Questions that are better left unasked and why!

From our last two blogs, you may be familiar with asking the right questions towards the end of your interviews.

Many a times, when we share an experience or a thought process in response to a question, there’s a tendency to get carried away by our thoughts and stray from the original response to the question. I’m surely not the only one to be guilty of it! Straying from the topic is natural and is OK in conversations unless it threatens to jeopardize a crucial situation like an interview. Planning and preparing are the best ways to steer clear of trouble, and just how you ask questions towards the end of an interview makes all the difference, we urge you to consciously avoid asking the queries mentioned below.

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To start - Avoid asking questions related to the company/role/history that can be found online.

Interviewers love candidates who are well prepared. But asking questions like what the company does at a high level (it happens!), what the product is, who the founders are or basic queries around public/popular actions the firm’s taken, can make you come across as someone who has not done their homework. This will most definitely alter their perception about you and even cost you the job.

To steer clear of such a situation, go one step further. For instance, ask for the interviewer's perspective on the above queries, rather than the facts themselves. For example, while you are expected to know basics about the company like who the founders are, you can venture to ask about the interviewer's front-row experience working with the company, how he/she relates to the co-founder's vision and more. Requesting for the person's viewpoint is new territory that most likely cannot be googled to find out.

Benefit and perks related - There is a subtle difference between being interested in a company's overall culture and drilling down to your individual benefits such as the salary, vacations or general time off, bonuses, stocks, free swags, insurance or any other perks/benefits. It’s a too early for the discussion at the interview stage, and as well a discussion better suited for the HR who finalizes the hiring. The interview’s focus is on what you can bring to the table to benefit the company, not what you want to get out of it. Companies look for candidates who genuinely are interested in the job and learning from it. While it’s natural to be curious about your compensation, it may be a question best left discussed with the HR towards the end of the process or gather information about the "company's benefits" in their job descriptions, blogs, website, external career websites such as Glassdoor.com and even common alumni connections.

Negotiations! Negotiating related to perks and benefits is a common instinct in candidates. But it has the potential to derail your interview. Since you have not been extended an offer yet, there is nothing to negotiate here. Again, it is too early and not the right place or time for these discussions. if you are wondering, how to decide if this is a worthwhile endeavor without knowing what you are getting out of it, know this

a) You are already seated for that interview, you must have some interest

b) Your research around the company and its benefits should help you decide.

c) Like it or not, this interview is about evaluating the role and responsibilities at hand, and if that fits the two of you at the table. Not the compensation or benefits involved.

Companies usually disclose the basics of what you will get upfront. If you are not clear or have further questions, you should reach out and talk to the HR contact, and clarify the compensation or benefits, and negotiate the same towards the end of the hiring process.

Questions related to work hours -  While questions around break/lunch hours, work from home or flexible hours could raise flags about your motivation and commitment, the same on working overtime/ weekends can also imply that you either want to be perceived as a hard worker who equates hours to productivity or that you just might not be able to optimize your time, work smart and prioritize tasks to get things done.

Either way, it does not bode well for you to raise these questions. It's best to avoid discussion about specific work hours. However, you are completely in the green to enquire about what a day’s work looks like in the new role or how a regular work week looks like. This will also give the interviewer a chance to convey her/his expectations from their new hire. But do remember, you may as well be asked to answer this very question. Ideally, we’d like to hope that the company you work for cares more that the work is done, than how and where it’s done.

Questions around background/social profile checks -  Companies want to hire not just the right people, but ones who are above board. To this end, many companies conduct professional background checks or do a review your online presence to ensure there are no past skeletons that jump outta your closet, or that you are who you say you are. Online profiles reveal a surprising amount of information not just about a person’s background, but their choices, likes, character, and personality. Even if you are curious if they do execute these checks and how extensive they get, it may be best not to bring it up to not look guilty of having anything worthy to hide anything. The last thing you’d want is to have the hiring team second guess themselves and even reconsider their previous decisions. The best you can hope for is to maintain an online presence that would be least likely to raise concerns.

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Hope the above list helps in building a set of questions that’s better avoided as well as guidelines for questions that would further your cause with the interviewers.

In our upcoming blog, we shift gears to discuss resume building. For all you final years who are graduating in the coming months and are probably participating in placements - these next set of blogs from me are especially for you! Even if you are not in that stage of your student or professional life, we urge you to read on to gain valuable resume building skills and stay ahead of the game!

In the meanwhile, if you have you been guilty of asking or smart enough to avoid any of the above questions in an interview, let us know how it went! What was your rationale and how did you quench your curiosity? What would you do differently if you find yourself in a similar situation again?

This exercise helps you review the given situation in hindsight and tackle it even better in the future! Do let us know how you are progressing, we are here to help!

Manish N Gaba

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