Interview Tip

"They give me a Google doc with questions to ask the candidate during the interview"

Interviewers tell me this all the time when I ask them how their company trains them to interview candidates.

If you're interviewing candidates for your company, there's something you can do without their help to get ready for the interview:

Preparing for questions that candidates might ask you during the interview.

And yes, you absolutely should allow candidates to ask questions during the interview.

Yesterday I ran a poll asking when candidates want to be able to ask questions during the interview.

171 people said the want to ask questions to the interviewer throughout the interview vs 43 who said during the last 10 minutes.

Every company has a variation of their own process but they mostly boil down to 3 key individual interviews.
- A peer interview
- Cross functional interview
- Hiring Manager interview

Let's do a quick summary of the purpose of these interviews then list out some good questions that, as an interviewer, you should be prepared to answer.

Questions candidates ask during 3 types of interviews

 
1. Peer Interview

Yes, it's important for the interviewer to learn about the candidate but so many interviewers focus on asking questions vs. evaluating the ones they get.
You can tell so much about the candidate by the way they handle this interview.
Do they do their research, do they take it seriously, do they ask questions that only a peer can answer or that help them confirm answers from other interviews.

What the candidate asks you about not only shows you what it's like to work with them, but also, what they truly care about.

Here are some questions to be ready for:
- Walk me through how you've worked with (Manager name) before, during and after you bring them on a customer call.
- How many people on the team are hitting quota and why do you think that is?
- Where do you think the team would like more support and what would be the impact of that?
- What's one thing that you wish the company did differently and what would that do? Why is that important to you?
- What's something you'd like to see added to your 1:1s and what's something during your 1:1s that helps you?
- What's an example of major company change they announced and how did leadership roll it out?

2. Cross functional interview

Similar to the peer interview, the cross functional interview (if done with the same level as the role) creates a different environment than meeting with a hiring manager because it's someone who is not in the role or on the team.
This means the candidate gets an outsider's look on the team and the hiring manager as a leader.

Here's a golden opportunity for a candidate to not only know how they'd work with this person (and their team if they joined), but also, how the company sees them.

Here are some questions to be ready for:
- What's the next step in your career and what part does the role I'm interviewing play in getting you there?
- Name something that a top rep from the team I'd be on does when working with your team and name something they don't do that you wish they did (and why).
- What's something that the team I'm interviewing for has struggled with and why you think that is?
- Walk me through a project that our teams worked on together. How did our teams work together, what could've gone better and what was the impact to the business?
- What was the last thing (potential manager name) did to help your team and how did it move the needle?

3. Hiring Manager interview
Let's call it what it is, this is where two people get to see if they would work with each other or not.
You get one, 30-45 minute call to put it alllll out there and see if there should be more calls scheduled.

When either side asks a question and let's someone answer for 3 minutes, that really only leaves 4-6 questions max (assuming you have a heart and let the other person ask questions as well).

Knowing the above, this is part of the evaluation. The questions they decide to ask shows what they absolutely must know, which says a lot.

Here are some questions to be ready for:
- What's one thing that you plan to train the team on next quarter, what will the impact of it be and why did you prioritize it?
- How much runway does the company have and what are the future fundraising plans?
- What would your team say is something you've been working on as leader and what is your greatest strength?
- Tell me about a recent customer you lost with a rep, what happened and what are you doing to ensure it doesn't happen again?
- When there's a disagreement between two people on the team, how do you handle it?
- What could I have done better during the interview process?