Blog Post: Interviews Work Both Ways

There is endless advice to give to those that are gearing up for an interview. For example, the firm handshake, making direct eye contact, not bashing past employers, etc. But in the end, interviews work both ways and it's important to interview them as well for fit. This is especially true in a tight employment market like we have right now in San Diego where employers have smaller pools of talent to choose from.
With this perspective in mind, one of the most effective ways to really shake out what a company has to offer is to ask the following question to those that are interviewing you - in your own words and style, of course. "What do you personally like the most and the least about working here?" It's indeed direct but you'll be amazed at the kind of revealing responses you'll receive if you just kick back and listen. The main goal is to get a sense of what current employees feel about the company that they work for. For additional effectiveness, you might want to preface the latter question by asking how long they have worked there so you can put thier responses into perspective.

The key is to be a bit bold and not afraid to probe during the interview process. I highly recommend this because I talk to oodles of folks every week that want to leave positions that they just started because they didn't ask enough probing questions during the interview that got them the job.