Interviewing prospective employers: Tips and traps

Dear Bob …

I’m angry about some advice you gave recently.

In “Prospective employees: Select your employer as they would select you,” you said that job hunters should interview prospective employers to make sure they’re a good fit.

[ Also on InfoWorld: “Prospective employees: Select your employer as they would select you” | Get sage advice on IT careers and management from Bob Lewis in InfoWorld’s Advice Line newsletter. ]

Well, I tried this once. And only once. I was in an interview, and when the time came for me to ask questions, I asked whether long days or weekend hours were mandatory, whether managers delegated goals and trusted employees or closely supervised, and whether departments worked well together or were heavily siloed — the sort of thing that makes a company a good employer or bad employer.

The hiring manager looked horrified, and I never got a call back, even though I was very well qualified for the position.

So while your advice sounds like a great theory, out here in the real world it sucks.

– Once bitten

Dear Twice shy …

As a manager said to me in the early days of my career, you can say anything to anybody, but you can’t say it any way you want.

What it appears you missed is the importance of being diplomatic instead of sounding argumentative.

To understand what went wrong, turn things around and imagine the hiring manager had asked you (if you were applying for a programming job), “Do the programs you write have a lot of bugs in them and fail to solve the business problem?”

There are plenty of better ways to ask the question that don’t sound challenging and insulting. The same is true when the shoe is on your foot.

Let the hiring manager know that, from your perspective, the job itself sounds like a great fit for your experience and abilities, and you hope s/he has drawn the same conclusion. Then ask your questions in an open-ended, nonpejorative way.

For example, asking about long hours and weekends makes it clear you have no intention of doing either. Were you to ask instead, “You can tell a lot about a company by looking around after 5 p.m. or so. If you were to let me hang around, what would I see, and what would the place feel like?”

Want to know about whether your prospective boss is a micromanager? “There are a lot of ways to delegate assignments. If you don’t mind, tell me how you go about it.”

Something you can do that will also help is to ask if you could spend time with some of the people who would be your peers if you got hired. If the manager looks at you like you’ve grown a second head, chances are good you wouldn’t want to work there. Otherwise, when you have the chance, ask the most open-ended question possible: “What’s it like to work here?”

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of open-ended questions, which in the context means avoiding the push poll effect.

If you aren’t familiar with the term, push polls are the one that ask questions in ways that more or less force the answer, like the legendary “Whopper beat the Big Mac” poll that reportedly asked those surveyed which the would prefer: a luscious, flame-broiled hamburger with all the fixings or a disgusting, greasy, fried hockey puck.

Don’t do that. Ask questions in ways that make all answers OK and give no hint of your preference.

– Bob