asking your interviewer what’s next in the hiring process -- ASK A MANAGER |
asking your interviewer what’s next in the hiring process
by ASK A MANAGER on MARCH 29, 2013
A reader writes:
What is your take on the candidate asking the interviewer, “What is next in the hiring process” or “Where do we go from here” types of questions?
In short, I’m having a large disagreement with someone about the opinion and thinking behind this type of question. This person thinks that as a candidate, you have a right to know what the next steps in the hiring process are and when, as a candidate, you should expect a response by.
I don’t disagree with this, but I think asking this question ends up putting the interviewer on the spot and could therefore set up the candidate to be flagged as impatient and aggressive, which could cause problems later on.
I read your article on “closing” interview questions, but it seems those questions are more geared toward wanting to know where you stand as opposed to, in this case, wanting to know when you should hear back from a company (and possibly where you stand). I’m not sure if the specific type of interview question falls under this category or not. What is your take on these types of questions?
It’s totally reasonable to ask about next steps and a likely timeline for them. In fact, I strongly urge that you never leave an interview without having asked, “What’s your timeline for next steps?”
That’s because otherwise you’re likely to go home and agonize and wonder when you should hear from them, and if you should have heard from them by now, and what it means that you haven’t heard from them by now. Asking about their timeline means that you’ll have some idea of whether it’s likely to be days or weeks (or longer), and it also means that if that timeframe passes and you haven’t heard from them, you have a reason to email them to check back in.
Asking about an interviewer’s timeline isn’t at all putting them on the spot. It’s a reasonable question that you’d ask at the end of lots of business meetings, not just interviews, and there’s nothing presumptuous, impatient, or aggressive about it. If they don’t know, they’ll just tell you that they don’t know.
Now, questions like “did I get the job?” or “is there any reason I wouldn’t be a great candidate for this job?” are too aggressive and pushy, and they do put the interviewer on the spot.
But no reasonable interviewer is going to bristle at being asked for a likely timeline for when you should expect to hear something.
Your friend wins this bet!
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