help! what questions do i ask my interviewer?

im interviewing for a retention supervisor spot for a large cable and communications company. i am currently employed by that company and i am scheduled for an interview with 2 managers at once.

besides the intimidation factor already getting me in a twist, i know from past experience one of the questions posed to me will be " do you have any questions for us"

in the past, i have tanked that question repeatedly because i do my research exhaustively prior to any interview. in this case, i already know all about the company i work for, the corporate culture, the benefits and compensation packages [they are posted on the internal job site]

i do not want to leave these people with the impression that i am ill prepared or disinterested in the company by not having any .... good questions to ask them.

any suggestions? the only one i have so far is " how will my performance be evaluated in this position? "
thats pretty much the only info not readily available to me. if i ask the usual questions [compensation/benefits, work schedule, vacation, blah blah blah] I may sound trite, or worse, it may sound like i dont know about the company i work for.

also, the usual "tell us about yourself" question throws me. is this an opportunity to share non-career related information about my background, or should i limit my answer to what about me qualifies me for the promotion?

thank you in advance for any suggestions!

First, congratulations on the opportunity in front of you.

The following questions can show the hiring managers that you are focused on meeting the needs and requirements of the job.

In the last 5 years how many times has the job been vacant?
What is the number one challenge in this position?
What benchmarks does the company expect to be achieved in the first 6-12 months by the person who accepts this job?
Of these, what is your number one priority?
What are some of the longer-term objectives you have for this job? For your department?
What are the main strengths a person will need to have for this job?
Or
What 3-5 traits would the ideal candidate for this position possess?
How are performance reviews conducted?
CLOSING QUESTION (ALWAYS ask this): What are the next steps in this selection process? (Clarify, follow-up, and leave with permission for re-contact.)

The "Tell-me-about-yourself question, also called your 30 second elevator speech. is an invitation to talk about your qualifications as they relate to the job you are applying for. (You're in an elevator and you only have 30-60 seconds to make an impression before reaching ground level). Prepare a one to two minute discussion of your qualifications, and practice saying it before the interview. Mention your education if it relates to the job in question and discuss your on-the-job achievements (innovative designs, sales volume, increased profits, team building, etc.). Talk numbers whenever you can.

Here's a sample: I have xx years experience in blah, blah, blah. (Mention a specific achievement here.) Because of my proven experience in dealing with retention issues, Logan Elliot suggested I contact you regarding your need for a supervisor. Logan filled me in on the challenges your department is facing.

Hope this helps.

first off, thank you!

i didnt know what to expect from this forum and i am pleasantly surprised at the timeliness and quality of your suggestions.

you can be sure i already rephrased a couple of your suggestions and outright stole the rest :P i hope you dont mind

my current supervisor gave me a mock interview tonight in preparation. his points echo some of yours especially the 'talk numbers' portion. he stopped me mid-stride and said, "i dont care about what happened before this job, tell me what you did for us!"

after hearing about my accomplishments from him, i left feeling humbled and elated. he also reminded me that they [might] need me and to keep that in mind if i get a case of the jitters. they wouldnt be speaking with me unless they pre-qualified me.

again, thank you so much for your time and energy in replying. i will surely post back if successful.

[jwcooke]

I hope you got the job you were applying for? In any event, this is a useful thread to others that are looking at interviewing internally.

In addition to the great advice you received from the previous poster, I would also suggest following up with a hand-written note. It gives that extra special touch and gives you a reason to follow up on the position to let them know you're interested. It also gives you a chance to make sure you can snatch the job before it goes to someone else or they outsource it. :-)

[marf1273]

You may want to ask about their expectations from that supervisory position in terms of performance and meeting company goals. As for that “something about yourself,” it would be best if you could tell them your positive traits and highlights of your career specifically achievements you’ve made to convince them you’re the one for the job.

[Louise80]

In addition to what others have suggested I'd probably also ask about future development opportunities (shows that you are looking for a long term position with them rather than just the job you are applying for) and when asked to talk about yourself add a very small comment about something that you do in your personal life that you can relate to a beneficial work skills e.g. I coach junior football which means I need to be organised, plan etc etc. Having interviewed a number of people and asked similar questions I like people to show a little of there personality rather than focussing themselves entirely on work, it makes them sound like there is more too them than just work, shows skills they might not show in the workplace and makes them memorable when considering them against other candidates. Do get the balance right though, going on too much about social activities will seem unprofessionsal and make them wonder when you get time to focus on work.

[InterviewCoach]

Did you get the job?
I get a lot of people ask me how to answer "Tell me about yourself question", I've copied and pasted a part from my Inteview Guide available free on www.topcareerstrategies.com Here it goes:

"I suggest you learn to answer this question with a three-part, pre-planned marketing statement that can more or less be reused from interview to interview. Part one of that three-part marketing statement is always a one-sentence summary of the candidate's career history. For example:

"I am a Product Manager with 7 years experience working for medium to large organizations the IT sector both in the UK and abroad.
You get the picture; your whole career needs to be condensed into one sentence that encapsulates the most important aspects of your career, the aspects that you want to leverage in order to make your next career step. Few candidates seem to be able to condense a career into one sentence, but it can be done.

Part two of the pre-planned marketing statement will be a one-, maybe two-sentence summary of a single accomplishment that you are proud of that will also capture the potential employer's attention. It immediately follows your initial career summary sentence from above. This accomplishment should be one that the employer will be interested in hearing, one that is easily explained or illustrated, and one that clearly highlights a bottom line impact. When done correctly this will build interviewer intrigue about the accomplishment so that they inquire further, giving you an opportunity to further discuss a significant career success.
Heres an example:

"Recently, as a long-term contract employee at a medium IT company, I was responsible for overseeing the development of Desktop Services for high value customer accounts. I defined product services and a rollout strategy for the operations, developed a business plan and successfully sourced funding. Product was implemented on time and within budget, this has also provided complete customer satisfaction and repeat business.

