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Job SearchingInterviews tend to develop into their own animal. It’s not the fault of the company or manager setting up the interview, but just the mere fact that interviews by nature are typically a very discoverable experience for both sides. Therefore an interview anticipated to be x number of people and x hours could completely change for both sides and neither really has much control over it because both sides really need to get the information that they need to make that decision.
With that said, many of times for example, you will find yourself in an interview more often than not where you run into a situation where it’s a cram session. During the interview managers to potential colleagues that you may be working with end up in showing in greater numbers and have a huge list of questions to ask you. And sometimes, you’ve just answered 20-30 questions per interviewer and realized hey, they forgot to give me adequate time to really ask my questions because of the fact that the number of interviewers originally anticipated ended up being 2-3 times more when the interview actually took place without your control. You soon realize that the notion that the “interview should start by 11am and be done by 1pm” is now really morphed into a race and tailspin because the number of interviewers or time per person is way out of wack. This results in the interviewee forgetting to ask half the questions they were going to, because they are being drilled to the hilt. Or this can result in just merely forgetting your questions because of the pressure to answer those 20-30 questions per interviewer and you are so exhausted that you can’t stop to think what the heck you were going to ask them to begin with.
When the interview is more one-sided and in leaning toward the favor of the interviewers, I recommend is the following to help you get your questions asked:
1) Have your top 7 questions in your mind and memorized before the interview
- What are the make it or break it questions you need answered that will allow you to ultimately give them a YES or NO to the final offer?
2) Maintain the attitude that hey, my questions are just as important as yours including adequate time to discuss my questions.
Don’t say that to them but having this attitude will help remind you not to forget to ask them when the pressure is on
3) Be aware of what could happen going in and changes that can take place.
Specifically, some interviews surprisingly end up being longer or involve a greater number of people than you were originally told or anticipated.
There are a few possible reasons for this:
- They like you but aren’t quite sure where you fit in yet so they want more people to join in the session to find out your skill set more
- They want a second or third opinion from another developer or other teams. Maybe the first interviewer got a so-so reaction or conclusion but still thinks this guy is probably a good developer but just couldn’t answer the questions or type of questions thrown for whatever reason but gave hints that he/she can hack it if given the task
- They feel the person is not right, and want to clarify that by introducing more people into the session to ask more technical questions just to confirm their belief
- Poor planning or communication by the interviewers who forgot to tell you “hey, by the way we have 5 other people coming in next, we forgot to tell you and apologize”. That just decreased your overall time if they expect the interview overall to not exceed x hours originally if there was some sort of anticipated timeline
Whatever the case may be, if you end up with your time being slowly cut short due to the increases in the # of people that seem to keep walking in, and was much more than you expected, it’s time to remember that you are also here to find out what the place has to offer for you. It’s all too easy to forget when you’re in the hot seat so note that the schedule will most definitely not be set in stone even if they give you a nice organized list of people and times they will be talking to you.
4) When you start to notice many more people added to the mix than you were originally told, now it’s time to start looking out for your own best interests.
Now after you have been drilled by the past 2 guys, it’s time to start to focus on finding those rare brief pauses that the next person takes, to start to weed your questions in. Don’t interrupt but be quick to take advantage of those very short pauses that the interviewer takes when catching their breath!
5) Counter their question with a question.
One of those times where the “shift” takes place is when you are actually asked one of those many questions by the interviewer. Look at this as not just an opportunity to answer but to also ask.
Example:
Interviewer: “Have you created many custom web controls?”
Your answer: “Yes I have or no I have not”. (But don’t stop there) Remember, you still have the microphone. Just because you answered a question doesn’t mean you can’t ask one now in return. Use this stage and ask them a question such as “So do you guys bind any DataGrids using generic collections? What type of object are you obtaining from your Business Layer that you are binding against?”.
What you just did is paused them. You answered their question but you did not stop there. You in turn asked one of your own questions. My intent was to ask how they bind DataGrids that could be in some of those custom controls. By them telling me what type of object they are binding against, that might tell me what kind of objects they may be returning from their classes in their Data Layer to their Business Layer because ultimately in a good n-layered application, you’re going to make calls and bind to objects returned from your Business Layer method calls. Obviously if they are returning Generic Lists form their Business layer, the conclusion is most likely that they are probably not using Typed DataSets in their Data Layer. So that was one concern that you might have had (maybe you do not want to work in an environment who uses DataSets)…and able to knock that question out with a related response but also that this related question really secretly has a deeper meaning for you and they do not know this but you were able to get one of your answers crossed off your list. You are essentially cutting out that time that they are essentially “hogging” by countering with a question after a question.
6) When all else fails, here are some final suggestions to get your remaining questions answered:
- At the end, if they ask you if you do have any questions, first ask how much time do they have left. If they are wide open, make sure you ask as many as you can now
- If all else fails, and your last person to interview you is the hiring manager or HR representative, try to get them answered then. And if they can’t answer them or also do not have time for all, tell them that hey, I didn’t really get a good opportunity to get just a few more answered that I’d really like to clear up. Ask them if maybe it’s possible to send them an email or call them later when they have more time. They should be more than happy to do this for you if they are looking out for both interests that are at stake here
- If they cannot seem to open up and allow more questions offline, try to get your 3rd party recruiter to ask them for you and demand that they get answered. Tell them you need to get these answered in order to make that decision.
Remember, you have to look out for your best interests to make sure that your next career move will be a happy, successful, and rewarding move. Don’t get caught up in the cloud of smoke.
