Speaker 1: you will be asked, do you have any questions for me in the interview? And you better not just have a question, but have a dang good question to impress them. This is Self Made Millennial. I'm Madeline Mann, and in this video, I'm going to take you through the best questions to ask in a job interview. Asking these questions will prove to employers that you are a high value candidate and also help you collect all the valuable information you need to ace your interview. This strategy of asking great questions has landed so many viewers of this channel incredible jobs. Take for example, the last time I did a video on asking questions, and the success stories popped off. Joy got a job, Dwayne got hired, Daniela aced her interview, Josephine landed her dream job. I'll link that video that I'm referring to in the comments, but heck, I think it's your turn. We will go through the top questions to ask about the role, the interviewer, the team, and I'll show you exactly how to weave these questions naturally into the interview. Make sure you stay to the end because I'll be sharing my tips on how and when to ask about money. Trust me, so many people get this wrong, so make sure you're asking it the right way at the right time. Why is asking questions in a job interview so important? Do you have any questions for me is actually the most important job interview question. Why? Because employers view the questions you ask as a direct reflection of how interested you are in the opportunity and your ability to think critically. If you don't ask any questions in the job interview, you'll give off the impression that you'll take any job that comes your way and that you're not thoroughly vetting the opportunity from your side to ensure it's the right fit. Additionally, asking questions show that you are thinking critically about the work, the company strategy, each piece. And when I debrief hiring managers, it's absolutely wild how often they remark that they were impressed by the questions the person asked and not what they answered, very similar to Jeopardy. Look, we all know they're going to ask, do you have any questions for me? So you better prepare at least three questions to ask. That is typically the last question that the interviewer asks. And the most common first question is tell me about yourself. These are the bookends of the interview that you absolutely need to slay. So I have created an easy step-by-step worksheet to help you craft the perfect answer to tell me about yourself. I get emails every week on how this worksheet increases people's confidence big time. So I will link that in the comments and in the description. And I would like to know, do you typically ask questions that you've prepared in advance in a job interview? Or do you typically feel out the conversation and ask questions on the spot? Let me know in the comments by saying in advance or on the spot, it'll be fun to hear about your interview preparation process. Let's run through the top questions to ask. So one of the questions I always recommend asking interviewers is, can you explain the job in your own words? If you have a chance to ask them this question at the beginning of the interview, go for it. If you don't, wait until the end of the interview. Make sure that you take detailed notes on the interviewer's response to this question because they're feeding you key insights on what they are looking for. You can frame it as, I had a chance to review the job description, but it would be really helpful to hear from your role and perspective how you would explain the duties of the role. The thing is, a company's perspective about a role and the type of person they want to hire may evolve over the course of the interview process. Additionally, not all requirements on the job description are created equal. So pay attention to which requirements they emphasize over others. Then write this information down and use it to your advantage throughout the whole interview process. Use it in this interview, future interviews, also in your thank you emails. You better be writing thank you emails. If you wanna know exactly what to say for high impact thank you email, you better be sending these. I have a video that I will link in the comments and in the description. It's really important to ask questions about the role in the job interview. The question, what makes this role available, helps you to understand the situation you're coming into, such as the reason why the last person left. Sure, they may ask you, why did you leave your job? But they've got some explaining to do too. Why did someone hightail it out here after taking this role? Ah, how the turns have tabled. If you find out that the role is an additional head count for a role that already exists, you can speak with peers to understand what is this job like. If it's a completely new role, you'll be able to assess if the responsibilities of the role are well defined. The next question I have for you is, what kind of additional responsibilities can be gained over time in this role? This question is great because it helps you to get more context around one of the top drivers of satisfaction in a job, growth. This also signals to employers that you are focused on responsibilities rather than just promotions and title changes. Here's another one, hot off the griddle, hope your plate's ready. Ask the question, what do you want this role to accomplish in the first 90 days? The employer's response will provide you with the exact information you need to ace the interview question, why should we hire you? And so much other key information to lock this offer down. Pop it, lock it, polka dot it. This is yet another question that employers frequently ask job candidates. So make sure you watch my video on how to answer the question, why should we hire you? I give you the formula of how to answer this question that actually doesn't require you to brag or sell yourself, bleh. I'll link it in the comments and in the description for you to watch next. If you're interviewing with an executive, make sure you ask them, how do you measure success for this role? Nothing makes a senior leader's