and welcome back to Work It Daily.

In today's video, I'm going to give you

eight smart questions to ask hiring managers

in job interviews.

But before I do that,

I just wanna remind you to click the link below

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Alright, so what do you do when you're in an interview

and we get to that end where the hiring manager

looks at you and says, "Do you have any questions for me?"

Well, of course you do!

In fact, it is very important that you ask questions.

I wanna tell you that recently

an employer I know reached out to me frustrated

and said, "I hate when I ask that question

"and the person says, 'No, everybody's been really nice,

"'I think I'm okay.'"

That person, he told me, does not get hired

and the reason for that is that they have real concerns

if you aren't asking questions,

if you aren't doing your due diligence

and if you aren't having enough value in yourself

to ask some clarifying questions

to make sure that this place is the right place for you.

Remember, we always tell you here at Work It Daily

that you are a business of one,

selling your services to an employer

and you wanna make sure that it's a good partnership.

So to do that, you've gotta ask questions

to make sure that this is the right place for you.

It's like kicking the tires or looking under the hood

to make sure that you're making a good investment.

So with that in mind,

let's take a look at the eight questions

you should be asking in your next interview.

So before I break down the eight questions,

I'm gonna tell you that they fall into four categories

and we call them the four C's.

Now, by covering off on these four C's,

you're gonna make sure that you're asking

all the questions necessary to make a good decision

about this employer.

And those four C's are

connect, culture, challenges, and close.

What do I mean by that?

Well, connect simply is you connecting

to that hiring manager, to that person

that you'll be working with.

You wanna ask some questions to help you bond

in the interview.

As far as culture goes,

you wanna make sure this is the right

corporate culture for you.

Does this company believe and have values

and go about business in a way that you respect

and that you trust so that you can put

your best foot forward?

With respect to challenges,

you wanna know what's keeping them up at night

so that you can make sure

these are the kinds of challenges

that you actually wanna work on

and leverage your skills to be successful at.

And then lastly, close.

You wanna end this interview, this conversation,

on a high note.

You wanna leave very clear on what the next steps are.

So once we know the four C's,

it gets really easy to create questions

that we can ask in the interview

to make sure that we're getting the information we need

And that's what I'm gonna show you next.

So we're starting with connect

and the first question you should always ask

in an interview is,

"How did you come to work here?"

This is an opportunity for you to bond

with this individual by learning how they got hired

by the company.

What drew them into the company?

What made them decide this was a great place

for them to work.

This is gonna give you a lot of insight

into their own decisions

and what they're like as a worker.

The second question is,

"What do you love most about working here?"

It's really important that you ask

a positive question that let's them talk about

all of the things that they love about the employer.

This is gonna be a great chance for you to bond

and share a love for the things that are great

about working at this company.

Plus, you're gonna be able to evaluate

whether or not these sound like things

that you really care about.

Remember, these questions are designed

for you to get insight into whether or not

this company is a good fit for you.

So while they're very positive questions,

it's also giving you a chance to evaluate

whether or not it's a fit.

The second C is culture,

specifically corporate culture.

And the two questions you're gonna ask here

are around individuals that have been hired at the company.

The first question is,

"Tell me about the most successful hire

"you've made recently.

"Why has that person been very successful in their role?"

This is gonna help you understand who's being recognized

in the organization as a high performer.

And you wanna listen carefully.

Let me give you an example.

If they tell you about a person who came in

and worked 80 hours a week

and took everything that they had to do

and worked with no budget

and really was able to knock it out of the park,

does that sound like a place you wanna work?

Does that sound like a place with work life balance

that has their ducks in a row?

No!

So if they're recognizing that as a good hire,

then you know this probably isn't the right place for you.

Now the second question you wanna ask

is the polar opposite,

"Tell me about a hire recently that didn't work out.

Why did they fail in their role?"

And once again, you wanna listen closely

to the answer because we wanna see if the traits

or characteristics of that person who failed

sound like yourself.

If you don't think you can be successful there,

if this person sounds like they really

couldn't have ever won in their job,

then you're gonna know that this isn't

the right place for you.

Now the third C is challenges

and specifically the challenges the company

is going to be facing in the coming year.

So that first question you wanna ask is,

"Tell me about the biggest challenge

"you think the company will experience this year

"and how will this job help to overcome it?"

What you're doing there is showing them

that you understand, you're a business of one,

you're a service provider and that what you're going to do

is help them solve a problem and alleviate a pain.

So by asking them what that pain or that problem is

and how you can help solve that,

you're really sending a message to them

that you understand your role if you get hired.

The second question you wanna ask regarding the challenges

is around performance.

"How will I measure my own performance

"to ensure that I'm having a positive impact

"on this challenge?"

Once again, you're taking full ownership

of your work, of your effort,

and by telling them that I understand

that I'm supposed to do that,

you're sending a clear message to them

that you really will be accountable for your actions

and that's a great selling point there.

At the same time though,

if they come back to you and say,

"Well, there's no real way to measure

"and we won't have any idea of whether or not

"you're making an impact,"

that would be a huge red flag to you

because you're gonna wanna be able to do that

in order to get a promotion or get a raise.

What kind of company can't measure your impact?

That's the sign of a company

that you probably don't wanna work for.

So you can see again

why these questions are really important,

not only do they set you up well with the employer

by showing that you know what you're talking about,

but it also is giving you some key insight

into whether or not you wanna work there.

Now the fourth and final C is about close

and that's how to properly close out this conversation.

So the question that you wanna ask,

and this is gonna sound a little crazy

but I tell you, it really works, is,

"If there were some skills or experience

"you wish I had that would make me a better fit

"for this job, what would they be?

This is your polite way of asking

if they feel you have any shortcomings

or if there is something deficient

about what you've presented to them today

during the interview.

This is a chance for them to call out

and explain any certain skills or experience

or things that might make them hesitate in hiring you.

And so asking this question shows that you understand

you're not a perfect candidate

but that you do wanna know what you could've done better.

By the same token, if they do share something with you,

you now have an opportunity to say,

"Oh, but I didn't share this experience."

Or, "Maybe I didn't tell you about

"this skill set that I have."

It's a chance for you to overcome that objection,

maybe realizing that you didn't give them everything

they needed to hear today.

So that's a really important question to ask.

Now that last question is,

"What are the next steps in the process?"

And that's because you wanna understand where you stand

and what has to happen next for you to get hired.

You don't ever wanna leave a job wondering

when you'll get a phone call,

when they'll follow up,

when they'll make their decision.

So asking this question is gonna help you

get that information

and they're likely gonna tell you some things like,

"Well, we have a few more people to interview,

"you'll hear by this date,

"you'd need to come back in for another interview,"

but at least you'll have that information.

You won't be staring at the phone

or staring at your email

and wondering whether or not you got the job.

The other great thing about that is that

if they give you a date or a deadline

and it comes and goes,

you now have a valid reason to follow up with them

and say, "You know, when we spoke in the interview

"you mentioned this would be the next step,

"that date's come and gone, is there anything else I can do

"to further my candidacy?"

So this is a really important question

for you to ask for your own peace of mind.

At the same time, it's gonna give you

a sense of how structured this company is

and really how well thought out their own hiring process is

so that you can get a clear sense of whether or not

they're the kind of company you wanna work for.

There you have it,

the four C's.

Connect, culture, challenges, and close.