How do you ask questions while being interviewed when you are going through multiple interviews?
(This is related to the other question I just posted in this forum on altering my close for multiple interviews).
I have a series of 9 back-to-back interviews coming up for two opportunities (at a single external company), and I'm at a bit of a loss for how to prepare for the portion where I get to ask my own questions. Can I ask the same questions of each interviewer? I am hoping I'll have interesting points come up in each interview and I'll be able to pose questions related to them, but "hope isn't a method". Memorizing 3-5 questions per interviewer (27-45 questions!) also doesn't seem like a very realistic plan!
Are there questions that work well for reuse from one interviewer to the next? I'd like to avoid asking the same questions of each interviewer, only to have them get together later and come to the conclusion that I must be a bit dull if I like having the same conversation over and over again.
Targeted and common questions
JIB88,
You will have an opportunity to ask questions based on discussion / content arising in the interviews. In addition to this you surely want to have a number of questions to ask irrespective of the content in the interview. This will require preparation ahead of the interviews and while you could write them down and refer to them during an interview you may want to memorize them if you can.
I couple years ago I went through quite a number of interviews for my current role/company and I had a list of 'common' questions that I asked everyone and then several 'targeted' questions for each interviewer based upon the interviewer's role and position at the company.
The 'common' questions I asked were mostly in relation to the cultural side of things, and by asking the same questions from the each of the interviewers I left with a feel for their cultural values. For example, "Based on your experience at <interviewing company>, what would you say are the attributes required of people for them to be successful?" or "Based on people you've seen come into <interviewing company> how can someone most successfully integrate themselves into the company?". etc. I went through an interview process of around 25 interviews and collected surprisingly consistent data points from these sorts of questions which helped with my final decision about joining the company.
The 'targeted' questions I asked were very dependent upon the interviewer's role / functional responsibilitues, as they and their teams would be who i would work with should I be successful in the interview process. I also asked my HR contact who was overseeing the interview process if they would be willing to talk me through the background of each interviewer in advance so I could have some additional context ahead of the interviews - the HR person liked my question and really helped me with this. I then prepared targeted questions which largely centered around understanding the structure & responsibilities of their groups, how their groups interacted with the group I was interviewing with, how I could best engage / work with them & their groups, what their key priorities / challenges were and key projects etc. And then of course I had a different set of questions for folks in my direct reporting line (my manager, manager's manager etc.).
If memorizing a series of individual questions is unrealistic then at least have a series of 'themes' you memorize in advance and around which you can ask questions 'on the fly' in the interviews. I found a combination of common & targeted questions worked very well.
Yes
You can ask the same questions of every interviewer. You may not have to, depending upon what comes up in the interview (interesting topics discussed then get asked first).
But if you do, start your prepared questions with, " what's your sense of", or, " can you share your perspective on..."
This makes every question about the interviewer's opinion, rather than the facts of the situation.
Tis seriously is best paired with our detailed guidance about how to ask questions in general.
Mark