How many questions can you possibly ask? (Rant)

I haven't had a bite in months and now I have two interviews in two days. Both good opportunities. I generally work through recruiters and these positions usually have at least three people interviewing you. THEY ALL ASK IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS!

So the companies have a website and mentions in business journals. The interviewers all have linkedin profiles. They have glass door entries. Not to mention each one talks about the job in a different way. I know it is polite but after the third unique question plus the ones you ask as you go along it gets tedious.

AND THEN... The recruiter has asked if I have questions several times before the interview! Now they are calling one last time and I am sorry but I don't want to answer because I don't want to be asked if I have anymore questions!

Sheesh!

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I hear you

I have been in a position to conduct interviews. I sometimes asked if the person had any questions because I didn't know what to say at the time. I also asked because some people get themselves into deep trouble by revealing too much about themselves or asking really stupid or rude questions. They would have been better off keeping their mouths shut. There is no harm in saying no. Good luck with the jobs. I hope one turns out for you.

Thanks. I know what you mean about stupid questions. I do contract so I have to be prepared always. I have gotten a lot of practice. Even if I was completely wrong for the job you wouldn't be able to tell from that alone. I wouldn't mind if there was not so much online! You can even look up the people doing the interview. Then I feel at risk for asking something that was available

I think both went well but lately I seem to be fumbling a lot. In one a while ago I thought it went really well and the feedback was terrible. Yesterday they had me in this tiny office for two hours talking to 3 people one after the other. By the time it got to the last one I could feel my eyes glazing over from the lack of fresh air. Hopefully he didn't notice if that was a test I don't think is was a very good one.

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To my understanding, you should always have questions. The purpose of them offering, as I understand it, is to give you a chance to show your initiative, inquisitiveness, and that you did your homework and have deeper interest than can be answered with superficial web info. One good one would be about the size and character of the working team. How many people would you be working with, from what different departments. Another is what are the most important concerns of the supervisor with respect to the specific job. (I had a technical focus question in my field -- not sure what type of job you're going for, but the question would relate to the particular critical job duties. There must be places where a bad employee screws up and a great one shines. What skill area is that?) Another: What are the most difficult challenges in this job?

Personally, I think any polite question that helps me know in advance the worst that's going to happen is also useful for me personally. And they are usually not going to reveal that without asking. They're going to put on a happy face.

I'm sure there are other good questions to ask.

Well, I agree, they do ask some really dumb questions, too!

I have no problem coming up with 3 or even 5 questions... We are talking 4 people plus two recruiters for one job. And I had two sets for two companies. I try not to use the same ones over an over because it starts to sound canned. I ask the where is the company headed type things. But the ones I almost always ask is how do you evaluate my success? How do you communicate room for improvement? Or some flavor of that. I've worked with people who expect you to read their minds and besides not having those magic powers I am particularly poor at picking up signals. Beyond that the big deal breaker is atmosphere and you kind of just have to soak that in and be observant. A lot of the time I use it to point out what resonated with me.

My biggest rant today is really about having to listen to the answer which either the recruiter doesn't really know or I will need to ask the company regardless. Oh and then there are the "how did it go" calls afterwords. They all knew I had two interviews so I had to go through the same spiel and q&a 3 times. Honestly I chose this field partly because I don't like talking all day! Sales people... Kinda drive me nuts.

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The interview process just seems to be getting crazier and crazier, doesn't it? It's either 12 people interviewing you at once or three hours sitting in a chair, talking to one person after another, starting to get the feeling you'd rather work somewhere else.

I usually ask personal questions --- like "What has been your most surprising challenge working here?" or "If you could change anything about your job, what would you change?" It's the sort of thing you can ask each person once.

The answers can actually be VERY interesting. There's always one person in the group that has some really lengthy explanation of everything that's wrong with the place. I used to wonder what happened to those people afterwards until a coworker pulled the same trick when we were interviewing the person who later became her boss. It wasn't pretty!

RED FLAG: psychology tests! Only dysfunctional companies do those!

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