Cause we just couldn’t get enough of Aimee Bateman from Careercake, and had such a fabulous time with her visit on campus a few months ago – we asked her if she would like to contribute a few of her best tips for your interviews. The academic year is soon coming to an end. That means more internship/placements and grad scheme applications to work on.
You’ve made it past the initial screening and now is your time to prepare for the INTERVIEW! Here are Aimee’s 3 Awesome Questions to ask an Interviewer – YES you too can ask questions during your interview!
Aimee Bateman – 3 Awesome Questions to Ask the Interviewer
You have answered all the employer’s questions and now it’s your opportunity to do the asking.
This is not the time to ask about salaries, holidays or the sickness policy. It is your time to show your passion and your opportunity to build as much rapport with the interviewer as is professionally possible in this time frame.
Question No.1
‘What is the culture like within the business?’
In my experience employers ultimately care about 2 things.
1) Will you (directly/indirectly) make the company more money?
2) Will you get on with me and my existing team?
By asking the interviewer this question you are showing that getting on with the existing team and fitting in with the culture is also on your agenda and you recognise that simply matching the job description is not the only thing that needs to be considered.
Question No.2
‘From your experience what type of person is really successful in this company?’
This shows that being successful is something that you are most definitely interested in and you’re showing an openness to take direction and learn how to do it ‘their way’. This is the perfect, positive question to build rapport with and is a great opportunity to reaffirm your own strengths in a more relaxed ‘conversational’ way.
Question No.3
‘What do you like most about working for this company?’
This is a great question to ask but ONLY really works if you ask it at the very end in a casual manner. It is a little personal (not too personal!) and shows you are interested in the interviewer on a personal, but professional level. On the whole, people love talking about themselves and one great way to build rapport with people is to ask questions about them.
Let’s be honest, we all want to work with people we get on well with because ‘People employ People’ (cliché but it is true).
It will also give you a much better understanding of the company that you will not get from the job description or your recruitment consultant.
Bio:
In her career, Aimee Bateman worked for some of the world’s largest recruitment companies before setting up her own training consultancy. She has helped thousands of people get their dream jobs and has appeared on BBC 1, BBC2 and BBC3 as the ‘Recruitment Expert’. Aimee also created popular careers website, Careercake.com which is designed to help passionate people kick start their dream careers.
Website: www.Careercake.com
Twitter: @Aimee_Bateman
You can also read about Aimee’s amazing visit at Westminster Business School: here
Really useful advise and a very interesting personality to follow on-line! Always learning something new. Thank you!
Really good advice. Another useful question is to ask about development opportunities e.g. through training or mentoring programmes.
Thanks
Good questions….
I intend for study in the Westminster Business School.
Thank you….