We're going to talk about my top five questions to ask in a job interview.

We know what the problem is.

It's difficult to come up with great questions to ask in a job interview to make sure you're getting the information you need to make a good career decision but also sell yourself in the process.

I get it. It's difficult.

You don't job interview very often.

You're not a trained interrogator likely.

So, I'm going to give you my five home runs.

I'm going to tell you what to ask, I'm going to tell you why it's a great question, and how to use the information.

If you like this type of material, for those of you that follow me, you know I've got a great free webinar titled 3 Keys to Ace Any Job Interview where I teach you how to answer and ask questions in a job interview.

And the attendees get a fantastic ebook called How to Interview the Employer: 75 Great Questions to Ask Before You Take Any Job.

So, if you like that, I've got the link in the description.

You can check that out.

You can get that toward the end.

But let's roll.

Number one.

This is a question about the company itself.

You need to know whether it's a good company.

I love starting at the top and working your way down.

So, question number one is, "Based on the direction of the company, what do you think will be your greatest accomplishments in the next three years?"

I want to pause because I know a lot of you follow me regularly and you know I hate "Where do you see yourself in five years" and all that futuristic stuff.

But when you're talking about an organization, an organization needs to be able to think at least three to five years into the future.

But you don't only want to join organizations that think about the future.

Thinking is really nice, but companies that really act and build things and have clarity around specifically what they're going to do are worthy of you.

They're even better.

So, it's a great question because it helps you understand whether they have a vision and if they have clarity around specifically what they want to build.

If there is not that clarity, they're basically saying to you, "I don't know if you'll have a job in three years if I don't know where the company's going."

So, you want to make sure that you ask that.

That's a great question to ask early on in the process.

Questions two, three, and four are about you and your role.

So, question number two is a wonderful, wonderful setup question as you start to get into questions related to your role.

I like to ask the employer, "What are the most successful qualities of people that are most successful in this position?"

So, you're really looking for, "What kind of traits is the employer looking for?"

The reason that that's a great question to ask is, not only will it give you some specifics about the qualities that they're looking for,

but you also can use that information immediately, whether right in that interview or in your subsequent interviews to really, really accentuate how what you've done in your experience and in your work history matches the qualities that they're looking for.

And I think that that's a great setup question.

You can accelerate it even more with question number three, which is my absolute favorite question to ask in any job interview.

But question number three is, "If you were to give me an offer and I was to accept it, a year from now, what will I have done specifically that you would consider this hire a raging success or hugely successful?"

The reason that that's such a great question is it gets the interviewer to give you specifics about expectations, what they would consider successful.

It gives you that clarity to make sure that you could actually achieve those objectives.

But what it really does is it gives you ammunition that you can use within that interview or subsequent interviews to talk exactly how you will accomplish what they consider a success.

Now you know what the end goal is for them in a year.

All you need to do is tailor your stories to show how you would actually accomplish those specifics.

I guarantee you will be way ahead of the game when you combine the answers from question number two and question number three as you tell your stories.

So, that's really a great one.

Question number four is a little safety net for yourself.

You want to make sure that you're uncovering information that you might not have uncovered with the questions that you've designed.

So, question number four that I like to ask is, "If you were to give me an offer and I was to accept it, within one week of starting this job, what will be the biggest surprise, or what will be the first thing that surprises me?"

The reason this is great and the reason why you want to ask it is because it serves as a little safety net.

It helps get the interviewer thinking about, "Hmm. What might this person not ask in the job interview?" Or "What surprised me when I first started with the company?"

It's really great.

It puts the interviewer on the spot.

Naturally, their inclination is to try to provide you a negative surprise.

Rarely will most of them provide a positive surprise.

It's usually a negative surprise just because that's the way we think.

So, it's really a nice little safety net for you.

So, that's question number four.

Then question number five, you've got to get some questions in there about your boss and your boss' management style.

Four out of five people quit their job because of their boss.

You need to make sure that you understand your boss' management style.

So, question number five is, when you have an opportunity to talk to the hiring official, your boss, whoever you're going to be reporting to, or even if it's a higher-up, is,

"What's your management style and what are your expectations of the position that you might not have already mentioned?"

You might have already asked question number three, which was, "What are the expectations? What would you consider to be successful?"

But you want to see if there's any specifics that the boss talks about in what he or she is expecting, what they consider to be successful, what their style is, whether it's hands on or hands off, or all that good stuff.

So, you want to make sure that you are in sync with that kind of boss and his or her style.

So, those are my five faves.

So, number one, "What do you think the company's greatest accomplishments will be within the next three years?"

Number two, "What are the best qualities of the people that are most successful in this role?"

Number three, "If I accept this role, within one year, what will I have accomplished that you think you will consider this a raging success?"

Number four, "If I take this job, what will be my biggest surprise within one week?"

And number five, "What is your management style?"

So, if you like this, please comment, like, and share on whatever platform you're watching this.

If you're watching this on anything other than my YouTube channel or the Tips for Work and Life blog, head over to the blog.

I've got loads more free content there.

In the notes, you can also sign up for my free webcast 3 Keys to Ace Any Job Interview.

Remember, attendees get, and it's on point with this video, attendees get a free ebook called How to Interview the Employer: 75 Great Questions to Ask Before You Take Any Job.

So, I hope that helps.

Until next week. Have a great one.