Questions to Ask at Your C Level Interview

[JeffAltmanCoach]

TRANSCRIPT

I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. I’m the head coach for JobSearchCoachingHQ.com, and NoBSCoachingAdvice.com. I thought it would do a video that would talk about questions you, as a C level professional might be able to ask in an interview to get some more information about the role, the organization, the culture.

Now, I’m just making sure these baseline questions are asked. There are a million more that you can deal with, specific to that organization but I figured these are good basic questions that you can use to cover and use them like a decision tree, their answer will take you down a different road. You want to be able to explore a couple of layers down ideally, so that, this way, you’re getting useful information for yourself that will help with your decision making.

So, the first question really is, “What are the important milestones or yardsticks by which this organization is going to evaluate my performance in the role?” You can’t get more basic than that because, really, it’s asking, “how are you going to measure my success,” right?

“What do you see as the organization’s most critical goals for the next three to five years?”

“How do you see me in this position addressing those goals and objectives?” Now, they may flip the question to you and ask you that before answering and you can politely say, “I have ideas I’m happy to share with you but I’d like to get your thinking, as well, because your approach to dealing with this may be different than mine.” So, again, all you’re trying to do is elicit information from them. This could be useful for you, in seeing yourself in the role and deciding whether or not it’s appropriate to you. Again, this question can be flipped as well.

“What sort of trends have shaped the organization’s goals and objectives and priorities for this year? And next? What emerging trends are likely to influence the organization over the next few years? Again, they may flip that question back at you. Be prepared with an answer, as you see it, and, then, say, “how does that mesh with your thinking about trends that have affected the organization?”

“What do you see as the as my greatest challenges in working to fulfill these goals?” Here, ideally, you’re looking for information about internal issues that will need to be addressed, rather than external ones. External ones, you’ll have your pulse on in the organization but the internal ones are different. Right now they’re hidden from you. So you’re looking for the board members or whoever the interviewers insights are, into what the challenges are.

“How do people tend to communicate to solve problems and resolve conflicts?” At times, there is going to be friction, and you’re looking to understand how resolution comes about.

What leadership style would never work here (other than, of course, being a micromanager)? No one likes that.

“How would the ideal person operate in this role?” So, assuming you’re speaking with a board member, you’ll get some input from them about what’s worked and not worked for the incumbent or your predecessor in this role. In doing this all you’re looking for are insights. Again, these are a couple of basic questions to work with. There’s a lot more that you prefer.

 

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