Name: The Most Valuable Question to Ask in a Job Interview
Uploaded: 2024-11-03T08:06:02.000Z
Duration: 6 min 11 s
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Hi everyone, it's Andy LaCivita, founder of Milewalk and the Milewalk Academy and award winning author of The Hiring Prophecies here with this week's episode of Tips for Work and Life.

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We're going to talk about the most valuable question to ask in a job interview.

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Before we get rolling into that and before I give you the answer, I want to express, I understand that many of you struggle with how to ask questions and which questions to Not only is it a great chance to sell yourself, but it's the most important aspect to getting the information you need to make a good decision about whether the employer is good for you.

Before we get into what that specific question is, I want you to know, I think there are a lot of questions that need to be asked.

Number one, is the company a good company?

Number two, is it a good company for you?

Just because it's a great company doesn't necessarily mean it's a great company for you.

There are a lot of questions that go along with trying to figure that out.

Second thing is, when you ask questions, you should keep these three things in mind.

Every question should be designed to sell yourself.

Number two, get the information that you need so that you can make a good decision.

Number three, get the information as quickly as possible because the faster you can get what you need, the more time that frees up for you to ask even more questions.

The more questions you can ask, the more insight you can gather, the more informed your decision will be, and likely the better your decision will be.

There's a whole lot that goes into those questions.

There's a science behind how to ask them, a way to organize them, how to use the information and all that good stuff.

I have an entire webinar dedicated to acing your interview.

It's called Three Keys to Ace Any Job Interview.

I go into a lot of detail about what questions to ask and how to ask them.

One other aspect that I want to add to why I think this is such a valuable question, and I'll give that to you in a minute, is about a month ago or so, I did a video.

It was a blog post about the number one reason why you don't get hired.

The number one reason why you don't get hired is not because of your lack of qualifications.

Chances are very, very good that if you're interviewing, you're qualified and the employer thinks so.

My guess is you'd do a great job if you got that job offer and accepted it.

It's the job candidate's inability to map how their qualifications align to what it is that the employer needs.

Keeping that in mind, and actually you can go back and watch that video if you'd like, but keeping that in mind, and there's a great chance that you can misstep in this part of the process.

The reason I think this question is the most valuable one you can ask, because it helps you sell yourself, it gets you information, it gets it quickly, and it also helps you overcome that greatest obstacle in getting hired.

It doesn't need to be the first question you ask, but somewhere early on when you're given the opportunity to ask those questions, I would ask this question to the interviewer.

If you were to give me a job offer and I was to accept it, after one year on the job, what would you consider to be a raging success?

Specifically, what will I have accomplished that you would consider to be a success?

What that question does is it gives you real clarity about what the interviewer thinks success looks like.

Now, what you can do with that insight is you can reply or weave into your other questions and responses how you have the skills to do that, how you have the capabilities to do that, or how you would actually accomplish those achievements.

Now, you're getting to talk about specifically what you would do to work toward that success, and that's ultimately what that job interviewer is looking for.

Will this person be successful in the role?

If you ask that question to every single person you interview with, you might get a slightly different answer.

At least this way, you'll know what that interviewer thinks success is.

Or maybe you're interviewing with different people within the organization and they each have different goals and each have different requirements and needs that need to be satisfied by this person or this support person or whatever the person's job is.

Now what you're doing is you're aligning your answers to how it affects that person, his or her job, his or her interests, whatever it might be, and you're talking directly to that person and you're able to make sure that you are articulating how you're going to be successful based on what they think success is.

Let's not worry just yet about whether or not all their answers are consistent.

That's something you can sort out later, but the most important thing while you're in that particular interview is to get that interviewer to like you.

That's what that question does, and that's why it's so powerful because it makes sure that you understand what it is they think success looks like.

Just to recap, what I would ask them is, if you were to give me an offer and I was to accept it, after one year, what do you think success would look like?

Specifically, what achievements would constitute success?

And then turn the table back, talk about how you have the skills to do that or how you would go about doing that or how you're able to do that, and that will dial you in nicely with the job interviewer.

If you want more on this kind of insight, check out the Tips for Work and Life blog.

If you're watching this anywhere other than the Tips for Work and Life blog or my YouTube channel, if you're listening to it on the podcast or seeing this somewhere else, hop over to the Tips for Work and Life blog.

There's plenty more like this, loads on interviewing.

I've got that free job interviewing webcast called Three Keys to Ace Any Job Interview.

I'm doing a live session or two every month now, so see if you can jump in on that.

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The Most Valuable Question to Ask in a Job Interview

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