Top Interview Strategies
Engaging Recruiters, Showcasing Skills, and Asking Insightful Questions to Secure Your Next Role
First featured in our AlloHire Landed Not Handed newsletter, these tips are compiled to help you stop asking the wrong questions and start asking the right ones so that you can end your job search.
Hudson Brock
Hudson Brock 🚀, CEO and Founder of AlloHire and Recruiter at heart, kicks this series off with a question he'd much rather answer than "Do you have any roles that fit my resumé?”
So stop asking that classic question and instead ask:
"Here's what I'm best at: [x] and here's what I'm looking for in my next role: [x], will you keep my in mind for any job opportunities in that realm?"
It's the simple idea of: help them help you. Try this in your next message to a company or recruiter and you just might get a thoughtful response or even a helpful lead!
Carley hanson
Carley Hanson, People Operations Manager at Skuid, a Nintex company, shares an alternative question to the classic, "do you have any roles that fit my resumé?"
If she could switch up the question she'd love to be asked, “What current or upcoming opportunities match my skill sets?"
She continued by saying, "This forces the recruiter to look at you in a broader frame vs just asking to be paired with a role and opens the door to options you might not be aware of."
This question can open the door to more opportunities that you might have missed otherwise. Just a slight change in your questions can make all the difference. Happy hunting!
aaron harmon
Aaron Harmon, Senior Recruiter at PDW and member of the #chattabooleans, recommends asking this question of recruiters:
"Hey, I recently applied to this position (include link). Would you be the recruiter for this position? If not, could you point me in the right direction?"
There's power in being specific and being proactive.
evan may
Evan May, Recruiting Manager at StoryPartners.io and friend of the AlloHire crew, continues our series on better questions for candidates to ask.
Let's say you land that interview, you've made it through the initial screening, and now it's your turn to ask questions.
Stop asking questions only about the potential role and start asking questions about the business.
As a candidate, it's understandable that you want to learn about what your day-to-day work would look like. You want to know what's expected of you, how you'll be measured, and what the culture is like. Those are great questions.
But everyone asks those questions. And you want your candidacy to stand out!
Here's your opportunity to show curiosity. To display that you realize that your position within an organization is a part of an integrated whole. And the success of that whole (cough::revenue::cough) matters!
You could ask about what they've been discovering in terms of product-market fit. Ask about common customer pain points or complaints. Ask about the customer experience vision.
Some questions make more sense for start-ups vs. established companies, or for product vs. service organizations.
But here's a question that can apply to any sector:
"With 2024 right around the corner, can you give me any insight into what [company] will be prioritizing in the new year?"
Happy asking!