You Should Interview Companies While They Interview You

 

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Have you ever applied for a job and been told by the interviewer how amazing the company is? You’ve read through the job description and to verify it matched your skills and strengths. During the interview the hiring manager gave you a summary of the job duties. You took all of this information in and thought you had a clear understanding of what the role was going to require. After all of this you get hired and start your job, only to find out that the job’s duties and responsibilities were different than you expected? 

I have and it’s disappointing to say the least. I was still excited to get the job, but I was also disappointed right away with my new role. I felt like I had made a mistake and might want to consider continuing my job search and looking for my next role. I did end up doing that and moved on to another company that was much more aligned with what I thought it was going to be going in.  

That experience taught me a valuable lesson about interviewing. Not only is the company using the opportunity to interview me, but I should use that opportunity to interview the company and the hiring manager as well. I need to have a clear picture of what this company’s values and mission are. I must understand what is expected of the role. I should know what kind of leader the hiring manager is. All of this is important so that I feel happy from the moment I begin my new role and throughout my time in that position. 

I’ve learned to do this during the job interview process. I learned because I made an expensive mistake. Not expensive with money but expensive with time. I wasted time in a role that wasn’t a good fit for me. That wasn’t fair to the company that hired me, the team I worked with or the customers I supported. I learned to interview the company while they interviewed me. Here’s how I did it. 

Interview The Company While They Interview You

Research

The first thing you should do is research the organization you are going to be a part of. If this is an external company to the one you work for, you should search them online. Look for stories of employees that have worked there. Look the company up on LinkedIn and see what the rating of the CEO and Company is. You can also see who works there and LinkedIn will filter the list to people you might now. Reach out to these people either on LinkedIn or better yet, via a phone call and chat with them about what the company is like.

If you’re applying for a role internal to your organization, look up the hiring chart and find out who works on that team. Setup time to chat with them and learn about what they do and what they are going after. How do they like what they do? Ask if they would want to join this team again or what they’re looking to do next. Can you find a team that the leader worked with before? If so, reach out to those team members and ask if they would consider joining the team you’re considering. 

Identify What’s Important to You

You should identify what really matters to you in your role and your life before you interview or even apply. This can help you to understand the types of roles you should be applying to. If you want to become a sales director in your organization you might want to think about applying for roles that are in the sales channel. If you want to become a Sr. Operations Manager you might want to start with another operations role to work your way up.  If you aren’t trying to climb the corporate ladder then you might want to look at jobs where you will be the most satisfied with what you’ll do on a daily basis. Oh, and by the way it’s OK to want to stay in one role. Don’t let people push you to the next job if you love what you do. 

Think about things like, flexibility in hours and location. The types of tasks you’ll be doing on a daily basis. Think through who and how you will support other teams or customers in your role. Identify what you like and dislike about your current role and what you want to be different in your next role. Write down everything you’ve learned because next you need to think about questions.

Write Your Questions Down

Think back to the things that were important to you. How would you learn about that on a team. For instance if you’re looking for a remote role, you might ask about what are the expectations of working in the regional office.  Here are some examples of the types of questions you might ask during your interview.

• What are the expectations of working remotely or during the regional office for this position?
• What types of things do you and your team do on a daily basis?
• What are the current important goals your team is chasing?
• How do you see the role changing over time?
• What would the person that you hire for this role want to do differently than what was done before?
• How would you describe a top performer in this position?

Ask the Questions

During every interview that I have ever been in, I’ve always been asked if I have any questions and that includes times where I’ve been the hiring manager. As a hiring manager you’re looking for questions and most enjoy answering them. This reversal of the interview helps the hiring manager see how the candidate is thinking about the position and while also helping the candidate assess if the role is the right fit.

When the interview asks if you have any questions, tell them you have several. Make sure that you’ve written them down and left yourself space to take down answers. Do this via paper or on a tablet via say an Apple Pencil. You do not want to interrupt the speaker or distract them during their answer by typing away loudly.  Plus physically writing down the answers helps you to better understand and retain what was said.

Evaluate and Be Honest Quickly

You are going to learn a lot of valuable information about the position during this interview. Take it in and listen to your gut. Your gut or instances are really just the culmination of your experiences being expressed as an emotion by your subconscious. This is a way for your subconscious brain to let you know if you should move forward or proceed with caution.  

Take this feeling and quickly explore why you feel that way. Identify what was said and ask follow-up questions if you need more clarity. You don’t want to make a decision to avoid a role or take one on partial information. Interviewers will often ask these follow-up questions to get a complete picture of your answer and so should you. 

Once you feel you have a complete and clear picture and are feeling good or not good about taking the role, admit that to yourself. If you can get to this point during the interview that’s best. This will allow you to tell the interviewer on the spot that you’re really excited about this position and moving forward to the next step. If you aren’t excited you can tell them that you think that this is not the right fit for you.

Here’s what I said in a job interview when I realized the role wouldn’t be a good fit for me.

Thank you so much for your time and this opportunity, I really appreciate it. In chatting with you today I’ve gotten a good picture of what this role is and what your team is working to achieve. Based on what I’ve learned and on what my career goals and objectives are, I do not think this role would be the right fit for me at this time. If I were to take this role, now I might be considering my next steps fairly quickly. That wouldn’t be fair to you, my peers in this role or the customers I’d support. I’d love to stay in contact and chat again in the future if our goals more closely align.

The hiring manager was surprised. They weren’t upset though. They thanked me for my honesty and agreed that we should stay in contact. In fact, I have stayed in contact. While my career and personal goals haven’t changed to align with their team’s goals, I have learned a lot about what they do and have been able to apply some of the lessons I’ve learned there to what I do in my current roles.

Have you ever taken a new job and realized afterwards that you might have made a mistake? How did you handle it? Did you start looking for a new job or did you work through it? I want to hear about it! Tell me below or contact me!