Part three, the final piece of the marketing statement, is probably the most fluid one. It needs to be a one-sentence summary of specifically what you want to do next in your career. The reason this third part is difficult is that it needs to specifically address what you want to do next, AND it needs to change from interview to interview to make sure it matches exactly what the INDIVIDUAL employers will be interviewing you for. Continuing with the above example of one of my past candidates, two of his final sentences, which were used for two different employers, follow:

"For the next step in my career, I would like to move away from contract work and find myself as a direct employee of a large IT company where I will be able to contribute my experience in managing and overseeing the product development life-cycle, as well as bringing forward ideas for new products and subsequently leading the design, development and delivery of these products.
But for a second employer, this ending was significantly altered because of the candidate's multiple interests in differing opportunities, to:

"For the next step in my career, I would like to find myself as a direct employee of a medium-sized firm that was looking to hire an in-house Product Manager so I could continue growing my career by managing new product launches, and evangelizing initiatives with the sales team. I would also love to apply my past team project management skills to managing a small project team.

These were two very different endings that perfectly matched two very different employer needs. Clearly you can see why the first ending wouldn't have worked for the second employer or vice versa. With some simple revising, the candidate made sure that each employer heard that they were interested in doing exactly what the employer was interested in hiring them for. That revising is what makes the third piece fluid and sometimes challenging, as candidates don't always see the need for being this specific from job interview to job interview. Most tend to be generalized, hoping that a shotgun approach will work. But it is those who get specific in what they want from interview to interview, who get the best results. With some simple planning BEFORE an interview, you, the candidate, will quickly realize the benefit of a targeted third sentence in these pre-planned opening statements, as employers feel you are perfectly suited to do just the job they are interviewing you for.

If you take the time to prepare this way as a candidate, it will be apparent to an interviewer that you are a prepared and serious candidate right at the beginning of the interview when you answer the "Tell me about yourself" question with this memorized, brief marketing statement, which combines a career summary, an exceptional accomplishment, and employer-specific career goal as in this example:

"I am a Product Manager with 7 years experience working for medium to large organizations the IT sector both in the UK and abroad. Recently, as a long-term contract employee at a medium IT company, I was responsible for overseeing the development of Desktop Services for high value customer accounts. I defined product services and a rollout strategy for the operations, developed a business plan and successfully sourced funding. Product was implemented on time and within budget, this has also provided complete customer satisfaction and repeat business. For the next step in my career, I would like to find myself as a direct employee of a medium-sized firm that was looking to hire an in-house Product Manager so I could continue growing my career by managing new product launches, and evangelizing initiatives with the sales team. I would also love to apply my past team project management skills to managing a small project team.
Clearly you can understand how the candidate who opens with this type of prepared response to the "Tell me about yourself" question will make a significantly better first impression than a candidate who responds by answering, "What would you like to know?" Plus candidates who prepare in this manner are typically more confident at the interview's start, make a substantial and positive verbal first impression, give a clear indication of their interest in making a career move, and force the interviewer to get past the icebreaker questions to the parts of the interview that will help both parties begin the process of seriously determining if this is a solid match.

As you can see, these three simple steps-summarizing what your experience is as candidate, sharing an impressive career accomplishment, and then summarizing what would be an ideal next career step for you, one that matches what the employer is looking to hire-are the keys to beginning your interview with a competitive advantage. Candidates who take the time to do this significantly improve their initial verbal impression, get their interview off to a confident and focused beginning, and more often than not get called back for second interviews, or better yet, for offers of employment with employers who are impressed. "

Good luck!
Margaret

[andrewsegawa]

Many people say that asking an interviewer when you will begin work also works miracles, that it shows you are focussed and many like it

[prashantsnv]

Hi,

Agree with the above given suggestions.

I can suggest you to ask about company's expectations from you?
What would be the scope in that company according to your objective?

Thanks.

[tutorial_guru]

• What are some the responsibilities of the position offered?
• Is there mobility within the organization, a possibility to grow within the company?
• What are the career paths in this department?
• What would you consider to be the most important aspects of this job?
• What are the skills and attributes you value most for someone being hired for this position?
• Could you describe a typical day or week in this position?
• The typical client or customer I would be dealing with?
• What are the most immediate challenges of the position that needs to be addressed in the first three months?

[looking4job]

Originally Posted by ;8163

im interviewing for a retention supervisor spot for a large cable and communications company. i am currently employed by that company and i am scheduled for an interview with 2 managers at once.

besides the intimidation factor already getting me in a twist, i know from past experience one of the questions posed to me will be " do you have any questions for us"

in the past, i have tanked that question repeatedly because i do my research exhaustively prior to any interview. in this case, i already know all about the company i work for, the corporate culture, the benefits and compensation packages [they are posted on the internal job site]

i do not want to leave these people with the impression that i am ill prepared or disinterested in the company by not having any .... good questions to ask them.

any suggestions? the only one i have so far is " how will my performance be evaluated in this position? "
thats pretty much the only info not readily available to me. if i ask the usual questions [compensation/benefits, work schedule, vacation, blah blah blah] I may sound trite, or worse, it may sound like i dont know about the company i work for.

also, the usual "tell us about yourself" question throws me. is this an opportunity to share non-career related information about my background, or should i limit my answer to what about me qualifies me for the promotion?

thank you in advance for any suggestions!

Always ask an Employer if you have any questions...Its very very Important