tail wag faster than a candidate who presents themselves as data-driven and results-oriented. Another question you can ask about the role is what have been the biggest challenges for this role? You want to know what are the employer's top of mind pain points so that going forward, you can focus your interview answers on how you will address that pain. Ultimately, employers hire people who they know will make their lives easier. So make sure you're able to clearly communicate how you will help them in the areas where they need it most. If you have trouble communicating clearly during interviews, watch my video on how to not ramble in the interview. I teach you how to ask clarifying questions throughout the interview so that your answers are clear and concise. I'll link that in the comments and in the description. Next up, questions you should ask about the interviewer in the job interview. One of the best ways to get someone to like you is to get them talking about themselves. Research performed by Harvard University Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab shows that when people talk about themselves, it activates the same regions of the brain that are linked with pleasurable feelings and motivational states such as eating good food. So be sure to ask the interviewer questions about themselves if you want them to feel as good as they do after a trip to In-N-Out. Because case closed, In-N-Out is the best. Fight me in the comments, Whataburger peeps. As your fairy job mother, I am going to give you some questions that you can ask about your interviewer. But it's even better to do your research about each interviewer and ask them questions that are tailored to their role and background. And to be honest, that goes for all of these questions in this video. Preparing customized questions is going to set you so far apart from other candidates, they are going to need braces to close the gap. Watch my video on how to prepare for a job interview to learn the exact formula to quickly and effectively prepare for a job interview. It will make your research a breeze and help you to find the ability to come up with custom questions. I'll link that in the comments and in the description. The first question you can ask about your interviewer should go something along the lines of, I did a little research and saw that you've been at the company for X years. How has your role evolved? And how has the company evolved during your time here? This research only takes a few minutes, but it will impress your interviewer because it's a nuanced question that they don't normally get. Another question you can ask is, why did you join the company? And is the experience what you expected? This is a twist on the most common question people ask, which is, why do you like working here? Or what's your favorite thing about working here? This version still allows them to say something nice about where they work, but also allows for a bit more interesting and layered response. Remember, the last thing you want to do is to ask your interviewer a question that only solicits a short response followed by an awkward silence. You can avoid all of that by watching my video on how to make an interview a conversation, where I show you how to not wait until the end of the interview to ask questions, but actually ask questions naturally throughout. This is a really powerful strategy to land job offers. It's actually the video I teased at the beginning with all of those amazing testimonials of people landing jobs. I will link that video in the comments and in the description. Next, ask about the team in a job interview. Have you ever heard the phrase, people don't leave companies, they leave managers? Well, during your question asking, understanding what the manager is like and the team dynamics will be a huge insight to whether this is the right job for you. You should ask questions like, who will I be working with most closely? What is the boss's leadership style? What are the team dynamics like? And what are the team members' work styles? All righty then, and now we're moving into bonus questions time. These questions are important to ask, but if you only ask these questions, you will be seen as a low value candidate. So ask these, but don't only ask these. The questions are all about the interview process, such as what does the interview process look like? What are next steps? And when should I expect to hear back about next steps? I'll give these questions credit where credit's due. They do allow you to know when to follow up and following up is so important. So if you're not following up after the interview, I've written several email templates for you to use. I'll link all those templates in the comments and in the description. Now, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the burning question everyone wants to know, how much are you going to pay me? I know, it is so hard to keep interviewing with a company when you're not sure if the role pays diddly squat or quite a lot. But if you want to maximize both your chance of landing the job and your compensation being higher, do not ask about money in the first interview. If you do, it will make you seem too focused on money and not very focused on the right fit. It is normal to be asked about your compensation requirements in the first interview, but I recommend holding off having conversations about compensation until you are in later rounds of interviews. At later stages, they have seen more of your value and are invested in you potentially joining the team so you have more negotiation power. A great question to ask, especially if they are asking for your salary requirements is, what is the pay range for this role? This then puts the ball in the employer's court and prevents you from under-asking or over-asking for a certain salary. I have so many more things to say on this topic, so I will link a full video on how to negotiate salary during the job search process and have these conversations at every stage. I will link that video in the comments and in the description. Be sure to like this video and subscribe to this channel. You've got this, Wi-Fi high five.