Marketing Director
What executive interview questions can you ask your prospective employer at your upcoming interview? As a candidate, how can you use the ‘Do you have any questions for us’ stage of the interview to your advantage?
Here we look at how asking questions during and at the end of your interview can help you land that dream job. From our experience helping senior professionals find their next career move, we always recommend preparing a list of questions to ask that relate to your prospective employer and the role.
Why ask executive interview questions to your prospective employer?
Interviews are a two-way street
An interview is an opportunity for the company to assess you as an individual and your fit for the business. It’s also an opportunity for you as the candidate to assess the business, its goals, its culture, its initiatives, its people management style, and future growth potential.
Especially within candidate driven markets, like today, candidates may be in several interview processes at the same time. So as a candidate, why not narrow down your prospective jobs choices and help inform any offer decisions by asking the executive interview questions that really matter to you, and determine if the business is somewhere you want to work and can see yourself thriving.
Questions showcase your research
Asking intelligent executive interview questions about the business, culture or specific questions about your prospective job role, shows the employer you are interested and engaged with the process.
Start by learning the basics about the business – its size, what its goal is, what its USP is, the services it offers and its successes. Then do some further digging – try looking at Google News for any recent news stories about the company, any recent PR stories and finally its social media pages, including LinkedIn for its latest content.
If the company have a product or service, engage with it. Give your honest feedback and ask questions about the businesses learnings, its customer engagement metrics and its successes.
Questions can showcase your initiative
By researching the business around the above areas, which are not detailed within the job description, you will show your prospective employer that you are not afraid to dedicate the time required to this process and understanding the business.
It will also show that you’ve been able to think outside the box and take the initiative – a trait than any employer will be impressed by, but a skill that is essential for executive level jobs.
Executive interview questions: 4 of the best questions to ask
What are the main challenges you’re looking to solve now?
This question will allow you to understand what problems you are going to need to provide solutions for in this role.
Do you have experience in these problem areas? Are you ready for a new challenge? Do the problem areas have realistic and feasible solutions in your opinion? Is the business set up to solve its problems? Does the business have a culture that will easily adapt to change?
What are the main challenges facing the industry / sector in the next 5 years?
This question will allow you to understand the long-term scope of your role.
How may the role differ in 5 years’ time? How will business objectives be likely to change in the medium to long term?
What are the measures of success for this role?
This question enables you to understand how your performance is likely to be measured at the business. Do you agree with the measures of success? Are they achievable? Do they make sense with what you understand of the business strategy? Are they expecting too much?
Are there any immediate threats facing the business or sector?
This question enables you to consider any factors that may impact the success of the business, that the business cannot necessarily control itself. These may be political, economic or social for example. Are any threats already known to the business? What are they doing to mitigate these threats? How successful has mitigation been so far?
If you are a senior level executive, looking for your next job within product, marketing or eCommerce, send us your CV today and we will be happy to assist your job search. If you are an employer, learn more about our executive search services within product, marketing and eCommerce – contact us today.
