In previous posts we looked at the Most Important Interview Question Ever and the Second Most Important Interview Question. Today I share with you another very important interview question that you must be prepared to answer if you want to get the job you want.
I have seen this question alone ‘make or break’ many interview candidates including myself in the early days of my career. This question reveals many important things to the interviewer including whether or not you care about the role you are applying for, why you may or may not be a good fit for the role or the corporate culture, and more.
What is the third most important interview question that can determine your employment fate? Here it is:
“Why do you feel that this is the right role and company for you?”
This question again paves the way for a much deeper conversation leading to follow-up questions that provide valuable insights to your interviewer about whether or not you care about the role you are applying for, why you may or may not be a good fit for the role or the corporate culture, whether you are considering this as a longterm career or a short-term stint, where some of your strengths and weaknesses may be, what motivates you, and much more.
Similar to the interview questions from my other posts, this question leads to a 20 to 30 minute conversation that stems from the follow-up questions below that provides your potential employer with the insights they need to effectively determine if you are the best person for the job.
Let’s imagine once again that you were the candidate. How would you respond to the following set of follow-up questions?
- What specifically are you able to contribute and how will it help the growth of the business?
- What do you feel you can learn or gain from this role and culture
- Where would you like to be in 2 or 5 years from now?
- How do you see yourself growing with the company?
- What have you learned in school that can help you succeed in this role?
- What excites you about working here?
- What scares you about working here?
- How does this opportunity differ from your previous experience?
- Why do you feel that this is a better role for you than your last job?
- What are some of the challenges you see yourself facing with this new role or company?
- How would you overcome the potential challenges you might face with this role or company.
- What is your preferred working style, in teams or on your own?
- How do you like to be managed?
- Please give a specific example of an effective manager that you worked with in a past role and why do you feel they were effective.
- Tell me about a project or team that you had to lead in the past.
- How did you provide feedback and guidance to others on your team?
- Tell me about a situation when you worked with a bad manager how did you handle that situation.
As for how you should answer these questions, that really depends on the role and how you really feel about it. I strongly suggest that you thoroughly research the company, the industry, and type of customers that they work with, and their corporate culture. This will help you understand the issues that the company and their customers could be facing and determine if it is the right fit for you.
For more useful insights to help better prepare for an interview or conduct more effective interviews I recommend the following books:
Hire With Your Head and The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired both written by Lou Adler.
I wish you all the best of luck!