Photo courtesy of citymorningblue

Earlier this week, I wrote a post on 10 Insightful Questions to Ask Your Next Interviewer. Following this post, one of our readers made a comment that suggests that Nigerian employers may tend to be unresponsive to such questions, while another reader suggested that “it will look as if you are being too forward”.

While I pointed out in my response to their comments that employers are actually looking for candidates who can put forward challenging questions about the job position, the company, and the industry, I also said that my own experience with using these questions in one of my job interviews in the past was successful.

Back in 2004, I was applying for a trainee marketing consultant job in a management consulting firm in Abuja. The role was to successfully market the company’s professional training programmes and events to professionals in the Banking Industry. This meant that the right candidates for the job position must possess inter-personal skills, communicative skills, marketing skills, presentation skills as well as qualites such as confidence and the ability to work under pressure.

I had read a lot about how to be successful in job interviews and even though I wasn’t sure that asking a Nigerian employer such questions might seem that I was too forward or daring, I decided to give it a shot.

Here’s what I did back then…

I carefully reviewed all the questions that I was able to research about: asking your interviewer questions. (Some of the questions I published in that post where not included).

I analyzed each question and chose the ones that relate to the job position and my skills and experience for the job. Then, I started to prepare for the interview with these questions in mind. I had a friend rehearse my presentation with me and worked on my body language, posture and voice. Note: Your body language tells a lot about your suitability for the job position.

Since I didn’t know what to expect from the interviewer, I concentrated my efforts on what impression I’ll give at the interview. I must say that, the interviewer was not expecting those questions from someone applying for a trainee position. When I got the job offer, the letter specifically highlighted my display of confidence and poise, saying that, these qualities are what the company needs from the right candidates.

I’ve decided to include my experience to point out the areas where Nigerian jobseekers sometimes overlook that may deny them a job offer. Now think: If the interviewer back then didn’t expect me to ask those questions (perhaps because I was applying for a trainee position), how much more would today’s interviewers expect from you, when you apply for top positions in top companies and organizations.
 
If you are interested in increasing your chances of getting a job offer, then you need to try any possible strategy that would work to your advantage.

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. - Naguib Mahfouz  

To your career success!

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