when an interviewer asks, “If I offered you the job, would you say yes?” -- ASK A MANAGER |
when an interviewer asks, “If I offered you the job, would you say yes?”
by ASK A MANAGER on AUGUST 7, 2013
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A reader writes:
I had a job interview yesterday. It was a panel interview of 3 potential colleagues and the supervisor. When I arrived, the office manager welcomed me and handed me a list of questions that would be asked in the interview and gave me 5 minutes to look over them and prepare a little bit.
The interview went well and we were winding down and chatting about the answers to the questions I had for them. The supervisor was about to stand up and usher me out when he said, “Oh, and the question I like to ask every candidate — If I offered you the job, would you say yes?’”
I was taken aback because A) I thought the interview was over and B) I’d never been asked that before. I quickly said, “Oh, yes!” I don’t remember his reaction because I was so flustered.
As I was walking away, I couldn’t help but think that the question was more of a “test” and I should have answered differently. Maybe I should have asked more questions. Why would he ask at all because wouldn’t most people say yes? What do you think? Do hiring managers often ask this question?
I’ll tell you who sometimes asks this question:
Interviewers who don’t understand that candidates are no more obligated to answer that question on the spot than interviewers are obligated to tell you on the spot whether you got the job.
Interviewers who don’t consider that whether or not you’d accept the job is going to depend on what salary is offered and other aspects of the job offer.
Interviewers who don’t consider that perhaps you, like them, might like to go away and think on such a major decision for a while rather than deciding right now, this very second. And who don’t understand that that’s a good thing, and they should want to hire people who don’t make major decisions lightly.
Now, some interviewers who ask this lame question really mean, “How interested in this job are you?” — as opposed to, “Would you definitely accept?” They’re trying to get a sense of whether the position is what you’re looking for and how enthusiastic you are.
And that’s the question that you should answer, regardless of the bad wording. So in the future, if someone asks you this, you should feel free to say, “I’m very interested.” If they press you for a more specific answer, (a) they are an ass, and (b) you can say, “I’m extremely interested, although with any job I’d of course want to look over the offer.”
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