201cI have a lot of things on my plate so I will not be micro-managing you. I have one golden rule: I expect you to deliver a high level of quality on time and if you think you are not going to be able to do that, then let me know in advance so we can jointly create a solution.\u201d Sue heard this and took the job.<\/p>\n Asking these questions should help you build stronger rapport with the decision makers and let you determine if this is the kind of position you want.<\/p>\n Don Goodman<\/a> is a triple-certified nationally recognized career professional (Expert Resume Writer, Certified Career Coach, and Job Search Strategist) with over 20 years of experience helping thousands of people quickly land their next job. Don graduated from the Wharton School of Business and Stanford University\u2019s Executive Program. When you are invited back for a second or third interview, ask these 5 questions to see if you want to the job and whether or not you will like your manager.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":7964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"old-site-template.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview-questions","category-interview-tips"],"last_modified_at":"","edited_by":"Jessica Howington","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.job-hunt.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.job-hunt.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.job-hunt.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.job-hunt.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.job-hunt.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4910"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.job-hunt.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23367,"href":"https:\/\/www.job-hunt.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4910\/revisions\/23367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.job-hunt.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.job-hunt.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.job-hunt.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.job-hunt.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
4. How is job performance in this role measured?<\/h3>\n
\n
5. How would you describe your management style?<\/h3>\n
Bottom Line on Second Interview Questions to Ask<\/h2>\n
More Job Interview Tips:<\/h3>\n
\n
\n![\"Don](\"https:\/\/job-hunt.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Don-Goodman-6.jpg\")
About the author…<\/strong><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n
\nMore about this author<\/a>…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"