What questions should you ask in your job interview?
A job interview is an exciting moment, not just for you as a candidate, but also for the recruiter. After all, it’s a two-way introduction. You want to find out if TOPdesk is the right fit for you, and we want to get to know who you are and what drives you.
Are you preparing for an upcoming interview and wondering what questions to ask? In this blog we share a lot of key job interview tips and what job intervieuw questions to ask!
During job interviews, we are naturally very curious about who’s sitting opposite us. After all, if you’re keen on joining us, we want to find out why. Using your CV, we go through your career together. What decisions led to the moment when you became eager to join TOPdesk? What you studied really isn’t all that important. But we do want to get to the bottom of the beliefs that shaped your decisions. Was it an interest in a specific field, or were you inspired by something or someone around you? Do you like helping others, or do you want to stand out from the crowd so that you always go the extra mile? Once we’ve got an overall picture of you as a candidate, it’s interesting to zoom in on why you applied at TOPdesk. What motivates you?
Get down to brass tacks
Over the past few years, we’ve heard hundreds of questions from job candidates. These questions are often creative and well thought out, but some people forget that a job interview is a two-way introduction. The goal is not only for us to find out if you’re a good fit for TOPdesk and the vacancy, naturally, you also want to find out what your potential employer is like. Can you identify with TOPdesk’s norms and values? What is the atmosphere like at the workplace? Do we play sports or have drinks together? You want to know if you will flourish with us.
Quite often, we feel that candidates don’t get down to brass tacks in interviews. By reflecting in advance on what you’re curious about, you’ll also formulate your questions more precisely. For example, don’t ask, ‘How many countries are you in?’ but rather, ‘What are my international opportunities at TOPdesk?’ And instead of, ‘How big is the team?’ ask, ‘What are the dynamics like in the team I’ll be joining?’ From there, you can go on to ask about ways of working that suit you. If you’ll get a buddy, for instance, and how much attention is paid to personal development. In that way, you’re not just presented with facts, and you can really form an image of the place where you might be working later.
A job interview is a two-way introduction.
Candidates are often curious about the onboarding process and the course of a regular working day at TOPdesk. These are very important topics and it’s good for candidates to ask about them. In this way, you immediately know if you’ll feel at home or not. You discover what will be asked of you and what you can expect from your colleagues. Will you be thrown in at the deep end or led by the hand? How do you learn the way things work in the organization? How often do you see customers? Are there lots of meetings? And how do you spend your breaks? These are all examples of questions you can ask during your job interview. All of them are about important things to take into account when considering whether the company culture suits you.
This is the STAR method
In job interviews, we want to see if you fit our master profile. What does that mean? We examine to what extent you’re customer-focused, eager to learn, enterprising, responsible and independent. And we also use the STAR method to examine competencies. We look back at situations in your professional past from which you have learned lessons. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Activity and Result. We also use the optional extra “R”: Reflection (STARR). What did you learn from the way you solved a problem and what would you do in the future? Exactly the same thing, or do you now have a different approach in mind?
At the end of the interview, it’s time for the case. You can’t prepare or practise for this puzzle. Of course, this might sound stressful, but you can rest assured that it’s quite a lot of fun! After that, the interview’s over.
We use the STAR method to examine competencies. We look back at situations in your professional past from which you have learned lessons.
And finally: never lose sight of what you find important in life. As an employer, does TOPdesk match your lifestyle? It’s not only the content of your role that will give you satisfaction later on, terms of employment and the place where you spend time every day are also important! A happy person in the right place will ultimately be successful and lead a more energized life.
